Experience with Flarm at the Region 11 regional

Peter Kelly posted the following to his PowerFlarm page at http://www.valleysoaring.net/?page_id=1487 . You may find other useful info on his page:

Having just returned from a Regional Contest in Montague, California, I would like to take a moment to report my Flarm experience during that contest.
There were 19 gliders (plus one Sniffer ship) flying each day, and every one of us were equipped with Flarm. While on course, the Flarm was very useful in alerting me to gliders that were in front of me, that I had not yet acquired visually . Traveling at about 100 MPH (1.7 miles per minute) , in clear skies with unlimited visibility, it is difficult to see a glider more than two or three miles ahead, unless he is in a turn, but with the Flarm displaying the gliders near my course line, I always knew where to look for the other traffic, well before I was near them. Although helpful while cruising at high speed, the Flarm was most useful while I was turning in a thermal.
All of the 19 glides started from the same Start Gate each race day and the Flarm provided awareness to every pilot of all gliders within six miles of their position. On Day 4, the opening time of the Starting Gate was delayed, and all of the pilots were anxiously waiting to start. During the four or five minutes, immediately before the Start Time, I would estimate there were more than a dozen gliders orbiting in the same thermal all within 1,000 feet of the same altitude. It was quite a site to behold. As long as each pilot maintained a steady speed and orbit, there were no collision alarms, however, as pilots made the normal slight adjustments to maintain proper spacing from each other there were several collision alerts sounded in my cockpit. In that crowded thermal I received three alarms, each warning me that if I continued on the current track I was flying, or if the other glider continued on his current track, we were in danger of a collision. The warnings were always valid and easily interpreted, and, most importantly, the warnings were provided well in advance, allowing me to recognize the problem and to take corrective action if the warning continued. In that type of “gaggle flying� every pilot is looking in all directions, and there is no time to be looking inside the cockpit at the instruments.. The Flarm display sounded a loud alarm every time, and the display, mounted near the top of my instrument panel, was easily interpreted with a glance of less than a fraction of a second.
Of there 20 pilots participating in this six day event, there was not a single negative comment, from any pilot, regarding the effectiveness and the performance of the Flarm.
Posted 16 March 2012
I’ve been a member of SSA since 1983 and have observed a lot of evolutions over the years. The FLARM system is one of the most signifant and is about to provide a meaningful improvement to all operations where there is more than one glider in the air at a time. It nearly eliminates the potential for mid-air collisions. What a tool! FLARM is going into operation in the Williams California area this month and the FBO there is making FLARM available to all national contest pilots. I flew with FLARM for the first time just last weekend (3/11/12). Read my story on our local bulletin board – cut and paste this into your browser - http://www.williamssoaring.com/news/...ay-at-Williams
Further comments about my experience – I had a total of ten seconds of training on how to turn the system on and change the ranges before I launched. I didn’t even take the time to change the default settings and I turned it only after I was off tow. Operation was simple. Turn it on and see where the other gliders are located. It was not in the least bit distracting, and took no attention what so ever. No switches or setting to play with in flight. Just turn it on and hear the warnings when they occur, and I heard plenty of them that day. We were flying the ridge, passing within a few hundred feet of each other over at closure speeds well over 150 MPH. After seeing the effectiveness of FLARM, I don’t want to fly without it.
Back in the 1980′s when we got collision avoindance in our USAF military transports and again in the 1990′s (in my second career) when we had TCAS installed into our airliners, most all pilots resisted the intrusion into the cockpit, but within six months in both cases ALL of pilots quickly considered the TCAS to be an MEL item – Minimum Equipment List item – meaning – they did NOT WANT TO fly without it operating properly!
I believe you will see a rapid adaptation of this effective tool by all glider pilots that share thermals with other gliders.
Peter Kelly – PK


Ramy