midair in Bay Area Nov 7

Dan Marotta wrote on 11/18/2020 8:22 AM:
On 11/17/20 9:04 PM, Moshe Braner wrote:
When the battery in my smoke alarm gets weak, it emits an occasional short beep to remind me.

....And why, pray tell, does that always occur at 0230?

Sorry...* Off topic.

The cooler night time temperature in the house reduces the battery voltage, and the chirps begin...

--
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

Dan Marotta wrote on 11/18/2020 8:27 AM:
On 11/18/20 7:18 AM, Eric Greenwell wrote:
If you have a Flarm compatible display, it will announce the need for the update;

Well...* I've never seen this.* Does that mean that I've been good at keeping my Flarm up to date?

BTW, last night I emailed the latest firmware and my config file with T8's suggestion to the
hangar.* I'll make the updates before my next flight.

I haven't seen it, either, but then, I always update before the first flight of the year, which
is always in March.

--
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

On Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at 8:34:24 AM UTC-8, Dan Marotta wrote:
On 11/18/20 8:51 AM, Ramy wrote:
2- mode C alarm is on, resulting in continues alarm when you fly near or thermaling with someone
That's it!

My friend had only a Mode 3/A transponder with Mode C. He now has a
Flarm so the problem should have been overtaken by events. We'll see
next season.

--
Dan
5J
Dan, even if he now has flarm I believe you will continue receiving his Mode C as well. If you have LX9000 You may want to disable the Mode C alarm and only select the mode C traffic alert option which will only give you a voice alert. Not sure how this is implemented in other displays.

Ramy

On 11/18/20 10:09 AM, Ramy wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at 8:34:24 AM UTC-8, Dan Marotta wrote:
On 11/18/20 8:51 AM, Ramy wrote:
2- mode C alarm is on, resulting in continues alarm when you fly near or thermaling with someone
That's it!

My friend had only a Mode 3/A transponder with Mode C. He now has a
Flarm so the problem should have been overtaken by events. We'll see
next season.

--
Dan
5J
Dan, even if he now has flarm I believe you will continue receiving his Mode C as well. If you have LX9000 You may want to disable the Mode C alarm and only select the mode C traffic alert option which will only give you a voice alert. Not sure how this is implemented in other displays.

Ramy

Thanks Ramy,

I have ClearNav, but I WILL disable the Mode C alarm to avoid the issue
with any others. I'll still get the circle on the display.

--
Dan
5J

On Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at 11:33:48 AM UTC-5, Ramy wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at 8:05:23 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at 10:51:35 AM UTC-5, Ramy wrote:
On Wednesday, November 18, 2020 at 4:35:39 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 9:17:51 PM UTC-5, Ramy wrote:
On Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 9:47:43 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 12:37:32 PM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
My biggest complaint with Flarm is that ,when flying along with a friend
a hundred or so yards apart, co-altitude and not in any danger of a
collision, the thing screams continuously about an imminent threat.
Add to your configuration file:

# set competition mode (ON = 2, OFF = 0)
$PFLAC,S,CFLAGS,2

Enjoy. You're welcome. Read flarm docs for details.

T8
Many flarm displays allows you to configure low, medium, high for collision. I never have false alarms as mine is configured to high. I only get alarm when I should. I do not recommend competition mode unless you fly comp.

Ramy
I have no idea what you mean when you say "mine is configured to high". In my experience, all one can do at the display is suppress one or two of the three alarm states. Competition mode preserves all three alarm states, but eliminates nuisance alarms of the type that Dan describes, which is why I made the recommendation. It's my standard mode of operation.

I don't think suppressing alarms in 'normal mode' is a good solution to this problem because it reduces warning time for all encounters, including the head on scenario under discussion. Competition mode doesn't appear to have any adverse effect on how flarm works during a head on encounter. (It would be great if a knowledgeable Flarm insider could comment on this).

best,
T8
I was referring to a setting in the flarm display. LXNAV has low/mid/high warning level.
Dan was describing continuous alarms, so I don’t believe competition mode will change that. I believe competition mode only reduces flarm data on the screen and has no impact on alarms.
From my experience when people complain of too many alarms, it is from one of these reasons:
1- The warning level is set to Low which gives loud alarm for distance targets. Changing it to mid or high will reduce those alarms.
2- mode C alarm is on, resulting in continues alarm when you fly near or thermaling with someone
You should disable mode C and select traffic alert only so you will get notification but not alarm.

Ramy
Hi Ramy,

I think you are confusing competition mode with stealth mode, at least in part. They are completely different. The only purpose of competition mode is to suppress nuisance alarms when flying in formation (smooth gaggle flying is formation flying).

