Flarm in the US

On Aug 9, 7:12*am, Renny wrote:
On Aug 9, 7:56*am, Mike Schumann
wrote:



On 8/9/2010 8:43 AM, Steve Freeman wrote:

Curious about the use of Flarm in the US. Was told by another pilot
that the frequency used by Flarm is not approved for that category of
use in the US. Is that true? If it is, do they make units that use a
US approved frequency?

There is virtually no FLARM in the US. *It is unlikely to take off here,
as the biggest threats for mid-airs in the US are between powered
aircraft and gliders or other aircraft.

It's a chicken and egg situation. *FLARM is only interesting if everyone
equips. *No one is going to equip if they don't think that everyone else
will.

With ADS-B coming out, that is the way to go in the US. *If you buy an
ADS-B transceiver, not only will you see other ADS-B equipped aircraft,
but, if you are within range of an ADS-B ground station, you will also
see all Mode C/S transponder equipped aircraft that are visible to ATC.
* With 80-90% of GA aircraft in the US transponder equipped, this gives
an immediate benefit to anyone investing in ADS-B (assuming that they
have a ground station deployed in their area).

--
Mike Schumann

Mike,
Your points are all well taken. I realize that FLARM has never been
accepted in the US up to now, and we all know that ADS-B is coming in
2020 (although I thought there was a "glider" exemption), but with
that being said, would it make any sense for FLARM units to be
required for gliders competing in any of our nationals (or maybe even
in regionals)?

As you are aware, we've had several mid-airs between gliders in recent
years and perhaps if gliders had been equipped with FLARM units in a
nationals or in a regionals, some of these mid-airs might have been
prevented.....Just a thought!

Thanks - Renny

Mike and Renny,
a good discussion of the macro view of FLARM and ADS-B. Another view
is more personal, for example in my situation- I fly a lot of ridge
and mountain in a very narrow altitude band and a lot of clouds. There
is not a lot of power traffic in those conditions. I have a
transponder but I don't see the Transmit light going off very often
and I suspect I am not getting very many radar paints down in the
rocks and trees where I like to fly. My greatest risk is from the six
other gliders I share the area with, which do not have transponders
and will never get them at the current costs; in fairness my threat to
them is even higher as I am a low hour pilot. FLARM would go a long
way to reducing the risks and at a reasonable cost; PowerFlarm would
be my choice as it would also provide protection from ADS-B and
transponder equipped threats, but at twice the cost the installed base
in my situation would be very much reduced and I stand a better chance
of talking my potentially deadly friends into investing in FLARM. 2020
is not soon enough. It is not soon enough for the pilots killed on a
regular basis at contests, which we seem to simply accept as an
unavoidable risk.

With that in mind Mike's statement that FLARM isn't of use (for me)
would not be correct. In 2004 my club lost two gliders and a pilot in
a collision that would not have happens if they had had FLARM. How do
you calculate that cost?

Brian