Fitter2, I asked a question. In response, you asked ME a question without answering mine. I assumed you didn't know the answer and told you a solution. I was surprised that you didn't know an answer. But you claim I'm complaining? Why decry out of hand a suggestion that would possibly help all of us keep a little safer?
The R/T exam is NOT inherent in the PPL, the theory has to be learned and there is a practical exam, in a little booth, listening to a tape.
It has already been pointed out that portable electronic equipment such as FLARM cannot be fitted to a public transport IFR aircraft without legal certification, costing very many thousands of pounds.
By the way, I have listened on the glider cloud flying frequency; I made a point of doing so for a while after it was mentioned some time ago, whenever I saw gliders near the cloudbase in good thermal lift conditions and never heard anything. That might have been because no-one in radio range was in cloud, or it might have meant I missed the one call which might have been relevant to my flight. Either way, it didn't reassure me, rather the opposite. Unfortunately I cannot tie up either radio for long because I need to use them for other mandatory purposes, such as gaining ATC clearance to CAS and obtaining ATIS broadcasts and speaking to minor airfields when flying nearby.
Have you or your colleagues ever called an ATC unit when flying a glider, though? I've heard one glider pilot do it recently (on Luton, 129.55, presumably out of Dunstable Downs) and greatly appreciated his good airmanship.
Do you seriously think I've NOT, as a professional pilot, studied relevant accident statistics? Why do you think I'm contributing to this thread? For what it's worth, I was previously the flight safety officer for a government aviation department (a joint fixed wing and rotary wing search and rescue unit but we also flew heads of state and the British Royal Family). The monthly rotary wing safety topic bulletins went out of my office compiled and signed by myself.