Dan,

A famous science fiction writer, Jerry Pournelle, once wrote that "perfect is the enemy of good enough". That applies to PowerFLARM in spades. Even in its present "beta" stage (your words), it works very, very well. It hasn't risen to the level of "saved my butt" yet, but it has certainly helped me avoid some very close encounters, including one with a 747 sneaking up on my rear 400 feet above me!

I agree with Darryl and Kirk - you should get both a PowerFLARM and a Mode S transponder if you possibly can. They were tough to shoe-horn into a LS8 cockpit, but believe me, they repaid my sweat (and my monetary) investment!

-John, Q3


On Monday, April 21, 2014 9:52:10 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
While I agree with what you said about the fun of knowing where your buddies
are, you missed my point that it's ATC and other aircraft that can't see the
Flarm-only glider. Sure he (might be able to) see them, but they can't see
him. I also had to draw the line at mounting a device that can only either
block my panel or my outside view. Sometimes more is not necessarily better
but I know opinions vary on what to have.

Finally at the risk of starting a flame war, I would not install a device
that I consider to be still in beta test. XCSoar releases beta software but
they identify it as such and ask experienced users to "gorilla test" it and
identify problems. From the level of complaints I've read regarding Flarm
firmware updates, missed targets, suppression, antennae, displays, etc., I
believe it's still a beta product. Sure it does great things, but it would
not yet receive a TSO. Happy testing!