I have a (err...only partially facetious) solution:

A new class at contests "Open IFR".

Coordinate with ATC, get them to grant you a piece of airspace with an altitude block. Keeps the IFR/VFR traffic away. Hopefully, it will be sparsely populated enough under the airspace to permit a light shower of carbon fiber or fiberglass to occur without much complaint from the populace residing there.

Let all the yahoo's who desire to cloud-fly have at it. Heck, you could count on the "Big Sky" theory and even make FLARM optional for these folks. Darwinism should make the problem smaller and smaller each year...until extinction occurs.

Seriously, this debate simply reminds me of the old saw about closing the gate after the cow has left the barn.

The technology is already here and not going away. It will be installed in more and more hardware, not less. Going to Luddite phones and dumbing down our panels will not stop the technological advance. The rules are not enforced and are unenforceable, a situation which I understand, when it occurs elsewhere, promotes a public attitude of ignoring other rules and laws as well. Anyone ever lived in an area where few traffic laws are enforced? I rest my case.

To me, Andy Gough's post is spot on and exactly how this type of behavior should be handled. "By their behavior, ye shall know them"...and when you do "know them", you hammer 'em...DQ their day, kick 'em outta the contest, banning them from competition completely...throw the stinkin' book at 'em.

If you think the uproar about this is big on the internet now....wait till you get guys pulling a trailer a 1000 miles to compete and then get told their results are invalid because of the cell phone they forgot to leave on the ground, the PDA software version they didn't know they weren't allowed to fly with or that their vario was a no-no.

I can't wait for the debate to begin when we get cockpit mounted low-draw FLIR systems that can thermal-detect from 5 miles off integrated into our FLARMs, varios, PDA's and PNA's. Somehow, I get the feeling it will be a "Lather, Rinse, Repeat" of this topic with the rules-makers trying to capture or contain the technology rather than direct it's integration into soaring in a safe and positive way.