iGlide is a very fine app on the phone or iPad, but it just is not a flight computer. If you are flying a $ 120,000 glider and have not flown with a flight computer you just don't know what you are missing. Kind of like buying a Mercedes without leather, power windows, nav/entertainment system, satellite radio, and non-radial tires. The LX manual doesn't list many of the features I have found by flying it. Last summer after a re-light in a contest and re-launch I popped off tow and didn't raise my gear. The computer knows I am thermaling, knows my gear is down so after a minute or two it TELLS me in a pleasant voice, "check gear", that really saved me from flying all day with gear down. Everyone of my 30 pages on the LX9070 is custom designed by me, I picked the data to be displayed, where it is displayed, the font size and the color, even making custom titles for some data, all on a 7 inch screen panel mounted not hanging from some ram support with wires (I never used the PDA as I thought that arraignment looked too jury rigged). Yes, a new computer is very expensive, so is an ASH-26 or any modern glider. If the capital expense isn't fit for you or your glider, iGlide, top hat or even a slip stick is a fine choice, but it is far from the same feature set as a dedicated purpose designed and built flight computer, so don't kid yourself or others on that point. As always, one gets what they pay for. Happy and safe flying what ever you use, hell, I bet there are even pilots out there who use maps and their own brains, like I used to when I started. Funny how the 1-26 guys never chime in a such a discussion


On Monday, December 4, 2017 at 8:03:16 PM UTC-8, jfitch wrote:
The comparison referenced the LX9000, the Air L, and the Oudie by context, that is a range of products. I’ve not owned a glider with an LX9000 though I have read through the manual. The iGlide/ Air Vario will do a lot of that, and nearly all of it that I would be interested in. Not going to go through the whole list, but as examples flux gate compass, voice warnings, near airports, detailed maps, artificial horizon, etc. Other things like PDFs of your manual can easily (and more usefully) be kept on the phone. If you want sectionals try WinPilot, they are integrated, and it’s $50.

An iPhone X is $999, iGlide pro is $220, Air Vario $3000. A fully configured LX9000 is pushing 7 grand plus installation.

One of the reasons I prefer a removable cell phone or PDA based solution is that you replace it every few years, not because it ceases to function - I have had an iPhone 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and X, all were working perfectly when replaced and I’ve still not spent what an LX9000 costs. Rather the consumer electronics technology curve has left the old one behind. Also it does not tie you into a proprietary software package with an antiquated UI.

You may well be happy with your LX9000 20 years from now, but I suspect not. 20 years ago state of the art was the glide nav program from CAE running on a funky little black and white Compaq. Even now, the LX9000 is a VGA screen (640 x 480), about 8 year old technology in cell phones. Its hard to keep up when you sell a few hundred units a year rather than half a million a day.

I’m not trying to sell anyone anything. There are plenty of reasons to pick one solution over another. I am trying to correct some mis-impressions, mainly that the iGlide solution is not sunlight readable (it is), that it costs more that the others (it does not) or that it lacks significant features of the others (it does not). The core feature set of all of these products is roughly the same, you chose one or another over the details.