Experience with Flarm "Stealth" and Competition modes

I flew the Sports Class Nats with Powerflarm Brick (v 3.0), Butterfly 57mm display (v 3.1).

My experience last season was that flarm was a bit of a nuisance: in large gaggles the darned thing made more noise than my audio vario. As well, I found the "radar" tracking feature a useless distraction. So I thought I would fly a contest with Stealth mode enabled by default as well as Competition mode (higher alarm thresholds, enabled using the cflags command in the configuration file, see the dataport specification for details).

It all worked as intended. Warning threshold is "just right" for competition use and overall distraction level is happily low.

The fraction of pilots at this contest using Flarm was happily high. I heard "Thanks Flarm!" and similar on the radio many times.

Evan Ludeman / T8

On Friday, May 24, 2013 8:08:59 AM UTC-4, Evan Ludeman wrote:
I flew the Sports Class Nats with Powerflarm Brick (v 3.0), Butterfly 57mm display (v 3.1).



My experience last season was that flarm was a bit of a nuisance: in large gaggles the darned thing made more noise than my audio vario. As well, I found the "radar" tracking feature a useless distraction. So I thought I would fly a contest with Stealth mode enabled by default as well as Competition mode (higher alarm thresholds, enabled using the cflags command in the configuration file, see the dataport specification for details).



It all worked as intended. Warning threshold is "just right" for competition use and overall distraction level is happily low.



The fraction of pilots at this contest using Flarm was happily high. I heard "Thanks Flarm!" and similar on the radio many times.



Evan Ludeman / T8

I flew this contest too but had Flarm in the standard mode. I thought it worked GREAT! It really didn't distract any. If I already knew someone was there I ignored it; if it was an unexpected alert it made me even more vigilant. I can't say it was a life saver...but maybe it was. I especially like how well integrated the FLARM is with my ClearNav!

-PC

I agree with Jim. Virtually no distractions and excellent info when needed in normal mode.

Somebody is lobbying!

On Friday, May 24, 2013 8:08:59 AM UTC-4, Evan Ludeman wrote:
My experience last season was that flarm was a bit of a nuisance:
in large gaggles the darned thing made more noise than my audio vario.
As well, I found the "radar" tracking feature a useless distraction.
So I thought I would fly a contest with Stealth mode enabled by default
as well as Competition mode (higher alarm thresholds, enabled using the
cflags command in the configuration file, see the dataport specification
for details).

It all worked as intended. Warning threshold is "just right" for
competition use and overall distraction level is happily low.

The fraction of pilots at this contest using Flarm was happily high.
I heard "Thanks Flarm!" and similar on the radio many times.

Evan, most likely the reason you had a high alert last season
was a number of gliders did not configure PowerFLARM as aircraft
type GLIDER, but left it at the default POWERPLANE. This gives a
different expectation of required separation and likely trajectories,
and consequently LOTS of alarms.

We still have one or two out there. If you always get an alert around
a specific glider (whose flying is shall we say not a problem), this
is likely the problem. Try to track these down and get it corrected !

Stealth: NOT RECOMMENDED.

Competition Mode: Should not be required unless pilots are flying
pretty aggressively. YMMV.

Hope that helps,
Best Regards, Dave

On Friday, May 24, 2013 2:27:48 PM UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Friday, May 24, 2013 8:08:59 AM UTC-4, Evan Ludeman wrote:

My experience last season was that flarm was a bit of a nuisance:

in large gaggles the darned thing made more noise than my audio vario.

As well, I found the "radar" tracking feature a useless distraction.

So I thought I would fly a contest with Stealth mode enabled by default

as well as Competition mode (higher alarm thresholds, enabled using the

cflags command in the configuration file, see the dataport specification

for details).



It all worked as intended. Warning threshold is "just right" for

competition use and overall distraction level is happily low.



The fraction of pilots at this contest using Flarm was happily high.

I heard "Thanks Flarm!" and similar on the radio many times.



Evan, most likely the reason you had a high alert last season

was a number of gliders did not configure PowerFLARM as aircraft

type GLIDER, but left it at the default POWERPLANE. This gives a

different expectation of required separation and likely trajectories,

and consequently LOTS of alarms.



We still have one or two out there. If you always get an alert around

a specific glider (whose flying is shall we say not a problem), this

is likely the problem. Try to track these down and get it corrected !



Stealth: NOT RECOMMENDED.



Competition Mode: Should not be required unless pilots are flying

pretty aggressively. YMMV.



Hope that helps,

Best Regards, Dave

No, definitely not "power plane" -- that would have been much worse and limited to specific gliders. This was was endemic at 15s last year and similar though less intense at New Castle. Looking ahead 25 seconds with a reasonable envelope in a packed thermal will result in a lot of overlap and nuisance alarms. I get that. I decided to experiment with available options to deal with the specific issue of contest flying, I report that they work well.

Stealth mode appears to work great if all you want is anti-collision warning. Guess what? All I want from flarm in contest flying is anti-collision warning. Again, it works well. You've said several times 'not recommended' in all caps, but you've never stated a reason. If there is an engineering or safety related reason, please state it. I'm tempted by context to presume the real reason is marketing (the ability to track other pilots....).

T8

On Friday, May 24, 2013 8:08:59 AM UTC-4, Evan Ludeman wrote:
I flew the Sports Class Nats with Powerflarm Brick (v 3.0), Butterfly 57mm display (v 3.1).



My experience last season was that flarm was a bit of a nuisance: in large gaggles the darned thing made more noise than my audio vario. As well, I found the "radar" tracking feature a useless distraction. So I thought I would fly a contest with Stealth mode enabled by default as well as Competition mode (higher alarm thresholds, enabled using the cflags command in the configuration file, see the dataport specification for details).



It all worked as intended. Warning threshold is "just right" for competition use and overall distraction level is happily low.



The fraction of pilots at this contest using Flarm was happily high. I heard "Thanks Flarm!" and similar on the radio many times.



Evan Ludeman / T8

Grrrrrrrummmmble. I've just been informed that my "stealth mode" flarm was routinely trackable at 6 miles at Mifflin. And yes, I'm certain I had stealth engaged (it's in the log files). Guess I won't be doing any more of that.

T8

Evan,
We have had no complaints about 'Stealth' not doing what it is supposed to do, so far.
Please send your log file to info@flarm with above comment.

Yes, Stealth Mode is silly and should not be used, but it's a lot better to use it than to unplug FLARM for fear of being followed...

Thanks
FLARM

New to soaring.

The fear is that others will follow you to good lift?

On Saturday, May 25, 2013 1:33:27 AM UTC-4, Rtr wrote:
New to soaring.



The fear is that others will follow you to good lift?

Some of us simply feel that tracking competitors via radio isn't really in the spirit of the game, that's all. In practice it's probably moot. Looking out the window generally yields better information.

T8

I'm curious what is to be gained by knowing where others are.

Is it typical in racing for people to take different paths and use different sources of lift, so transmitting your position might be disadvantageous?