Mechanical Vario or not?

I am considering dropping a Winter Vario from my panel . I have a Glide
computer and primary electric vario on board as well, as an Ilec
electric. Just trying to lose some weight from the cockpit.
Any PRO's or CONS's I need to know about regarding reliability and
redundancy in flight......batteries in the cold etc??
Cheers

Fish

I removed my mechancal vario a couple years ago and replaced it with a
Borgelt B40 which as a 9Volt battery backup. I have had to use the
battery backup once. I am very pleased with this arrangement. My main
reason for changing was that I wanted an Audio on my backup vario.

Brian
HP16T N16VP "V6"

Fish wrote:
I am considering dropping a Winter Vario from my panel . I have a Glide
computer and primary electric vario on board as well, as an Ilec
electric. Just trying to lose some weight from the cockpit.
Any PRO's or CONS's I need to know about regarding reliability and
redundancy in flight......batteries in the cold etc??
Cheers

Fish

Fish a écrit:
I am considering dropping a Winter Vario from my panel . I have a Glide
computer and primary electric vario on board as well, as an Ilec
electric. Just trying to lose some weight from the cockpit.
Any PRO's or CONS's I need to know about regarding reliability and
redundancy in flight......batteries in the cold etc??
Cheers

Fish


In most European countries (including France) a pneumatic vario is
mandatory - and I think its a good idea when I count the times the
saiplane battery went dead in long flights!

"jerome" wrote in message ...


Fish a écrit:
I am considering dropping a Winter Vario from my panel . I have a Glide
computer and primary electric vario on board as well, as an Ilec
electric. Just trying to lose some weight from the cockpit.
Any PRO's or CONS's I need to know about regarding reliability and
redundancy in flight......batteries in the cold etc??
Cheers

Fish


In most European countries (including France) a pneumatic vario is
mandatory - and I think its a good idea when I count the times the
saiplane battery went dead in long flights!


Mandating a mechanical vario is an outdated regulation - times have changed.
In the gliders I fly the broken vario is always the Winter.

The Borgelt B40/B400 makes a better standby vario since they have internal
backup batteries so are not dependent on the gliders main battery. The
lithium 9V in my B40 will power it for more than 50 hours - with audio and
averager. The Borgelt has better response than the Sage to boot.

Even in the very unlikely event that both my electronic varios failed, US
altimeters with 10 foot resolution can be used for thermalling although it
takes a lot of instrument tapping. Which reminds me, I've got to find one
of those pager DC vibrator motors to shake my altimeter.

Bill Daniels

Bill Daniels wrote:
"jerome" wrote in message ...


Fish a écrit:

I am considering dropping a Winter Vario from my panel . I have a Glide
computer and primary electric vario on board as well, as an Ilec
electric. Just trying to lose some weight from the cockpit.
Any PRO's or CONS's I need to know about regarding reliability and
redundancy in flight......batteries in the cold etc??
Cheers

Fish


In most European countries (including France) a pneumatic vario is
mandatory - and I think its a good idea when I count the times the
saiplane battery went dead in long flights!



Mandating a mechanical vario is an outdated regulation - times have changed.
In the gliders I fly the broken vario is always the Winter.

The Borgelt B40/B400 makes a better standby vario since they have internal
backup batteries so are not dependent on the gliders main battery. The
lithium 9V in my B40 will power it for more than 50 hours - with audio and
averager. The Borgelt has better response than the Sage to boot.

Even in the very unlikely event that both my electronic varios failed, US
altimeters with 10 foot resolution can be used for thermalling although it
takes a lot of instrument tapping. Which reminds me, I've got to find one
of those pager DC vibrator motors to shake my altimeter.

Bill Daniels



Just take any small motor from radio shack and epoxy a small nut or
similar object to the side of the shaft. Works perfect. Mount the
motor on the back of your altimeter. If you want, you can run the wires
to a pushbutton on your stick - any time you need an instant 50 ft,
press the button! Mind you I didn't say with direction the 50 ft would
be...

Bill Daniels schrieb:

In most European countries (including France) a pneumatic vario is
mandatory - and I think its a good idea when I count the times the
saiplane battery went dead in long flights!

Mandating a mechanical vario is an outdated regulation

Whether a regulation is outdated is completely irrelevant if you want to
fly legally.

That said, I doubt "most" European countries require a machanical vario.
Switzerland, for one, doesn't even require any vario at all (except for
cloud flying).

Stefan

At 23:42 24 June 2006, Fish wrote:
I am considering dropping a Winter Vario from my panel
. I have a Glide
computer and primary electric vario on board as well,
as an Ilec
electric. Just trying to lose some weight from the
cockpit.
Any PRO's or CONS's I need to know about regarding
reliability and
redundancy in flight......batteries in the cold etc??
Cheers

Fish

If you are looking to save weight dropping the mechanical
vario is not likely to help much. The mechanical I
have weighs far less than any electric vario and the
flask is down the back on the CoG. The big advantage
of suck and blow varios is that they still work when
the battery fails. I have never had a failure on a
suck and blow vario with the exception of a Cosim which
failed more often than not.

jerome wrote:

In most European countries (including France) a pneumatic vario is
mandatory - and I think its a good idea when I count the times the
saiplane battery went dead in long flights!

As far as I know, only the mechanical altitude meter and the mechanical
speed indicator are mandatory. The vario is not a safety-critical
instrument and therefore not required by law... AFAIK...

It's been now over 8 years since I changed to an all electric panel.
My primary vario is a Cambridge 302 and I have a Westerboer pressure
sensor vario (no flask) as a secondary. With two batteries that can
each run the panel for many hours I had so far no problem. I cannot
see one reason why a mechanical vario would still be needed. The
Westerboer is completely in sync with the Cambridge and of course has
an audio output that I actually like much better than the one on the
Cambridge.

Go and throw out the Winter, you can probably sell it for the price of
an electric.

Herb, J7


Fish wrote:
I am considering dropping a Winter Vario from my panel . I have a Glide
computer and primary electric vario on board as well, as an Ilec
electric. Just trying to lose some weight from the cockpit.
Any PRO's or CONS's I need to know about regarding reliability and
redundancy in flight......batteries in the cold etc??
Cheers

Fish

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:29:34 +0200, Stefan
wrote:

That said, I doubt "most" European countries require a machanical vario.
Switzerland, for one, doesn't even require any vario at all (except for
cloud flying).

Neither does Germany.


Andreas
Bye
Andreas