On Friday, January 6, 2017 at 12:20:26 PM UTC-8, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
I have a PowerFlarm and transponder. Ninety percent of my flying is from the Southern Cal operating areas up through the Sierras and typical operating area out of Minden. So while I do pass through a few more trafficked areas, (Cajon& Banning Pass, Tahoe, Reno...etc) the majority of my flight time is with other gliders. I perfectly see transponder equipped and Flarm equipped gliders, why would I want to add the capability of ADS-B out?

If I was regularly operating in LA class B airspace I can see why I would want all the help and broadcast, but for gliders not typically operating in high traffic airspace why the extra cost, space and battery drain?

Flying in the Reno/Tahoe area, it would give Norcal Approach better information. With a transponder only, they are trying to guess what you are doing, often gliders are not moving fast enough to be able to tell on ATC radar. I know this from listening to them. The subtext of these conversations is "there's a glider there wandering around, got no idea what the hell he's doing". With ADS-B out, they would have a much better idea, though they would need to get used to thermalling behavour.