Peter Deane

At Prievidza we had huge gaggles in poor visibility and weak, poorly defined thermal conditions – in these circumstances, when 30-40 gliders are milling around , it is too easy for 2 adjacent pilots to be flying in very close proximity without knowing it even if they are keeping a good lookout – since they can both easily be in each others blind spot. This happened to me several times at Prievidza – my FLARM was incredibly helpful at warning me of unseen potential head-ons in poor visibility, and gliders in my blind spot that I otherwise would not have seen. HOWEVER, not all gliders were FLARM equipped and I was nearly hit from above and behind by a very good, non-aggressive pilot who I trusted, who was not FLARM equipped – he never saw me at all , and I only saw him when it was nearly too late – I'd say our separation in the thermal was about 10 feet. FLARM in his cockpit would have told him I was in his blind spot. We had one mid-air at Prievidza while out on course and (I believe) in a gaggle. Luckily both pilots survived.

Head-ons are particularly difficult to detect before they are too late – FLARM warns you long before you can see a potential conflict and this targeted focus aid was immensely helpful to me several times at Prievidza. I believe FLARM is an essential safety device for very large contests in poor visibility, such as WGC's.

FLARM is very helpful in most medium sized US contests also – since we all make similar decisions on route choices around energy lines, the risk of collision is much higher than the 'big sky' theory might lead us to believe. It can also help reduce tasking-enhanced collision risks where inbound and outbound paths are close together.

Additionally, the general soaring community can benefit from FLARM safety in ridge mission situations (Mifflin) or energy line missions (Whites, Ca) where yo-yo OLC flights are made along narrow routes , particularly when gliders using them are coming from several different soaring sites. This situation is similar to the French Alps, where not using FLARM is just plain dangerous as adoption is high.

Using common energy lines happens more often than not and our glider-glider collision risk is much higher than we think.

As a result of using Flarm in France and Prievidza, I'm a big fan. I believe they are a big safety enhancement when used by a majority of pilots in your vicinity.

Starting their use (rental or lease perhaps) in large contests in the US could kickstart the adoption process and persuade more pilots of the value of the device. I think that FLARM can benefit from an innovative business development model that leases or rents out initial units to early adopter pilots (like contest folks) particularly if flarm usage is strongly encouraged by contest organizers. Over time, the rental units will be purchased by the renters and peer pressure will take care of the late adopters.

Hope this is useful,

Peter (2T)