Yes, words like "mandatory" do press my buttons. It seems that we give up
our rights bit by bit - "it's such a little thing, and it'll make everyone
safer". But once you give up a little, it's not hard to be asked for more
and near impossible to get back what you've lost. Tried to carry nail
clippers on an airliner lately?

Why don't we all try to look outside rather than spend our soaring
experience staring at color moving maps and relying on some other electronic
doo-dad to keep us from running into each other? So... If your Flim-FLARM
makes you invulnerable to collisions, why don't you give your parachute
away?

I was amazed to hear that serious consideration was given to cancelling a
contest because GPS might have been unavailable due to testing. Why not
"mandate" that everyone keep their camera mounts so that we don't "have to"
cancel a contest? Why not "mandate" that we can't have a contest without
sufficient observers at the turn points to verify that the gliders actually
flew over?

Though I may sound ****ed, I'm not - I'm just disappointed in the attitude
that everything can be fixed with electronics and regulations and that Big
Brother will protect us from the boogie man.

I wish winter would end.

"kirk.stant" wrote in message
...
On Jan 25, 9:54 am, "Dan Marotta" wrote:
That all sounds great except for the "mandatory" part. STAY THE HELL OUT
OF
MY COCKPIT!

If it would keep YOUR cockpit out of MY cockpit - then yes, it should
be mandatory!

Just like parachutes are mandatory at contests, or radios, or ELTs,
etc.

Heck, it should be mandatory for anything that flies!

Ok, now, seriously. Relax. No one wants the feds to mandate it -
look at what they are trying with ADS-B and how messed up that program
is!

In a perfect world, the FAA would just GIVE a PowerFLARM to every
pilot when he got his license!

That word "mandatory" sure presses a lot of buttons!

Kirk
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