Oh the old radio argument. Wow, have I had some battles on that one.

Those in my club that read RAS will know this story, but most comical radio usage discussion and irony I've dealt with.

Week 1: I propose buying handhelds and speaker mics to use in the trainers.. Along with suggestion on how to incorporate it and when...
Week 2: Fire and brimstone rain down on why radios are unnecessary and the whole yada, yada. One instructor (Instructor X) in particular.
Week 3: Instructor X gets into wave with a student. I am on tow in our Duo. Instructor X calls the person in my back seat on a cell phone to tell us where the wave is at. Imagine how much easier that would have been with a radio.


Regarding Audio Varios, yes they would be nice and an upgrade/donation program is not a bad idea, but I don't think I know of very many people with a plain Audio vario. We did manage one upgrade to a club ship through a situation like this, but most people seem to have audio varios that are linked to their flight computer.

An alternate solution that I have employed at our club is the use of a couple of old Hang Gliding varios that I had. Sit that in your lap, tied to your seat belt and keep your head out of the cockpit. Often a simple HG or PG vario can be picked up for under $100 and does a very good job. The batteries last a very long time and it trains people to fly the sound not the needle.

It's not TE compensated, but for a 2-33 or a 1-26, there isn't a lot of extra E to compensate for so it generally works quite well. There are also some clip-on audio varios from Flytec and Malletec that work great as well.



On Wednesday, May 29, 2013 10:38:18 AM UTC-7, kirk.stant wrote:
On Wednesday, May 29, 2013 12:19:03 PM UTC-5, son_of_flubber wrote:

Here is something that you might be able to do to improve glider safety for everybody (yourself included).







Buy yourself a brand new variometer (you deserve it!). Give your old "perfectly good audible variometer" to a club, a commercial training operation, or one of those pocket-empty "first glider" owners that need to buy all of the "extras" that he/she needs. (Dang! that list is long: parachute, wing wheel, trailer repairs, new batteries etc., etc...).







Post the availability of your generous gift to RAS.







If somebody is clever, knowledgeable and motivated, they might set up a program with SSA that would get you a tax-deduction for your charitable gift of a valuable variometer and direct the vario to a waiting list of deserving clubs.







I recently learned to fly gliders at three otherwise excellent clubs. None of the trainers had audible variometers. Now I have to break the bad habit of frequently looking at the vario needle. Dumb. BTW, I have an audio variometer, but I don't have the skill to use it.



Of course, when you get your new fancy V7, CNv, or Butterfly vario, you will be spending all your time staring at it to get all that fancy information that you paid for!



The other problem is getting the average club user to even acknowledge the presence of an audio vario, and go to the bother of putting in a charged battery, learning how to use it, etc..



We can't get our club to agree that radios are a good thing! "Too complicated, confuses the student, they can't learn to fly and talk at the same time yadda yadda yadda".



Pathetic, really.



Kirk

66