On Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at 6:44:42 PM UTC-7, Mike Schumann wrote:

skyBeacon is a pretty darn inexpensive and easy to implement way to make a tow plane 2020 compliant. I wouldn't be surprised if a significant number of people don't go that route, even though it is UAT instead of 1090ES.

A big question is exactly how FLARM has suppressed the tow plane ADS-B alarms. Does FLARM recognize the fact that the tow plane and glider are in formation, and only suppress the alarm while the formation flight continues, or does it somehow completely suppress all alarms for the tow plane? You definitely would want to see tow plane alarms after the glider releases from the tow in the event that you accidentally get on a collision course with the tow plane after the completion of the tow.

Good question Mike.
If the towplane was FLARM equipped, it wouldn't be annoying as hell like ADS-B alone is - or possibly was before this update. We'll see.

Don't understand why there is the UAT crap. Nobody else uses it.

If both towplane and glider were just ADS-B equipped, what sort of alarms go off? Is ADS-B-in intelligent enough to suppress alarms for formation flying?

I've towed behind FLARM-only towplanes, there is no noise on tow.
Jim