Are the pilots "idiots" and "undisciplined" because of the FALRM? *Or
are they "idiots" and "undisciplined" in spite of the FLARM?

Cookie

My sense is that pilots at the worlds were flying the way they always
do. We were treated to daily briefings by Brian Spreckley with traces
and horror stories of near misses and collisions from all over Europe,
in contests with majority Flarm usage.

"Idiot" is perhaps a bit strong, and I may have been hasty in applying
it to a fellow pilot. On the other hand, he did pass 10-20 feet over
the top of my glider in a large gaggle. Perhaps he never saw me as
well. "Undisciplined" does stick. Really, when you know there are
20-30 gliders cruising together, one guy turning to the left and the
other of the pair turning to the right sets up 30 gliders turning in
both directions. Lots of people ignored all standard thermal
etiquette.

I think Flarm has a greater potential to seduce contest organizers
than pilots. Do you launch dozens of gliders into a low cloudbase; do
you set up multiple start areas or everyone start in one place; do you
set an assigned task which leads to more gaggling or an area task that
spreads people out more; do you worry about separating classes or
keep them on the same task; do you avoid out and return task legs, or
area tasks that set up flying up and down the same cloudstreet? Each
of these choices raises the chance of collisions, but are often
convenient for other reasons. Organizes and CDs may be tempted to
think, "well, they've all got Flarm, we can get away with it." I
hope we can fight this temptation.

John Cochrane