On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 18:11:53 -0800, MNLou wrote:

I am about to make my first foray into the world of soaring software.

I will, most likely, be using a Naviter Oudie Lite hooked up to a
Cambridge 302. My focus will be cross country flight (versus contest
flying) for the foreseeable future.

I have read reviews and comments about both XCSoar and LK8000. They
both appear to be fine products with excellent functionality.

I would be interested in your comments on ease of use (both on the
ground and in the air), learning curve / ease of set up, and if one is
better suited for cross country flying.

Which one to use partly depends on what hardware you'll end up running it
on: if you use an Oudie or other device that runs Windows Mobile 5 or 6
then you can use either, but if you get an Android device you can only
use XCSoar.

Both XCSoar and LK8000 have versions that run on a standard Windows PC,
so I suggest you download both, install them on a Windows box and see
which you prefer. Its worthwhile doing the comparison using the maps and
other data files you'll be flying with, so get them too: maps for LK8000
come from the LK8000 site and maps for XCSoar come from the XCSoar site,
but the other files (Glider polars, Winpilot/CAI format waypoints, OpenAir
airspace files and landout field details) are common to both programs, so
you only need to download those once.

My site contains a section about installing these programs on a variety
of devices and where to find the waypoints, airspace, etc. It is intended
for UK users, but most of the download sites have files for other parts
of the world. Here's a link to this info:

http://www.gregorie.org/gliding/pna


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |