Best performing Vario?

On Friday, September 28, 2012 9:36:01 AM UTC-7, Eric Greenwell wrote:
On 9/28/2012 2:22 AM, Tobias Bieniek wrote:

we are talking about http://www.winpilot.com/images4/PRO_1.gif

right?



actually the xcsoar representation is quite similar, only that the

climb values are not drawn in a 3D way, but using a polar diagram.

The arrow that WinPilot shows is also available in XCSoar, just not

as emphasized and it will get larger once the suggestion to recenter

gets stronger. could you elaborate on what exactly you think is

better in the WinPilot representation?



SeeYou Mobile uses circles of differing size and color around the

thermal circle to show the thermal strength. It also has an arrow

suggesting the direction to move, and an audio alert when you should

level your wings to move the circle. The circles and arrow can be

assessed in a glance, or the audio alone can be used to avoid even the

need for a glance, all of which seem at least as useful as Winpilot's

depiction.



Mobile doesn't have the chart of lift versus time. How is this useful?



--

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to

email me)

The circles used by SYM are very coarse and do not convey much information, nor are they as easily interpreted at a glance. The arrow on SYM does not change length in any meaningful way. In contrast, the Winplot arrow will go from a dot (centered) to a huge thing all across the screen (you are WAY off!), conveying much more instantly. The graph of thermal strength is not useful for centering the thermal, but is useful in deciding when to leave.

On XCSoar, I think the current polar chart is much better than the proposed solutions. The polar chart gives about the same info as the Winpilot cylinder graph, though perhaps not quite as intuitive (up should after all be up, not out....). The arrow though is key, the computer is much fairer at integrating the climb around the circle than your butt or your eyes on a needle. Especially true of a whacky thermal or when your TE is messed up from prop wash. Just make sure the arrow changes length very obviously with lift asymmetry.