Status US PowerFLARM shipments

Flarm is widely used by helicopters especially in the European Alps
(e.g. all Swiss SAR helicopter use it). It does't just work for
avoiding collisions with another Flarm equiped aircraft, it also has
an extensive obstacle database that will alert you of a potential
collision with e.g. a high voltage power line, radio tower or cable
car cable (all of which pose a very significant risk in the Alps).

Markus

On Aug 29, 5:38*pm, Mike Schumann
wrote:
On 8/29/2011 7:26 PM, Westbender wrote:







On Aug 29, 7:09 pm, Darryl *wrote:
*wrote:
On Aug 29, 11:54 am, *wrote:
On Aug 29, 8:48 am, Darryl *wrote:

BTW the landing glider's PowerFLARM did not *warn of threats as
stationary/on the ground FLARM/PowerFLARM units do not transmit
signals.
I suspect this is done for many reasons including you do not want
to
distract pilots when they are landing. Just another example of an
all
round impressive system.

Darryl

The aircraft on the ground actually do transmit a signal, but alarms
are being suppressed for landing gliders as it would distract the
pilot too much.
Urs

Under what "landing" conditions are alarms suppressed? *I'd certinly
like to be alerted to an opposite base head on with another glider or
a tug.

They are suppressed if the other glider is on the ground. Don't know the
exact details of what counts as on the ground. *I've had similar
comments from folks at other busy fields how well this works and Urs
explained it to me at a seminar, and I still got it backward. Sorry.
Sigh.

Darryl

Sounds like it can tell whether the target is moving or not. The ships
on the ground are probably indicating speed = zero in the flarm radio
packets. If that's the case, this device is not meant for
helicopters. *)

That's an interesting question. *A couple of years ago I almost had a
midair with a helicopter that was hoovering 5' off the ground at the
arrival end of the runway. *Never saw him until we turned base and were
committed to landing.

If the helicopter were FLARM equipped, would he have shown up as an
alarm? *Would he show up as a target on a display with a FLARM
interface, so we could have seen him before we entered the pattern (even
more important that generating an alarm at the last moment)?

--
Mike Schumann

The FLARM version for helicopters has a 'hover detection' based on
ambient noise level and accelerations / vibrations.
http://www.triadis.ch/index.php?floice
The sending unit decides on its state and broadcasts it. So the
receiving unit does *not* decide based on ground speed of the sender.

On 8/30/2011 5:14 PM, ursus wrote:
On Aug 29, 5:38 pm, Mike
wrote:
On 8/29/2011 7:26 PM, Westbender wrote:







On Aug 29, 7:09 pm, Darryl wrote:
wrote:
On Aug 29, 11:54 am, wrote:
On Aug 29, 8:48 am, Darryl wrote:

BTW the landing glider's PowerFLARM did not warn of threats as
stationary/on the ground FLARM/PowerFLARM units do not transmit
signals.
I suspect this is done for many reasons including you do not want
to
distract pilots when they are landing. Just another example of an
all
round impressive system.

Darryl

The aircraft on the ground actually do transmit a signal, but alarms
are being suppressed for landing gliders as it would distract the
pilot too much.
Urs

Under what "landing" conditions are alarms suppressed? I'd certinly
like to be alerted to an opposite base head on with another glider or
a tug.

They are suppressed if the other glider is on the ground. Don't know the
exact details of what counts as on the ground. I've had similar
comments from folks at other busy fields how well this works and Urs
explained it to me at a seminar, and I still got it backward. Sorry.
Sigh.

Darryl

Sounds like it can tell whether the target is moving or not. The ships
on the ground are probably indicating speed = zero in the flarm radio
packets. If that's the case, this device is not meant for
helicopters. )

That's an interesting question. A couple of years ago I almost had a
midair with a helicopter that was hoovering 5' off the ground at the
arrival end of the runway. Never saw him until we turned base and were
committed to landing.

If the helicopter were FLARM equipped, would he have shown up as an
alarm? Would he show up as a target on a display with a FLARM
interface, so we could have seen him before we entered the pattern (even
more important that generating an alarm at the last moment)?

