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

On Wednesday, August 5, 2015 at 5:48:59 PM UTC-7, Papa3 wrote:
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.


Those seem like useful things to know. If I understand, you are saying it is bad for pilots to know these useful things - things that they also can know to a great extent by looking out the window and using a diligent scan.

I'm still trying to take in what exactly the excitement is about having less information. The entire history of the sport has been about having better information - variometers, total energy, glide computers, GPS, moving map displays, etc. Those all had detractors, so I'm trying to figure out if this is about something materially different and what, exactly, that is.

Stealth mode is available for anyone to use and it would be a lot easier in terms of contest staff workload (and liability) to leave it as a personal choice. I'd also like to understand what the appeal is, if any, about regulating other people's use. Stealth is symmetrical - you get what you give in terms of information. Why is that not sufficient?

9B