On 7 Oct 2003 17:05:38 -0700, (Jason Armistead)
wrote:



Mike Borgelt wrote:

Have you checked that you are getting at least whatever the minimum
voltage ought to be at the vario terminals (not at the battery which
may be OK) Check the fuses, fuseholders, switches and wiring. The
German glider factories are good at building composite
structures(mostly anyway) not so good at electrical wiring,
instrument
plumbing etc. If you did the wiring yourself(or your club did it)
that's an even better reason to check the above.

Good points Mike - the 302's internal voltmeter indicates 12.6 V,


Right, so we have a suspect instrument and we are going to check the
voltage being delivered by relying on that instrument?
I suggest you borrow a good DVM and don't take the indicated voltage
for granted..


which should be more than satisfactory. There's only a 0.2V dip when
the radio is transmitting, which again is OK. The wiring was done by
a couple of QANTAS LAMEs, so it certainly wasn't a hastily cobbled
together backyard job. They used all the right tools, ran the wiring
neatly, and connected it correctly.

What was it: "trust but verify"?

Mikes other points about actual vs advertised response times, and the
problems of combined logger + vario instrumentation, I will take with
a grain of salt. All I will say is that it is good to see some healthy
rivalry in the glider instrumentation business !!!

Use all the salt you like but your vario/logger comes out of the
glider for calibration every two years and within a month of claiming
a World record as well. Hopefully the mail system doesn't lose or
break it delaying its return from the calibration lab as your glider
is without its main vario during this time .
(WARNING: the British Post Office appears to have a "chicken gun" as
used to test aircraft windscreens as part of its sorting system.)

I suggest you read the original advertising for the 300 series and ask
yourself if the promised stuff actually happens.
Much was made of the down to under half second response times and how
useful this was and how this was only possible with the technology
used in the 300 series..


Perhaps Mike, you'd like to suggest a suitable IGC/FAI approved
stand-alone logger unit. We're going to need a few for our other
gliders and are open to suggestions.

I'll happily sell you a bunch of Volksloggers. I have a batch about to
leave Germany and we may be able to increase the order and save some
shipping costs.

Mike Borgelt