When are thermals not circular and do thermal helpers assume thatthey are?

On Friday, August 2, 2013 8:45:34 AM UTC-7, Tim Taylor wrote:
All I can say is try the Winpilot Pro version. There is very little head down time (a whole lot less than you spend on Flarm, as a comparison). There are rare instances when I think I can do better than the thermal assistants suggestion, but most of the time not. Of course it will not tell you where under the cloud to look, or that you may be precisely centering a small side tendril and the real core is over on the other side. 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!



Andrej, Thank you for working on the Thermal Assistant. I updated my Oudie yesterday and look forward to flying with it in a few days.



I encourage you to look at adding a thermal strength graph as well for the display. I concur with Jon that the WinPilot interface took almost no heads down time and as with SYM the beep was enough to adjust most of the time.



One comment on the difference in perceived benefit for a TA with any software. There may be a geographical bias for the preference for them. In the western US and I would guess similar location like Australia and South Africa we deal with very different thermals from the Eastern US and most of Central Europe. The thermals range from very small cores with 10 to 12 knot centers (5 to 6 m/s) to very large with two to three cores with a total range of 12 or more knots in lift and sink. It is literally like riding a bucking bronco. In addition there are often windy blue days where finding a small core off tow the direction of a TA is helpful. Most of us have found that we gain a slight advantage with a good Thermal Assistant like the one WinPilot implemented many years ago.

Good point about the difference in thermals.

As a data point, I fly an ASH26E. After launch and climb, the engine is shut down and folded back, but left a bit out with the engine bay doors open for a cooling period of several minutes. During that period the tail pneumatics are subject to turbulance from the prop and doors that results in rapid random +/- 3 or 4 m/s swings in the variometer. Only with extreme attention can you find your way towards the core in these circumstances, and then only if it is a fairly uniform core. Or you can simply do what the Winpilot thermal assistant tells you based on the same information. It is able to make at least as much sense of the trash as I can, and requires no attention at all. .