Flarm Target direction

On Friday, 4 June 2021 at 00:43:09 UTC+12, Brett wrote:
I was the other pilot in this near miss. Just to give more context it
was a pre-start in a competition day, there were a significant number of
sailplanes in this thermal, a number of which were at or about my
altitude, not to far under cloud-base in rather murky shady visibility.
In this situation where Anton was approaching a thermal with many
sailplanes Flarm is of limited use. Yes it will warn of predicted
collision danger which should be heeded, but that is an adjunct to "Mark
1 eyeball". Anton and I saw each-other at the same time and he did
everything right from that point and the situation was sorted.
I think it is one of those situations which will statistically arise
from time to time and it is training and airmanship which will save the
day, not the reliance on Flarm.




--
Brett
Cheers Brett,
Writing an article for the news letter on it so just getting a few ducks in a row, will send it to you for review before it goes out.
Anton

Just my two cents here but we...the aviation community...should not be test pilots for an aviation safety device.
I feel the manufacturer (FLARM) should have done research on things like antenna placements, especially antenna placements on particular aircraft, to determine what the best solution is.
The quality of the operation of every FLARM unit is essentially a test rig without any quality control or standardization.
The current pool of test pilots has a technological compentency range of top flight electrical engineer to barely able to operate a toaster.

Perhaps organizations, like FAI or SSA or AOPA should step up to the plate and start a controlled process for determining installation guidance for individual planes?
My personal experiences have been frustrating.
Just one example...there are several carbon gliders that I can fly below and behind that never see me on their FLARMS.