On Tuesday, August 27, 2013 8:33:36 PM UTC-7, Tony V wrote:
On 8/26/2013 9:04 PM, Uncle Fuzzy wrote:



Personally, I just WON'T use anything other than Bumper's setup.



Yeah, well I have serious reservations. I just don't think it's quite

fully developed and requires more engineering. I'm thinking of a remote

control for calibration of the device. The constant pointing to one side

or the other is quite unacceptable.



Tony "6N"

Well, Tony, I don't know what to say. I'll admit that some earlier MK's inadvertently were shipped with an open loop feedback system. And some did not receive proper training before being sent to meet "their glider". This was quickly rectified in production and all new MKIV's come with extensive primary* training and a closed loop system that cleverly monitors relative wind and also accepts inputs from all flight control surfaces with a rather strong rudder bias. This insures that the MKIV will always point in a direction while in flight.

Some manufacturers might not admit it, but since we have a transparent operation here, in the interest of full disclosure we have uncovered a bug in our software and are working on a patch or exorcism or something. Only seen this on strong thermal days at Minden, some MKIV's will inexplicably act possessed, spinning rapidly and often pointing straight up. We think they are being affected by karma or force fields from the airport wind sock, which purportedly is also pointing straight up and twisting rapidly during such times. For all we know, it could be possessed as well. There is little risk to pilots as most are well clear, circling at cloud base during these troubling moments.

*Advanced training is the owner's responsibility. Repetitive training works best, with frequent flights being an excellent way to insure your MKIV doesn't go stupid and forget how it's supposed to behave.

bumper