midair in Bay Area Nov 7

On Mon, 16 Nov 2020 19:11:54 -0800, jfitch wrote:

Do you realize how irrational that comment is? It is entirely up to the
pilot to update, they have a year to do it (firmware works for 2 years
with a year overlap).

I'm somewhat surprised that checking the FLARM software version isn't
part of your annual. It is he if FLARM is installed the software must
be up to date to get the annual signed off.


--
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

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

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

On 11/17/2020 12:01 PM, Ramy wrote:
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.

Thanks Ramy, for doing that and for setting a great example.

On 11/17/2020 12:01 PM, Ramy wrote:
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


Well this makes me angry. You buy a $2000 device for safety reasons and
they disable it behind your back just because you are late on the
firmware update?

I know they improve the algorithms over time, so it is a good idea to do
the update. But since the requirement is to update a year since the
last update, the versions in operation by different pilots on the same
day are not the same, they might be up to a year apart. So they must
keep them compatible. And as far as I know they mostly improve the
algorithm interpreting the data, not the format of the data sent out.
Thus old firmware is far better than the thing not working at all, for
both transmission and reception, for the safety of both the pilot with
the old firmware and the other pilots around.

When the battery in my smoke alarm gets weak, it emits an occasional
short beep to remind me. FLARM could emit occasional sounds (different
from the collision warming sound) to remind you that it's time to update
the firmware. And leave it at that.

On 11/17/2020 12:01 PM, Ramy wrote:
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


You're saying "The pilot with the operating flarm was not injured" - as
if it's the out of date firmware that caused the other pilot to be
injured after bailing out?

The device was disabled by the manufacturer leading to one injury and
two lost gliders. Not causing, but contributing to the likelihood of
that collision. For no good reason.

On Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 11:02:01 AM UTC-6, Ramy wrote:
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

Great idea. I've gridded with numerous people in the previous two years that knowingly took off with their flarm not working. One was during a flarm mandatory event. Super annoying. Updating the firmware is far less annoying.

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