On 15 Feb, 13:58, Jim Beckman
wrote:
A simple (EW Microrecorder) is under $800. In todays

money, an extra $20 for a badge flight is less than
the round of beers you buy. 40 badge flights and you
can buy a second one. Pretty soon, you hold a club
meeting to decide what to buy next once there are
enough
recorders.

Again you're making the wrong comparison. The point
is that a Garmin Etrex costs a tenth of that,

Because the market is 100000 times bigger than the entire secure
flight recorder market

and can provide just as secure a record for badge flights.

Not even nearly

It's not much for navigation, but it will tell you
how far away you are from where you're going, and what
your ground speed is.

Right

Surely a Silver Badge attempt
doesn't require moving map capabilities, or extensive
computation power. There's something to be said for
encouraging the new XC pilot to keep his head up out
of the cockpit.

Absolutely. In fact most clubs will insist you do the 50k with a map
not a GPS


Sounds like P3 is making good progress on making this
all accepted.

Jim Beckman

The cost of GPS engines has dropped to the 20 dollar mark
The cost of memory is negligable
The cost of the analog section ( altimeter ) is a little more but not
massive.

You are paying for the small market you are in. Don't begrudge the few
manufacturers a profit on these devices. Its not as if they are all
buying themselves EB 28's on the profits. I developed a secure logger
when the system first got going but there was simply not enough money
in it for it to be a viable business. Nothing more than hand-to-mouth.

I could get my system going again and the component build cost would
be around £125. I can tell you that at a selling price of £500 it
still wouldnt be a business!