midair in Bay Area Nov 7

On Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 8:06:00 AM UTC-8, Dan Marotta wrote:
On 11/16/20 6:10 PM, Ramy wrote:
One of the flarms was inop due to expired firmware.
I wonder how many personal injury attorneys saw that statement...

--
Dan
5J
Flarm is voluntary installation after all.
The pilot with the operating flarm was not injured.
The point here is not to put blame.
Every year I hear of multiple expired firmwares, including that very same day he wasn’t the only one.
There is an awareness and confusion issue which we need to address.
I am planning to always have the latest firmware on a USB stick with me (without my config file!) and periodically ask my buddies at the airport if they upgraded the firmware this year, if not, will upgrade it for them on the spot.

Ramy

Unfortunately FCC does not allow transmit on both antennas.

Perhaps we should standardize on Rx+tx on top, rx only on bottom?
(Hoping there is a place in the wheel well without carbon fiber.)

Then at least you would have a certain path from the guy you can't see.

For towplanes the critical case is below and to the front as sadly shown in this TSB Canada accident report:

https://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-r.../a19w0099.html

While the student and instructor were wearing parachutes, the canopies were still on when they hit the ground. I suggest the brief be "When you hear my canopy coming off, get the hell out NOW!"

Of course a Flarm can't ever help when it's not on.

An external antenna on the bottom of a glider is highly vulnerable to damage in outlandings and getting in and out of the trailer.

Glider-tow plane collisions happens every few years. This is the reason that at our operation, when the glider releases, he makes a slight turn to the right, and announces that he has released, and the tow pilot confirms on the radio the release. The tow pilot turns left and begins his decent. The glider stops turning right and keeps his eyes on the tow plane until they are both well clear of each other. After the release, the glider pilot is the only one that can see the other plane, and a collision with the tow plane is the biggest danger at that time. It is imperative that glider operations stop the practice of both the tow plane and the glider turning in such a way that NEITHER planes can see each other during separation. At least one of the planes needs to make sure there is a complete, positive separation, and communicate that. Almost all of us have radios these days. We need to use them better.

Boggs

On Tuesday, November 10, 2020 at 2:56:56 PM UTC-8, Waveguru wrote:
Glider-tow plane collisions happens every few years. This is the reason that at our operation, when the glider releases, he makes a slight turn to the right, and announces that he has released, and the tow pilot confirms on the radio the release. The tow pilot turns left and begins his decent. The glider stops turning right and keeps his eyes on the tow plane until they are both well clear of each other. After the release, the glider pilot is the only one that can see the other plane, and a collision with the tow plane is the biggest danger at that time. It is imperative that glider operations stop the practice of both the tow plane and the glider turning in such a way that NEITHER planes can see each other during separation. At least one of the planes needs to make sure there is a complete, positive separation, and communicate that. Almost all of us have radios these days. We need to use them better.

Boggs

Back in Europe, upon release the tow plane turns right and glider turns left. In North America it is the other way around, which makes no difference other than in contest flying where there is a requirement to turn left in a thermal when x miles of the home airport, which is the same in North America as in Europe. This can cause a hazardous situation, especially when the glider releases from tow in or near a gaggle.

Branko
XYU

According to Flarm the New Fusion transmits and receives on both A and B Flarm Antennas.

http://www.craggyaero.com/fusion.htm


Richard
www.craggyaero.com