Fuji, there is no central source of figures for gliders with Flarm, because they are getting them from different places at different times. My guess is well over 200, of say 2300 gliders, and growing along an S-shaped curve – slow to start, then a rapid acceleration until most have them, then slow for the last few. It is a bit like the first few people who got telephones – not much use until a lot more got them, except for the few in an immediate communication circle who talked to each other. As the largest gliding club in the country has several dozen based there, and have fitted them to all their club fleet, my guess is that the rest at that club will rapidly follow except for the last few.
Similarly, it will happen at other clubs, probably the largest at first, and those hosting competitions, and those hosting lots of visiting pilots for mountain wave expeditions etc..
The experience of last Sunday has, I believe, added a lot more potential buyers of Flarm in the gliding community. I see quite a few people talking about it now. Maybe, just maybe, some of the other GA people will take more interest in it too.
After trying PCAS (the Zaon MRX), I took delivery of mine today. That will help detect transponder–equipped, GA, particularly the low level ones who insist on flying over glider winch-launching sites (in breach of Rule 12) and those when I am soaring at lower levels before getting higher than most GA flies at. (On a flight to try Rod’s PCAS which I borrowed, all the contacts but two were lower than me. One of the two exceptions was probably a Stansted departure. The other was when I was on the ground, and a spamcan flew over our winch launch area at about 1000 feet.)
In the short/medium term, only lookout will help with non-transponder equipped GA unless/until they become sold on the idea of Flarm too. As Rod says, £1000 buys PCAS and Flarm, and gives IMHO a huge leap without needing EASA and other obstacles to be overcome. Not perfect, not 100 percent, but a big improvement.
By the way, I expect my experience on Sunday was similar to many glider pilots. During a 7-hour flight between East Anglia and the Welsh border, the first hour was at 1-3000 feet and I saw a few spamcans (mostly in the choke area of class G just outside the Stansted CTA), including at least one that I saw over our winch launch site (my friends on the ground saw several more during the day); the middle 5 hours was mostly at 3-5000 feet, and I saw lots of gliders at my height range, but all the power GA I saw was lower; and the last hour was much quieter. When I was working Cambridge Approach, all the power GA I heard about was well below me.
So the greatest power/glider risk was mainly in the early part, before I could get high. After that, and for 80-90 percent of my flight, it was mostly glider/glider risk.
I have lost hope of convincing the anti-glider and/or pro-transponder brigade that Flarm (now Flarm + PCAS) is the most cost-effective and as well as the only widely practicable technology to reduce collision risk, but that’s where I am at.
Chris N.