Flarm in 2011 USA Contests

On Nov 18, 12:27*pm, Bob wrote:
Having been a Flarm user for years I can tell you it is a install and
forget device. The portable device(for initial contest use) will
probably not be integrated into your PDA so you would just make sure
you have good batteries, mount it with the EZ-lock or what ever and
turn it on. It will see other Flarm units in the area, and it will
give you collision avoidence alerts when you go flying. Pretty much
right out of the box. Yes, setting the ICAO address is good but in the
rental contest situation it is not necessary. Don't make this harder
than it has to be. Get the rental units to the Contest staff (along
with lots of EZ-lock strips and batteries) and have them hand them
out. Have a safety meeting with training on what to expect from the
Flarm unit and how to install/operate and go fly.

The first time I saw Flarm was when it was installed in a club plane I
was flying. Did a winch launch, got a warning, looked at the display
(for probably a second) and then looked out to see the glider that the
Flarm was warning me about. SOLD! I would have seen this plane but
Flarm saw it first. From that point forward I will not fly without a
working Flarm unit.
Some lessons he
Flarm works and alerts you to Flarm equipped planes you have not seen
(yet).
I hadn't been "trained" on Flarm but when I saw the display I knew
where to look.
I have yet to meet a glider pilot who does not "Get" the Flarm concept
after flying with Flarm. (of course some still haven't bought a unit
yet but I don't know anybody who doesn't fly with one) PEER PRESSURE
WORKS WELL.

Get the Flarms into the contests, get them into club planes, then
you'll get them into the other planes.

You may not (ok, probably don't) agree with all of this but until you
fly with Flarm you don't know what your missing! Litterally! Ask
anyone who has flown with Flarm. John Cochrane?

Bob

Many of us have PowerFLARM on order and are eager to use them when
they arrive.

And none of this is rocket science. But the PowerFLARM being discussed
is inherently a bit more complex than the Flarm you are used to. e.g.
with the issue of excess PCAS alarms--an we have relatively more
gliders here transponder equipped than in Europe. Pilots will need to
now how to handle that (if only to set up the device appropriately
before flight). None of this is hard, in fact it can be *simple*. But
it is just too much OTOH to set the expectation that you just toss
them in the cockpit and go.

We had contest pilots at a major contest taking SPOT messenger devices
and putting them into the side pocket in their cockpit and then
surprised why they do not work. Especially with rental PowerFLARM
units some careful thought needs to be used to make this as pain free
and successful as possible.


Darryl

On Nov 18, 12:42*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
On 11/18/2010 11:24 AM, Darryl Ramm wrote:

On Nov 18, 10:33 am, Eric *wrote:

Come'on - reading a manual in the cockpit? I haven't used Flarm, but
since it's not required for flying the glider or for performing the
task, it'll be "turn it on and forget about it till it squawks". If it
squawks too much, the pilot will just turn if off (or mute it) and
continue like he has for years, no more safety risk than before, and
then educate himself after he's landed.

These are not primary contest devices, like the flight computer!

I disagree. There will need to be training/study for use of a
PowerFLARM and the last thing I would want a contest pilot trying to
do is sort all this out on a contest day - Dale I believe understands
this and was planning appropriate assistance/training etc. (now moot I
guess). e.g. you better worry about the different types of warnings,
how to dismiss nuisance alerts (e.g. PCAS in a gaggle) and not others.
What the different symbols on the map screen mean. Whether to put the
device in Nearest, Contest, etc. mode. How to confirm it is working
correctly, has a GPS signal, etc. How to register on FLARMnet and load
a FLARMnet database. *How to correctly set ICAO address *and other
information, (especially if you also have a Mode S transponder to help
with other pilot's PowerFLARM do PCAS/Flarm deduplication) and other
information etc. Butterfly may be emphasizing the ease of use of
PowerFLARM and I expect them to do a good job making these relatively
easy to use but I get very worried when I see comments like it will be
"turn it on and forget until it squawks" type device--that thinking
could lead to dangerous situations.

I hope pilots, especially contest pilots will add PowerFLARM items to
their pre-contest/flight checklist. Over the years I've added things
like "GPS OK/acquired" and "task entered and declared (if needed)" to
my pre-flight (i.e. before your are in the cockpit) checklist.

Darryl

I agree completely that a pilot should learn how to use it while on the
ground to get full use out of the unit, but my impression is somebody
can be handed one, given a 5 minute basic introduction, then go flying.
He'll know enough to turn the unit on/off, to mute it, and to be to know
where to look when the unit signals a conflict with another glider.
That's just for the first flight. He'll know more before the next
flight, and so on.

I just don't see any reason to think pilots will be so involved in the
unit, they will be less safe during the course of the first few flights
than without it, and I still think it's nonsense to talk about "reading
the manual" in flight. It's not a flight computer! You are not trying to
navigate with it, not trying optimize your turn within a turnpoint area,
not trying to locate and center lift, not distracting yourself by
talking on the radio. It just sits there, like my MRX pcas unit, until
there is a potential problem. I'm just parroting what the guys that use
them tell us. Why not believe them?

