Flarm with Firmware 1.20 update

Chris, well said. Everything is politics over here lately.

Otherwise...I rest my case.

This has nothing to do with government...IMO. It has to do with glider pilots, high risk, safely and needless death that is assured of happening without a broad effort by intelligent people. Stop hiding behind the word mandate. It IS a free country so you make your own call and excuses (3 pages full...). The FAA takes way too long. More pilots will die in the US before FLARM is widely enough adopted and has a chance to reach its full safety potential.

Well, its back to playing darts with our fellow glider, power and airline traffic for awhile. Enjoy!

On Jan 26, 3:13*pm, Sean Fidler wrote:
Chris, well said. *Everything is politics over here lately.

Otherwise...I rest my case.

This has nothing to do with government...IMO. *It has to do with glider pilots, high risk, safely and needless death that is assured of happening without a broad effort by intelligent people. *Stop hiding behind the word mandate. *It IS a free country so you make your own call and excuses (3 pages full...). *The FAA takes way too long. *More pilots will die in the US before FLARM is widely enough adopted and has a chance to reach its full safety potential.

Well, its back to playing darts with our fellow glider, power and airline traffic for awhile. *Enjoy!

And the purpose of your rant is... what, exactly?

I cannot install in my panel what my dealer cannot ship. I've had a
Power Flarm on order since the middle of 2010 (I selected the brick
option when the choice was made available). A few hundred other would
be customers are in the same situation.

To Chris over in Europe... the US situation is rather different in
that a) the US is geographically huge and b) the US glider population
is very small. Glider clubs that launch eight gliders for a total of
perhaps 20 flights on a "busy" day account for a lot of US soaring.
There's no earthly reason to require or even strongly encourage Flarm
technology for such sparse traffic.

Based on casual conversation with numerous other pilots, likewise
waiting on delivery, I think we will find that Power Flarm gets well
adopted on the contest circuit and in the areas of the US that are
glider traffic dense. However, because the portable unit has only
just started shipping this Winter and the brick is still months off,
it will be 2013 before we have any sort of objective measure of how
well the device works and how many staunch anti-flarm pilots we have
to worry about in glider dense environments.

-Evan Ludeman / T8

Evan,

That is all you can do. Your unit will be here in the spring. That is intelligent.

FLARM is proven in Europe. There is no question that it fundamentally improves safety in very much the same way that GPS improved navigation and radio's improved communication. No need to wait until 2013 for measurement.

I completely disagree with you that US operations have no earthly reason to use FLARM. I find that statement embarrassing for soaring. All it takes is once. All it takes is one glider and one tow plane. All it takes is one glider and one airplane flying by the airport. Should they not have radio's? Should the not have parachutes? Safety paint?

On Jan 26, 5:39*pm, Sean Fidler wrote:
Evan,

That is all you can do. *Your unit will be here in the spring. *That is intelligent.

FLARM is proven in Europe. *There is no question that it fundamentally improves safety in very much the same way that GPS improved navigation and radio's improved communication. *No need to wait until 2013 for measurement.

On Jan 26, 5:06*pm, T8 wrote:
On Jan 26, 5:39*pm, Sean Fidler wrote:

Evan,

That is all you can do. *Your unit will be here in the spring. *That is intelligent.

FLARM is proven in Europe. *There is no question that it fundamentally improves safety in very much the same way that GPS improved navigation and radio's improved communication. *No need to wait until 2013 for measurement.

I completely disagree with you that US operations have no earthly reason to use FLARM. *I find that statement embarrassing for soaring. *All it takes is once. *All it takes is one glider and one tow plane. *All it takes is one glider and one airplane flying by the airport. *Should they not have radio's? *Should the not have parachutes? *Safety paint?

Maybe I wasn't clear -- what I took exception to was the idea of
mandating Flarm in a sparse, relatively isolated club environment,
giving the example of a club with 20 ops/day. *Indeed, there are nordo
gliders, and still a fair amount of nordo power traffic (antiques) in
such places. *I'm not defending this, merely pointing out that some
folks choose to do it this way still.

In areas of high traffic -- contests especially -- I am enthusiastic
about Flarm and hope to see it widely if not universally adopted.

-Evan Ludeman / T8

Evan, we lost a glider pilot and tow pilot just couple of years ago
in a pattern over a private strip belonging to a club with less than
20 ops per day. IIRC, this was the only op that day. To those who
insist they don't need powerflarm where they fly, I can only ask one
thing, please stay away from where I fly...

