Is FLARM helpful?

I had a midair on conflicting thermal entry 12 years ago. We had been quite close for several minutes but the other guy did not know I was close to him. If we had both had Flarm then the crash would almost certainly not have happened. (Of course there should have been other ways to avoid it!)

Wondering if there are any statistics regarding Flarm use in the the U.S.? i know at the glider port I fly from most have Flarm, but I see many gliders for sale on Wings and Wheels do not have Flarm.

On Sunday, November 22, 2015 at 3:59:15 PM UTC-8, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Wondering if there are any statistics regarding Flarm use in the the U.S.? i know at the glider port I fly from most have Flarm, but I see many gliders for sale on Wings and Wheels do not have Flarm.

You have to select the appropriate denominator when you look at "use". If you look as a percent of all FAA-registered gliders it will be pretty low - but lots of gliders on the registry are inoperative or even destroyed. If you assume a few thousand regularly flying gliders then the penetration is probably less than 30%. However, if you look at the most active gliders that represent most of the flight hours (and therefore collision threat) there are two broad groups - training and ride gliders and cross-country and racing gliders.

There have been a number of clubs and commercial operators (e.g. Soaring Club of Houston and Williams Soaring) that have equipped their entire fleets, but generally you'll see less here because of cost, lack of battery power and other reasons. They tend to spend a lot of time around the airport and in the pattern. The cross country and racing set have higher penetration - virtually all the high-hours OLC pilots on the west coast (due in part to extensive convergence and street flying at high altitudes and airspeeds) have adopted Flarm. Among racing pilots responding to this fall's poll 77% overall and 94% of pilots who flew in a Nationals have Flarm.

I'd wager that some of the gliders you are seeing for sale have not flown a lot and are being sold for that reason. I wouldn't take it as totally representative of the proportion of Flarm-equipped gliders you are likely to observe when you go flying, which is more based on hours in the air.

If you are just doing patterns and flying locally, collision avoidance will tend to be more "old-school" see-and-avoid, but it varies a lot with the local operation. If you intend to go cross country or fly in a contest it'll be a very different story. It's increasingly frowned upon to show up at a contest or OLC camp without one and some are now Flarm mandatory.

9B

Ok. How long has Flarm been readily available/used, and is there anything starting to take its place that would make Flarm obsolete or not purchased as much in a couple of years?

I think the reason that gliders for sale are not Flarm equipped is that their owners rather keep the Flarm and move it to their new ships, since once you fly with one you will never want to fly without it.

Ramy (With handful of Flarm saves in over 1000 hours with Flarm)

On Tuesday, November 24, 2015 at 5:26:50 AM UTC-7, Ramy wrote:
I think the reason that gliders for sale are not Flarm equipped is that their owners rather keep the Flarm and move it to their new ships, since once you fly with one you will never want to fly without it.

Ramy (With handful of Flarm saves in over 1000 hours with Flarm)

Agree 100% with Ramy. I had a portable PF in my Discus 2b, and when I sold it in early 2012, I kept the PF for my new LAK....As far as close calls, many of the folks that fly at Moriarty have had PowerFlarms since 2011 and I do believe it has been a major enhancement to safety. It has personally alerted me on several occasions over the past 5 seasons to gliders coming head on at high speed especially under cloudstreets. These alerts allowed me to alter my course and avoid any potential conflict. This past season we had an incident where two gliders came within 20-30 feet from each other and they never saw each other until the very last second. One glider had a PF and one did not....The pilot who did not have a PF went out and bought a PF immediately...

