PowerFlarm for Rent/Loan for Elmira, U.S.A.?

I'm headed to Elmira in 3 weeks for the Std. Nats and want to know what my options are for getting FLARM equipped. I missed a few seasons so tracked the whole PowerFLARM revolution via RAS. Not excited about buying one just yet. I understand there were some early units for rent at one time. Panel/cockpit space is limited in my glider so that's a factor. Portable sounds like the right approach for this. Comments/suggestions? Email me at jnbearden at AOL or the gmail address that shows in Google groups. Thx.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.

Williams Soaring rents portable Flarms. They make it easy, even including prepaid return shipping. I think it is about $50.
DLB .

Just curious do most pilots have a Flarm? I had been out of Soaring for over a decade, back to soaring now with a glider in production. I was excited to learn about Flarms, I know they are mandatory in France, I assumed most pilots would want the safety offered. Is there a reason pilots have not purchased Flarms?

On Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 6:53:25 PM UTC-7, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Just curious do most pilots have a Flarm? I had been out of Soaring for over a decade, back to soaring now with a glider in production. I was excited to learn about Flarms, I know they are mandatory in France, I assumed most pilots would want the safety offered. Is there a reason pilots have not purchased Flarms?

Welcome back!

Generally FLARM goes with an aircraft, not a pilot. The adoption of PowerFLARM is around 75% of registered aircraft in Europe as of 2013, but is considered nearly 100% of active aircraft. As you mentioned, it is mandatory in France.

As of about a year ago, the adoption in the US was less than 25% of registered gliders, but many aircraft on the US registration database are destroyed, inoperative, in museums or rarely flown. Penetration has gone up since then and for most active pilots it is considered an essential piece of equipment. I don't have precise statistics, but the number of PowerFLARMs sold in the US exceeds the total annual unique posters on OLC and well exceeds the number of pilots who have flown at least one contest in the past three years, so if you intend to fly cross-country or race or if you intend to fly more than a few times per year in the company of other glider pilots, your peer group is likely PowerFlarm-equipped and would appreciate it if you were too,

If, on the other hand, you mainly intend to use your glider to fly circuits at or near a busy power airport you should get a Mode S transponder.

Posted from Nephi, UT where we have 60+ gliders flying - 100% with PowerFLARM.

9B

Panel space is extremely limited in my LAK-17a and I feel that sticking
something on top is more of a risk due to blocked view outside. Many
folks disagree with me. I chose instead to install a Mode S transponder
under the cockpit floor(!) with the control head in the panel and a Zaon
MRX PCAS on top of the panel. It has a much smaller frontal area than
the PF units I've seen. I've looked at the PF Mouse but, where I fly,
being visible to airliners is more important to me.

If you want to fly in contests or on congested glider routes, a PF is
probably the way to go.

On 6/30/2015 10:54 PM, Andy Blackburn wrote:
On Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 6:53:25 PM UTC-7, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Just curious do most pilots have a Flarm? I had been out of Soaring for over a decade, back to soaring now with a glider in production. I was excited to learn about Flarms, I know they are mandatory in France, I assumed most pilots would want the safety offered. Is there a reason pilots have not purchased Flarms?
Welcome back!

Generally FLARM goes with an aircraft, not a pilot. The adoption of PowerFLARM is around 75% of registered aircraft in Europe as of 2013, but is considered nearly 100% of active aircraft. As you mentioned, it is mandatory in France.

As of about a year ago, the adoption in the US was less than 25% of registered gliders, but many aircraft on the US registration database are destroyed, inoperative, in museums or rarely flown. Penetration has gone up since then and for most active pilots it is considered an essential piece of equipment. I don't have precise statistics, but the number of PowerFLARMs sold in the US exceeds the total annual unique posters on OLC and well exceeds the number of pilots who have flown at least one contest in the past three years, so if you intend to fly cross-country or race or if you intend to fly more than a few times per year in the company of other glider pilots, your peer group is likely PowerFlarm-equipped and would appreciate it if you were too,

If, on the other hand, you mainly intend to use your glider to fly circuits at or near a busy power airport you should get a Mode S transponder.

Posted from Nephi, UT where we have 60+ gliders flying - 100% with PowerFLARM.

9B

--
Dan Marotta

Dan,

I agree that blocking your view is to be avoided. I also agree that if you fly in airline congested areas you must have a transponder, and if you fly in contests you need a PowerFlarm.

I have a LS-8, which has a cramped panel like your LAK-17. But I've managed to shoehorn in both a Mode S transponder and a PowerFlarm core, and the only thing that shows above the glare shield is the 1" tall 3/16" diameter top of the Flarm antenna. Average Flarm range is 7 km, with maximum distance out to 25 km, so I'm quite pleased.

