On Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 5:30:48 PM UTC-7, jfitch wrote:
On Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 12:08:39 PM UTC-8, XC wrote:
SNIPLet's make sure these numbers are based on some evidence.

Based on evidence presented so far, we don't even have a need for a stealth, so that is an odd statement.

The 5 second TCAS has got to be a minimum, panic mode number. Also do not just consider the case of one glider meeting one glider. Consider 5 gliders meeting 5 gliders. No longer can you just turn right or pull up, doing so may well cause an accident rather than prevent one.

TCAS is a completely different kind of system designed to work in an IFR environment. It is not GPS based. It is on board radar / transponder based. It gives specific commands to the flight crew to avoid the possible collision. Simple pull up or push over commands. The crew is expected to just do what the machine says, then tell ATC they got an RA and that's why they deviated. Visually spotting the traffic is irrelevant. Reaction time is just how quickly the crew can execute the command. No decision about what to do, just safely interrupt current process and execute.

FLARM makes absolutely no attempt to recommend how to avoid a collision. It just points out traffic and highlights potentially conflicting traffic based on the assumption both aircraft will continue to do what they have been doing. Its up to the pilot(s) to decide what to do, preferably after visually spotting the threat.