Oh shucky darn!

I got so worked up about the Nook (I've been using a Streak) that I just
bid $15.50 on eBay and now I'm afraid I'll win the auction...

Dan

On 2/26/2016 4:28 PM, wrote:
I find the Nook Simple Touch (6-inch black-and-white e-ink screen) to be more readable in sunshine than anything else I've seen, at any price. These can be had for about $30 on ebay. It takes some fiddling to "root" it and install Tophat (a derivative of XCsoar), but I've gotten used to the procedure, done it for several fellow club members. I use it with a USB GPS "puck" and a Y cable, and external power via a 12v-5V converter.

Before that for some years I used an ancient B&W Palm PDA plus a clip-on GPS with the Soaring Pilot software (also free), worked quite well actually, and was easy on the battery, but the Tophat software is more modern and intuitive, and the Nook screen is much larger.

Seems like the original poster here though wants to learn about how to make best use of a glide computer, not brand-name recommendations. There is a lot to learn, although best done by doing it (carefully - keep your attention outside the cockpit). I found that transitioning from paper-map-and-whiz-wheel to a computer allowed me to shift from over-cautious glide-guesstimating to a more precise glide envelope around each landable airfield on the route, resulting in my flying a lot more XC. At the price of occasional landouts of course.

--
Dan, 5J