Flightline 760 Radio

Is anyone out there using these radios? Thanks to limited archive
searchability all I was able to find was a post a while back from Tim
Mara saying that he had sold about 50 of them. I'm curious what the
real world power drain is on them from a 12V sealed lead acid battery.
Spec is a bit high at 300 mA for standby. But they sure are
cheap...any reports?

Tony Condon

On Oct 5, 10:59*am, Tony wrote:
Is anyone out there using these radios? *Thanks to limited archive
searchability all I was able to find was a post a while back from Tim
Mara saying that he had sold about 50 of them. *I'm curious what the
real world power drain is on them from a 12V sealed lead acid battery.
Spec is a bit high at 300 mA for standby. *But they sure are
cheap...any reports?

Tony Condon

We have one in a club glider, installed recently. So far, so good.
The 300 mA spec appears to be accurate -- one of our club members
checked this. Our ship has 12 AH battery now, so no particular
concern for us. I have not flown with it, but pireps are good. I can
vouch for the transmission quality -- I receive it nice & clear.

-Evan Ludeman / T8

Hi Tony,

I have sold a few of them. You can read my review of it on my web site.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/flightline.htm

The customers seemed happy with them.

I also offer wiring harnesses for the radio.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

"Tony" wrote in message
...
Is anyone out there using these radios? Thanks to limited archive
searchability all I was able to find was a post a while back from Tim
Mara saying that he had sold about 50 of them. I'm curious what the
real world power drain is on them from a 12V sealed lead acid battery.
Spec is a bit high at 300 mA for standby. But they sure are
cheap...any reports?

Tony Condon

On Oct 5, 2:07*pm, "Paul Remde" wrote:
Hi Tony,

I have sold a few of them. *You can read my review of it on my web site..http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/flightline.htm

The customers seemed happy with them.

I also offer wiring harnesses for the radio.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.


Paul - I did find the review on your website very helpful for the
head to head comparison between other models. Thanks!

On Oct 5, 2:20*pm, Tony wrote:
On Oct 5, 2:07*pm, "Paul Remde" wrote:

Hi Tony,

I have sold a few of them. *You can read my review of it on my web site.http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/flightline.htm

The customers seemed happy with them.

I also offer wiring harnesses for the radio.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

Paul - *I did find the review on your website very helpful for the
head to head comparison between other models. Thanks!

Can someone school me on the use of TSO vs non-TSO radios? I seem to
recall someone at sometime saying that non-TSO was ok for part 91, and
that TSO'd instrumentation was required for 121/135 ops.

Also is the M760 actually TSO'd? I see that Microair has the FCC
paperwork on their website, but they make absolutely no mention of the
M760 being TSO'd.

Thanks

Pete

I did an actual check of the current on the FL760 and it appears to run at
about +/-270mH at 12V...(current drain will be different rates at different
voltages with this radio as well as any other). I didn't test (yet) any
other radios to see if the manufacturers data was accurate or not but it
appears they all will vary somewhat based on the voltage supplied. More
important than simply stand-by power is the power required in receive and
transmit and the lowest operational voltage the particular radio can operate
at but it appears the FL760 does like a bit more current than some of the
other small 57mm radios for stand-by but is still rather economical in
current in the TX and RX modes which are somewhat in relation to TX output
power and volume settings. Even at this the FL760 is low enough current
drain to be a really good option for most glider batteries, especially with
the most recent batteries we now offer...where in the past a 6-7 pound
battery was pretty much limited to 6.5Ah the same battery size and weight
today is likely to be more like 9-10Ah and even 14aH is common now with
"glider size" rechargeable batteries, that's in the range of 30% more
available Amp hours. The FL-760 doesn't approach the current drain of most
transponders, a lot of the new big screen glider computers and Nav displays,
or for that matter a lot of the older glider radios still in use today so I
think the FL-760 for the cost and performance is still a pretty good
option..I have personally used the FL-760 and sold a bunch of them and users
have all had good response..the reliability so far has been excellent. The
FL-760 is not TSO'd but doesn't need to be unless the radio is required as a
piece of equipment that specifically calls for one that meets TSO "____" and
since a transceiver is not "required" in gliders (unless you fly IFR) you
are only required to have two way communications for flights as stated in
part 91 when you have to be in contact with ATC, even then part 91 says
nothing about communication with ATC with a TSO'd radio...so unless your
flight manual or glider operations specifically state "TSO required" it
isn't necessary.
Transponders however are all required to be TSO'd for operation.....this is
one piece of equipment that regardless of what it is installed in the
equipment, used for ATC control is required to have this approval. And
Transponders once installed MUST be certified by an approved avionics shop
before operations and ALL Transponder equipped aircraft MUST have the
transponder turned on and operational during ALL phases of flight..not just
when you think it will be useful.
tim
Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com
"vontresc" wrote in message
...
On Oct 5, 2:20 pm, Tony wrote:
On Oct 5, 2:07 pm, "Paul Remde" wrote:

Hi Tony,

I have sold a few of them. You can read my review of it on my web
site.http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/flightline.htm

The customers seemed happy with them.

I also offer wiring harnesses for the radio.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

Paul - I did find the review on your website very helpful for the
head to head comparison between other models. Thanks!

Can someone school me on the use of TSO vs non-TSO radios? I seem to
recall someone at sometime saying that non-TSO was ok for part 91, and
that TSO'd instrumentation was required for 121/135 ops.

Also is the M760 actually TSO'd? I see that Microair has the FCC
paperwork on their website, but they make absolutely no mention of the
M760 being TSO'd.

Thanks

Pete

Thanks, Tim. That makes a whole lot of sense. BTW have you tried
running any of these radios on less than 12V using a variable DC power
supply? It would be very interesting to see where these radios quit
working.

Peter

I have not tried since most have the minimum operating voltages listed in
their data and I would use this as pretty much the limits.....also once your
battery gets much below 12 Volts it's already pretty "used" and the fall off
rate will be much faster than at the fully charged values....Volts and
remaining Amp's tend to be pretty parallel.
tim

Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com

"vontresc" wrote in message
...
Thanks, Tim. That makes a whole lot of sense. BTW have you tried
running any of these radios on less than 12V using a variable DC power
supply? It would be very interesting to see where these radios quit
working.

Peter

On Oct 5, 10:59*am, Tony wrote:
Is anyone out there using these radios? *Thanks to limited archive
searchability all I was able to find was a post a while back from Tim
Mara saying that he had sold about 50 of them. *I'm curious what the
real world power drain is on them from a 12V sealed lead acid battery.
Spec is a bit high at 300 mA for standby. *But they sure are
cheap...any reports?

Tony Condon

I bought mine from Tim Mara, am very happy with it. On a single new
fully charged 9AH battery I got 8 hours of powering the radio and CAI
302/303 together. When the battery voltage dropped below 10 volts the
radio just came up with static when there was traffic on the frequency
(I also had a hand-held monitoring), and would not transmit, but right
up until that point it was fine. With two batteries in parallel I
have yet to run out of power, even if I fly two days in a row without
recharging the batteries. With proper mic and antenna the transmit/
receive quality is excellent.

NG

On Monday, October 5, 2009 at 10:59:31 AM UTC-4, Tony wrote:
Is anyone out there using these radios? Thanks to limited archive
searchability all I was able to find was a post a while back from Tim
Mara saying that he had sold about 50 of them. I'm curious what the
real world power drain is on them from a 12V sealed lead acid battery.
Spec is a bit high at 300 mA for standby. But they sure are
cheap...any reports?

Tony Condon

I currently have a Microair 760 in my Luscombe 8. I am considering replacing it with a new FL-760. Will the same harness work? I think they are essentially the same radio.