Ramy

Folks,
I think quite some energy is wasted here on negative thinking. Like
bitching about the government (you get the government you deserve,
i.e. voted for) or the mandating discussions ("you stay out of my
cockpit", "No, you stay out of my airspace").
PowerFlarm will proliferate. I think it is key to facilitate that
proliferation as quickly as possible.
As others said, in our Region 11 we have experienced in our close
circles the Hawker-ASG29 mid-air and the Pawnee-ASW27 midair in the
landing pattern.

Fortunately the current experiences with the portable are very
encouraging. I would like to congratulate and thank the PowerFlarm
team for the progress booked up till now.
However, working in the High Tech electronics industry myself, I am
very concerned about the schedule for the brick, taking into account
that many people are waiting for the brick. By lack of any status info
from the PowerFlarm team and knowing schedule slips (as we have also
seen with the portable), I concur with an earlier observation that the
brick could easily slip into 2013 season. Leaving many of us exposed
to the higher risk for another season.

I think it would be good if we could focus our energy on how we could
help/stimulate the PowerFlarm team to
- keep us updated on the status and schedule of the brick
- publish the specification of the brick and display such
that we can prepare wiring during the winter for easy mid-season drop-
in.
- complete development of the brick as soon as possible.

3U

Hi,

Many good points below.

I'm sure we will all learn much more about the status of the PowerFLARM
Brick at the SSA Convention in a few days. I will update my FLARM web page
as soon as possible. I agree that we need them to be delivered ASAP. FLARM
knows that too. They have put delivery of the Brick units ahead of work on
the IGC flight recorder in the Portable unit. The good news is that the
PowerFLARM Portable units are working very nicely and I'm pretty sure that
90% of the software and hardware is the same in the Brick.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

"Three Uniform" wrote in message
...
Folks,
I think quite some energy is wasted here on negative thinking. Like
bitching about the government (you get the government you deserve,
i.e. voted for) or the mandating discussions ("you stay out of my
cockpit", "No, you stay out of my airspace").
PowerFlarm will proliferate. I think it is key to facilitate that
proliferation as quickly as possible.
As others said, in our Region 11 we have experienced in our close
circles the Hawker-ASG29 mid-air and the Pawnee-ASW27 midair in the
landing pattern.

Fortunately the current experiences with the portable are very
encouraging. I would like to congratulate and thank the PowerFlarm
team for the progress booked up till now.
However, working in the High Tech electronics industry myself, I am
very concerned about the schedule for the brick, taking into account
that many people are waiting for the brick. By lack of any status info
from the PowerFlarm team and knowing schedule slips (as we have also
seen with the portable), I concur with an earlier observation that the
brick could easily slip into 2013 season. Leaving many of us exposed
to the higher risk for another season.

I think it would be good if we could focus our energy on how we could
help/stimulate the PowerFlarm team to
- keep us updated on the status and schedule of the brick
- publish the specification of the brick and display such
that we can prepare wiring during the winter for easy mid-season drop-
in.
- complete development of the brick as soon as possible.

3U

Evan, we lost a glider pilot and tow pilot *just couple of *years ago
in a pattern over a private strip belonging to a club with less than
20 ops per day. *IIRC, this was the only op that day. To those who
insist they don't need powerflarm where they fly, I can only ask one
thing, please stay away from where I fly...

Ramy- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well said, Ramy. Let me add that the glider had (and used) his
aircraft radio to make a "entering the pattern" call. He also had a
transponder and a PCAS....................the tow plane wasn't alerted
to the gliders presence because he nothing, no radio, no transponder,
no PCAS! Time to stop this needless carnage!
Williams Soaring has just equipped its entire fleet, including tow
planes, with Power Flarm. Most private pilots flying out of Williams
have purchased Power Flarm also.
JJ

3U: Bravo! Well said.

Derek

On Jan 27, 6:36*am, JJ Sinclair wrote:
Evan, we lost a glider pilot and tow pilot *just couple of *years ago
in a pattern over a private strip belonging to a club with less than
20 ops per day. *IIRC, this was the only op that day. To those who
insist they don't need powerflarm where they fly, I can only ask one
thing, please stay away from where I fly...

Ramy- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Well said, Ramy. Let me add that the glider had (and used) his
aircraft radio to make a "entering the pattern" call. He also had a
transponder and a PCAS....................the tow plane wasn't alerted
to the gliders presence because he nothing, no radio, no transponder,
no PCAS! Time to stop this needless carnage!
Williams Soaring has just equipped its entire fleet, including tow
planes, with Power Flarm. Most private pilots flying out of Williams
have purchased Power Flarm also.
JJ

And some of us have donated portable PowerFlarm units for use by those
of you who don't see $1500 as worth the reduction in collision risk.
At least then you can stop being a hazard to the rest of us who do see
the value. You don't even have to look at it or learn how to use it.
Simply turn it on and forget it. Just please don't give the finger to
the person who offers you one at a contest.

9B