hall of shame?

My rental PowerFLARM for the 13.5 meter regional showed up early so I re-built the shelf that I used last year at Region 10. Thoughts? https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...t=d irectlink

Will probably mount the dipole on the inside of the turtledeck area. I'm assuming that the signal will travel through wood with no issues?

On Thursday, June 28, 2012 8:47:51 PM UTC-6, Tony wrote:
My rental PowerFLARM for the 13.5 meter regional showed up early so I re-built the shelf that I used last year at Region 10. Thoughts? https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...t=d irectlink

Will probably mount the dipole on the inside of the turtledeck area. I'm assuming that the signal will travel through wood with no issues?

Can't comment to the dipole (But I have read that it must be vertical and centered on the glare-shield for best range. Further, From personal experience, I am using the Schleicher mount from Williams Soaring and it does put the display close to my face. It appears your mount is similar in the sense that the display is much closer than the instrument panel. At age 50 I wear cheaters when I fly and I do look at an Oudie on a gooseneck cradle mount so I am used to two different focal points. It may take some getting used to. Lastly, My home gliderport is underneath Class B with two busy GA training fields close by and lots of airliners and I am amazed (And almost frightened) at the amount of traffic the PF picks up. Good luck with the contest.

On Thursday, June 28, 2012 11:56:50 PM UTC-5, bumper wrote:
On Thursday, June 28, 2012 7:47:51 PM UTC-7, Tony wrote:
My rental PowerFLARM for the 13.5 meter regional showed up early so I re-built the shelf that I used last year at Region 10. Thoughts? https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...t=d irectlink

Will probably mount the dipole on the inside of the turtledeck area. I'm assuming that the signal will travel through wood with no issues?

Wood will attentuate the signal to a degree depending on moisture content and other variables. From the picture, it looks like the panel will block the signal from forward and much of the right front quadrant. Ideally, the portable with it's antennas should be mounted tob center of the glareshield if there's room. Failing that, aft of the glareshield with antennas still in the clear, vertical, and with nothing blocking them to either side and forward. They should not contact the Plexi.

bumper

no glare shield so the only way to do that would be to cut a hole in the nose and mount the powerflarm outside in front of the canopy. I could fair it in actually and it might look pretty cool...but yea, the current location keeps the antennas from touching the canopy when it is closed.

My comment is only that I love the Lowes (home improvement big box
store) woodworkers apron pockets on the right side. Cool! - and in
keeping with the wooden instrument panel.

On Jun 28, 9:47*pm, Tony wrote:

Will probably mount the dipole on the inside of the turtledeck area. I'm assuming that the signal will travel through wood with no issues?

Might get through the wood OK, but not so sure about the UV barrier in
the Stewart Systems finish. Is it aluminum powder like in the
Stitts? If so, probably won't work too good.

On Friday, June 29, 2012 11:29:31 AM UTC-5, Steve Leonard wrote:
On Jun 28, 9:47*pm, Tony wrote:

Will probably mount the dipole on the inside of the turtledeck area. I'm assuming that the signal will travel through wood with no issues?

Might get through the wood OK, but not so sure about the UV barrier in
the Stewart Systems finish. Is it aluminum powder like in the
Stitts? If so, probably won't work too good.

i don't think it is aluminum based like Stits, but I'm not 100% sure. Perhaps we'll find out this weekend. I do know that last year at Region 10 I was able to see TA when we were thermalling near each other and another time when he was behind me on final glide (right before I landed out). No recollection or attention paid to maximum range etc.

On Friday, June 29, 2012 10:48:46 AM UTC-5, JohnDeRosa wrote:
My comment is only that I love the Lowes (home improvement big box
store) woodworkers apron pockets on the right side. Cool! - and in
keeping with the wooden instrument panel.

Thanks John, i previously had an aluminum panel but i liked the looks of the plywood panel a lot easier plus I had the tools to build one in my garage and making mistakes was cheaper.

The apron pockets work good. I glued a piece of plywood to the right side of the cockpit truss and then used 3M spray adhesive to attach the apron. I didn't glue down the edges so that the pockets would open up. You can fit a lot of stuff in them! The nice thing about it (and the PowerFLARM) shelf is that when/if I want to remove them it will only take a few minutes with a sharp chisel.

Well the PowerFLARM worked well this weekend. Unfortunately Steve wouldn't slow down enough for us to fly together but there was one point where we crossed paths close enough to show up. He was directly in front of me circling a few miles and above and I could see him. It did seem that whenever his belly was to me he would disappear but he left that thermal and I never saw him again until he finished his task after I had landed.

I also saw a few ADS-B target on airliners passing high overhead AND got a collision alert on a single engine Mode C airplane that passed near my thermal on the last leg. I made a blind call on the nearby airports CTAF and got ahold of him. He was surprised to see a glider 35 miles from the gliderport I think.

On Jul 2, 7:40*am, Tony wrote:
Well the PowerFLARM worked well this weekend. *Unfortunately Steve wouldn't slow down enough for us to fly together but there was one point where we crossed paths close enough to show up. He was directly in front of me circling a few miles and above and I could see him. *It did seem that whenever his belly was to me he would disappear but he left that thermal and I never saw him again until he finished his task after I had landed.

I also saw a few ADS-B target on airliners passing high overhead AND got a collision alert on a single engine Mode C airplane that passed near my thermal on the last leg. I made a blind call on the nearby airports CTAF and got ahold of him. He was surprised to see a glider 35 miles from the gliderport I think.

I wired mine up yesterday to ships power and also set it up to talk to
my ipaq310 running LK8000. No other sailplane pilots are flying with
Flarm yet where I fly, but I do get lot's of ADS-B hits. I'm looking
forward to seeing how other PF targets show up on the LK
screen..................now to get the rest of the guys in my area to
get Power Flarms.

Brad