LXNAV S80 Pilot Reports?

On Monday, July 27, 2015 at 3:38:42 PM UTC-7, Craig Funston wrote:
On Monday, July 27, 2015 at 2:15:36 PM UTC-7, jfitch wrote:
On Monday, July 27, 2015 at 11:24:51 AM UTC-7, Greg Delp wrote:
On Monday, July 27, 2015 at 2:08:57 PM UTC-4, wrote:

The artificial horizon is FANTASTIC. On all the time. Cannot be tumbled. I spent part of yesterday thermalling using just the artificial horizon and it was fairly easy to stay fully coordinated and keep the speed under perfect control.


I don't have the artificial horizon option yet but plan to at some point. Does it have a 14 day lock out for US contests like the other LXNav systems have? The manual wasn't clear on that point.

According to the SSA website, the only AHRS with a lockout approved for US competition use is the Air Avionics (Butterfly). Perhaps the list is out of date?

I saw an S80 for the first time a couple of weeks ago, seems like a nice instrument. With the same capability, it is about the same price as the Butterfly. The most obvious differences to me (I have flown with the Butterfly for 2 years now) is that the S80 has a real Flarm screen but lacks the inertial instantaneous wind and Vertical Airmass Movement of the Butterfly. Other capabilities seem similar, if differently implemented. And I guess you don't get an IGC flight recorder as you do in the Butterfly?

Am I missing a sale on Butterfly hardware? From what I can find getting set up with the base level Butterfly vario is USD $1,400 for the sensor, $1,400 for the display and $160 for a data conversion port to connect to an Oudie.

The S80 comes in at just over $1,500 for the whole unit. That's a pretty big price difference. I have to admit to lusting after the Butterfly's instantaneous wind data, but it comes at too steep a price.

I got an S7 (V7) a couple years ago and still find it to be a great instrument.

Cheers,
Craig
7Q

I just saw that the AHRS for the S80 adds over $900 to the price so that makes them closer.

C.