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Martin Hellman wrote:
Regarding Eric's comment below, if a glider pilot called on the radio every time he lost sight of his flying buddy, he'd be drummed out of the soaring community for over-use of the frequency I still say "do it". If you find yourself "doing it" often enough to be drummed out of the soaring community, a better response might be to change the way you fly together. Maybe that means flying farther apart so the potential hazard is reduced, or maybe staying together, within sight, instead of wandering apart. -- especially in areas like Minden where there are alot of other gliders. Even in less crowded areas, if you're at high altitude, your radio signal will interfere with other gliders over 100 miles away. It might annoy, but it won't interfere that far away with their "collision safety" transmissions to gliders that are nearby them. It can, of course, interfere with their attempts to call distant gliders or crew. They can mitigate the problem by fully squelching their radio, so only closer radios are heard, and unsquelching to talk to distant radios as needed. I'm sure it's a much bigger problem in Minden than most places. The preceding is suggested as a bridge during the transition to a better solution, which might be the ham radios or Rhino units, as you mention below. While we all agree that "Better some unintentional noise on the frequency than the noise of a collision," the problem is that there are literally thousands of times we lose sight of a buddy before a collision occurs. I think that's what's so deadly about this situation. It breeds a false sense of safety (aka complacency). How many of us can truly say that he/she has called on the radio every time they've lost sight of a friend -- especially when the last time you saw him, he was half a mile away and headed away from you? But that sounds like just what happened in Washington. That's why I think we need to put some energy into several areas: 1. Getting more glider pilots to use the FRS or GMRS band for air-to-air. Clearly useful for two or more flying buddies, but if enough of us start to use it, we might be able to settle on a standard "glider" or "aircraft" frequency, much as we now tryon 123.3 and 123.5 when we see another unknown glider. 2. Alternatively, getting more glider pilots to get their ham licenses and use the 2 meter band for air-to-air communications. Opens up a lot of frequencies and 2 meters is close enough to the aircraft band that you can even use your COM antenna for the ham unit, with a relay to switch between. (ICOM sells such a device.) Getting your license only takes several hours of study of the Technician question pool, accessible at http://www.remote.arrl.org/arrlvec/pools.html Make sure you use the current question pool, not an obsolete one or one that is going into use a few months from now. (They change every so often, maybe once every few years.) The times and locations for taking ham exams is listed at http://www.remote.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml 3. Getting flying buddies to use Rino's for proximity warning. Again, if enough of us do that, we could settle on a standard frequency and privacy code so we could pick each other up even when not known before hand. ======== Eric Greenwell wrote in message ... I suggest you use the radio in this situation. You and your friend are so close, he'll hear you, even if another glider a few miles away is transmitting. Better some unintentional noise on the frequency than the noise of a collision. -- Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly Eric Greenwell Washington State USA |
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