Finally, I do fly with a transponder and a PF as do many other folks at Moriarty. The use of transponders is also extremely important in our area as there is a fair amount of jet traffic passing over the area as they descend into Albuquerque. Albuquerque approach is very aware of gliders at Moriarty using 1202 on their transponders. When they "see" us they do try to route the airlines away from us and/or try to keep them above 18K as they pass west bound over the Moriarty area. Once past Moriarty they then allow them to descend into Albuquerque....This does really help minimize potential conflicts. Now, be safe out there! Thx - Renny

At 12:26 24 November 2015, Ramy wrote:
... (With handful of Flarm saves in over 1000 hours with Flarm)

Interestingly, my experience is just the opposite: in 1593 hours in
the French Alps since 2007 (only 208 hours of which were without
Flarm), I have had no relevant alert from Flarm but hundreds of
false alarms. However I have experienced several dangerous or
very dangerous events (and many more daft ones) which can only
reasonably be ascribed to Flarm - or rather the false expectations
that some pilots seem to have of it.
The most stupid of these was two gliders simultaneously overtaking
me at speed from directly behind on a ridge, one each side, at
exactly my height, and with a horizontal separation of about a
wingspan. Fortunately, I had insisted that my pupil did *not* take
evasive action from the Flarm-announced threat, pointing out that
we might just turn into the path of the (imagined) single overtaker.
(I presume that the 2 overtakers thought "they know we're coming,
so they won't do anything stupid"!)
In the 2000+ hours in the Alps before Flarm I saw no such
dangerous behaviour; nor in the 208 hours 'gap' without Flarm in
2008.
Of course, nothing can be proved. But enthusiasts for Flarm should
be aware it has its down-sides.

I have had a PowerFlarm Core for a year now and found it to be very helpful alerting me to gliders and other traffic. As others have already said, this alone justifies having one in your glider.

Another major benefit of having Flarm when flying with others with Flarm is that it really cuts down on the need for radio chatter as everyone can see where everyone is and how they are doing. Location and rate of climb/sink is displayed.

On Saturday, November 21, 2015 at 1:35:10 AM UTC, Casey Cox wrote:
Has anyone been thankful that they have had FLARM?

And do the same people have a transponder?

How many people fly with FLARM or Transponder?

Let's hear about the close calls, or potential close calls, or even the peace of mind of awareness.

It's a no brainer - why would you not want to be alerted to aircraft that you have not seen with your own eyes !

I've flown many competitions with multiple classes where the vast majority of gliders ( 1 or 2 exceptions ) have Flarm, it becomes disconcerting how many gliders I visually "miss" ... and I don't think my lookout is particularly bad.

I would make it compulsory for all Gliders and tugs in competitions.

I truely think the risk associated with another distracting instrument in the cockpit is far, far outweighed by the situational awareness it provides.

On Friday, November 20, 2015 at 8:35:10 PM UTC-5, Casey Cox wrote:
Has anyone been thankful that they have had FLARM?

And do the same people have a transponder?

How many people fly with FLARM or Transponder?

Let's hear about the close calls, or potential close calls, or even the peace of mind of awareness.

FWIW, I have had at least 2 very close calls in which I would have been very, very close to a collision without FLARM. Equally important, I have had numerous FLARM warnings in which I was not aware of the glider nearby until the warning. These warnings (quite common) are invaluable and their situation awareess safety value is incalcuable.

The first close call was actually during the very first week that the flarm was released in the USA during the 2011 Uvulde glide. Two open class gliders flew right across my nose (45 degrees off head on). Less than 50 meters at the exact altitude. I saw the first at the last second (no flarm). I never would have seen the second glider (in trail of the first) without the flarm warning. Terrifying but I was able to get a visual on the second and dive below. We would have hit nose to nose without the dive. The collision was maybe 5 seocnds away. I was shaking for the next hour. Im not sure if they ever saw me.

From that moment on, I felt failry exposed flying without FLARM...and feel that gliders flying contrsts or busy enviornments without FLARM are failry dangerous. The other close call would have almost certainly been a head on collision in a pre-start situation. I am a "scan freak" and am always moving my head and my eyes, and try not to rely on FLARM at all as there are always at least a few non-flarm gliders in any group. Regardless of that flaw, FLARM warnings are almost always useful and highly acurate.

A good example of a FLARM warning is at the 9:10 point of this video: https://vimeo.com/52396659

So the short answer is yes, I am thankful of Flarm and thankful to the fellow pilots (and towpilots) who have invested in it.

7T