US pilots concerned with collision avoidance, read the FLARM threads

Hi,

What is wrong with looking outside of the cockpit?

Nothing of course.

Do we really want to put more equipment in our sailplanes?

FLARM is so unobtrusive that it is no fun to look at. Can't be less
distracting. It does not even have interesting knobs to fiddle with.

I have very little experience flying, having soloed last year. Every
day I fly, still in the vicinity of the field only, I get at least one
warning from FLARM for aircraft I did not see. "Look out better" you say,
and I really, really, really try.

But what bothers me more is that I cannot immediately find half of the
targets I get warned of even though FLARM tells me where exactly to look
for them. It always takes some searching. My eyes are OK, the damn things
are just so hard to spot. And scanning techniques have to be learned.

I am happy we have our club fleet FLARM-equipped by 100% and most others
at the field have, too.

Do you really think that transponders or FLARMs will prevent collisions?

Definitely yes.

Not that I feel I would have actually hit any of my "bleepers", but it
might have been a lot closer than I would have liked it.

Ciao, MM
--
Marian Aldenhövel, Rosenhain 23, 53123 Bonn
http://www.marian-aldenhoevel.de
"Success is the happy feeling you get between the time you
do something and the time you tell a woman what you did."