FLARM

Thanks, Stephan - what you said about "fear of liability" is what I
meant by "legal issues".

I've done some Googling to learn more about ADS-B. Here's a technology
overview link: http://www.flyadsb.com/techoverview/techoverview.htm,
and here's something on the avionics installation:
http://www.flyadsb.com/downloads/Avi...lers_v0.83.pdf. The bad
news for glider pilots is that the Garmin GDL-90 is $8,000 list, the
Garmin MX20 is $8,500 list, and the installation weighs almost 24 lbs.

Seems to me, if the FAA and AOPA are going forward with ADS-B, that
what is needed for gliders is an ADSB-Lite. This wouldn't take
advantage of any of the ground based part of ATS-B. Rather, it would
just implement the airborne part of ATS-B and would use a simple
FLARM-like sector/height LED display. GPS data could come from an
existing GPS in the glider, and the transmitter could be deliberately
low-powered so it would have only a 5 mile range.

Liability is of course the issue. How about naming the device the HAT
Alert? HAT stands for Half Assed Traffic, simultaneously indicating
that you're only getting some of the airborne traffic picture, and
hopefully blocking legal challenges when Joe Doofus ignores the alert
and gets mid-aired.

Those who are more versed in this field, would you please educate me?
I'm sure there's significant problems with this approach I haven't
thought of.

-John