Thanks for keeping us informed Paul. Those who criticise have not thought through just how valuable your 'public' comments/advise are. They probably prefer to get their info from pretty glossy commercial web-sites or brochures overseen by marketing spin doctors. Not that we don't expect some bias from your info . . but at least it will be balanced by another reader/owner/manufacturer and you have demonstrated that your 'imbalance' then becomes adjusted in future. I especially like the way you feel compelled to highlight the 'down' sides ('I suppose that it could be argued . . '
truly giving us a vital set of guidelines to use when evaluating technology.
Way too often the spin doctors smother 'consumers' with hype in an attempt to sell thoughtlessly designed products. Often times their intense detail leads us to assume that the info is complete but the products sometimes do not work in a very fundamental way that is 'conveniently' *not* mentioned! (I am not necessarily talking gliding products here, but gps units with displays that cannot be easily read by folks over 45yrs comes to mind).
To quote Don Johnstone, 'Truth will very seldom come in search of you, you have to look for it very carefully'.
Keep up the great work Paul. We need even more people like you! Newsgroups are a valuable source of product information and your contributions are most welcome.
Cheers,
Jim Kelly, Australia
Hi, For those of you who don't like it when I do commercial posts on r.a.s. - I'm sorry, but that is what this is. I think the information below will be interesting to quite a few pilots who read this newsgroup. I just found out that the new Cambridge Flight Recorder (CFR) will work with the 303 LCD Navigation Display. That is big news to me. I think that is very cool! For $1219 ($824 for the CFR and $395 for the 303) you get a fantastic logger, and a display with final glide, navigation, task editing and declaration, and pilot selection and editing. It may be the perfect solution for clubs and syndicates. The CFR can store 2000 waypoints and log up to 100 hours of flight at 4 second intervals. No other logger offers that functionality. I suppose that it could be argued that a competitive logger has a display built-in and costs less. But it doesn't offer final glide information like the 303 does. Also, it is my opinion that the user interface on the 303 is much easier to use than the competitive products. Of course I need to mention that the CFR is not quite shipping yet. It is scheduled to ship sometime in March. 303 units are also quite backlogged. More should be available in April. IGC approval for the CFR has not been received (or applied for) yet. I imagine that the approval will go quickly since the CFR is mechanically the same as a 302 which already has IGC approval, but I cannot make any promises. I really think the CFR is a great product - especially in combination with a 303 or Glide Navigator II. It's also very nice that the CFR can provide enough 5V power for any Pocket PC. Good Soaring, Paul Remde Cumulus Soaring Supplies
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com |
