High Tech Meeting before the SSA Convention

Hi,

I hope you will all consider joining us for what is shaping up to be an
extremely interesting, thought provoking meeting that may well help move
forward the development of some exciting new traffic awareness products in
the near future. Products not only for glider pilots, but for use in all
aircraft.

The meeting is entitled "FLARM / ADS-B in the USA - A Meeting of Minds". It
will be held from 4 to 5:30 PM on Wednesday, February 13th in the Picuris,
Sandia, and Santa Ana rooms in the lower level of the Albuquerque Convention
Center. A floor plan of the Convention Center is available in the link
below.
http://www.albuquerquecc.com/PDF/ACC-Floorplan-3.pdf

Note that the meeting takes place before the start of the SSA Convention
which runs from Thursday through Saturday.

I am extremely excited about the meeting. When I first proposed it my goal
was to try to find a way to US pilots to embrace either FLARM or something
similar. The main objective of the meeting is to enhance safety for all
pilots. What I really want (my personal goals may not be the same as
everyone else at the meeting) is for all gliders and power planes to carry a
black box that allows everyone to be alerted to nearby traffic that is a
threat. The black box needs to be inexpensive enough so that everyone will
be willing to buy it and install it in their airplane. I have learned a lot
since then and it sounds like some new technology and products will make
this all possible in much less time than I originally hoped.





The current goal for the meeting is to bring together some great high-tech
minds and discuss products already working or in the works or ideas for
future products. But I believe that it will be a meeting at which we can
all see not just the products and technologies, but also the "big picture".



Thanks to the hard work done mainly by MN glider pilot Mike Schumann we have
an extremely impressive list of people presenting at the meeting. The
proposed agenda is below:



4PM - Paul Remde - Agenda - Introduction of Guests

4:05 - Bernald Smith (SSA Rep) - Overview of ADS-B and the NPRM

4:20 - Robert Strain (MITRE) - Technical Overview of ADS-B and Low Cost
Transceiver Project

4:45 - Urs Rothacher (FLARM) - Overview of FLARM and FLARM's ADS-B strategy

4:55 - Bill Hall (Sandia Aerospace) - Overview of Sandia's Product Line and
Interest in ADS-B

5:05 - Jason Clemens (ZAON) - Overview of ZAON's PCAS product line and
ADS-B plans

5:15 - Questions & Panel Discussion



There will also be an very intelligent and knowledgeable collection of
technology minded glider pilots attending the meeting.



If you are interested in safety enhancing products then I'm sure you will
find the meeting interesting - and we hope you will come ready to share your
ideas and opinions.



This meeting is absolutely not about selling products, it is about
strategizing about future products and technologies. It is also designed
to be an opportunity for great minds in this field to meet and get to know
one another.



I hope you will join us. Were are trying to get an indication of the number
of people that are planning to attend. Please send me an e-mail if you are
planning to attend.



Good Soaring,



Paul Remde

Cumulus Soaring, Inc.