Flarm in 2011 USA Contests

Hi,

I applaud Dale for his efforts to get a rental fleet of FLARMs going. I'm
sorry to hear that due to the decisions of the contest committee he has
decided to completely abandon the idea. It would be wonderful to have
rental units available so that people could try them before buying them. Or
pay a reasonable rental fee for the one week of the year they need it the
most.

However, I must admit that I had my doubts that a rental system could work.
I envisioned it requiring hundreds of hours per year of volunteer work to
ship units, take in rental fees, receive units back, replace missing or
damaged parts, make phone calls and send e-mails begging people to please
return their rental unit soon, etc. While it would be extremely nice to
have them, I wouldn't volunteer to do the job.

As a soaring related business owner I imagine I would need to charge
$495/week to make it profitable. I don't think too many pilots that are
undecided about the usefulness of FLARM would pay that much. And that rate
would assume that I didn't have to pay for the inventory - that people would
donate units to the cause. But I should clarify that I'm not volunteering
to do this.

I'd much rather see people jump in and buy one and get to know it well
before they come to a contest - and use it every time they fly at the home
gliderport as well.

But of course, I'm biased because I sell them.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

"DaleKramer" wrote in message
...
Evan,

Because I have acted on this report so quickly, there is nothing on
the earth to scorch. I would never do that anyway.

I have done the honorable thing and withdrawn when I feel that I can
no longer support the direction that this has taken.

I have been completely up front and open about my intentions and
everything that has happened.

The only thing withheld has been the specific terms of the tentative
agreement with FLARM Technology at their request.

Everything relevant to the program has been published and the next
volunteer can easily proceed.

I wish everyone the best but I choose not to participate.

Dale

Paule,

I am aware that the scope of what I volunteered to do was enormous.

I think the level of support that I received was partly because enough
people knew that I would have been able to accomplish what I started
if I had just received the RC support the way that I received popular
support from the silent majority.

Dale