Please write book

On Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 8:23:25 AM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Solution: (drumroll......) Get a smartphone (used on eBay). Tadaaaah!

This conversation is akin to saying I want to go bicycle riding...but don't want to buy a bike???? XCSoar software is (of course)free. A used android smartphone is $50-$250 bucks.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...alID=EB AY-US

"You can lead a horse to the water but can't make it drink..."

A fully functional, outstanding soaring flight computer for $125. Nice phone too if you can bear to bring yourself into the 21st century.

Complaining about flight computers, books and manuals with this kind of high performance and extremely low cost solution available is unnecessary. All you really get with a $6000 spend on the "fancy stuff" is a brighter in panel display, airspeed and temp integration (wind, higher accuracy) and stick controllers. You can always mount the smart phone on the panel with industrial Velcro or a accessory mount...

Hi Sean,

Not trying to start anything.

In this thread & others (sorta related to the same vein..... "Get a Smartphone" with comments from you & others...), I guess I didn't understand the comment was, "Buy a used Smartphone for cheap, then use it as a display..... not to use it as a phone and pay for a dataplan".

Maybe it's "Exceedingly obvious" to you & others that made the same comment, but it wasn't obvious to me.... possibly others.

Not disagreeing, just commenting that maybe a few more words like, "Buy an outdated Smartphone and use it as a display with free soaring software for your glide computing needs" would limit/eliminate questions/issues.

I am NOT in a position to buy 4 Smartphones, get dataplans and THEN use my phone as a glide computer interface, but that is sorta what I gathered from comments in a number of threads.

Do you see my view?

Regardless, someone I know (that uses these threads) mentioned what you & others were likely driving at, I had not considered that as an alternate. Sorta makes sense.

Carry on.
Have a nice day.

I do. Your absolutely right. Point taken. Not enough description. I have an old Android phone with no data or service as a backup now. For my first 3 years of soaring (01-04) this with XC Soar was my primary and was excellent for contests and cross country about $150 dollars. For the money it's almost unbeatable.

Top hat is great too.

The Kindle has outstanding sunlight readability.

Oudie is also good, and integrates easily with varios, SN10s etc for wind and NMEA sentences but with cables your looking at $750+. I still have trouble reading my sunlight Oudie in the sun so I kinda feel like I wasted money "upgrading" from the XC-Soar.

Sean

What about small tablets, anyone using those as a flight computer?

Say the GalaxyTab4. http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_gala...4_7_0-6251.php

It has GPS. I went into Office Depot and downloaded TopHat / XCSoar on it using the stores wifi and then cut the wifi off and the GPS picked up my position inside the store. The screen seemed to look nice and all functions seem to work. Don't know about direct sunlight though, but could a sunscreen be used for this or any other device. After all the panel is somewhat of a sunscreen to panel instruments.

I did the same with a Galaxy III. It looked great in the store so I
bought it and was very disappointed with it in the cockpit. See if you
can take it outside into the direct sunlight before buying it.

I've found the Dell Streak 5 to have the best sunlight readable
display. They can still be found on eBay pretty inexpensively. I have
three of them...

On 2/25/2016 3:00 AM, Casey wrote:
What about small tablets, anyone using those as a flight computer?

Say the GalaxyTab4. http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_gala...4_7_0-6251.php

It has GPS. I went into Office Depot and downloaded TopHat / XCSoar on it using the stores wifi and then cut the wifi off and the GPS picked up my position inside the store. The screen seemed to look nice and all functions seem to work. Don't know about direct sunlight though, but could a sunscreen be used for this or any other device. After all the panel is somewhat of a sunscreen to panel instruments.

--
Dan, 5J

Running thru this thread and many others of like ilk, I wonder if half of the responders could even make a gold distance flight on a booming day if their batteries quit. Whats so dang hard about reading a sectional, working a manual mcready ring and spinning a whiz wheel? Geesh! Ya all got better than 40/1 ships now so quit whinning, learn to fly effeciently with your eyes looking outside and go for it.
Ps. If you havent had an outlanding in awhile then your not flying to the limits of your skill level yet.

On Friday, 26 February 2016 03:39:12 UTC+2, wrote:
Running thru this thread and many others of like ilk, I wonder if half of the responders could even make a gold distance flight on a booming day if their batteries quit. Whats so dang hard about reading a sectional, working a manual mcready ring and spinning a whiz wheel? Geesh! Ya all got better than 40/1 ships now so quit whinning, learn to fly effeciently with your eyes looking outside and go for it.

Yes, I agree and while we're on that point I suggest that all the airline pilots switch off their glass cockpits use a map, sextant and compass to navigate.

Op dinsdag 14 juli 2015 18:32:01 UTC+2 schreef chris johnson:
I wish someone would write a soaring book on flight computers. How to choose one, program, trouble shoot them, use them. Combine book with YouTube explanations.

And if you are handy you can build your own.
http://www.openvario.org/doku.php
Runs Xcsoar.

Dirk

Well Surge, I'm not anti-tech, in fact Ive got half the above mentioned crap in my ship, my point is, can YOU fly your ship efficiently and safely without such tecno-dependance?
Extra tec doesnot always equate to better or safer xc performance. I was flying with a guy a little while back who was so damn preocupied messing with his flarm and his oudie that he was oblivious to a pair of naval t6 trainers that were cruising past us. The guy never saw them. Same guy could hardly core the thermal we were in, too busy dependent on the oudie to tell him where to shift his circle.
Im not anti tec Surge, just tired of folks blaming their lack of soaring skills on lack of functioning tecnology.

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.

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.

Alternate way: If you want to learn how to apply McCready theory using a generic PDA, I'd suggest getting CONDOR - the competition soaring simulator, which has one (displays push/pull on the e-vario). You can then fly multiple flights at different MC settings, in identical weather, and see what the result is, on, for example, final glides. You can save igc files from previous runs and fly "against" them as ghosts (and see who gets home, who doesn't, and who gets home fastest). Once you understand zero wind MC theory, do runs at different MC settings up and down wind. There probably is a CONDOR scenery for where you fly (or have flown). It's interesting to do in the winter, and I find that I have little rust to brush off in the spring.

Why get a book (though I have many, and read them all - Advanced Soaring Made Easy - 3rd Edition by Bernard Eckey is my current favourite, available from many fine vendors in North America) when you can live the experience in the comfort of your own home?

"I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand." Confucius

Do; Understand. Then, with the benefit of practical experience, you're prepared to look at different flight computers to find one that speaks to you.

Dan
2D