Mark James Boyd wrote:
Soaring ought to be about flying the aircraft, not just monitoring the
government-mandated distractions. The thing would either be activated during
most thermaling, or have such a close tolerance as to give no useful warning
to those who would most need it -- and they are expensive. Would you
recommend flashing lights on the panel, a speaker tone to compete with the
vario, or both? Perhaps you would also like to incorporate a stick-shaker?


Who said anything about the gubmint? And what would I want
with a vario during the landing phase, off-field or not?
If I've got the gear down and the spoilers out, I'd be
playing the fool to try using the vario for anything...

Have the vario shut itself off and let the stall warning
buzzer on...

Expensive? I couldn't comment on that...And are the fatal accidents
so rare as to make this idea pointless? Perhaps...

As far as spoilers and flaps changing the stall speed, I suppose that's
glider dependent on how much. And as far as bugs, again I
don't know how far off the normal stall speed you'd see...
Maybe it's negligible, maybe not. Dunno...

Some varios, like the Cambridge 302, already have gear warning, spoiler
unlocked on takeoff warning, and airspeed alert built into them. It even
adjusts for G loading. I suspect it would be a simple change to it's
software to have two airspeed alerts, based on gear position:

Gear up (soaring): set it a little below normal thermalling speed (about
46 knot setting works on my glider with my 302).

Gear down (landing): set it a little below the typical pattern speed
(about 50 knots would work on my glider).

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA