PowerFLARM updates and installation notes

On 6/3/2012 6:51 PM, RAS56 wrote:
But c'mon now...for those of us who don't like to spend our time off
upside down in our cockpits chasing wires, fussing with antennas,
seeing if maybe the re-programming took "this" time or wondering if I
just "smoked" my new gizmo in an install error .

But c'mon now ... the stuff you mention, and what I've seen in Dave's
pictures and in person, comes from not following the simple directions
for placement of the portable PowerFlarm, which basically are "put it on
top of the glare shield". There is only one cable (power) - how hard is
that?

My portable PF would not quite fit directly on top of the glare shield,
so I built a simple bracket out of aluminum that holds it just aft of
the glare shield, and 1/2" lower. The PCAS works as well as my Zaon PCAS
did, I get the airliners' ADS-B, and an hour long encounter with another
PF equipped glider convinced me it enough range for collision avoidance
(about 1 NM), about 2 NM of range for "buddy flying" purposes
(intermittent loss of the other glider, but still easy to track), and
about 3 NM range if we within 1000' vertically. He also had a PF mounted
on the top of the glares shield.

I expect all those ranges to improve with ongoing changes; until then,
I'm hoping _everyone_ I thermal with has one, because it was a very
comfortable, stress-free experience compared to the usual neck-craning
and radio chit-chat, trying to keep tabs on each other in thermals and
when flying close to each other.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)