Flarm in the US

On 8/10/2010 8:03 PM, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:45:25 -0500, Mike Schumann
wrote:


FLARM does you no good, if the aircraft that you are about to hit
doesn't have FLARM installed. No one is suggesting that you not be able
to buy FLARM. It's just not going to do you any good if the other
aircraft flying in your area are also not FLARM equipped.

If you are flying in a remote area, with a couple of other glider pilots
and you all buy FLARM, you have protection from each other, but not the
stray GA pilot who may wander thru the area. That may be good enough
for you and if you have a small enough group, you may be able to
convince everyone to buy a unit.

If you are flying near a major metro area, there is absolutely no way
you are going to get everyone in the area to invest in FLARM. In that
environment, you will also probably be flying within range of an ADS-B
ground station, so investing in ADS-B is definitely the way to go. Not
only will you see other ADS-B equipped aircraft, but you also will see
all other Mode C/S transponder equipped aircraft that show up on ATC radar.

Well Mike,

your parachute only helps in very few accident scenarios.
Why do you carry one? Why don't you simply fly withoput one and wait
until you get the glider zero/zero ejection seat that will save you
from a spin half a second before impact?


Noone doubts that Flarm is not the final solution to the US market
(althout Power Flarm comes close) - but with Flarm Chris would still
be alive, and the other midair that might have cost the lives of two
other pilots wouldn't have happened either.

Provocatively spoken:
Isn't it better to save a few lifes than not even trying to?


Andreas


The same statement applies to ADS-B. If Chris had been the only glider
there with FLARM installed, nothing would have changed.

--
Mike Schumann