Best performing Vario?

On Monday, October 1, 2012 8:41:18 PM UTC-4, Craig Funston wrote:
On Monday, October 1, 2012 5:39:01 PM UTC-7, Craig Funston wrote: On Monday, October 1, 2012 4:56:54 PM UTC-7, Jim wrote: On Monday, October 1, 2012 5:00:03 PM UTC-4, Craig Funston wrote: On Saturday, September 22, 2012 8:58:15 AM UTC-7, Craig R. wrote: In your opinion, what was the best performing vario you have ever used? Specifically, the one that got you centered in and to the top of the thermal in the least amount of time. Let's ignore products because they have the latest "bells and whistles" add ons, latest technology, sexy appearances, or best computer processor.. Basic performance is the only criteria. I've heard some say the legacy Cambridge units and some say the Sage mechanical. Which unit did it for you? For those of you that are flying the ClearNav varios. How do you find the wind data on the vario (not SeeYou, LK8000, etc.) compares with your buddies flying with SN10s? Thanks, Craig There's wind data? I haven't found it on mine yet. I thought that was one of the as-yet un-implemented features! Jim It's a bit hard to tell from the ClearNav website and from Cumulus Soaring. Sounds like it might not have been implemented yet... Craig I'd rather see the team work on winds aloft before thermal centering. Craig

All are depending upon GPS funtionality which is still to come. Look forward to faster progress now that the team has evolved.
UH

I find the LX V7 Vario to be very intuitive and solid. Price to performance is very hard to argue with.

I considered the ClearNav vario at first but it seemed to take a very long time to develop...which made me wonder. After years of waiting, the CN vario was STILL was not ready at the SSA convention (RENO) last winter where I bought a V7 at a nice price. I knew ClearNav changed software developers mid stream which can never be a good sign.

In terms of performance, all the modern variometers use multiple accelerometers and custom algorithms to maximize the accuracy, smoothness etc of the instrument. They all should be a step ahead of the older generation units. So the folks claiming it is smooth, etc vs. their 302's are not really saying much in comparison to all modern vario's currently available. They are all better, smoother, more advanced than the older vario's. The question is who has used them all and made any quantitative analysis of what one performs better. Answer: nobody has. Subjective at best here.

Also, the ClearNav vario is a bit boring and "plain Jane." Basically a 302 look. No color, no modern UI. The V7 shows me 4 key pieces of vario information (electronic needles in addition to a mechanical needle) at once via symbols as well as numeric information. The ClearNav vario is a upgraded 302 with the same single mechanical needle and a couple numeric readouts. Not a ground up new vario in my opinion. No UI advancements.

It is clear to me that the Butterfly vario is the most powerful vario instrument available, and also the latest to be developed although all of the manufactures are constantly refining their firmware (improving or fixing errors). From what I have heard it is really nice. But at $3500 it is very expensive. An entire LX 8000 or 8080 flight computer (including essentially a V7 vario...V5 in this case) is $5000. I was close to buying the Butterfly.

For what it's worth I chose a V7 and for $1500 bucks it has been excellent. I run it with a Colibri II (GPS) and a Dell Streak 5 running XC Soar. This combination is a exceptional set-up in a racing glider. And also VERY affordable.

Sean
F2

On Saturday, September 22, 2012 11:58:15 AM UTC-4, Craig R. wrote:
In your opinion, what was the best performing vario you have ever used? Specifically, the one that got you centered in and to the top of the thermal in the least amount of time.



Let's ignore products because they have the latest "bells and whistles" add ons, latest technology, sexy appearances, or best computer processor. Basic performance is the only criteria.



I've heard some say the legacy Cambridge units and some say the Sage mechanical.



Which unit did it for you?

Originally Posted by Craig R.

In your opinion, what was the best performing vario you have ever used? Specifically, the one that got you centered in and to the top of the thermal in the least amount of time.

Let's ignore products because they have the latest "bells and whistles" add ons, latest technology, sexy appearances, or best computer processor. Basic performance is the only criteria.

I've heard some say the legacy Cambridge peimar led lights and some say the Sage mechanical.

Which unit did it for you?

I will go with Cambridge Units I love them most

On Saturday, 22 September 2012 16:58:15 UTC+1, Craig R. wrote:
In your opinion, what was the best performing vario you have ever used? Specifically, the one that got you centered in and to the top of the thermal in the least amount of time.

