*May
utilize a GPS-NAV or other GPS receiver that outputs NMEA
0183 data for additional flight data display.
What are the FAI and IGC, and
what is the Sporting Code?
The Fédération
Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the worlds air sports
federation was founded in 1905. It is a non-governmental
and non-profit-making international organization with the
basic aim of furthering aeronautical and astronautical
activities worldwide. FAI activities include the
establishment of rules for the control and certification
of world aeronautical and astronautical records. FAI
establishes regulations for air sporting events which are
organized by member countries throughout the world. FAI
also promotes skill, proficiency and safety in
aeronautics. FAI confers medals, diplomas and other
awards to those who have contributed to the achievement
of these aims.
Within the FAI there are
11 Air Sport Commissions. In addition to the General
Commission, there are 10 air sport disciplines under FAI
control: ballooning, general aviation, gliding,
rotorcraft, parachuting, aeromodelling, aerobatics,
astronautics records, hang-gliding and microlights.
The International Gliding
Commission (IGC) is the body within the FAI which is
responsible for all international aspects of air sports
involving gliders and motor gliders. The IGC makes all
the rules for international (world and continental)
championships, world records and badges. The rules are
published in the FAI Sporting Code, which has a General
Section and a section for each air sport. The gliding
section is Section 3. The rules include definitions (glider,
motor glider, classes, flights) and procedures for flight
documentation and verification, competition rules and
technical specifications.
More information about
these organizations is available at the following web
site: http://www.fai.org/~fai/gliding/
How do I go about obtaining
service or an upgrade to my flight instrument?
Cambridge has trained
service personnel throughout the World.
On the dealers page you will find the CAI service
centers marked with the letters SD. You may also return
your instrument for service to our facility here in the United States.
When returning your
instrument please be sure to enclose a letter describing
the service needed, where you would like to have the
repaired instrument shipped as well as your preferred
method of payment. You are encouraged to call ahead if
you have any questions.
If returning a GPS NAV for
service or upgrade, please send the display along with
the recorder.
My M-NAV units of measure are
feet, nautical miles and knots, I want to change them to
meters, kilometers and meters per second. What should I
do?
A new ROM must be
installed. If you feel comfortable with opening up your
instrument you can do it yourself. Otherwise return the
M-NAV to the factory for service.
Will my Cambridge Aero Products
continue to function correctly in the year 2000?
Below are listed the
products with comments as related to the Y2K issue.
M-NAV: Non issue.
S-NAV: Non issue.
L-NAV: Non issue.
CAV: Non issue.
GPS-NAV PC Software: The Y2K bug has been
corrected in Version 5.88. Further questions may be
directed to it's author, John Good, at johngood@ultranet.com.
GPS-NAV: The
release of V5.5 for the Flight Recorder has a fix for a
leap year bug that was discovered during our Y2K
investigation. During our investigation no Y2K
problems were found. However, we did find that if a
flight log is being recorded at midnight UTC, December 31
at the beginning or end of a leap year, the flight log is
divided into two parts.
The GPS receivers
contained within the Models 10, 20, and 25 is supplied by
Garmin International. Please read the Garmin Y2K Statement on their website.
During the end of
week event (EOW) in August some GPS-NAV Model 10s
experienced problems with satellite acquisition due to
the old eight channel receivers. Garmin states that they
no longer support the old eight channel receiver
(GPS-10). After the event, we were able to write some
code that enabled the GPS-10 receivers to "wake
up". We were not able to anticipate (simulate) the
EOW event as we have no control over the data that is
received by the GPS-NAV from the satellites. We do not
know what will happen at the rollover to the year 2000
with regard to the GPS-10 receivers. Garmin states that
there should not be a problem. If there is, Cambridge
Aero will make every attempt to correct the problem.
Worst case is that the Model 10 will need an upgrade to
the current GPS-25 receiver. This hardware upgrade will
not be considered a warranty issue.
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