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Old October 28th 12, 08:44 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Don Johnstone[_4_]
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Posts: 398
Default PowerFLARM leeching comments

At 23:35 21 October 2012, wrote:
On Saturday, October 20, 2012 5:52:55 PM UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Saturday, October 20, 2012 5:30:05 PM UTC-4, Don Johnstone wrote:


I was very uncomfortable with the concept of instructing pilots to lessen
the efficiency of an anti-colision assistance device.


Stealth mode in no way lessens the efficacy of FLARM anti-collision. It
gives you warnings when there is a collision hazard regardless.
Hope that is clear,


Dave,

it is clear, and while your statement is probably technically accurate,

it
isn't entirely correct. Any mode that reduces the pilot's situational
awareness also degrades safety to some extent. Stealth mode by definition
does exactly that. The OC fatality scenario is a case where stealth mode
might
not provide enough warning to assess the situation and take appropriate

action, whereas the 'full' mode probably would. Just my $0.02

Frank (TA)


From the FLARM manual

"Stealth mode inherently reduces some of the benefits of situation
awareness for yourself and surrounding aircraft. We do not recommend the
use of Stealth mode, but it is better than turning FLARMĀ® off for tactical
reasons."
There is no way that the above can be interpreted in any way other than the
safety benefits are reduced. Do you really want to be seen being
responsible for telling pilots to reduce safety?

http://www.flarm.com/support/Flarm_Competitions.pdf