On Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 6:53:25 PM UTC-7, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Just curious do most pilots have a Flarm? I had been out of Soaring for over a decade, back to soaring now with a glider in production. I was excited to learn about Flarms, I know they are mandatory in France, I assumed most pilots would want the safety offered. Is there a reason pilots have not purchased Flarms?

Welcome back!

Generally FLARM goes with an aircraft, not a pilot. The adoption of PowerFLARM is around 75% of registered aircraft in Europe as of 2013, but is considered nearly 100% of active aircraft. As you mentioned, it is mandatory in France.

As of about a year ago, the adoption in the US was less than 25% of registered gliders, but many aircraft on the US registration database are destroyed, inoperative, in museums or rarely flown. Penetration has gone up since then and for most active pilots it is considered an essential piece of equipment. I don't have precise statistics, but the number of PowerFLARMs sold in the US exceeds the total annual unique posters on OLC and well exceeds the number of pilots who have flown at least one contest in the past three years, so if you intend to fly cross-country or race or if you intend to fly more than a few times per year in the company of other glider pilots, your peer group is likely PowerFlarm-equipped and would appreciate it if you were too,

If, on the other hand, you mainly intend to use your glider to fly circuits at or near a busy power airport you should get a Mode S transponder.

Posted from Nephi, UT where we have 60+ gliders flying - 100% with PowerFLARM.

9B