On May 28, 12:20*pm, Papa3 wrote:
On Tuesday, May 28, 2013 12:40:28 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tuesday, May 28, 2013 12:06:45 PM UTC-4, Steve Koerner wrote:

Also the climb rate which flarm shows is not compensated nor a good averager. I often see 9.9 knots when the glider is only climbing at 1-2 knots on average. Totally misleading. Flarm knows groundspeed which is usually close enough to airspeed to allow a first order TE compensation calculation. I think we should expect Flarm to get that on their To-Do list. Also, Flarm should not pass any number for climb rate until enough integration time has passed that the number has become usefully stable and meaningful (until the reading stabilizes, we should just see two dashes in the display). Now that all of the basic functions of PowerFlarm are working, this is the time to do refinement. The ability to read a meaningful climb rate for other gliders is potentially a very nice feature. When this is working right, I suspect that folks will be less likely to choose stealth mode.

So now that Flarm folks have finally provided the deliverables promised, i.e reliable collision avoidance and flight logging, both of which are/were needed, and were the selling points, they should get to work and make it a better leeching tool than it already is, which more than a few of us think we do not need.

Hopefully they will be as slow in that effort as they were on the primary product.

More work will be needed by "someone" to develop a way to get information without giving it. That would be the obvious next step in Flarm Radar wars.

The "situational awareness" argument is simply a canard to get people to buy this device in order to try to remain competitive. Collision avoidance as currently provided, is a good improvement to our safety margins. That is all we really need.

One guy's opinion.

UH

FWIW...

We have to look at this problem in chunks:

- *Data acquisition
- *Data transmission
- *Data analysis
- *Presentation

Today, FLARM has clearly done a great job on all of these with the primary focus of collision avoidance. * I get that. *We all need to applaud them for that.

However, as this thread illustrates, once the primary purpose is refined, we're naturally asking "so what's next"?

The key to a real Tactical Leaching Tool (TLT) is whether or not the data acquisition and transmission are controlled. * Frankly, once anyone has 5-7 data elements delivered at some relatively high refresh rate (aircraft, position, altitude and time being all that's really required), * anyone else with access to that could easily build some pretty nice tools into the current and next generation of Flight Displays. *Everything from smoothing algorithms to averaging the calculated lift from multiple targets in the same thermal to a "hot key" to highlight 5 pre-identified competitors are all on the horizon. * I don't at all buy the arguments that "it hasn't happened in Europe" or "the information isn't meaningful because of x,y, or z.." * Once real focus is put on massaging the data for a new purpose, these arguments will go away.


TLT is the best descriptor so far, thanks P3. Once the software
writers start to catch up it will be a real interesting world. John,
I respectfully disagree with your arguments for open mode during
contests. You wrote the review of the FAI rules system and why it
increases gaggling, this will do the same and will discourage anyone
taking the lead out of the gate.

From personal experience I spent 15 to 20% more time head down during
the contest at Mifflin and Parowan last year. Yes, in a video game
way it was fun to watch the screen but it does nothing to help safety
to have six to ten miles of situational awareness.

Once the software gurus catch up the information available will be
amazing. Some of the potential has been mentioned, here are my list:

1. Thermals marked ahead with strength, arrival height and ETE. It
will estimate the drift from the position drift of each glider
thermalling and winds aloft.
2. Lift and sink bands while in cruise. My onboard computer will be
estimating lift and sink rates of cruising gliders, back calculating
the air mass movements from the polar and speed data of each glider.
It will be displaying lift and sink in colored bands in front of me
and if I want I can turn on the autopilot and let it follow the best
path.
3. Tracking of specific targets; at Uvalde I would set my targets such
as WR, MK, P7, A8, etc. and anytime I get a lock on them I will get
vectors to where they are. Many of us have worked hard to learn how
to slip quietly out the start gate, to maneuver behind a leech and
then slip away or to scrape them off on some rocks. There are many
pilots I enjoy flying with during a contest day because they have the
skill and personality to truly provide mutual benefit on a task, but I
don't want to provide additional tools so those that can only follow,
never lead, and can not make decisions to latch on and leech all day.

Can all this information be feed to the users so there is no
additional heads down time? Will the Bitch'n Betty be talking to us
all the time giving us information? If you think this is not already
happening talk to the open source guys working on XCSoar.

Imagine the increased penalty for being an early starter. The start
gate games will get even better than they are now.

We have access to satellite weather and artificial horizons, we chose
not to allow them in the cockpit, we can still decide what we allow
with PowerFLARM. Who will control the hardware add-ons? A nice
antenna with an big amplifier would pull the signals in even better.
You can see me at four miles but I can see you at twenty.

The PowerFLARM systems are great for fun flying, I love PowerFLARM for
local flying and flying a course with friends. We had a group of five
flying yesterday, there with FLARM and it was nice to know the B4 was
4.5 miles away and 300 feet higher.

The basic warning functions of PowerFLARM work well and in a contest
we need no further situational awareness, in fact I would argue that
it decreases safety because more time will be spent looking down at
all the neat displays.

TT






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