How to Share a Flight Recorder in a Club?

"ContestID67" wrote in message
ups.com...
Our club has recently purchased an electronic flight recorder
(Cambridge 302) to be used by the membership in the various club ships.
This is to replace the barograph which seems to be continuously out of
certification, out of paper, not any good for tasks, etc, etc.


Is this the proper use of a 302? All that in and out of different gliders,
having to reset the plumbing each time for the static and TE, having to re
accomplish the paper work, installing and removing equipment may require
Form 337s and log book entries by the appropriate mechanic?

There are other "gps data only" loggers that do not tie into the instrument
panel that can be supplied power and put in the "baro box", is easy to move
from ship to ship, declarations with proper names etc, are made from a lap
top and then uploaded to the data logger and handed to the pilot or OO.

BT

Please tell us you are using a Camb 302A, not a 302.

--
Hartley Falbaum

"ContestID67" wrote in message
ups.com...
Our club has recently purchased an electronic flight recorder
(Cambridge 302) to be used by the membership in the various club ships.
This is to replace the barograph which seems to be continuously out of
certification, out of paper, not any good for tasks, etc, etc.

The question has arisen about the pilot and ship information that
should be stored in the flight recorder. I know that if each pilot
enter his name and ship info before each flight, that the SSA Badge
committee will be happy. However this is tedious (connect to a
computer or PDA) and prone to error. Nothing would be worse than
setting a record only to find that the log is in someone else's name.
Of course this would be no one's fault but the PIC but the situation is
definately something to avoid if possible.

What I would like to do is enter generic information into the flight
recorder and let the observer certify that this particular pilot flew
this flight. The generic information would be "Club Name Pilots" and
"Club Name Fleet". I feel that this is similar to the club use of a
barograph. It is also similar to a private ship owned by a
parternership. Maybe leaving the info blank is the best approach.

I have placed a request with the SSA to see if my "generic info" idea
is a good course of action. No response to date. What are your
thoughts? What does your club do?

Thanks, John

Ditto, Harley.

Passing around a 302 means pulling off pitot, TE, and
static lines, power cable, pda cable (if using pda),
temperature probe, and antenna cable. I suppose if
they use a 'quick disconnect' feature for the pneumatic
lines, they won't have to replace them all of the time.

But it sure seems like a Volkslogger or Colibri or
the new itty bitty EW recorder would have worked very
nicely.

What connections are required for the 302A? Just power
and antenna?

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

At 03:18 24 September 2006, Hl Falbaum wrote:
Please tell us you are using a Camb 302A, not a 302.

--
Hartley Falbaum

'ContestID67' wrote in message
oups.com...
Our club has recently purchased an electronic flight
recorder
(Cambridge 302) to be used by the membership in the
various club ships.
This is to replace the barograph which seems to be
continuously out of
certification, out of paper, not any good for tasks,
etc, etc.

The question has arisen about the pilot and ship information
that
should be stored in the flight recorder. I know that
if each pilot
enter his name and ship info before each flight, that
the SSA Badge
committee will be happy. However this is tedious
(connect to a
computer or PDA) and prone to error. Nothing would
be worse than
setting a record only to find that the log is in someone
else's name.
Of course this would be no one's fault but the PIC
but the situation is
definately something to avoid if possible.

What I would like to do is enter generic information
into the flight
recorder and let the observer certify that this particular
pilot flew
this flight. The generic information would be 'Club
Name Pilots' and
'Club Name Fleet'. I feel that this is similar to
the club use of a
barograph. It is also similar to a private ship owned
by a
parternership. Maybe leaving the info blank is the
best approach.

I have placed a request with the SSA to see if my
'generic info' idea
is a good course of action. No response to date.
What are your
thoughts? What does your club do?

Thanks, John

The 302A has power and antenna inputs and gps outputs to drive a PDA. It
can, IIRC, drive an iPAQ with enough current to leave the backlight on, and
it is 5 V so no converter is needed.

The Vario functions of the 302 woould be a real PITA to transfer from ship
to ship in a club environment. Too many risks of mishandling the setup could
lead to disaster.

--
Hartley Falbaum
USA "KF"

"Ray Lovinggood" wrote in
message ...
Ditto, Harley.

Passing around a 302 means pulling off pitot, TE, and
static lines, power cable, pda cable (if using pda),
temperature probe, and antenna cable. I suppose if
they use a 'quick disconnect' feature for the pneumatic
lines, they won't have to replace them all of the time.

