At 12:26 22 December 2015, Jim White wrote:
Leeching scenarios

1) I am in the lead going into the final day. If I start at the same
tim
as the guy in 2nd place and follow him tightly around the task
finishin
within a minute or two, I have won the competition. Oh, but he
launche
after me, how do I find him? Flarm will do it.

2) I am in second place going in to the last day and do not want
the leade
to find me before the start because if I can get away without bein
followed I stand a better chance of taking the pot. Place foil over
aerial
Must have been a malfunction!

3) I am reaching the bottom of my soaring band and need to find
a climb. D
I take the 2kt climb I have found here or fly 3kms ~ 300ft to the
5kt clim
that another glider has just taken at my height? Flarm does it
again.

4) I am team flying but no longer need to wait at the top of a
thermal fo
my partner to say he is ready to leave (in order to stay in touch
with eac
other) as he can follow comfortably at a distance when he is
ready.

5) I am in the glide flying at my chosen glide speed for the 4kt
thermal
am expecting to find. I see on the Flarm display that the thermals
ahea
are actually producing 6kts not 4. Stick forward!

6) I am in the glide flying at my chosen glide speed for the 4kt
thermal
am expecting to find. I see on the Flarm display that the thermals
ahea
are actually only producing 2kts not 4. Ease up.

7) My partner calls that he is in a 6kt thermal somewhere up
ahead. I can'
see him. He could give me a code which I could then decode to
identif
where but that takes time and effort for both pilots. A glance at
the Flar
display tells me whether I can risk a glide to join him.

8) I am flying an AAT and have entered the first area. I am
considerin
turning early because the sky ahead looks poor. Wait, let's check
the Flar
display to see what the other guys are doing ahead and verify tha
decision.

9) I am flying an AAT and am on the penultimate leg. The last leg
is
reciprocal to the finish. Knowing whether pilots are fat or
struggling o
final glide will help me decide my tactics for the remainder of the
flight
I will check with Flarm!

If you do not consider that Flarm and Flarm leeching can improve
a pilots
result (even the winners) then you are unlikely to be an
experience
competition pilot.

Jim

So here is the thing. Why consider a solution as dangerous as
crippling FLARM when there are other solutions. It is not necessary
for TPs to be ground features anymore, they can be any GPS co-
ordinate. So instead of a competition director setting the task with
TPs why not just set the task length and allow pilots to choose their
TP, not restricted to any point except perhaps the last TP before the
airfield. You could even require a finish track without specifying a
point. You could specify the number of TPs to be used and even
minimum leg lengths but the pilots select their own TP, which they
can keep to themselves or share, as long as they file the task with
the competition before launch. This allows team flying but someone
wanting to "hide" is able to do so. It is a sort of AAT set on distance
as opposed to time.
Solves the leeching problem and as an additional benefit means that
gliders will not longer be forced closer to others at TPs.
I know it is not perfect but it is another valid solution, perhaps not
an attractive one but there again crippling FLARM is not particularly
attractive.