On May 17, 3:55*pm, glider wrote:
If Hallmark can make a Birthday card talk, why can't we have a talking
vario? Meg Ryan voice from Harry met Sally.
*"Yes, yes, YES".... for climb.
*"Are you through".... when in sink.
*GA

More seriously, voice chips are cheap, and it would be quite easy for
vario designers to put quantiative informaton in voice form.

For example, when thermaling, the pointer and tone are good for the
fast vario, since that information comes quickly and the actual number
is less important. But the averager could report the number ("3.2
knots....3.4 knots...") every 20 seconds or so. The averager is a
reading where the actual number matters. Then you'd never have to look
at the panel!

Similarly, glide information is quantitative, so a good candiate for
voice chip. "263 feet over Mc 3....242 feet over Mc 3....152 over Mc
3..." every 30 seconds or so.

Safety warnings are much better with voice than with tones. "Lower
Gear! .... Lower Gear!" is so much better than the famous "What are
you guys calling me on the radio about? I can't hear you there's some
stupid buzzer going off in here!"

The ClearNav has implemented this for airspace. A lovely voice comes
on and says "airspace, airspace". I've been bugging them to add the
above; maybe if others do so as well they'll do it. (I bug them about
a lot of stuff!)

John Cochrane