On Sep 23, 6:25 pm, Jeff Runciman
wrote:
Do I put a mechanical vario or do I save space on the
panel?

Another way of asking the question could be "who has ever had their
primary vario fail?"

If my primary (electric audio) vario failed it most likely be because
of a general power failure, which would have also have left me without
radio, GPS and logger. If I did want to use a mechanical vario, I'd
have to go "heads down", which is something I just won't do. I'd fly
home via the seat of my pants.

So, no mechanical vario here.

I did once have a battery go flat on me as the previous pilots of this
club aircraft had not put the battery on charge and I'd not checked
the voltage during the DI - I learnt a lesson there. On another
occasion with another club aircraft the electric vario had broken but
it took a long time for it to be fixed and people were still getting
it out - I turned down flying it. Not interested in thermalling while
looking at a dial.


Dan