Talking gyrogliders - go at it!

[Heron]

Lets see what we´ve got! (lots of stuff from C. Wall´s time with us)
thanks
Heron

[WHY]

In the other thread on gliders, I asked if anyone used radio communications with the glider, I have (somewhere) some of the inexpensive 49 mhz headset style two-way radio's they are push to talk or voice activated, last time I used them they worked fine , good for about 1/4 mile with the wire antenna on the headset up and about 200 yards with the antenna looped over the head band. If I can find them and there is someone out there giving training in a glider , I will give them the radio's also have some 49 mhz handheld same offer. (but you have got to be giving training in a glider to get these)

Tony

[EI-GYRO]

If I were doing it all again, I would use cell-phones with headsets, or some other full-duplex, unkeyed method.

As it was, 1 finger meant give me 10mph, two for 20, three for 30, and five meant go for it.
Drivers arm out meant ' foot is off the gas, you'd better land.'

Worked fine.

[Dynodon]

Tony if you find those radios,our club would be interested.We do glider training every month in our PRA chapter #4.
Don

[Dean_Dolph]

Our Chapter 62 boomtrainer has a intercom so that the pilot can communicate with the team in the towing vehicle. But then it is easier in a boomtrainer than for a glider. Lets see, a couple hundred feet of wire along the tow line should do it!

Early on when the chapter used gliders the hand signals sometimes didn't work; long story! Oh yeah, I wasn't a member then so I got my info 2nd hand.

[PW_Plack]

If you're at an airport, whoever is driving the vehicle should be on an aircraft radio anyway. A standard two-place VOX intercom fed by the radio, with a cable long enough to feed the student's headset, would make use of the time to teach proper comm technique during boom training. (Driver making calls to alert approaching traffic of boom training on the runway, etc.)

On a glider, you could do the same thing, but you'd need some wireless, full-duplex way to link the intercom's output up to the student, or to somehow induce the signals onto the tow cable.

[EI-GYRO]

If you use steel towing cable, you need to run it through a garden hose, or similar,
to prevent wear and fraying ( and make it more visible to the towcar driver during the
turn and pickup).
You could easily run a intercom wire through the hose too.

That said, proper preflight briefing should be used to minimise chatter during the runs.
If it all goes wrong, there wont be time to talk about it.