Glide computer review

Alright, I'll be the heretic in the group:

I find that a well-set-up PDA is much better than most of the flight
computers out there!

Many of the panel-mounted computers use text and/or point-and-line
graphics; which, while visible in sunlight, don't give you nearly as
good of an idea where you are as a moving map does. Maybe its because
I'm younger than the average US glider pilot (sorry, not my fault) and
I've grown up around computers and graphics, but I find moving-map
symbology (with a couple of choice text items) MUCH easier to
interpret at a glance, compared to the "screen full of text" approach
of many glide computers. And some brain studies have proven that
simple colors and shapes can be interpreted faster than text (letters
are shapes as well; but shapes that need to get shuffled off to the
linguistic part of the brain, IIRC).

I think one of the problems is that most people pull a PDA out of the
box, load up a flight program like XCSoar (my favorite) or SeeYou, and
immediately compare it to the panel-mounted flight computers in top
gliders. The issue is that the major PDA systems are far more
customizable. IF people would take the time to tweak the PDA-based
programs to display the information they want and in the style that
they like, I think the overall opinion of these solutions would go up
quite a bit!

I also find the menu system and feature navigation in most panel-
mounted flight computers is a NIGHTMARE. As a programmer with a lot
of experience in webpages and other user-interfaces, these systems
drive me up a WALL! The designers obviously didn't put a whole lot of
thought into the fact that people will be fiddling with these things
while _flying_. Since the flying is the more important part, some
focus should have been put on easy navigation to the most important
items in an unambiguous manner. IMHO, its a bad design to have 1
button perform 4 or 5 functions depending on how you hold it down or
in what sequence you press it!

They're getting better with the most recent generations of panel-
mounted computers, but a lot of the older/used units on the market
worry me... They require the most "heads-down" time to use, but are
the cheapest and therefore the most likely items to be used by the
least experienced pilots.... Seems like a BAD combo, to me!

OK, enough ranting/opinionating... The bottom line is that neither
PDAs nor Panel-mounted solutions are a silver-bullet. Anyone with
interest in them should SPEND SOME TIME fiddling with a variety of
solutions to find out what feels best to them - even if its just on
the ground with some buddies' gliders. Be sure to ask about how each
system can be customized - in case your idea of the perfect setup
differs from your buddies! You want to make apples-to-apples
comparisons, afterall.

--Noel