Best performing 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
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