On Nov 18, 12:58*pm, "noel.wade" wrote:
On Nov 18, 12:42*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:

I agree completely that a pilot should learn how to use it while on the
ground to get full use out of the unit, but my impression is somebody
can be handed one, given a 5 minute basic introduction, then go flying.

I second Eric's thoughts on this.

IF there are setup requirements to get the FLARM system operating in a
"dumb" mode, that can be done by the folks providing the rental
service. *Seriously, we do this in the IT world all the time - like
setting up a bunch of PCs to be identical in an office environment and
taking away some of the more powerful/troublsome features &
applications. *Or provisioning PDAs and SmartPhones with certain
settings already configured.

And rental places for bikes, kyaks, and other equipment do this same
sort of thing. *Renters *shouldn't* have to figure out how to
configure the darned unit as if it came out of the box. *They should
be handed a unit that's basically "ready to mount", and as Eric says -
turn it on, turn it off, and _maybe_ know how to mute it.

If my job situation were a little more stable, I'd take the money in
my savings account and buy 30 PowerFLARMs right now, for this
purpose. *The problem is that - by my calcs - it would take 3-4 years
to pay off the initial investment (renting each unit out 3 times a
year for about $150 - $250 per contest). *I just can't have that money
tied up for that long of a period... but I *have* given it some
thought (I could write some of my flying off as a business expense -
wahoo)!

--Noel

I think the rental price would need to be more like $50-75 to keep the
penny-pinching set to cave to peer pressure. There's a fair amount of
complaining about entry fees already. So your 3-4 year payback is a
bit longer. With an operationally well-designed rental program you
might get the number of contests up to maybe 5-6 per year. The rub is
that under a voluntary program you don't really know how many units to
ship to each contest and as a consequence you don't really know how
many units to buy to clear the market. You're really guessing.

The good news is that Dale did a great job getting a bunch of us to
volunteer to buy units and donate them so it's not really an economic
hurdle to pay back the investment. If someone were willing to pick up
the management/logistics of shipping and caring for the units - and
doing a little work to set up a 501 3(c) for the tax deduction, we
could carry this forward. As for me, I'd be willing to let them keep
the $50/unit/contest rental fees in order to facilitate shipping,
maintenance, replacements, etc. Perhaps one of our fine soaring
retailers would take it on as they have some infrastructure to do it?

9B