Flarm Competiton Mode, US Rule

Read the US RC email on this. The ruling makes sense although I'm not sure how they (IGC, BGA, SSA) are going to test competition mode adequately in time for this coming season. I would love to hear what new requirements "they" have gone with for this new Flarm Competiton Mode configuration and how they differ from the old Stealth Mode configuration that was used at recent 2015 15 meter nationals.

I like the idea of less complexity. Clearly some competitors and teams are more advanced than others at leveraging tactical advantage from Flarm. This has the potential to affect results although I'm not convinced it has yet. In general, less critical variables to manage is a policy that seems reasonable. The varying functional range (tactical usefulness) that pilots realize becomes far less important to perfect. I was getting 2-3 miles max. Others where getting 5+. Now 1-2 is probably more than enough (portables, etc).

It is interesting that Nephi is pushing hard for a waiver on the requirement. Clearly they do not want Competiton mode. I wonder why that is. This will be a huge US contest next year with many of the best US competition pilots. Here is an idea. How about alternating modes every other day to look at patterns in the tactics? ;-). It would be very, very interesting to analyze those flights...and probably very eye opening it there is a pattern.

Anyway, I thought it would be interested to start a thread on this controversial ruling...

Sean