On Tuesday, 27 January 2015 11:26:04 UTC-7, Sean Fidler wrote:
I do not believe that a smart phone AH app would be anywhere close to reliable or accurate enough for any sane person to fly efficiently in IMC (let alone cloud fly). Especially if there was any turbulence (thndr, etc). Personally, I would never risk my life to do this kind of thing, EVER! I have yet to play Russian Roulette with a thunderstorm. A few extra points in a glider contest is not that important to me and I imagine 99.9% of us feel exactly the same way.

To the .1%, if you can pull cloud flying off with an iPhone and still and stick the landing.....I say let you have your day! :-). I'll even buy you a beer at dinner and pat you on the back! It would be a kind of farewell beer however because you will probably be dead soon.

The other side of this debate has a "small" point about the fixed gyro, far more reliable "LX 9000" type AHRS. Sure, that would work for IMC moments and even cloud flying (I run an SN10/Oudie with iGlide/iPhone backup btw).. But the key point with the old rule is that anyone with the "will" to cloud fly (cheat) was almost certainly doing it anyway. Reason, CDs did not know (or care) what disabled AHRS meant and never bothered to verify that pilots were in compliance. No spot checks were regularly conducted, etc. The idea was (as I understood it) that when you checked into a contest, just as you must show your insurance forms and other documents, you must also show that your firmware update to disable AHRS was properly installed. Furthermore, on the grid each day, CDs would be spot checking for smart phones and for "UN"disabled LX9000 type AHRS! If this happened MANY PILOTS would have been penalized in 2012/13/14! If this happen the rule would have been woethwhile. But this never, ever happened. Nobody really cared or bothered. That is a fact.

We simply do not have the collective will, or organizational skills to effectively enforce these rules. If people suspect this is happening, where are the protests? Show me a single one?

If people are cheating, it's not going to be a pleasant thing. Pilots and CDs must have to have the guts to call them out and try to catch them. You can't be nice about it while you call someone a cheater! It doesn't work. You have to be willing to break a few eggs.

Again, specific rules weren't the issue here. ENFORCEMENT was. This is why the rule has been trashed. If we are not going to enforce rules (zero protests or "convictions" I believe) then it it's not worth inconvienencing the 99.9% of honest pilots to jump thru hoops in order compete in a regional (or national) contest.

How about a rule that says if a pilot is suspected of cloud flying, a camera can be required? Do we have the guts to do that? I don't think so but I'll toss it out there...that would be a good rule. I would see it as a badge of honor actually :-).

Sean, your facts are wrong. At the Nephi regionals pilots identified that they had AHRS equipment and they either disabled them in front of me or showed that they were disabled for xx days that covered the contest. I spot checked once with a single pilot. I am not pointing this out not to pat myself on the back as I am sure other CD's did the same. Do I understand everything about every instrument and whether is can be reset? Not by a long shot.

Much of competition soaring is based on trust and personal integrity. Rules and/or enforcement techniques will never be effective as pilots who want to cheat will figure out how to do it. IMO peer pressure and enforcement is the best avenue.

Regarding smartphones I agree with you that they can never be policed. No contest personnel can check a every cockpit nor should they be expected to. Phones are stored in all locations within a cockpit and many times for safety.

The rule to require a camera if suspected of cloud flying is as ludicrous as weighing the top three finishers the following day at National events.

Ron Gleason