Mike Borgelt wrote:
At 02:28 PM 28/03/06, you wrote:
Graeme & Joy Rickert wrote:
Wide range of mostly interesting comments on this subject, plus of
course the usual few offensive statements.
From someone who has not used FLARM but has been a tuggie at comps,
I can
see virtue in total FLARM fitment. There have been occasions when,
despite my best efforts at lookout, the limitations of view from the
Pawnee have placed me a little closer than I had expected to other
aircraft. I have only had two "near misses" requiring serious
avoidance action but that is more than enough. FLARM may have given
me a better and earlier indication of those potential conflicts.
On the other hand, a possible weakness with FLARM is that the pilot
may be seduced into looking in the direction indicated by the system
to identify the particular aircraft and may temporarily reduce
overall scanning for other aircraft either without FLARM or with a
fitted system that had failed.
FLARM needs to be integrated into your lookout scan. The way I do
this is as follows:-
1. FLARM is mounted on the top RHS of my instrument panel, with a
sunshade over it to keep it from overheating in the hot Aussie sun
and to provide a shade for the LEDs to increase their contrast in
bright sunshine.
2. When I do my straight ahead (cruise and instruments) part of the
scan, FLARM infor is taken in. During the rest of the scan, I look
for the traffic that FLARM has alerted me to.
3. If the FLARM alarm sounds, I look where it tells me to look - at
that point I am a max of 18 seconds from a potential collision and
that direction DESERVES my immediate attention! Once that is
sorted out, it's back to whatever scan I should be doing.
Robert,
I hope you meant that you also look for the non FLARM targets ie.
Cessnas, hang gliders, ultralights, eagles. The last will probably
never buy FLARM units.
What I implied by my statement, that as well as looking for any other
traffic during my scan, I try to find the gliders indicated by FLARM.
I obviously didn't imply things hard enough!
:-)
Maybe you should be looking around first then checking what you saw
against the FLARM display? I think this is what Graeme Rickert was
talking about. You will tend to find what you know about and miss the
rest. Voice readouts don't help this at all.
The scan (including FLARM) is a continuous process. If the FLARM traffic
is still green (1-3km distant) I am not too worried about not seeing it
first time round (unless it's where I am going to be flying),
particularly if its hazy. If it's within the 1 km (red) zone, then I
will spend more time in that sector of the scan when I reach it.
--
Robert Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED]
+61 (0)438 385 533 http://www.hart.wattle.id.au
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