FLARM

I can imagine Don appying the same reasoning shortly after the the invention
the telephone, the car, the radio, the radio, email and probably the wheel.

The price of a FLARM is trivial when compared with the cost of owning and
operating a glider (even an old one). Personally I go with the principle
that "every little helps" as the monkey said.

New technology is always driven by early adopters - the Dons of the world
catch up a fews years later - remember the early debates over GPS and PDAs
(some still ongoing).

FLARM is a partial solution to a problem that may be better solved by other
technologies in the future. While I'm waiting, I prefer to get whatever
benefit I can from something that's available today at very modest cost.

"Don Johnstone" wrote in message
...
I think Tim in his reply to my post highlighted the
biggest failing in FLARM, lack of interest by the majority.
Having a FLARM in your glider is totally useless unless
eveyone else has one in theirs, and the only way to
achieve that is by compulsion.
Anyone who thinks that the majority of pilots will
fit one voluntarily is deluding themselves.
Right now in most of the world FLARM is just a useless
expensive piece of electronics and unless fitting it
becomes compulsory it will go the same way as Betamax
video tapes.

In answer to Bert my panel is full of instruments which
are of some use to me.






At 13:42 06 March 2006, Guy Acheson wrote:
I am glad the origens of FLARM have come up because
it answers some of my questions. I have flown in the
southern Alps and their environment for flight is unlike
any I know of in the USA or Australia. Flying in the
southern Alps many days consists of HUNDREDS of gliders
flying below peak height in all directions throughout
a mountain range that has valleys and passes in all
directions. Flying out of St Auban last year we were
using wrecked gliders as landmarks for navigation.
Collision avoidance is a very high energy activity
in that airspace. Power traffic is virtually non-existant
in that airspace. The power people just fly high above
all the mountains and valleys.

Here in the USA our most common partners in the airspace
are power planes. Power planes have transponders.
I fly out of Minden, NV and for years had fairly regular
close encounters with power planes. Commercial planes
coming in and out of Reno would turn right at you,
your flight path goes accross standard flight paths
in and out of Reno. Military traffic was especially
scary with fighters and heavies just dropping out of
the cloud deck right on top of me or directly in my
flight path. Then I installed a transponder and my
experiences are very different. I monitor the air
traffic people while flying and am very impressed how
well they see me and warn power traffic of my presence.
Commercial planes know where I am and no longer turn
into me. If our paths will cross the power planes
alter their altitude.

As for people being worried about battery problems,
that is just whining. I fly with a radio, transponder,
encoder, Cambridge, and iPAQ using a 12 amp hour battery.
I have never had a problem flying up to six hours.
I take that back. I had a problem for a couple weeks
and it turned out to be a bad battery charger.

For the USA I really believe that installing a transponder
is the responsible thing to do for all air traffic.
Wings and Wheels sells a unit that sounds a lot like
the FLARM but recognizes transponders. It makes much
more sense to me to go with the technology that has
the largest installed base, equipment availability
and support.


At 12:48 06 March 2006, Bert Willing wrote:
Either you don't know what you are talking about (ever
seen the external
Flarm display?), or your panel is crap.

'Don Johnstone' wrote in message
...
I do not have room on my panel for any additional
display