FLARM in Stealth Mode at US 15M/Standard Nationals - Loved It!

Leaving aside bats vs. eagles for a minute. Here are my experiences with recent contests I've flown. Take it for what it's worth:

Flarm tactical uses: 1) Pre-start gaggles. With a 5 mile radius cylinder, it's not unusual for gaggles to form several miles apart. Flarm immediately tipped me off to a big gaggle forming outside the gate in better air. Spent a lot of heads-down time keeping an eye on that one to see how many, how much higher, etc. 2) Line on the first leg out of the gate. Are a bunch of guys deviating left of course line? Right? This was huge at Dannsville last year. 3) Anyone out there? Anyone? Several times at Mifflin and at Dannsville Flarm showed other gliders on course when I was alone (late starts trying to catch the early starters). Just knowing that there are other gliders not that far ahead is useful information in and of itself.

Bottom line is that I spent a lot more time looking at the "scope" when Flarm was allowed as a tactical tool than I did when it was purely collision avoidance. While I agree you can't use Flarm to lead you to the better thermals, it absolutely helps you keep in touch with the pack, especially when coursline changes matter (jumping streets, aiming for different parts of an AAT cylinder, etc.) or when you want to keep tabs on the big gaggles (either on course or pre-start) .

P3


On Wednesday, August 5, 2015 at 8:17:13 PM UTC-4, Andy Blackburn wrote:
On Wednesday, August 5, 2015 at 4:31:24 PM UTC-7, wrote:
My idea of compromise is anything that provides awareness of imminent collision while providing no useful tactical information.
If you can see gliders ahead, you know where they think or know the lift is and you can chase them. Adding climb rate and altitude only makes it more useful, attractive and compelling in use.
I flew in Stealth at Mifflin and found it completely satisfactory dealing with oncoming traffic in the ridge(closing speeds 200+).
UH

Hank,

When you say "if you can see gliders ahead" do you mean with Flarm or with your eyes? Is it a problem that pilots can see gliders ahead of them visually and use it for tactical purposes?

It has always seemed a bit unfair to me that the guys with 20/10 vision have a tactical advantage over the guys who can't correct to better than 20/25. I've found that Flarm levels the playing field a bit so that us guys with crappy vision aren't at such a disadvantage. Flarm really isn't very useful tactically beyond about three to four miles - which is about what the eagle-eyed guys can see. Of course the eagle-eyed guys might like that the bat-eyed are at a disadvantage.

By not having any useful or interesting targets to look at on the screen I found my eyes were outside more often. I must admit I look out and up at clouds rather than out and on the horizon, scanning for traffic. Here I found FLARM very useful. When an audible alert went off I was able to go right to it rather than refocus at a new distance.

As for the competitive aspects, the reason I find competitions interesting is to see how my soaring skills stack up against other pilots. By that I mean which human can best fly like a bird.

Yes, the top guy often would be the same but I think the full use of FLARM as a tactical instrument would not yield a valid result through the middle of the score sheet.

XC