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

Good question. Someone can leech more easily with FLARM in non-stealth mode.. Someone else who's making their own decisions can also use gaggles/markers more easily. Periodically we have to address the role we want technology to play in changing the nature of soaring competition. Anything that makes soaring easier--from GPS to longer-range FLARM to onboard satellite maps to remote thermal sensing--will provoke discussion. I don't think there's a magic answer or rule that can be applied universally.

In this case, unrestricted FLARM makes it easier to leech without adding much in the way of safety over stealth-mode FLARM. So my view is why let technology encourage behavior that we've thought less than desirable for decades? But it is just my view.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.

On Friday, August 14, 2015 at 3:11:40 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Good question. Someone can leech more easily with FLARM in non-stealth mode. Someone else who's making their own decisions can also use gaggles/markers more easily. Periodically we have to address the role we want technology to play in changing the nature of soaring competition. Anything that makes soaring easier--from GPS to longer-range FLARM to onboard satellite maps to remote thermal sensing--will provoke discussion. I don't think there's a magic answer or rule that can be applied universally.

In this case, unrestricted FLARM makes it easier to leech without adding much in the way of safety over stealth-mode FLARM. So my view is why let technology encourage behavior that we've thought less than desirable for decades? But it is just my view.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.

MInor note: It has always been possible and allowed to put yourself in stealth mode. If you don't want people leeching off you, put yourself in stealth mode and go for it.

MInor note: It has always been possible and allowed to put yourself in stealth mode. If you don't want people leeching off you, put yourself in stealth mode and go for it.

I'm flashing on "The Hunt for Red October" with submarines running in quiet mode listening on passive sonar with an occasional active ping when attacking. Between changing FLARM modes and popping little tinfoil hats on the antennas when in a good thermal, we won't have time to play with the other toys in the cockpit.

No problem, though. Next step is remote control of the FLARM status by the flight computer: stealth (most of the time), "non-emitting" mode (automatically in any thermal of MacCready value or above), and normal mode (when seeking a longer-range look ahead) at the press of a virtual button. I can't wait!

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.

On Friday, August 14, 2015 at 9:30:53 PM UTC-7, wrote:


No problem, though. Next step is remote control of the FLARM status by the flight computer: stealth (most of the time), "non-emitting" mode (automatically in any thermal of MacCready value or above), and normal mode (when seeking a longer-range look ahead) at the press of a virtual button. I can't wait!


Isn't that even better than stealth mode? No useful information is transmitted. Totally automated. Problem solved. We could even mandate it.

On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 9:02:48 AM UTC-4, Andy Blackburn wrote:
On Friday, August 14, 2015 at 9:30:53 PM UTC-7, wrote:


No problem, though. Next step is remote control of the FLARM status by the flight computer: stealth (most of the time), "non-emitting" mode (automatically in any thermal of MacCready value or above), and normal mode (when seeking a longer-range look ahead) at the press of a virtual button. I can't wait!


Isn't that even better than stealth mode? No useful information is transmitted. Totally automated. Problem solved. We could even mandate it.

I'm in. The rules-based algorithm to make it happen is trivial. Forget all the nonsense about safety and let's welcome gliding to the 21st century!

JB

Next step is hacking your competitors FLARM and making their screens display Dilbert cartoons.

At 15:02 15 August 2015, Sean Fidler wrote:
Next step is hacking your competitors FLARM and making
their screens
display Dilbert cartoons.

No, no, no, far too obvious! What you need is an electronic
"box" that garbles the Flarm data to show the opposition that
you are climbing at only 1 knot when in fact you are climbing
at 6 knots.

On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 8:02:44 AM UTC-7, Sean Fidler wrote:
Next step is hacking your competitors FLARM and making their screens display Dilbert cartoons.

Is there a "Like" button on r.a.s.?

On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 1:42:01 PM UTC-4, Andy Blackburn wrote:
On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 8:02:44 AM UTC-7, Sean Fidler wrote:
Next step is hacking your competitors FLARM and making their screens display Dilbert cartoons.

Is there a "Like" button on r.a.s.?

On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 1:42:01 PM UTC-4, Andy Blackburn wrote:
On Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 8:02:44 AM UTC-7, Sean Fidler wrote:
Next step is hacking your competitors FLARM and making their screens display Dilbert cartoons.

Is there a "Like" button on r.a.s.?

I "liked" the idea of broadcasting misinformation about climb rates, myself.. We're clearly not thinking imaginatively enough. How about drones to spoof a prominent competitor's ID and climb rate in the middle of a sinkhole? Or "transponder chaff" that is deployed in a thermal to persist an ID/climb rate long after the pilot departs?

Tinfoil hats over FLARM antennas is SO crude.

JB