Guys and Gals,

At the end of the day it really does not matter that much. Having XC soar crash a couple days in a contest recently, I flew the task with a stopwatch, a map and a iPhone 5 running iGlide of the internal GPS. I did fine in the task.

That said, as glider pilots are often in close proximity to numerous close proximity traffic and have trouble reading digital displays due to vision issues or screen brightness issues, having a glasses HUD like display makes sense in several obvious ways. Adopting this new tech certainly won't be necessary, KS still flies an SN10 with no moving map for example. But it certainly has the potential to be a better way to display key data in exactly the same way military & commercial pilots, soldiers, etc are doing so today.

The only difference is that very soon HUD or smart glasses "hardware" cost is going to come way down, performance and application range is going to go way up. Development is going to explode. Common folk will be able to afford them. In 10 years, perhaps 5 (mark my words), the smart phone will be a relic. Watches, glasses and voice activated micro devices (earpieces) will become the way we communicate and access information. The smart phone will be as outdated as the "workstation or desktop" was last decade.

Some visionary glider pilots may not even have (wait for it...) any steam gauges in their gliders at all...it would cost far less to have a digital box output flight data to glasses and have a small backup screen on the panel..

As always, I embrace the new tech and enjoy learning (imagining) what it can offer. I do not fear change or learning new ways to do things. In fact, I love witnessing change and watching the naysayers squirm. I love shaking up the status quo. Trying to find ways to attack new tech before it has even arrived is humorous frankly. As with all of the past "discussions" here on related topics, by the time you learn of it, it's already here. Banning it is impossible, unnecessary and in most cases completely unenforceable.. Yet, I do fear the RC is probably already in discussions about drafting a new ban on HUD glasses. :-).

Here is to Google glass and the other competitors that are today working feverishly to catch the latest wave... And here is to the pilots that embrace it without fear of change.

Sean
F2