Flarm and stealth

Am 28.10.2010 21:53, John Cochrane wrote:
As the US gets ready for the arrival of flarm, a big question on many
US pilot's minds is, what about stealth mode? From an armchair
piloting point of view, it seems that seeing gliders in a several km
range, with climb rates attached, could be a major competitive
issue. With this in mind, whether to require stealth mode in
competitions is being actively debated.

I'd like to hear from our European friends with lots of contest
experience, just how this is playing out. Do you find that non-stealth
displays are in fact very useful? Where stealth mode is either not
required or not enforced (WGC), is it becoming de rigeur to have a
secondary display and follow the gaggle with your flarm? Or are the
theoretical advantages overstated, and in the real world flarm
leeching isn't that big an issue; you're better off looking out the
window and seeing who is racked up in a tight turn?

Where stealth mode is required, is it being enforced, and how much of
a pain is that proving to be? Certainly the obvious protocol,
involving cockpit checks for hidden flarms, daily submission of flight
logs, and penalties for absence of such logs, seems rather onerous.

Thanks in advance. We are fortunate to have your experience so we
don't have to rethink this all from scratch!

John Cochrane

In the (regional) competitions that I attended, there was no requirement
of Flarm stealth mode, and almost all pilots had their Flarm configured
in open mode. So everyone was in fact free to hide himself from others
at the cost of not receiving tactical informations himself.

I have no knowledge of a competition here in Germany where the rules
required stealth mode, but there may have been such competitions that
I'm not aware of. Others might want to jump in here.

I have the butterfly display installed in my glider, and I personally
found it quite useful to get the information if a glider circling 3km in
front of me actually had a strong or weak lift, or to get the info that
in 10km distance there was a lift that I could reach straight on,
without having seen the glider that send out the signal.

In competitions this info might be (relatively) less valuable, because
one (at least me) always tends to be in the proximity of a few other
competitors, so normally the Flarm tactical information is only used to
confirm my decision made on 'gut feeling'.

It is much more valuale on normal X/C flights, where I often get
information about thermals 10-15km ahead. This quite often lead to
decisions that I probably wouldn't have made without that information.
--
Peter Scholz
ASW24 JE