--
Mike Schumann

The FLARM version for helicopters has a 'hover detection' based on
ambient noise level and accelerations / vibrations.
http://www.triadis.ch/index.php?floice
The sending unit decides on its state and broadcasts it. So the
receiving unit does *not* decide based on ground speed of the sender.
Is a FLARM equiped hoovering helicopter visible on a GPS display
connected to a FLARM unit in a glider if there is not an imminent threat
of a collision?

--
Mike Schumann

On Aug 30, 4:06*pm, Mike Schumann
wrote:
On 8/30/2011 5:14 PM, ursus wrote:







On Aug 29, 5:38 pm, Mike
wrote:
On 8/29/2011 7:26 PM, Westbender wrote:

On Aug 29, 7:09 pm, Darryl * *wrote:
* *wrote:
On Aug 29, 11:54 am, * *wrote:
On Aug 29, 8:48 am, Darryl * *wrote:

BTW the landing glider's PowerFLARM did not *warn of threats as
stationary/on the ground FLARM/PowerFLARM units do not transmit
signals.
I suspect this is done for many reasons including you do not want
to
distract pilots when they are landing. Just another example of an
all
round impressive system.

Darryl

The aircraft on the ground actually do transmit a signal, but alarms
are being suppressed for landing gliders as it would distract the
pilot too much.
Urs

Under what "landing" conditions are alarms suppressed? *I'd certinly
like to be alerted to an opposite base head on with another glider or
a tug.

They are suppressed if the other glider is on the ground. Don't know the
exact details of what counts as on the ground. *I've had similar
comments from folks at other busy fields how well this works and Urs
explained it to me at a seminar, and I still got it backward. Sorry.
Sigh.

Darryl

Sounds like it can tell whether the target is moving or not. The ships
on the ground are probably indicating speed = zero in the flarm radio
packets. If that's the case, this device is not meant for
helicopters. *)

That's an interesting question. *A couple of years ago I almost had a
midair with a helicopter that was hoovering 5' off the ground at the
arrival end of the runway. *Never saw him until we turned base and were
committed to landing.

If the helicopter were FLARM equipped, would he have shown up as an
alarm? *Would he show up as a target on a display with a FLARM
interface, so we could have seen him before we entered the pattern (even
more important that generating an alarm at the last moment)?

--
Mike Schumann

The FLARM version for helicopters has a 'hover detection' based on
ambient noise level and accelerations / vibrations.
http://www.triadis.ch/index.php?floice
The sending unit decides on its state and broadcasts it. So the
receiving unit does *not* decide based on ground speed of the sender.

Is a FLARM equiped hoovering helicopter visible on a GPS display
connected to a FLARM unit in a glider if there is not an imminent threat
of a collision?

--
Mike Schumann

Assuming that by 'GPS display' you mean other manufacturers moving map
solutions, such as SeeYou Mobile, Pocket Strepla, ClearNav, Garmin and
many others:
The protocol by which FLARM sends out all received data over its
serial port is available publicly from our webpage. We therefore have
no control over how the data is used and presented to the pilots by
others.
However, I can not imagine anyone suppressing any 'in flight' objects.

Hi Urs
Thank you very much for the status update that started this thread.
Good info.
Unfortunately this thread is going off on a tangent again that is not
too usefull for me (and I think for many others)

What would be much more helpful for me, would be if you could provide
a status update on the brick development.
Last weekend I heard the first guys on the radio in my area
(California Sierras), testing their PowerFlarm.
So, I am getting very anxious now.

Part of my decision for the brick was to avoid these heat problem when
baking the portable on top of the glare shield.
With respect to power consumption and power savings, that should not
be any issue in any sailplane with a half-ways decent battery capacity
and power bus.
(No need to start another discussion on that topic here). I would say:
a low priority item.

With respect to the rechargeable batteries, I surely hope that the
Flarm team is not diverting development resources away from the brick
development to engineer a new "high temperature rechargeable"
solution. For the users that cannot afford the alkalines, maybe a
battery support program can be set up next to the rental program.

Next to the essential bugfixing, PLEEEEAAZE give us the brick as soon
as possible.

Hans Van Weersch.