FLARM in Stealth Mode at US 15M/Standard Nationals - Loved It!

It seems that this discussion about whether FLARM should part of contest flying has been turned into a discussion of leeching where leeching is following one pilot or one group of pilots.

Beyond that, FLARM can be used to unnaturally jump from one group to another or find that thermal you desperately need. By unnaturally I mean seeing beyond visual range, detecting and selecting climb rates of others with electronically enhanced capabilities. FLARM also help see where pilots are heading leaving a MAT turn point and how many gliders are going that way.

So it is more than just tailing a guy. A lot more information is presented to the decision making pilot taking full advantage of FLARM.

Where do you draw the line? If you believe there should be no line, okay, then we are talking about a sport where all the information possibly gathered through the internet or people on the ground also become part of the race..

Sailplane racing is a sport not an unlimited frontier. It is motor-less flight after all. From the very first day there have been limits set to define the sport.

Let's proactively determine what we want our sport to be. What kind of sport would fishing be if anything were allowed? If baseball players were allowed to hit with any kind of bat, the stadiums would have to be expanded every few years and the cheap seats would have to be 550 yards away.

XC