As someone who has flown in a large number of contests with and without
flarm I have a few comments.

Flarm is a fantastic tool and can avoid many problems, especially during
cruise and entering thermals. It can also be used as a guide to find lift,
sometimes it has alerted me to a glider in lift which I had not yet seen.
However it WILL NOT STOP A PILOT HITTING ANOTHER AIRCRAFT!!!!! Only
looking out and flying in a safe manner will do that! In a close gaggle,
especially thermalling it is of limited use due to low closing rates and
overload of warnings. I have been almost hit by a pilot who simply did not
see me despite any warnings, this happened twice in the same thermal -
"words" after landing!
I think anyone who doesn't use flarm in a contest is an idiot [including
some very high ranked pilots from last WGC]
however do not close your eyes to the world outside thinking flarm will
save you.

Tom Claffey [16 Australian Nats, 2 WGC]



At 23:41 19 June 2011, Walt Connelly wrote:

'Chris Nicholas[_2_ Wrote:
;775333']At 15:34 17 June 2011, Walt Connelly wrote:
-
So FLARM was compulsory, I wonder why if failed to warn the pilots of
an
impending mid-air? This would be interesting and valuable
information.
My condolences to the family of the deceased pilot.

Walt-


It did not necessarily fail to warn them – one or both may have
ignored
the warnings, perhaps believing that a manoeuvre would avoid collision
but
it was misjudged.

If the two units are not destroyed beyond recovery of stored data,
Flarm
can, I believe, read the files and replay both sets of data to show
what
warnings, if any, were given. I have a video clip from Flarm, showing
what 2 units would have displayed in a collision had they been
operating
(the data came from 1 second logger recordings, and Flarm units I
understand store the same data and time interval). In the case of that
collision, the units both would have given about 6 seconds warning.
[For
different reasons, one being faulty wiring by a glider manufacturer,
neither Flarm was actually working in that particular incident.]

If the Flarm units themselves are not readable, but the loggers are,
Flarm
could do the same as they did for the collision I referred to. If
loggers
are recording at wider intervals, however, 4 or 11 or whatever
seconds,
I
don’t know how useful that would be.

Let’s hope the accident investigators are able to produce something
which
might be a learning experience for the rest of us, as one outcome of
this
sad event.

Chris N.

Good point. Failure to acknowledge and heed the warnings of such a
device is a major mistake. I would think that pilots at this level
would be more receptive and aware of the potential for ignoring such
information. On a percentage basis this sport is not as safe as I
once thought it was. In my short time engaged in soaring, about a year
and a half I have read of too many mid-airs and deaths.

Walt




--
Walt Connelly