But it sure seems like a Volkslogger or Colibri or
the new itty bitty EW recorder would have worked very
nicely.

What connections are required for the 302A? Just power
and antenna?

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

At 03:18 24 September 2006, Hl Falbaum wrote:
Please tell us you are using a Camb 302A, not a 302.

--
Hartley Falbaum

'ContestID67' wrote in message
roups.com...
Our club has recently purchased an electronic flight
recorder
(Cambridge 302) to be used by the membership in the
various club ships.
This is to replace the barograph which seems to be
continuously out of
certification, out of paper, not any good for tasks,
etc, etc.

The question has arisen about the pilot and ship information
that
should be stored in the flight recorder. I know that
if each pilot
enter his name and ship info before each flight, that
the SSA Badge
committee will be happy. However this is tedious
(connect to a
computer or PDA) and prone to error. Nothing would
be worse than
setting a record only to find that the log is in someone
else's name.
Of course this would be no one's fault but the PIC
but the situation is
definately something to avoid if possible.

What I would like to do is enter generic information
into the flight
recorder and let the observer certify that this particular
pilot flew
this flight. The generic information would be 'Club
Name Pilots' and
'Club Name Fleet'. I feel that this is similar to
the club use of a
barograph. It is also similar to a private ship owned
by a
parternership. Maybe leaving the info blank is the
best approach.

I have placed a request with the SSA to see if my
'generic info' idea
is a good course of action. No response to date.
What are your
thoughts? What does your club do?

Thanks, John

Sorry boys. Yes, this is a 302A. A 302 would be a horrible choice due
to all the plumbing.

We have placed the 302A in a plastic box with an internal battery. It
is a completely standalone box, no external plumbing of any sort
necessary.

The question is: What does *YOUR* club do? Do they have something to
share amongst members besides a mechanical barograph?

ContestID67 wrote:
Sorry boys. Yes, this is a 302A. A 302 would be a horrible choice due
to all the plumbing.

We have placed the 302A in a plastic box with an internal battery. It
is a completely standalone box, no external plumbing of any sort
necessary.

The question is: What does *YOUR* club do? Do they have something to
share amongst members besides a mechanical barograph?

My club (Aero Club Albatross - ACA) purchased a couple of Colibri
units. Since we have more ships than FRs, we have it set up so each
unit can be plugged in to a standard wiring harness in any club ship.
We have an old desktop PC in the operations shack that some people
use to update the pilot name, but (as weas previously mentioned) the
main thing is to ensure that the badge or record claim specifically
identifies any anomalies in the declaration area and that the OO
explains them (e.g. "Pilot record not updated prior to flight; OO
verified that [name] was the pilot for the flight claimed")

Erik Mann
LS8-18 (P3)
State record keeper for NJ

Our club uses a Volkslogger. It is small and easily moved between gliders.
The club has a laptop we use with StrePla or SeeYou to load flight
declarations and download flight logs. We have a seperate battery used just
for the volkslogger that is easily stored in the plane, so it can be moved
to club member planes as well as club planes with no impact on the glider
wiring. The Volkslogger display provides a small, but very useful amount of
navigation information. It also will display the altitude being logged so
that you can make sure you don't appear to bust 18,000.

John Scott

ContestID67 wrote:

The question is: What does *YOUR* club do? Do they have something to
share amongst members besides a mechanical barograph?

My club, in the UK, has a collection of EW Model A and B loggers. These
do not have external power supplies: they can only operate off their
internal 9v batteries, so there's no issue with powering them.

They work well enough to handle Silver C badge requirements. Club
members usually do the C in one of the club's SZD Juniors, which do not
have GPS or and logger wiring fitted. Height and duration flights are
usually done while soaring locally, so the barometric record and OO
observation of launch and landing does the trick. Distance is usually a
flight to another suitably placed club site, so again the loggers can be
used stand-alone with our OO observing the launch and a landing
declaration signed at the destination club. The club considers that
landing at an unknown club field is a good learning experience. If the
pilot owns a GPS he can carry it to generate a trace but is discouraged
from looking at it during the flight. Once again, we think that map
reading "for real" without an instructor looking over the pilot's
shoulder is a useful bit of experience.

The club's high performance single seaters have GPS fitted (and now have
SDI C3 varios in place of their former M-Navs) and are wired to provide
a GPS data feed to our EW model A and B loggers. This works well for
tasks ranging from the BGA 100 km diploma up to Gold distance and
Diamond Goal flights.

HTH


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |