Eric Greenwell wrote:

wrote:

Or just drag that Cherokee out West. The 1-26ers get in some amazing
flights out here!
Back to the subject.... and this may be a bit of a 'noob' question.
Is there an instrument that will indicate the optimum speed to fly to
get through large areas of HUGE sink, also taking into account winds?
I have a very basic 302A FR, and an iPAQ with XCSoar.
Hints?

As usual, "It Depends...", but assuming you have a speed ring or other
type of speed director:

-if maximizing your XC speed, follow the speed director, which should
already have your McCready setting in it.
-if you want to minimize your altitude loss in thermal conditions as you
transit sink, use a McCready setting of zero
-if it's wave or back side ridge sink where you want to minimize your
altitude loss transiting the sink, use a McCready setting with a XC
speed the same as the wind speed (this is an approxiamation). Going
*into* a 50 knot wind, that might mean a setting of 6 knots; going
*downwind*, that might mean a setting of -1 knot.

I don't know of any instrument that can determine what you are thinking,
so it's up to you to choose the appropriate setting.

Not really an instrument but GPS_LOG WinCE program does the
appropriate calculations on a PDA.

Cheers,
Henryk Birecki