On 2/11/2012 8:18 PM, Marc wrote:

Speaking of "trolling", I've seen no suggestion by anyone on this
thread that they want to have their high tech artificial horizon so
that they can go cloud flying when they feel like it, nor are they
suggesting that prohibition against cloud flying in US contests should
be eliminated. Some, rightly or not, want such a device in case they
find themselves in a cloud unintentionally. Others, like myself,
wonder whether requiring changes to one device before allowing its use
in contests make any sense in a world where just about every new phone
is or will soon be capable of implementing a fully functional
artificial horizon using a $5 off the shelf app. Meanwhile, people
find plenty of ways to kill themselves without entering IMC at all...

Marc makes a good point about the "hard trends" for the communicators
(aka smartphones) a lot of us now carry, and most will carry in the near
future.

I can think of several ways to reduce or eliminate cloud flying, but I'm
not rating their practicality or likely acceptance.

1) The honor system: no panel mounted devices, and we trust the pilot
not to sneak any device on board with the intent to use it in-flight.

2) Peer pressu allow or disallow devices, but encourage many pilots
to routinely inspect the IGC files of the top 10 or so competitors, and
anyone else they think might cheating. Noting a glider getting well
above other flights in the same area could lead to some private
discussions with the pilot about his "anomaly".

3) Committee assigned penalties: CD and some pilots chosen by the
entrants examines IGC files for the the discrepancies mentioned under
"Peer pressure". Anomalous height gains can be penalized by the committee.

4) CD sets maximum allowed altitude enforced like the 18K limit: simple,
and could allow a 30 second excursion for unintentional busting.

5) IGC logger with secure imaging: the logger saves images of the view
from the cockpit every 10 seconds, tagged with secure data to tie the
picture to the GPS trace. Any anomalous altitude readings lead to
examining the images of that period for cloud flying.

This video logger might also be a real asset in accident reconstruction,
especially fatal accidents. Video cameras with GPS logging are already
widely available at cheap prices, but none are secure that I know of.
The cheapest are generally the "car crash recorder" type, that also have
3 axis G sensors (search for SMARTY BX1000 on Amazon.com). There are
cheaper video/GPS units without G sensors, too.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)