It's true that figuring out where to put things isn't easy. It took several trials until I was able to figure out where to put the boxes for the Trig and the PowerFlarm core! Later, when I installed a Butterfly Vario, the inertial unit had to go under the seat.

-John, Q3


On Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at 10:12:12 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Panel space is extremely limited in my LAK-17a and I feel that
sticking something on top is more of a risk due to blocked view
outside.* Many folks disagree with me.* I chose instead to install a
Mode S transponder under the cockpit floor(!) with the control head
in the panel and a Zaon MRX PCAS on top of the panel.* It has a much
smaller frontal area than the PF units I've seen.* I've looked at
the PF Mouse but, where I fly, being visible to airliners is more
important to me.

There is no "PF Mouse" aka "PowerFLARM Mouse" the LXNav FlarmMouse is not FCC approved as far as I can see, so I'm not understanding how it could be for sale in the USA. Maybe W&W folks could explain since it's listed on their web site. FCC vendor and product code # would be great to settle that question.

If you want a Flarm unit in the USA, the PowerFLARM brick is the way to go unless you absolutely need a portable device. Yes the PowerFLARM portable is too large to easily install for many owners.

On Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at 7:12:12 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
Panel space is extremely limited in my LAK-17a and I feel that
sticking something on top is more of a risk due to blocked view
outside.* Many folks disagree with me.* I chose instead to install a
Mode S transponder under the cockpit floor(!) with the control head
in the panel and a Zaon MRX PCAS on top of the panel.* It has a much
smaller frontal area than the PF units I've seen.* I've looked at
the PF Mouse but, where I fly, being visible to airliners is more
important to me.



If you want to fly in contests or on congested glider routes, a PF
is probably the way to go.




On 6/30/2015 10:54 PM, Andy Blackburn
wrote:



On Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 6:53:25 PM UTC-7, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:


Just curious do most pilots have a Flarm? I had been out of Soaring for over a decade, back to soaring now with a glider in production. I was excited to learn about Flarms, I know they are mandatory in France, I assumed most pilots would want the safety offered. Is there a reason pilots have not purchased Flarms?


Welcome back!

Generally FLARM goes with an aircraft, not a pilot. The adoption of PowerFLARM is around 75% of registered aircraft in Europe as of 2013, but is considered nearly 100% of active aircraft. As you mentioned, it is mandatory in France.

As of about a year ago, the adoption in the US was less than 25% of registered gliders, but many aircraft on the US registration database are destroyed, inoperative, in museums or rarely flown. Penetration has gone up since then and for most active pilots it is considered an essential piece of equipment. I don't have precise statistics, but the number of PowerFLARMs sold in the US exceeds the total annual unique posters on OLC and well exceeds the number of pilots who have flown at least one contest in the past three years, so if you intend to fly cross-country or race or if you intend to fly more than a few times per year in the company of other glider pilots, your peer group is likely PowerFlarm-equipped and would appreciate it if you were too,

If, on the other hand, you mainly intend to use your glider to fly circuits at or near a busy power airport you should get a Mode S transponder.

Posted from Nephi, UT where we have 60+ gliders flying - 100% with PowerFLARM.

9B





--

Dan Marotta

I'm a consummate renter, and I have a PF Portable. The big issue is where to mount it in a rental glider. Most places are OK with a temporary fix. Mounting it on top of the panel, however, blocks the compass, but I have a compass on my suction-cup mounted handheld.

I have never gotten a FLARM alert, but I do see xponders.

--b

Blocks compass? I do not think I have ever, other than training, used a compass, in powered aircraft or sailplanes. In sailplanes it is easy to look at the topographic features and see my rough heading, plus with GPS.... In powder aircraft the DG is the preferred instrument instead of compass. never had a complete power failure other than when I got the red light over temp warning due to my nicad on fire, was on the ground in seconds, thanks to muscle memory training.

I had a DG failure once while flying a T-33 over the Alaska Range east
of Mt. McKinley in the weather. The weapons controllers suggested I
descend to clear weather and go home. Ummm.. Let's see... Minimum
safe altitude within 100 miles of home plate was 16,000' and the
mountains where I was were 16,000' MSL. So we completed the intercept
and I joined up on the F-4E and he led me towards home until we got down
to VMC.

Otherwise, I've never used a compass, either...

On 7/3/2015 10:23 AM, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Blocks compass? I do not think I have ever, other than training, used a compass, in powered aircraft or sailplanes. In sailplanes it is easy to look at the topographic features and see my rough heading, plus with GPS.... In powder aircraft the DG is the preferred instrument instead of compass. never had a complete power failure other than when I got the red light over temp warning due to my nicad on fire, was on the ground in seconds, thanks to muscle memory training.

--
Dan Marotta