Is FLARM helpful?

On Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 1:51:58 PM UTC-5, John Cochrane wrote:
Tim:

You do a great job of summarizing flarm, which accords with my experience.. (Thermal alarms are a PITA.)

You make an interesting case for choosing to turn on stealth.

You do not make a strong case for mandating stealth on everyone, especially pilots pretty strongly opposed to that path. "I believe it does reduce gaggling to some degree. "

First, that belief is far from proven. The contrary theory is just as plausible -- you have to stay in eyeball distance of other gliders on a weak day without flarm radar. With it, you can be more adventurous, as you can more easily pick up other gliders from a further distance.

Second, In the poll, 85% of pilots said they don't think gaggling and leeching are big problems. If gaggling and leeching are problems, then there are lots of ways to address it, primarily small changes at the start. If we're not interested in making those (quite effective) changes, why so hot to ban new technology?


John Cochrane BB

John Cochrane,
Again you are throwing out this 85% number. Here is the question from the poll:

Do you think gaggling and leeching are serious problems, and the RC should consider other rules changes (not Flarm-related) to reduce their prevalence? Develop rules: 11%, No 85%.

I read this as: Do I think gaggle and leaching are serious problems AND RC should develop other non-flarm rules to deal with gaggle and leaching?

I and most others voted no because whether you think leeching is no issue or if you think non-flarm rules are not the way to go, "no" would be your vote. It is a bad question.

You are quite capable of making a legitimate, logical argument for your case. Please don't spin the results of the poll or scare people with the threat of legal action to make your point.

XC