Aviation Consumer's current issue has an article on traffic-detection
systems. It points out that mode S is already going away and ADS-B in
only just beginning to be installed. and that a defect of ADS-B is
that several seconds may elapse between the time aircraft A replies to
the radar facility, the facility processes the signal and calculates
vector information, and then broadcasts this. So this isn't going to
help as much as we'd like in gaggles, never mind that it won't be
available everywhere for a long time.

It sounds as though FLARM is available and functional. It might be
possible for pilots to cooperatively use it without an FAA
imprimateur, though the FTC will have jurisdiction over the use of
frequency.

Dan

On Oct 26, 4:53 pm, "Mike Schumann" mike-nos...@traditions-
nospam.com wrote:
As someone else noted, ADS-B is purely a way to broadcast the position,
speed, direction, and altitude of all aircraft. ...

...we need more intelligence in glider specific ADS-B units,
so we can determine if there is a collision threat in
a gaggle, or if there is an orderly structure to the gliders in the thermal
that does not pose any issues....

On Oct 25, 1:57 pm, "Mike Schumann" wrote:
We don't need FLARM. What we need is a low cost version of ADS-B that is
affordable for glider pilots.

I agree.

But... I doubt ADS-B will have the smarts to provide intelligent
warnings and ignore false alerts due to the close proximity we fly in.

-Tom