Do you realize how irrational that comment is? It is entirely up to the pilot to update, they have a year to do it (firmware works for 2 years with a year overlap). If the pilot chooses, he can not have his parachute repacked, or not bother with the wing pins too. This should have the parachute and glider manufacturer quaking in their boots. In addition, it suggests flight is not possible without Flarm, which of course it used to be and often still is. I'm pretty sure every Flarm display will signal quite loudly that the firmware is inop. The alternative is to have a static system.

This is not to cast aspersions on the pilot, whom I know to be conscientious, plenty of people have and will again fly without or with inop Flarm. But to blame the manufacturer for this accident is ludicrous. If neither pilot had Flarm (legal and common) the outcome would be the same.

On Monday, November 16, 2020 at 5:36:13 PM UTC-8, Tony wrote:
On Monday, November 16, 2020 at 7:10:11 PM UTC-6, Ramy wrote:
On Tuesday, November 10, 2020 at 8:39:41 AM UTC-8, Waveguru wrote:
I wonder if they were at least talking to each other? Ramy, were you hearing anything on the radio? Anyone else?


Boggs
They were not talking to each other and not aware of each other. They didn’t see each other until a split second before impact. One of the flarms was inop due to expired firmware. They were both cruising under a cloud street and collided head on at 5300 ft MSL (3500 AGL) with their left wings significantly damaging the wings. Both gliders entered vertical or negative dive which helped them bailing out quickly as they fell of the gliders as soon as they released the seat belts. One pilot was mostly unscratched, the other was hospitalized due to hard landing on a slope and is recovering from back injury.
I urge everyone to make sure to fly with operative powerflarm and upgrade the powerflarm firmware every year during the annual.

Ramy
I hope FLARM realizes how lucky they are that the pilot did not die. They intentionally program a piece of safety equipment to brick itself once a year which then directly leads to the loss of life? I can see the crying widow in the courtroom now. Not pretty.