GliderLink - New team soaring app for airborne location sharing

Just for an addional data point, Texas Soaring Association has
PowerFlarm in all 10 club gliders and 3 Pawnee towplanes. Plus an
additional 24 PowerFlarm units in privately owned gliders on the
field.

Bob

On Fri, 27 Apr 2018 07:01:44 -0700 (PDT), "kirk.stant"
wrote:

.... text deleted

Ok, fair point - I'll amend my comment to "because in the US only XC and racers have Flarm". Sure, some school/commercial operators may have them (Williams?) but the great unwashed are struggling to get radios and audio varios in their trainers, much less Flarm!

PS - I've had a PF in my LS6 since day one - before that I had a PCAS, and if I could carry an APG-82v1 AESA radar with an APX-119 Interrogator I would have one of those, too! I REALLY like knowing what is around me!

Kirk
66

"Flarm is stupid anyway. We've had technically advanced airplanes fly into each other, TV traffic is a feelgood charm for sissies. Example of how your electronics won't save you.
https://www.youtube.com/wat"

This is an asinine post from an asinine know-it-all that knows nothing about Flarm and the definite benefits it provides. I had at least three warnings last year in situations that would have likely resulted in a collision: two in thermals and one in a head-on high speed closure that was avoided by the fact that the other pilot and I both had Flarm and paid attention to it.. I also had a few close calls with non-Flarm equipped pilots, and I had no idea they were there (and neither did they).

And your stupid YouTube video link shows absolutely nothing relating to a soaring environment. You may be happily distracted by repetitive and confusing environments as demonstrated in this simplistic and overly contrived perception test, but the aviation world I live in encourages the observation of constantly changing situations. I welcome the addition of Flarm in my cockpit, as it gives me an additional awareness of my situation and the pilots who also choose to use it.

For pilots like you, with a clear view of their colon and nothing else. I would prefer that you pick another thermal. And quit turning in the opposite direction.

Flarm helps. No doubt about it. 80% of the serious XC pilots in Moriarty use Flarm. We still like looking out the window, but a bit of advance warning is a nice thing.

If you think Flarm is "STUPID," pull your head out, become prescient, invent time travel or don't fly. Obviously you are better qualified and have superior situational awareness than all the mortals that infest your airspace.

That was a joke.

On Friday, April 27, 2018 at 11:30:14 AM UTC-5, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
How many of those 13 private gliders have transponders? I fly in the west and we have very good adoption of transponders and Flarm in the private ships and XC ships at commercial operations. Most of the trainers do not have radios let alone any other electronics. I am fine with that, the FBO's have a hard enough time making any money, and after all we do operate in a VFR environment, see and avoid.

Maybe 4? I don't. If I was out west I would immediately put one in, but here we are lucky to get above 6000' - and Powerflarm is a lot more useful than a transponder for avoiding all the VFR low alt traffic. Not dissing Xponders - if someone wants to give me a TT-21 when they upgrade to a TT-22 for ADS-B out I'll be happy to install it!

Kirk

On Friday, April 27, 2018 at 12:44:23 PM UTC-5, wrote:
Flarm is stupid anyway. We've had technically advanced airplanes fly into each other, TV traffic is a feelgood charm for sissies. Example of how your electronics won't save you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

No, FLARM is equipment. Pilots are stupid. Some more than others.

Kirk
66

On Friday, April 27, 2018 at 12:00:08 PM UTC-7, Alan Saunders wrote:
See IR2030/1/19 for EU or 2014/88/UK June 2014 for UK. Other
countries may have different regulations.

- IR2030/1/19 2014/88/UK June 2014 -
Non-specific short-range devices.

** Equipment may be used airborne.**

869.40 - 869.65 MHz 500 mW e.r.p.

Techniques to access spectrum and mitigate interference that provide at
least equivalent performance to the techniques described in harmonised
standards adopted under Directive 2014/53/EU must be used. This can
include for example Listen Before Talk. Alternatively a duty cycle limit of

10% may be used.
EN 300 220 2013/752/EU Band No.54b.

Alan (UK)

Thanks Alan! That's good news. I know that goTenna does implement "listen before talk", meaning it waits until the frequency is clear before transmitting.

I'd like to remind everyone that GliderLink is not a substitute for Flarm. It is a different tool for a different purpose. Flarm is good for collision avoidance. GliderLink is good for team soaring. The goTenna Mesh offers significantly longer range than Flarm, which makes it much better than Flarm for sharing your location with pilots who are BVR (beyond visual range).

