On Wednesday, June 12, 2013 7:20:26 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
I have a plan. I'll publish my flight schedule and the Flarm users can stay
on the ground! That way only people looking outside will be in the air.


You suggested the opposite in your earlier post Dan. I quote:

"I generally fly alone or with one other glider and then we're in
constant communication. If we lose sight, we leave the thermal.
Look back at my OLC traces and you'll see that I don't follow the shear
lines all day to maximize speed and distance points. I fly for fun and I
enjoy exploring those places where the really fast guys don't go that often
because it slows them down."

I suspect neither of your statements are totally serious/accurate. Heat of debate.

Those of us who generally fly with other gliders in the vicinity and who try to fly where the best lift is have found Flarm to be a Godsend, not a fad and a complement to transponders, not a substitute. Some have had to try it to be convinced and certainly there are still improvements to be debated over.

Flarm's arrival has underscored one thing that I always knew to be true intellectually: humans are terrible at estimating the probability of rare, catastrophic events. Relying on past experience ("that's never happened to me") is a poor way to evaluate something like Flarm - particularly if you haven't tried it. My first flight I was shocked at how many gliders come close to you that you never see.

As I said it's a free country. If you fly alone all the time, not a problem, but don't be surprised if on occasions when more than a couple of glider pilots come together to fly they start treating you a bit like you have a bad odor. That may not matter to you at all, just understand that they are acting that way because it matters to them.

9B