Hi James, Good question, deserving an answer.
In a lifetime of flying, here is my experience with instrument failure: Direct failure of the vario – once only. Ironically it was the mechanical vario that failed, but I had an electronic “ back up” – not a big deal. Experienced a plugged TE probe once – proved to be a VERY small spider (alive at the time, so it moved about in the line, thus rendering the DI check useless). I could fly by the “seat of my pants” OK, but not effectively compete. Task was eventually abandoned, and I returned to base, and blew out the line. Also (in a comp) – and once only thank God – total power failure INCLUDING failure of the back- up battery – unbelievable! I was very happy to have a mechanical Sage I can tell you, and hardly missed a beat, soaring wise, despite the elevated level of stress, and having to mentally do the final glide calculations. However the lesson I learnt here had nothing to do with any of this. Not having a radio at the finish proved, in the event, to be quite dangerous. So, if you ever find yourself in this situation, allow yourself a bit of extra height, to visually work out what is going on at the finish aerodrome, when you arrive, and if the wind is reasonably light, it is probably a good idea not to land on the active strip. Also had one altimeter failure in flight. Again not a big deal. Never had an in flight radio failure. That’s it! Regarding Mike B’s original comment on this topic, I think he has more or less totally covered it. However I will make one comment on his post. I think he makes a little too much of the dangers associated with outlanding: Make no mistake – there ARE very real dangers. However each and every one of us has been taught the proper procedures on how to deal with an outlanding. If you follow the procedures, you will be generally OK, with NO damage to glider or self, in almost 100% of cases. If you choose to ignore the procedures, well all I can say is “good luck”, because you will need it! Gary From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James Dutschke Sent: Monday, 27 April 2015 7:55 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 <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> 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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
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