All the other stuff - Flarmnet, database, ADS-B, ICAO address - is that
necessary for it to provide it's primary function in a contest, which is
to warn pilots of potential conflicts with other gliders?

A proper configured ICAO address (if you also have a Mode S
transponder) helps other PowerFLARM users not see you as PCAS nuisance
alert so is useful for the primary reason of having a useful (low
false alarm rate) traffic collision avoidance tool.

If you have a magic way of making sure that pilots will not look at
the traffic display to see other glider climb rates etc. then great,
we can ignore everything else and just focus on the Flarm "primary
use". I however think there is likely to be some interest in the other
PowerFLARM capabilities. So in addition to the simple easy to
understand traffic warnigns I am concerned about pilots potentially
being more heads down at times looking at the Flarm traffic map to see
what other gliders are doing. I don't think it is a good idea for
anybody to be trying to sort out what the symbols etc. mean, how to
change the range, etc. for the first time while in flight. All those
things should be understood before the flight.

I don't think we are disagreeing too much. This stuff is not complex,
it should take a brief simple explanation/demo and maybe a bit of hand
holding on first setup - but I think positioning PowerFLARM as just
plug and go has the danger of increasing people's frustration with the
new technology, and possibly decreasing saftey from what it could be.

Darryl

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)

On Nov 18, 12:42*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:

I agree completely that a pilot should learn how to use it while on the
ground to get full use out of the unit, but my impression is somebody
can be handed one, given a 5 minute basic introduction, then go flying.

I second Eric's thoughts on this.

IF there are setup requirements to get the FLARM system operating in a
"dumb" mode, that can be done by the folks providing the rental
service. Seriously, we do this in the IT world all the time - like
setting up a bunch of PCs to be identical in an office environment and
taking away some of the more powerful/troublsome features &
applications. Or provisioning PDAs and SmartPhones with certain
settings already configured.

And rental places for bikes, kyaks, and other equipment do this same
sort of thing. Renters *shouldn't* have to figure out how to
configure the darned unit as if it came out of the box. They should
be handed a unit that's basically "ready to mount", and as Eric says -
turn it on, turn it off, and _maybe_ know how to mute it.

If my job situation were a little more stable, I'd take the money in
my savings account and buy 30 PowerFLARMs right now, for this
purpose. The problem is that - by my calcs - it would take 3-4 years
to pay off the initial investment (renting each unit out 3 times a
year for about $150 - $250 per contest). I just can't have that money
tied up for that long of a period... but I *have* given it some
thought (I could write some of my flying off as a business expense -
wahoo)!

--Noel

On Nov 18, 12:58*pm, "noel.wade" wrote:
On Nov 18, 12:42*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:

I agree completely that a pilot should learn how to use it while on the
ground to get full use out of the unit, but my impression is somebody
can be handed one, given a 5 minute basic introduction, then go flying.

I second Eric's thoughts on this.

IF there are setup requirements to get the FLARM system operating in a
"dumb" mode, that can be done by the folks providing the rental
service. *Seriously, we do this in the IT world all the time - like
setting up a bunch of PCs to be identical in an office environment and
taking away some of the more powerful/troublsome features &
applications. *Or provisioning PDAs and SmartPhones with certain
settings already configured.

And rental places for bikes, kyaks, and other equipment do this same
sort of thing. *Renters *shouldn't* have to figure out how to
configure the darned unit as if it came out of the box. *They should
be handed a unit that's basically "ready to mount", and as Eric says -
turn it on, turn it off, and _maybe_ know how to mute it.

If my job situation were a little more stable, I'd take the money in
my savings account and buy 30 PowerFLARMs right now, for this
purpose. *The problem is that - by my calcs - it would take 3-4 years
to pay off the initial investment (renting each unit out 3 times a
year for about $150 - $250 per contest). *I just can't have that money
tied up for that long of a period... but I *have* given it some
thought (I could write some of my flying off as a business expense -
wahoo)!

--Noel

I think the rental price would need to be more like $50-75 to keep the
penny-pinching set to cave to peer pressure. There's a fair amount of
complaining about entry fees already. So your 3-4 year payback is a
bit longer. With an operationally well-designed rental program you
might get the number of contests up to maybe 5-6 per year. The rub is
that under a voluntary program you don't really know how many units to
ship to each contest and as a consequence you don't really know how
many units to buy to clear the market. You're really guessing.

The good news is that Dale did a great job getting a bunch of us to
volunteer to buy units and donate them so it's not really an economic
hurdle to pay back the investment. If someone were willing to pick up
the management/logistics of shipping and caring for the units - and
doing a little work to set up a 501 3(c) for the tax deduction, we
could carry this forward. As for me, I'd be willing to let them keep
the $50/unit/contest rental fees in order to facilitate shipping,
maintenance, replacements, etc. Perhaps one of our fine soaring
retailers would take it on as they have some infrastructure to do it?

9B