Suppressing some of the alerts at the display level has inherent disadvantages (already covered), so I recommend not doing this.

best,
T8
I didn’t try competition mode but this is what the LX9000 says about competition mode:
“ Competition mode is intended only for competitions. If this mode is enabled the pilot will not be able to see any FLARM data on the navigational screens. The competition mode status is recorded in the IGC file and can be checked during scoring. Range of view is also limited.�
It doesn’t mention anything about reducing alarms.
Perhaps it is implemented differently in different displays, which will be bad.
I did however tried the low alarm setting , and it was giving me alarms for gliders which were hundreds of feet below, so reduced it to mid or high (can’t recall which).

Ramy

That explanation of competition mode is simply wrong. It's clearly confused with stealth mode.

T8

On 11/17/20 10:37 AM, Dan Marotta wrote:


I'd also like to have the ability to transmit on both antennae.Â* Can
anyone explain why the US FCC prohibits that capability?Â* Having a
carbon fuselage, I can receive transmitters from below via an external
blade antenna but they can't receive my glare shield mounted "A" antenna.


I have to assume it's to limit the radiated energy to a very low level.
The transmit power is only 18 mw for the core, 10 mw for the portable in
the U.S. version.

It uses unlicensed radio spectrum and must use very low power to make it
legal. Not really a good solution for aircraft that are mostly carbon
fiber these days, used in cockpits that are rife with EMI problems, and
installed and maintained by amateurs.

-Dave

On 11/18/2020 10:57 AM, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Martin Gregorie wrote on 11/18/2020 6:27 AM:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 05:24:27 -0800, Me wrote:

On Monday, November 16, 2020 at 10:03:10 PM UTC-6, Gregg Ballou wrote:
Have there been any glider mid airs in the last few years where the
gliders didn't have Flarm?

There's also a lot more car crashes with seat belts these days.

Seat belts don't warn the driver of possible car crashes - they only make
them more survivable.

FLARM is not remotely equivalent to a seat-belt.

Seat belts - and Flarm - make their respective activities (driving and
flying) more survivable, though by different means. In aircraft, seat
belts often have expiry dates, and need "firmware" updates. So, I think
they are equivalent in the sense they are both safety devices.


Very very different:

Old seat belts don't self-destruct on a schedule (although they do
weaken with age). If somebody doesn't replace them on time they still
help as best as they can. I wish FLARM would do the same with old firmware.

But more importantly, as noted above, FLARM is a preventative device,
not a survivability aid like seatbelts. It is more like the gizmos some
cars have now that warn you about getting too close to something behind
you when you back up. I'm sure those get software updates sometimes,
but I don't expect they stop working just because the software is old.

On Wednesday, 18 November 2020 at 21:14:01 UTC, Moshe Braner wrote:
On 11/18/2020 10:57 AM, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Martin Gregorie wrote on 11/18/2020 6:27 AM:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 05:24:27 -0800, Me wrote:

On Monday, November 16, 2020 at 10:03:10 PM UTC-6, Gregg Ballou wrote:
Have there been any glider mid airs in the last few years where the
gliders didn't have Flarm?

There's also a lot more car crashes with seat belts these days.

Seat belts don't warn the driver of possible car crashes - they only make
them more survivable.

FLARM is not remotely equivalent to a seat-belt.

Seat belts - and Flarm - make their respective activities (driving and
flying) more survivable, though by different means. In aircraft, seat
belts often have expiry dates, and need "firmware" updates. So, I think
they are equivalent in the sense they are both safety devices.

Very very different:

Old seat belts don't self-destruct on a schedule (although they do
weaken with age). If somebody doesn't replace them on time they still
help as best as they can. I wish FLARM would do the same with old firmware.

But more importantly, as noted above, FLARM is a preventative device,
not a survivability aid like seatbelts. It is more like the gizmos some
cars have now that warn you about getting too close to something behind
you when you back up. I'm sure those get software updates sometimes,
but I don't expect they stop working just because the software is old.

You buy anything, you have to know how it works. It is made very clear by Flarm what the update policy has been since 2015, which is to allow for developments to be introduced without every update having to be compatible with every other very old version that other people haven't bothered to update. See:

https://flarm.com/support/firmware-updates/

https://support.flarm.com/hc/en-us/a...piration-date-

Each major update actually is valid for longer than a year from its release so that at any time during the life of that update different owners can begin their annual free update cycle. In EASA land it should be formally included in the glider AMP (annual maintenance program). If an owner can't manage doing that or getting it done for him what else is he not capable of?

Of course every pilot should make sure that his FLARM is working before each season and before each takeoff.

Of course the FLARM team should encourage all pilots to upgrade to the latest firmware.

The question is how should the FLARM team do that? A graceful degradation in performance coupled with annoying beeps, as some have suggested, is surely preferable to ceasing to function altogether, especially given that lives may be at stake and not just the lives of those who failed to upgrade their firmware, but also the lives of those who's FLARM firmware is up-to-date, but who may end up colliding with someone who's FLARM is disabled because the firmware is out of date.

Branko
XYU

According to Flarm the New Fusion transmits and receives on both A and B Flarm Antennas.

http://www.craggyaero.com/fusion.htm


Richard
www.craggyaero.com