I've had a B400 for a couple of years now and it's a wonderful vario - fast and accurate as well as simple to install. It's not got all the fancy guff that everybody seems to like playing around with but it has got me into plenty of thermals and more importantly helped me get the best climb the whole way up. It also tells you all you need to know audibly without you needing to look at the display constantly and provides a battery pack for backup

I haven't tried the posher models with speed to fly as I go with the Spreckley school of speeds which doesn't require a slavish following of a needle but a good view at the lovely scenery

Flown with Zander 940, Cambridge, B50s and a few others but the B400 and the 'improving' tones are the best.

Hi 7C. I shall hope to get you to try the LX9000 this year and see what you think. In the very brief experience I have had so far the thermal centering aid seemed particularly good.

I fear it is the quality of the backside which separates better pilots from the mediocre like me, not the quality of the vario.

On Tue, 5 Feb 2013 10:11:29 -0800 (PST), 7C
wrote:

On Saturday, 22 September 2012 16:58:15 UTC+1, Craig R. wrote:
In your opinion, what was the best performing vario you have ever used? Specifically, the one that got you centered in and to the top of the thermal in the least amount of time.

I've had a B400 for a couple of years now and it's a wonderful vario - fast and accurate as well as simple to install. It's not got all the fancy guff that everybody seems to like playing around with but it has got me into plenty of thermals and more importantly helped me get the best climb the whole way up. It also tells you all you need to know audibly without you needing to look at the display constantly and provides a battery pack for backup

I haven't tried the posher models with speed to fly as I go with the Spreckley school of speeds which doesn't require a slavish following of a needle but a good view at the lovely scenery

Flown with Zander 940, Cambridge, B50s and a few others but the B400 and the 'improving' tones are the best.

For pneumatic varios the Sage carefully set up with just the right
restrictor can't be beaten.

Why don't PNA developers emulate the Themi interface? Brighter screens should make that possible nowadays. Being able to get centering help via peripheral vision seems huge... especially if you're not the only one flying in a thermal.

http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/themi.htm

On Thursday, February 7, 2013 7:07:12 PM UTC+1, son_of_flubber wrote:
Why don't PNA developers emulate the Themi interface? Brighter screens should make that possible nowadays. Being able to get centering help via peripheral vision seems huge... especially if you're not the only one flying in a thermal.

SeeYouMobile has a similar function using a "beep" that you can set to tell you when you are approaching the heading to the strongest part of the thermal. Not sure if SYM includes the drift calculation that a Themi does, but in theory it should be a useful aid to shifting your circle - set it to beep when you should roll out momentarily.

But since I use a Themi, I rarely use my SYM thermal page - I find it takes too much heads down time for the value added. I prefer a climb map page zoomed in to show the climb track with dots, and some dedicated vario navboxes.

YMMV.

Kirk
66

On Saturday, September 22, 2012 11:58:15 AM UTC-4, Craig R. wrote:
In your opinion, what was the best performing vario you have ever used? Specifically, the one that got you centered in and to the top of the thermal in the least amount of time.



Let's ignore products because they have the latest "bells and whistles" add ons, latest technology, sexy appearances, or best computer processor. Basic performance is the only criteria.



I've heard some say the legacy Cambridge units and some say the Sage mechanical.



Which unit did it for you?

Hi
The Butterfly vario look great on paper. Any actual user with an opinion on it's performance
in this group.
S6

On Thursday, February 7, 2013 11:38:48 AM UTC-8, s6 wrote:
On Saturday, September 22, 2012 11:58:15 AM UTC-4, Craig R. wrote: In your opinion, what was the best performing vario you have ever used? Specifically, the one that got you centered in and to the top of the thermal in the least amount of time. Let's ignore products because they have the latest "bells and whistles" add ons, latest technology, sexy appearances, or best computer processor. Basic performance is the only criteria. I've heard some say the legacy Cambridge units and some say the Sage mechanical. Which unit did it for you? Hi The Butterfly vario look great on paper. Any actual user with an opinion on it's performance in this group. S6

S6

I have about 30 hours on the Butterfly vario. It is as nice as it looks.

Please see the YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i0IVkHUnWU

They have recently add the ability to read a SeeYou .cup file for the goto, it should also be IGC approved soon and the speed to fly SC mode has a compensation setting that can be customized.

http://www.craggyaero.com/butterfly.htm

Richard,
Craggy Aero LLC