Not a failure as such. But I did do a flight in a club aircraft with only an airspeed indicator, altimeter and a radio functional. I knew that was all that was working at take-off though. I flew in thermals for over an hour.
Fortunately the launch before mine marked a thermal for me. But I managed to feel my way around the sky from there. Did wonders for my early thermalling skills. Anthony From: aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net [mailto:aus-soaring-boun...@lists.internode.on.net] On Behalf Of James Dutschke Sent: Monday, 27 April 2015 7:25 PM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] varios, redundancy Straw poll. Has anyone, had a vario failure. Sent from my iPhone On 27 Apr 2015, at 19:14, Nick Gilbert <cirru...@gmail.com <mailto:cirru...@gmail.com> > wrote: Surely a backup electric vario is a more useful backup than a mechanical? With its own emergency battery you get a backup audio and averager as well as the needle. With all the stress that goes with a power failure having to stare at the instrument would make things worse. Nick On 27 Apr 2015, at 5:41 pm, Peter Champness <plchampn...@gmail.com <mailto:plchampn...@gmail.com> > wrote: I have just been choosing instruments for a new glider. I did wonder for a moment after reading Adam's post whether I had wasted money on the Winter Vario. However I agree with Mike. A set on basic instruments (redundancy) is good insurance. In my case I have something in case of electrical failure. No doubt thermal can be found and used without any instruments, but it difficult. On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 5:32 PM, Mike Borgelt <mborg...@borgeltinstruments.com <mailto:mborg...@borgeltinstruments.com> > wrote: At 08:14 AM 27/04/2015, you wrote: There’s no need for a winter backup now Maybe not a Winter vario as backup but you should have a backup. Adam's advice is probably the silliest thing I've read in a long time. The only time you may reasonably want to rely on one vario is in a motorglider if you are prepared to start the motor and fly home if the single vario fails. Too bad if you are half way round a 500km triangle and set to win the Nationals if you do reasonably this day. For the paleo engineless gliders you are likely to risk an outlanding with its attendant hazards. Pretty stupid to risk breaking your glider or yourself over lack of a backup. If you are serious about competition you should be equipped to cope with single failures of equipment. Most people carry two flight recorders for good reason. A main navigation system and some reasonable backup is also necessary. Hint: fly with the backups working. The time to find out they have failed is NOT when you've had another failure. The backup vario may also have a different speed of response and will likely just display TE vario. Your primary should be showing netto (airmass) or relative netto ( airmass offset down by the sink rate in circling flight - this means it always shows the rate of climb you would get if you slowed down and circled, no matter your current airspeed). The two varios may show slightly different information without changing modes which can be useful. We've all had even modern electronic equipment fail. Phones, PC's GPS , etc etc. It is pretty good nowadays but anyone doing what Adam says is tempting fate, Murphy's Law and what a physics teacher of mine called "the innate cussedness of inanimate matter". When you decide to use a backup you might like to consider that the Winter doesn't have an audio or an averager. Do you really want to be sharing thermals with other gliders without an audio? If flying cross country you would find you would miss the averager. If you have a backup electronic vario it should have its own independent backup power supply. While a glider electrical system can be fused properly so that the radio for example developing an internal short doesn't take out the main battery fuse (and if everything dies because of this or similar , are you going to simply flip the switch to battery 2 and take out *its* fuse also?) I suspect many aren't. If you decide to join the 21st century for your backup vario get in touch and I'll sell you something you'll be happy to fly with when you need it. Mike ____________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net <mailto:Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net> To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring Borgelt Instruments - design & manufacture of quality soaring instrumentation since 1978 www.borgeltinstruments.com <http://www.borgeltinstruments.com/> tel: 07 4635 5784 overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784 mob: 042835 5784 : int+61-42835 5784 P O Box 4607, Toowoomba East, QLD 4350, Australia _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net <mailto:Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net> To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net <mailto:Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net> To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net <mailto:Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net> To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
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