Let me state here that I'm not anti-FLARM or anti-anything else except for
more regulations. My original objection was to the all too quick use of the
term "mandate".

Evan makes a compelling case (in my opinion) of why FLARM may not have the
urgent need that the Europeans seem to have, especially in the Southwest,
where I fly. There just aren't that many aircraft in our very large sky.

Opinions vary (obviously). In my case, I don't see the urgent need for the
type and location of my flying, not to mention my budget is stretched thin
and there's no place in my panel for another device.

So, for Sean who, I think, also flies a LAK-17a, how do you mount your
FLARM? Did you have to remove something else that you considered less
important?


"Evan Ludeman" wrote in message
...
On Jan 26, 3:13 pm, Sean Fidler wrote:
Chris, well said. Everything is politics over here lately.

Otherwise...I rest my case.

This has nothing to do with government...IMO. It has to do with glider
pilots, high risk, safely and needless death that is assured of happening
without a broad effort by intelligent people. Stop hiding behind the word
mandate. It IS a free country so you make your own call and excuses (3
pages full...). The FAA takes way too long. More pilots will die in the US
before FLARM is widely enough adopted and has a chance to reach its full
safety potential.

Well, its back to playing darts with our fellow glider, power and airline
traffic for awhile. Enjoy!

And the purpose of your rant is... what, exactly?

I cannot install in my panel what my dealer cannot ship. I've had a
Power Flarm on order since the middle of 2010 (I selected the brick
option when the choice was made available). A few hundred other would
be customers are in the same situation.

To Chris over in Europe... the US situation is rather different in
that a) the US is geographically huge and b) the US glider population
is very small. Glider clubs that launch eight gliders for a total of
perhaps 20 flights on a "busy" day account for a lot of US soaring.
There's no earthly reason to require or even strongly encourage Flarm
technology for such sparse traffic.

Based on casual conversation with numerous other pilots, likewise
waiting on delivery, I think we will find that Power Flarm gets well
adopted on the contest circuit and in the areas of the US that are
glider traffic dense. However, because the portable unit has only
just started shipping this Winter and the brick is still months off,
it will be 2013 before we have any sort of objective measure of how
well the device works and how many staunch anti-flarm pilots we have
to worry about in glider dense environments.

-Evan Ludeman / T8