GliderLink has the potential to transform our sport from a mostly solitary pursuit to a very collaborative one. Until we have thermal detectors, the next best thing is buddies with GliderLink.

You didn't see the Gorilla. Just because it is on TV or beeping on our panel doesn't mean our monkey brains are going to see it. Flarm users reporting multiple saves from midairs every season doesn't add up. Pre Flarm(at higher #s of active pilots) there weren't that many collisions.
On Friday, April 27, 2018 at 10:57:19 PM UTC-4, wrote:
"Flarm is stupid anyway. We've had technically advanced airplanes fly into each other, TV traffic is a feelgood charm for sissies. Example of how your electronics won't save you.
https://www.youtube.com/wat"

This is an asinine post from an asinine know-it-all that knows nothing about Flarm and the definite benefits it provides. I had at least three warnings last year in situations that would have likely resulted in a collision: two in thermals and one in a head-on high speed closure that was avoided by the fact that the other pilot and I both had Flarm and paid attention to it. I also had a few close calls with non-Flarm equipped pilots, and I had no idea they were there (and neither did they).

And your stupid YouTube video link shows absolutely nothing relating to a soaring environment. You may be happily distracted by repetitive and confusing environments as demonstrated in this simplistic and overly contrived perception test, but the aviation world I live in encourages the observation of constantly changing situations. I welcome the addition of Flarm in my cockpit, as it gives me an additional awareness of my situation and the pilots who also choose to use it.

For pilots like you, with a clear view of their colon and nothing else. I would prefer that you pick another thermal. And quit turning in the opposite direction.

Flarm helps. No doubt about it. 80% of the serious XC pilots in Moriarty use Flarm. We still like looking out the window, but a bit of advance warning is a nice thing.

If you think Flarm is "STUPID," pull your head out, become prescient, invent time travel or don't fly. Obviously you are better qualified and have superior situational awareness than all the mortals that infest your airspace.

That was a joke.

On Saturday, April 28, 2018 at 12:23:17 AM UTC-4, Ben Hirashima wrote:
I'd like to remind everyone that GliderLink is not a substitute for Flarm.. It is a different tool for a different purpose. Flarm is good for collision avoidance. GliderLink is good for team soaring. The goTenna Mesh offers significantly longer range than Flarm, which makes it much better than Flarm for sharing your location with pilots who are BVR (beyond visual range).

GliderLink has the potential to transform our sport from a mostly solitary pursuit to a very collaborative one. Until we have thermal detectors, the next best thing is buddies with GliderLink.

Thanks Ben, that would be nice. I've tried rendezvousing with buddies with only comm radio and GPS and it's been difficult. "I'm 6 miles NW of Pleasantville" isn't good enough.

The problem is the proliferation of gizmos and displays in the cockpit. It's bad enough that we have to push ourselves to look out the cockpit sometimes rather than the nav computer. Add Gliderlink and FLARM and who knows what else and our poor brains' multitasking capabilities are overwhelmed even without peeking outside. Plus the never-ending battery charging dance. That is why integration of the gizmos is the most requested feature above.

Another issue is the poor visibility, in sunlight, of smartphone screens. It seems that some people don't mind the low contrast, others can't stand it. As my eyes get older I seem to crave contrast. Perhaps I can discern what's on a good smartphone screen with enough squinting, but it takes too long. I use Tophat on a slow obsolete Nook e-reader with black-and-white e-ink display and external GPS, just for the contrast.

kirk.stant wrote on 4/27/2018 8:04 PM:
On Friday, April 27, 2018 at 11:30:14 AM UTC-5, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
How many of those 13 private gliders have transponders? I fly in the west and we have very good adoption of transponders and Flarm in the private ships and XC ships at commercial operations. Most of the trainers do not have radios let alone any other electronics. I am fine with that, the FBO's have a hard enough time making any money, and after all we do operate in a VFR environment, see and avoid.

Maybe 4? I don't. If I was out west I would immediately put one in, but here we are lucky to get above 6000' - and Powerflarm is a lot more useful than a transponder for avoiding all the VFR low alt traffic. Not dissing Xponders - if someone wants to give me a TT-21 when they upgrade to a TT-22 for ADS-B out I'll be happy to install it!

I've read the TT-21 can be upgraded to a TT-22 for ~$800-$1000, so you should look
for another path to a cheap transponder :^)

Since you don't need ADSB, that path could be a mode C transponder, as many are
now available for $500-$1000 (transponder, encoder, and cabling!) as people
upgrade to mode S transponders here and in Europe.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf

You obviously don't know what you are talking about.