Confessions of a Flarm Follower

Something occurred to me as I was reading this thread. I left competitive soaring for 14 years, and was amazed at the phenomenal, gorgeous technology at our fingertips when I returned. FLARM was one of the most impressive. But, of course, its safety benefits are contingent upon a majority of gliders having one onboard.

Now we're talking about a rule that makes that FLARM less useful in competitions. This has the side effect of making some pilots, particularly in sports class, question the value of buying and installing one. That relatively small change in incentives to the individual may have the unintended consequence of reducing the usefulness of the technology to the group, perhaps even leading to the death of someone with a FLARM that hits someone without, because the latter just didn't think it was worth it.

I say, let's leave the technology completely available in contests. Do that, and installing a FLARM is utterly worth it, And the end result of that will be a higher take up of the technology, benefiting every single one of us.. And not only in contests, since that same pilot will have it on during every weekend flight thereafter.

Safety should come first. Let it be a tactical tool, because the wonderful side effect will be increased take up, and thereafter increased safety for all of us.