Thread: Flarm in the US
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Old August 10th 10, 09:38 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Darryl Ramm
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Default Flarm in the US

On Aug 10, 11:34*am, sisu1a wrote:
How does one extract
the logs?


...ultimate log extractor:http://www.techfresh.net/wp-content/...ing-spider.jpg

FWIW I think the contest rental idea sounds like a great plan, and I'm
sure the FLARM guys would come down in price for bulk reasons as well
as the promotional factor.

Beyond discounted units for contest rentals, I think it would be in
FLARM's interests as well to sell the first hundred or two units in
USA for a significant discount to get the ball rolling towards
critical mass.

-Paul


The first 50 (I believe) units are offered at a discount of $1,495 and
I believe the ball is well and truly rolling. I am not sure if there
are any left or not for this discount pre-order, contact a dealer. I
suspect Butterfly/Flarm has pent-up demand worldwide for the
PowerFLARM from people who have been deferring purchase of the
traditional Flarm and other third party Flarm devices. So I'm a bit
dubious of focusing on trying to get discounts etc. I'd much rather
see the primary focus begin on making a contest rules decision ASAP.
Want to really "get the ball rolling", just mandate the damn things.

I think FLARM is a good idea in contests and other situations with
high glider densities, and the SSA and IGC need to seriously look at
mandating them in contests. However for the USA I am worried we don't
get into making this decision more complex than it need be. And I
worry that many of the posts here are heading in that direction. For
example the SSA should not twist itself in knots worrying about rental
units, schemes to offset costs, etc. I hope the SSA rules committee
focus on the safety issue and trying to solve a safety problem we
obviously have and make sure the cost is roughly bearable to most
contest pilots. The "market" can solve the other cases, either though
people or clubs sharing units or maybe somebody buying a handful of
units and renting them. Please don't get stuck trying to solve bigger
more complex problems that distract from the core issue. Focus now on
making the right decision for safety and making it ASAP so pilots
going into next year know what is happening. A quick decision will let
product ordering, and those other "market" forces happen more
smoothly. And the SSA does not worry about renting etc. of required
items like flight recorders or parachutes and most contest pilots own
their own but others certainly rent, borrow, use club equipment etc.
those to get by.

For similar sentiments of trying to keep things simple and focus in
making the right decision. I don't think it really helps our needs to
be thinking about involving AOPA or finding other creative markets for
Flarm. Involve AOPA? Why? We don't need advocates or other things
outside our own sport right now. We need to make adoption/rule
decisions asap and let pilots know what is happening. AOPA's position
on technology in this area related to ADS-B is also unfortunately
confused enough already but I don't want to get sidetracked on that
here. At the core of the mess with ADS-B is that it is a technology
that means so many different things to different potential users and
suffers from being this flying kitchen sink. Here we have a technology
developed for and likely the only realistic option for greatly
reducing the glider-on-glider contest collision risk. Run forward with
it, not sideways.

Darryl