On Sunday, January 3, 2016 at 11:10:42 PM UTC-5, Andrew Ainslie wrote:
Well, I've now deleted two posts where I got overly irritated at Sean for his "weak assed" comments and insinuations that those of us who are concerned about safety aren't really, we're just not "real men" and can't fly without help. Sheesh Sean!

And then comes along Andy Blackburn with an eloquent, well written, logical argument that makes any continuation of those sorts of "I'm tougher than you", "you're a wimp and I'm a real man", hopefully look as weak as they are. Thank you, Andy. I haven't met you (I don't think), but look forward to doing so.

And for what it's worth, I personally couldn't care less about leaching. Or about winning a contest - and I suspect there are a lot like me. I get to fly 1 or 2 contests a year because of my job. One of my main aims is to maximize the chance of leaving that contest alive. It's yet another group that I hope the RC considers - us amateurs who do this not for the glory, not for the hope of standing on some wooden pedestal holding a tin trophy, but for the fun of hanging out, safely, with our friends. Pretty weak-assed, but there it is.

I still remember an elderly gentleman (no longer with us) missing me by about 20 feet some 17 years ago at Newcastle as he went straight through my thermal at 100 mph. I swear I saw his eyes... And he still didn't see me as he went by. I'll fully admit that I was so focused on centering that I didn't see him coming either. Anything - absolutely anything - that I can do to not repeat that little bit of fun is great with me. And I suspect that if the same gentleman had a device that gave him 60 seconds warning, he'd still be searching around trying to find where the warning was coming from me as he smacked into me. A few minutes sounds a lot nicer to me than 60 seconds, thank you very much.


Andrew,
I already tried to tone down what I said in the "weak assed" post. We've covered some of this already in other posts. I'll try to be brief.

1) We are talking about a competition or stealth option in contest flying only.

2) There is a fair amount of heads down time associated with open FLARM usage that off sets or in my opinion outweighs the SA gained in regard to safety. So much so that I think some people will over do it and their soaring performance will suffer. This is a nod to Andy's comment on balancing the new technology.

3) Several folks have tried to make it seem that this is about me be overly competitive. Not so. I just think the score sheet should rank who are the better soaring pilots and all that entails, especially in say the top half of the positions. I'll finish where I finish and if I land out, not only will I make some new acquaintances, I will have time to think about what I did to get there. I will not blame bad luck or randomness. I don't get any better by doing that.

4) The idea that cross country or racing is starting to involve using a display to read values and pick this thermal or that one at a distance is "weak assed" or watered down from what it once was. I do believe this. This what I meant to say. If I insulted those who simply go to contests for a good time and learn or who's only goal is to get around the course and back home, I apologize. Like I said getting frustrated. So nothing to do with safety.. Open FLARM and FLARM used in a competition or stealth mode both offer plenty of safety to prevent the near miss you described. Safety of open FLARM being better due to SA is overstated due to the heads down time mentioned above.

Thanks for not posting your overly-irritated responses,

XC