Cost of IGC approved loggers

On 13 Feb, 17:54, "Tim Mara" wrote:

Thousands have been sold....I know Replogel alone sold "to date" 3010 ...not
many of these flying off the shelves today but I bet 90% of the ones sold
are still out there sitting on someone's shelves

I just checked ... OK number 571 is on a shelf three feet from where
I'm sitting.

Ian

On Feb 13, 12:30*pm, Ian wrote:
On 13 Feb, 17:54, "Tim Mara" wrote:

Thousands have been sold....I know Replogel alone sold "to date" 3010 ....not
many of these flying off the shelves today but I bet 90% of the ones sold
are still out there sitting on someone's shelves

I just checked ... OK number 571 is on a shelf three feet from where
I'm sitting.

Ian

.... and my smoke on foil clockwork wonder is resting in its shipping
box at home. Perhaps I'll send it off for calibration for 'one more
year' of use!
I believe the original subject was about cost of CFRs. Yes, they're
too high, but so are transceiver, transponders, etc. In my personal
experience over the last seven years (that's all the time I've been
flying) my fellow club members and I have purhased 4 bits of glider
electronics. Three radios and one transponder. Of these four high
priced items, 100% had issues that required manufacturer repair. IMO
$1,500 for a 5 watt transceiver is a lot of money for such incredibly
bad Qaulity Control. If these were consumer electronics, the
manufacturers would both be out of business.

On Feb 13, 4:47*pm, wrote:
On Feb 13, 12:30*pm, Ian wrote:

On 13 Feb, 17:54, "Tim Mara" wrote:

Thousands have been sold....I know Replogel alone sold "to date" 3010 ....not
many of these flying off the shelves today but I bet 90% of the ones sold
are still out there sitting on someone's shelves

I just checked ... OK number 571 is on a shelf three feet from where
I'm sitting.

Ian

.... and my *smoke on foil clockwork wonder is resting in its shipping
box at home. *Perhaps I'll send it off for calibration for 'one more
year' of use!
* I believe the original subject was about cost of CFRs. *Yes, they're
too high, but so are transceiver, transponders, etc. *In my personal
experience over the last seven years (that's all the time I've been
flying) my fellow club members and I have purhased 4 bits of glider
electronics. *Three radios and one transponder. *Of these four high
priced items, 100% had issues that required manufacturer repair. *IMO
$1,500 for a 5 watt transceiver is a lot of money for such incredibly
bad Qaulity Control. *If these were consumer electronics, the
manufacturers would both be out of business.

I've dropped my Garmin 76 out of the cockpit onto the runway. It slid
off the dashboard numerous times while I was using it for retrieve
duty. My son got hold of it when I left it on the dining room table
and used it as a walkie-talkie while playing space explorer with his
friends. Still tickin'. There's a lot to be learned from high-
volume manufacturing in electronics.

One of the problems we've created with the reliance on what amounts to
a cottage industry (ie. glider instrument manufacturing) is the fact
that you are pretty much ****-outta-luck if your high-priced gizmo
craps out on you the day before a big event. If I accidentally run
over my Garmin, I can go to any Walmart (or EU equivalent) and pick
one up for a hundred and fifty bucks. If my FunkenFlugen 12000G
craps out, I'm out of business for minimum 3 weeks while it wends its
way over the Pond to Slovenia and back (not to mention being out more
than the cost of the Garmin for shipping alone).

Okay, the above is a bit tongue-in-cheek. We need both COTs and IGC-
Secure loggers for different reasons. They just need to peacefully
coexist

Ian wrote:
On 13 Feb, 15:00, Tony Verhulst wrote:

Ian wrote:


flight verification (I believe we're losing ground observers as
well).

You understand of course that whatever they may say, they're really
doing it for convenience - *their* convenience.


Of course.


One answer, of course, is for another authority besides the FAI to
issue badges.

Like that will ever happen.


Nothing to stop it. And while it's about it, the new badges could be
handicap linked. Silver in 50:1 is just taking the mickey.

Ian

You could pretty much do this using the OLC, which already allows you to
submit flight tracings using COTS GPS hardware like the Etrex, or from a
free PDA based GPS program like "Soaring Pilot". Admittedly, they give
you a "blue V" instead of a "green V" like with the IGC approved
recorders, but who cares? Somebody could set up a program to award
badges to people who want them using those tracings. No IGC would be
needed, and they would also already be handicapped by the OLC. The
Etrex, being self contained, would be very portable from one
club sailplane to another.