US Rules Committee Policy on Permitting S/W for Tablets, PNAs,Smartphones etc.

http://www.ssa.org/files/member/Rest...e%20Policy.pdf

It goes like this.

1. The FAI and US rules banning the use in competition of technology
that provide AH or T&B functionality are not going away this season.
Opine to the max on the good/bad aspects of this all you like, but the
rule will not be changed this season.

2. Recognizing the difficulty of complete enforcement against a
dedicated cheater, but not wanting to disenfranchise either the users
of software or the developers we wrote a policy governing acceptable
use of these devices.

3. Developers who wish to not disenfranchise their users will make
the necessary changes to their products and release rules-compliant
versions in a timely fashion. This basically means compiling out any
code that implements prohibited functionality and making it clear to a
non-technical contest official (e.g. via the splash screen) what the
version is. Not rocket science.

In other news:

4. Use of cellular/satellite whatever voice or data services in
flight remains prohibited but for two different reasons.

4a. Voice services are prohibited because team flying is prohibited.
Nothing new there.

4b. Data services (e.g. in-flight weather) have been prohibited up to
now because of the high cost of the necessary devices and not wanting
to send the message that you need more high cost equipment to
compete. As this situation is rapidly changing and in-flight weather
is becoming ubiquitous and cheap this ban will probably go away soon
(next season?).

Deep breaths and civility everyone. It's not our fault that vendors
and developers starting introducing prohibited functionality without
due awareness of the FAI and US competition rules.

John Godfrey (QT)
US Rules Committee

I commend the rules committee on this. The policy statement is
sensible and well worded. It is clear to me that there are vocal
folks here on RAS who simply are not appreciating the whole of the
problem.

3. Anyone wanting to cheat downloads source code and compiles in AH, keeping the compliance splash screen. Also not rocket science.

4b. Inflight data, subject to cell phone reception, is extremely cheap now. You pay more for a short voice phone call than the data would cost for inflight forecast/nowcast updates. We live in an information age, why not allow gliding to move with the times?

Hi John,

I am still in the dark about the actual implementation. As I asked before via mail what is your position on the following features of XCSoar:

* AH based on GPS/Vario/Airspeed
* AH based on internal/external gyro (forbidden, but not implemented in any version of XCSoar yet)
* METAR download (forbidden, right? how is it different from requesting it via VHF?)
* Live Tracking via 3G/4G (only upload, no download)
* Flarm radar functionality

Does the application need to make sure that data/voice services are not used? Is it enough to enable the plane mode in the smartphone? I wouldn't know how our software should be able to block incoming voice calls which are not part of our software...

On Feb 24, 2:09*pm, Tobias Bieniek
wrote:
Hi John,

I am still in the dark about the actual implementation. As I asked before via mail what is your position on the following features of XCSoar:

* AH based on GPS/Vario/Airspeed
* AH based on internal/external gyro (forbidden, but not implemented in any version of XCSoar yet)
* METAR download (forbidden, right? how is it different from requesting it via VHF?)
* Live Tracking via 3G/4G (only upload, no download)
* Flarm radar functionality

Does the application need to make sure that data/voice services are not used? Is it enough to enable the plane mode in the smartphone? I wouldn't know how our software should be able to block incoming voice calls which are not part of our software...

Hi Tobias,
WRT US Rules only:
1. AH based on GPS/Vario/Airspeed - although unlikely this can be
effectively used for cloud flying still not allowed.
2. AH based on gyro - not allowed
4. All incoming data stream based weather data is forbidden,
regardless of the technology (cell,satellite, VHF, VLF). Listening to
non-specific voice broadcast (e.g. ATIS) is ok,
5. There is no current restriction on Flarm radar functionality but be
aware this may change next year.
QT

On Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:55:00 -0600, wrote:
John,

The use of cellphones and other intentional transmitters in flight is
illegal in the US. I don't think the rules committe should permit
something that is illegal.

--Stefan


4b. Inflight data, subject to cell phone reception, is extremely cheap
now. You pay more for a short voice phone call than the data would cost
for inflight forecast/nowcast updates. We live in an information age,
why not allow gliding to move with the times?


--
Stefan Murry

On Feb 24, 1:55*pm, wrote:
3. Anyone wanting to cheat downloads source code and compiles in AH, keeping the compliance splash screen. Also not rocket science.

4b. Inflight data, subject to cell phone reception, is extremely cheap now. *You pay more for a short voice phone call than the data would cost for inflight forecast/nowcast updates. We live in an information age, why not allow gliding to move with the times?

I’m personally not too worried about the dedicated cheater. I am
reminded of a story about the WGC years ago when data-back cameras
were used to imprint the time on the film. One enterprising competitor
figured out how to diddle his data-back in flight to change the time.
His meteoric rise from fair-to-middlin’ to top-of-the-pack did not go
unnoticed. Suspecting cheating, the contest officials selected a
turnpoint that was a traffic circle and dispatched two cars with
instruction to make like a clock by changing where they parked. Don’t
know if the pilot was publicly confronted but he withdrew.

As a scorer, it is no big deal (and I often do) to look at all the
baro traces together and notice that someone has been consistently
outclimbing everyone else by 20% in the same locations. Would make for
an interesting daily pilot meeting to invite the pilot to come forward
and explain the secrets of the exceptional thermaling technique...

QT

Stefan,

Likewise if it's already covered by FAA/FCC rules, there's no need to have duplicate rules in you contest rules.

I was merely pointing out the argument of keeping costs down has been rendered irrelevant due to contemporary consumer communications devices as well as access to useful met feeds.

On Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:48:29 -0600, wrote:
John,

OK. I'll buy that. Although I will counter that the cost of "legal"
weather information is still not exactly cheap (I guess, depending on your
cheapness threshold). To be legal, it would have to be based (currently)
on satellite or (in some limited areas) ADS-B. Cell phone data reception
is illegal.

Satellite data services (used by Garmin, for example), cost ~$500 a year
(it's been a while since I looked at what I paid for a subscription, so
please don't jump all over this, but it's some hundreds of dollars) and
the hardware to receive these will cost around $1000 (again, I'm not that
current, but it's a lot more than a typical cellphone).

ADS-B is only available in limited areas, mostly metropolitan, and the
receivers cost thousands (plus are power hungry and generally unsuited for
glider use).

However, I think the spirit of this discussion is that this technology is
rapidly evolving and certainly all of this is becoming much more
available and may even already be cheap (at least to people who have more
financial means than I ).


--Stefan


Stefan,

Likewise if it's already covered by FAA/FCC rules, there's no need to
have duplicate rules in you contest rules.

I was merely pointing out the argument of keeping costs down has been
rendered irrelevant due to contemporary consumer communications devices
as well as access to useful met feeds.


--
Stefan Murry

John G:

There are emerging technologies aimed at consumer applications (cars) to detect fog.

I don't think these are available/affordable/practical yet for use in gliders, but I think it might be worth ssa/igc to look into when planning a solution to the issue at hand.