BELOW IS AN EMAIL SENT TO MR. GARRECHT IAW HIS REQUEST CONCERNING A VL PROBLEM I CANNOT FIGURE OUT. IT APPEARS OTHERS HAVE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM. NO RESPONSE YET - WHEN (AND IF) THERE IS ONE I'LL POST IT HERE. I ALSO HAVE A POST IN THE "GENERAL" FORUM, BUT Q&A MAY BE BETTER. I'LL ATTACH ONE OF MY EFFORTS "VL PRACTICALITIES" F.Y.I. IF ANYONE WANTS THE OTHERS LET ME KNOW. .
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As a result of lots of work as I am sure you can see, I have made three documents that I have attached for your interest and use if you like. The first is "Volkslogger Practicalities", the second is "Winpilot Basics" having to do with using the Win Pilot to program the VL, and the last is "VL Preflight". The fourth is "VL Menu" that has several minor errors I have corrected by hand. I have done this both to help myself as well as to help other pilots who have found the Garrecht instructions somewhat unclear on how to actually use the VL. I hope you will find them interesting and would appreciate any suggestions.
My problem (and that of others) is that although I believe I have set everything correctly, I cannot get the VL to recognise the start point and function automatically with the proper "beeps" indicating my arrival in the OZ or to advance to the next TP. If you look at my 'Win Pilot" instructions you will see exactly how several of us have worked together to program the VL. Still, we fly over the Start and nothing happens indicating passage - no fast beeps, no long beep to indicate proper passage, no advance to the next TP. The heading and distance is fine, it counts down to "0" distance and then increases, but nothing happens. I am using nothing but the VL in flight as the VL is all I want - I do NOT want to fly with a fancy computer so the VL for me is just fine. BUT - I am trying for my diamond goal distance and I want to make sure the VL is working as it should..
I suspect there is some single thing that is in error. I have programmed the cylinder for 500m, and the OZ for 3km. Several ays ago I circled over and through the start (on course) three times but nothing would register. On landing I put the trace on a computer and all indicated OK - no problem at all - my whole flight was there including the three starts!
I suppect the problem MIGHT be that somehow I have to define the TPs as either cylinder or OZ but not both in the same flight via FAI DEC or FAI EDIT, but do not understand how to do this or if this is even the problem. On the other had it may be that I have to go to NAV and select ROUTE but this is supposed to occur automatically on startup of the VL.
Unfortunately this is costing me expensive flying time to do these experiments, and I suspect I am making an error somewhere. I suppose I could construct a task and do in in my car to see what happens, but.... If you would look look at the attachments I suggest that the instructions I have done are quite clear and perhaps even better that yours (at least for English speakers) but I simply cannot understand where my error is - or whether the VL is malfunctioning.
I would greatly appreciate your help. As you will see I have tried HARD to make a more understandable set of instructions, but I cannot get the VL to work as it should. I have posted messages on severa internet "bulletin boards" but have had no responses. Something is wrong - can you please help?
