PowerFlarms at Avenal Contest

Not as exciting as the Brick reports from Mifflin with the new hardware, but we had a good showing of PowerFlarm at Avenal. In total about half the field was equipped with portable units of our own or from the Rental Program through Rex at Williams Soaring. I also put PF in each towplane for the duration of the contest. The tow pilots don't benefit from the audio alert due to the noise, but at least the PF equipped gliders can get a warning.

I think that everyone flying with the PF found them to work very well and an aid to situational awareness. The range of the portable units is a couple of miles under the best scenario, but I continue to be amazed at how well it filters out thermal and non-threat traffic.

Ray Gimmey had one head-to-head scenario on the practice day where he said it gave him the warning he needed to avoid a bad situation.

Antenna placement and setup will be a key factor to consider. On the last day we had one situation while I was on tow with a glider coming towards us.. I had a visual on the other glider the entire time and my flarm was in red alert mode. The other glider unfortunately didn't get an alert. I suspect because we were under his nose where possibly something in the panel was blocking his reception. Or my flat antenna wasn't transmitting as well as his setup. Either way, I got the alert, he didn't.

Overall, nothing but positive comments about what PowerFlarm will do for situational awareness.

Morgan