U.S. RULES COMMITTEE OFFERED “CAFETERIA PLAN” TO ADDRESS POWERFLARM USE

With the growing controversy over the escalating cost of safety
equipment, a group of concerned American comps pilots have submitted a
proposal to the U.S. Rules Committee to permit each pilot to choose
which safety devices to employ.

This group, the unfortunately dubbed PowerFLARM Advocates for
Reasonable Technology (PowerFART), envision a comps pilot
contemplating his next glider. Rather than be forced to purchase one
of every available safety device, he would--under the PowerFART
proposal--be permitted to select which safety-related accoutrements
are of the highest value; viz., radio, parachute, ELT, transponder,
and/or collision-warning/avoidance devices, subject to certain minimum
criteria.

Contrary to the recent hysteria on this forum, many thousands of
gliding sorties are made each year in the U.S. without any of the
foregoing equipment. Usage of these marvelous devices is completely
optional from the perspective of the FAA. However common sensical they
may seem to their supporters, in fact it is only the U.S. Competition
Rules that mandate their use.

The Rules Committee have been roundly criticized in the past for their
handling of outcries to mandate ELTs, GPS flight recorders, and--most
recently and controversially--PowerFLARM collision warning systems.
Indeed, it appears that even the current antics of America’s
Republican Presidential contenders have not been sufficiently
entertaining to divert the attention of irate pilots so certain of the
necessity to immediately equip every glider in America with a
PowerFLARM that they have begun branding anyone opposing their view as
“stupid”. Only slightly less arrogant are their predictions of
imminent disaster as gliders and other aircraft converge on one single
spot in the sky from all directions at ultra-high speed like the
fissionable material in a detonating nuclear weapon (or like pilots
drawn inexorably to the beer keg after a long task at Uvalde).

One point in their favor: unlike a PowerFLARM, which aims to prevent
collisions involving multiple persons, a parachute does nothing to
protect anyone except the pilot involved. I suspect the crew and
passengers on a 747 couldn’t care less whether the dauntless commander
of the Discus 2a who just muddled into their path whilst staring at
the multiple TV screens in his fully electronic cockpit arrives on the
ground safety under a nylon canopy in a blizzard of composite shards.
[“Blast! Battery #2 just packed it in. That’s 22 amp-hours gone in
only 90 minutes! Where is that cutover switch for the secondary
backup? Hmm. What’s that noise?....AHHHHH!!”]

Mandatory parachutes are in some ways a legacy from the days when
airworthiness was rather more art than science and the combined
approach speeds of two aircraft converging head on were less than the
typical inter-thermal cruise speed of a modern glider. Some safety
experts, in fact, aver that without an exit assistance system (e.g.,
DG's NOAH) or a ballistic recovery parachute system for the entire
glider, the chances of a typically well-fed, out-of-shape American
pilot being able to lever himself out of today’s narrow, deep,
reclining cockpit after his glider has been damaged and sent tumbling
to earth is discouragingly small, even if he hasn’t been incapacitated
in the collision. It begs the question: If parachutes were not
mandatory today, would there now be a great outcry to make them so,
given the short odds that they are of any value?

PowerFART folks think not. But rather than campaign for the
elimination of mandatory parachutes, they have, instead, petitioned
the Rules Committee to allow pilots to make their own decisions: viz.,
for about the same expenditure, buy a PowerFLARM or buy a parachute.
Carrying one or the other, but not both, would be mandatory, with the
decision left to the pilot whose wallet is being emptied. Of course,
nothing would prevent anyone from equipping a glider with both, but
that would be optional, as would an ELT, transponder, PCAS, etc.
Privately, PowerFART members opine that most pilots who are wavering
now would either pay up for a PowerFLARM or sell their chutes to local
pilots and invest the proceeds in a PowerFLARM.

Brilliant! With one simple decree, the Rules Committee could
straightaway put paid to the PowerFLARM debate and accelerate the
transformation of the U.S. comps fleet without onerous regulation.

For notwithstanding some of the less temperate postings here, there is
no unanimity about whether to mandate the PowerFLARM for comps. Few
are willing to publically debate the vocal “pro-safety” crowd but one
grizzled veteran put it bluntly: “Them PowerFarters must have their
heads up their…parachutes. One guy says he had 4-5 near misses in 4
contests? Is he flying under the hood? I been glidin’ for 50 years and
ain’t never hit nobody yet. Well, not enough to leave a mark, anyhow.
Just gotta look around. It ain’t so easy with all the gadgets we
fiddle with nowadays but ya gotta do it. Else it’s like dodgin’ deer
on the highway on a foggy night. By the time you see one, it’s in the
front seat with ya...by way of the windscreen.”

Another, more temperate expert added: “Saying that PowerFLARM is cheap
compared to one’s life is sophomoric. Heck, buying a new glider for
$125,000 is cheap on that basis. That’s what I told my wife last year,
anyway. And she went for it! But the cheapest way to save lives is for
all of us to give up soaring, which is what we’re headed for the way
costs keep going up and participation keeps falling. I’d feel funny
flying my ASG 29 without a chute but I don’t think twice about flying
the towplane that way, so I guess it’s a mental thing. If it gets more
FLARMS in cockpits, I’m all for it.”

SoarPoint

Thank You SoarPoint for your View Point. It's nice to have you back.
Don't stay away so long next time....

aFlarmists will be lobbying to make flarm mandatory in all gliders, as
soon as the aFlarmists get a toehold through competition
requirements. Best to stop these nanny aFlarmists while we still
can...
:stir:

Looks like somebody got lucky last night!
Good for you old boy.
R