Scott makes a very good point. Some of our club 2 seater gliders are fitted
with Flarm units. A few weeks ago I very nearly had a mid-air collision
because I was looking for a contact showing on my right hand side (which
could have been several kilometres away) and failed to spot a non-Flarm
equipped glider converging from the left, until it was almost too late.
The technology was actually a distraction from keeping a good scanning
lookout!

Derek Copelaand

At 11:34 23 January 2009, Scott wrote:
kd6veb wrote:
I don't know why we are still discussing these issues -
transponders and PCAS are mandatory safety devices in my world. I
can't think of a reason why anyone would think otherwise.
Dave

One reason I worry about is that some people who would have them
installed start to depend on them to "alert" them of other traffic
rather than looking for traffic visually. A similar example of
something that happened to me once...I was in my Aeronca Chief (powered
aircraft, NO radio) on (extended) base leg of the approach. A guy in a
(faster) aircraft was about a mile out on final (after going way down on

downwind, giving him a about 3 miles of final approach). With my slow
Chief, he should have been down and clear of the runway before I even
turned final. All of a sudden, he makes a left turn and is heading
straight for me. Assuming he sees me, I turn to the right and descend,
assuming he would go right and pull up (I went down because I could
change altitude faster than pulling up). I cleared the area (WAY clear
of this guy), watch him land from afar and then came in to land. I go
up to him and asked him if he saw me and why he made that turn right at
me. His answer..."Nope didn't see you. Were you on the radio? I made

a missed approach and at uncontrolled airports, turns are made to the
left." I then explained that he should have continued down the runway,

climb and rejoin the pattern on crosswind leg and that not all aircraft
have radios (or electrical systems to support them). To me, it was
apparent that if he didn't hear anybody call in on the radio, there was

nobody else there.

Scott