I agree with you on the rate of change aspect and, in that sense, I can see
where you could develop an algorithm that would command changes of turn
radius to maximize time in the strongest lift.

But I fly purely for fun, these days, except for when I'm towing, and I'd
happily wager a beer (or two!) with you that I can out climb you with
variometers and computers powered off. Heck, I'll even cover up the
mechanical vario. No fancy seals required as proof of compliance and I
don't even care if I lose the bet - I'll still get a beer!

"jfitch" wrote in message
...
On Friday, August 2, 2013 6:55:31 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
An algorithm works for a single case and each thermal is different.



"jfitch" wrote in message





a lot of snipping Finding the lift is art. Centering it is science, and

science can be reduced to an algorithm. Computers, correctly programmed,
are

very good at algorithms - without head down time or otherwise adding to

pilot workload.



But I will try the reworked Naviter version!

I disagree - using only the information from your variometer, the algorithm
is pretty consistent or almost any thermal you will encounter.

The explanations here seem incomplete. You should tighten or loosen your
turn (angle of bank) based on the *rate of change of lift*, not the
strength. If you loosen your turn at the peak of lift, you will be 90
degrees out of phase and will not center quickly, if at all. What you want
to do is loosen your turn at the peak rate of increase of lift.
Alternatively, loosen your turn at 90 degrees prior to the peak lift. When
you experience peak lift, you are already at 90 degrees to the desired
correction direction (mod vario lag). Human perception is not all that great
and estimating rate of change, and recording that rate of change around a
complete circle, and relating that to your angular position in that circle
accurately, all advanced by the time constant (lag) of the variometer. This
is however very easy for the computer.