I agree - lots of good discussion.

I would again emphasize though that nobody has yet put the effort into building a true Tactical Leeching Tool. Flarm just provides data and a collision warning algorithm which seems to work extremely well for the purpose for which it was designed. I have been truly impressed at how few spurious warnings I have gotten in either unrestricted or stealth mode. As a safety tool, I love it.

But, please consider what folks could do IF they put their minds to it. Visualizing and presenting the Flarm data for tactical advantage has hardly been tapped at all. Imagine a filtering algorithm that takes in Flarm data from a bunch of gliders. It figures out if this is a "gaggle" (defined by at least 2 gliders circling for at least 30 seconds and climbing, for example). Now, imagine that it smooths the climb data from the gliders that are identified as Gaggle A with an indication of average climb rate (30 second, 60 second, duration of climb) as selected by the user. Imagine that another gaggle (Gaggle B) nearby is similarly filtered and displayed. Color coding is applied with strongest average climbs in Green and decreasing in size and intensity with weaker climbs. Also, the user can set alerts to indicate if specific targets are in Gaggle A or Gaggle B. Okay, Gaggle A is clearly averaging a better climb, and as a bonus P7 is part of the group. This is not 10 years out sort of stuff. I've already written specs for several of these examples.

I suspect that the reason a lot of folks are finding Flarm of limited tactical value right now is largely unfamiliarity with the tool combined with User Interfaces which are not yet optimized for competition. My Flarm routinely provides 7.5km to 8km range, which is basically a corridor 15km wide (left and right). And contrary to statements made in this thread, many thermals are relatively persistent and regenerative. All you have to do to see this in action is to download competition files from a recent contest and replay the flights in maggot race mode on SeeYou. If you synchronize on start time, you can see gliders converging on exactly the same spot often times 10-15 minutes apart when you shift back to real-time. So, having a choice of 2 gaggles displayed each of which is only 3 miles away and KNOWING which gaggle is the stronger climb is a very real tactical advantage. Similar examples apply to the pre-start, straight glides, etc.

Of course, if everyone has it, then maybe the playing field is again level. Except that instead of looking out the window and eyeballing other gliders to figure out which group is climbing better relative to you, you'll be zooming in the gain on your Leeching Window. Sort of like good weather radar operators today who know how to identify the really ugly cells vs. the more benign cells. Maybe that's the exciting next frontier?

P3