On Monday, May 7, 2018 at 3:47:44 PM UTC-5, Scott Williams wrote:
Lots of passion on this topic, Lot's more knowledge out there than I have..
Does anyone have a reasonable guess as to the percentage of U.S. gliders that have flarm? transponders? or both? For that matter, Radio's, oxygen, etc?

Is there anyone willing to admit the adoption of flarm in the U.S. 'could' be considered a failure, (at least compared to Europe), and in the future represent a waste of money by the pilots that bought in? and, maybe some negative emotion towards those who didn't?

Will the 2020 change in
the transponder/ADSB situation prove to be the system to install?

On a lighter note this reminds me a lot of some discussions I remember about VHS vs BETA tape formats. I'll remind everyone that the technically superior format lost out to the cheaper and inferior technology.

Not meaning to step on toes, Just wondering?

Scott W.

Passion? Yeah, kinda!

IMO, Flarm and ADS-B are not really competitors, they broadly complement each other, with a lot of overlap, and a lot of unique features. Best solution (cost no object) is ADS-B OUT (using Mode S to get up high out West) and dual mode IN (to get the freebies: WX, etc) plus PowerFLARM for racing and serious XC with your buddies. PF freebies are an IGC logger and GPS for your gliding nav stuff.

But all that ain't cheap! And right now, the problem is that it's hard to integrate the two systems, so you end up with multiple displays and little data correlation/fusion. That should be changing with ADS-B (mode S) being mandatory in Europe.

As far as 2020: If you don't have a transponder now and don't plan to get one, the ADS-B mandate doesn't really affect you - you don't HAVE to get it. But in many places it sure is smart to have a transponder; so those gliders will probably upgrade to ADS-B out (pretty cheap for Experimental).

Then there is always the problem of where to put the darn Bluray player in the cockpit...

Kirk
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