RC madness

On Wednesday, December 23, 2015 at 1:19:41 PM UTC-8, jfitch wrote:

Now I will pre-empt the responses about head down time. I consider the Butterfly and other dedicated Flarm displays to be quite deficient for tactical, situational, and collision avoidance use. I don't have one. Flarm targets appear on the moving map tactical display at all times, and are emphasized on that display if the get close. A one second glance is more than enough to evaluate the whole fleet. The vario has voice warnings for collision threats of both gliders and GA aircraft. It does not add to heads down time.


I'll add to that point.

The modern moving-map displays like Oudie, LX Nav and I'm sure many, many others put down very easy to scan "snail trails" of traffic that give a ton of information at a glance - position, track and, with a little extra focus, relative altitude (sometimes it's a numerical label, sometimes it's color coding). I put this information in a clearly contrasting color so I can scan easily. That is a nearly sure-fire way to avoid conflicts - especially now that almost everyone in contests is carrying Flarm. The longer range the target information is made available, the less frequently my gaze has to return to the display.

It is a fallacy in this new world that you are going to pick up more targets looking out the window - especially the conflicting ones you really care about (no I'm not arguing for 100% heads down - a good scan is part of aviating). Just try flying around looking for targets with your Mark I eyeballs on a reasonably busy day, then look at your Flarm display. I bet you find surprises - particularly if they are on a course without angular movement - like collision courses are by definition.

9B