On Feb 15, 11:17*pm, Sean Fidler wrote:
Tom C-

So Flarm is good (I fully agree) and artificial horizons are bad? *Please allow me a brief moment to probe this statement. *How exactly would it be bad for an honest pilot (such as Kempton for example who very much accidentally flew into IMC) to have a quality artificial horizon instrument just in case? *Did you read this article? *Have you ever had to perform a benign spiral because, essentially, you’ve made a mistake and you were screwed? *Ever just had to ride it out and hope? *Have you ever practiced one? *A rule leaving the lives of honest pilots (many who may be newer, etc) to chance, at least to me, seems completely insane for a sport that is meant to be fun, enjoyable and of honest men.

What percentage of pilots do you, Tom C, feel would cheat if they had the opportunity to install a proper AH instrument? *Please weigh that with the rest of the honest, no cheater (your opinion of course) pilots who may, however slim the chance, benefit GREATLY from the artificial horizon instrument if they were allowed to include it as an everyday instrument and not have to turn it on, off, uninstall, install, etc for contests?

What is being demonstrated by those in support of the rule (as it stands at this moment) is that they are fierce competitors so deathly afraid that someone is going to be able to cheat “past” them that safety for any fair pilot is utterly outlawed to prevent it. *If you, (insert your name here new contest pilot) ever get caught making a mistake and flying into a cloud...be damned! *You careless *******! *It’s your fault for making that mistake. *Tough taffy. *But does this rule really prevent cloud flight if someone really wanted to? *Can all the instruments be policed? *At what cost to safety? *At what cost to contest attendance and enjoyment? *All because a few of you really competitive types (in control of the rules today) cant live with any chance that some crazy fool could cheat.

I won’t get into the fact that I (and a whole bunch of other pilots I know) have unknowingly been flying illegally with my Android phone all last summer ;-0! *See, nobody cares until you start getting close to them in the standings.
Tom K, I have to disagree that forcing pilots to go to Sears to get a throw away phone is smart, good or not irritating...but it comforts me that you recognized that under the current rules smartphones (65% market share and increasing about 10% per year) are illegal and pointed this out. *Maybe this should be for National contests only guys? *Would that be a fair compromise? *Should we really have this kind of rule in place for our little regional? *Please say no.

Whatever the result of your decision, I strongly suggest another SSA wide email from the rules committee specifically pointing out that as of today - any usage of an iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone (or PDA, most Tablets, etc) are absolutely illegal. *Then perhaps consider locking your doors and hiding under your desks for a few weeks and hunkering down tight. *Not sure if that would be a positive result. *“Any pilot attending a regional should go and get a throw away phone,” etc. *Yeah sure those cheap crapola throw away phones are going to work in BFE when you land out in the country somewhere. *But I digress.

Think about this carefully. *Do you really think that you’re going to be able to prevent any pilot truly intent on cheating via cloud flying if someone really wants to with today’s technology? *Are we going to randomly ransack everyone's cockpits on the grid assuming that any contraband found is a DSQ? *Throw the new guy out of regional who is caught with a smartphone in his pocket? *If yes, then what of the last 3 years? *Like baseball’s steroid investigations, should we hold investigations? *Subpoena phone records to ensure that data and calls did not occur during contest flights of the top pilots? *Confirm the device model of these calls? *Or are we just going to let that slide and start now that the butterfly vario is available? * Nobody is going to cloud fly let alone manage any level flight with an iPhone. *Now we have to tell all the pilots at the regional to go buy a dumb phone, program in some numbers, etc. *Seems paranoid to me at best.

I really hope for all of our sakes that an inadvertent flight into IMC fatal accident never happens, because if the lawyers get ahold of this thread while suing us we are probably going to get killed in court. *Absolutely killed. * That would not be fun to watch.

Sean,

The real issue is not the cheating. The real issue is that the
behavior (cloud flying) has in the past resulted in IMC mid-airs. As
Eric pointed out there have been no AH-preventable fatalities in his
memory, but there have been mid-airs as the result of cloud flying.
It's a matter of basing the rules on known facts rather than
speculation about situations that have not caused one contest
accident.

It is a real concern that technology advances are making this rule
extremely hard to enforce, and human nature being what it is we will
unfortunately likely see a repeat of IMC mid-airs as a result.

QT