Cambridge does not make an altimeter.....though they may have altitude
readout on one of their instruments, it is not legal "as an altimeter" as a
part of the required equipment in any sense. I often do get questions from
mechanics and even FAA types who may not even know their own rules and
regulations but go more on hearsay and common (mistake) knowledge, but few
is any variometers (aside from Winter and PZL) have even had any
approvals...are not TSO'd or certified in any way.....but since these are
not part of the "required" equipment don't really need to be approved or for
that matter, aircraft instruments.they are, for the matter, simply no more
approved than the lunch you may carry on board with you...
But....Winter ASI's Altimeters and Variometers and other instruments do in
fact have JTSO or Form One approvals.....just so you know
tim
Wings & Wheels
www.wingsandwheels.com

"Andrew Wood" wrote in message
...
Hi Tim

thanks for your comments. I believe that Winter's work
is indeed good, and completely as advertised. My comment
is that Winter's published altimeter tolerances are
suprisingly loose by US standards. I assume this is
ok with the FAA so long as pilots are aware of the
possible altimeter error. My other question was which
of my three altimeters was the 'legal' one. The Cambridge
seems the best one, on my glider anyway. But a question
to Cambridge could not reassure me that their altimeter
was even legal to use at all. Sorry guys, I am not
trying to criticise you good people who make these
instruments, because I'm grateful for your work, and
I understand that everyone is doing their best. I'm
just trying to understand and move forward with a discussion.

regards, andrew


At 06:54 09 December 2006, Tim Mara wrote:
All (certified at least)altimeters will come with
calibration data along
with their approval data including those from Winter.
There was some problem
with earlier versions of the small FGH40 altimeters
which has been corrected
and Winter has been quite good about repairing those
with this specific
problem as a warranty repair of course within reasonable
time
limits....Current versions should have no difficulties.
Also it might be
noted that few other manufacturers have even attempted
offering these 3
needle 20K type altimeters at all in the small 57mm
size simply due to the
difficulties of building such an instrument in this
scale. You may find some
cheap knock off Chinese type altimeters in 57mm but
none that I know of in
the 20K 3 needle design and you may also find some
from other manufactures
but certainly noting in the less than thousands of
$'s outside those
manufactured by Winter. Winter does also make several
variations of the
small altimeters in 1, 2 and 3 needle designs with
a variety of scales
including Metric and Feet scale types in varying prices
ranges as well.
Tim
Wings & Wheels
www.wingsandwheels.com



'Andrew Wood' wrote in message
...
I have always thought that Winter instruments are excellent,
and their repair/calibration support has been very
good in my limited experience (I've only needed Winter
support once, and got good service). But there is
one
caution that I am aware of: the compact Winter altimeters
have possible errors that US pilots should be aware
of. It's not a secret: the possible errors are listed
in the Winter altimeter data sheet. This is important
to know, for pilots flying under a class B ceiling
(as I do), and especially for pilots who fly up to
the 18000ft ceiling, since the Winter data sheet
errors
are surprisingly large at higher altitudes. Take a
look and see. As an experiment, I tested my three
altimeters
(my Winter 4FGH40, my Cambridge 302, and my SN10b)
at my local airport, using my airport barometric setting,
to see if the three altimeters agreed with the published
airport elevation (1000ft msl). The errors were respectively
140ft, 2ft and 80ft. The Winter error is at the very
limit of the Winter data sheet error for 1000ft msl,
which is surprising since it had just been recalibrated
by the factory (because it had previously had an even
larger error). The other instruments were about 2
years
from calibration. In comparison, most US aircraft
altimeters
that I've seen in (IFR qualified) power planes have
been very accurate under this test, not more than
50ft
error at the very most. The US IFR altimeter accuracy
requirement for this test is 75ft. So under the US
altimeter test, the Winter altimeter would fail, the
Cambridge would be perfect, and the SN10b just acceptable.
I've been asking around as to which of my three altimeters
is the 'legal' altimeter to use, but (of course) have
got no clear answer.


At 19:01 08 December 2006, Tim Mara wrote:
I've actually been there in their shop and gone out
for dinner with Achim
Winter..It's very much like a small watch shop with
everyone working
meticulously with tiny tools and magnifying glasses
each hand building 3 or
4 instruments from start to finish at a time. Interestingly,
the owner, his
father and his father before him were none of them
pilots and got into this
business building aircraft instruments totally from
other business but their
instruments have been the standard for the sailplane
industry for decades
and remain the best and most recognized in their field.
Winter also has a
full catalog on line at http://www.winter-bordgeraete.de/
tim
Wings & Wheels
www.wingsandwheels.com

'Paul Remde' wrote in message
news:qMheh.263996$FQ1.171910@attbi_s71...
Hi,

I just updated my Winter instruments web site with
a few photos from the
factory. Last year at this time they sent me a few
photos of the town the
company is located in. This year they sent me a few
photos showing the
instrument assembly area and the stand on which they
adjust altimeters. I
enjoy photos like these because they show a bit more
about the company and
the people that make the instruments. Most glider
pilots fly with Winter
instruments and we have come to trust and rely on
them.