Alternative magnetic compass

I used my compass to advantage this Fall (for the first time ever) when working a narrow band of rotor lift at relatively low altitude with a head wind speed that was slower than my stall speed.

I'd fly out of the rotor lift and into sink after flying straight for about 20 seconds, turn around fast and fly downwind on the opposite compass heading to roughly above my ground reference point, then fly the same upwind compass heading repeatedly. I eventually climbed a couple thousand feet into weak wave. (I really enjoy working rotor).

Moving map was turned off. Perhaps the moving map would have made it too easy, and I would have missed the 'learning experience' of working rotor without the moving map.

I'd add that the 'compass swing' was irrelevant to this exercise as the headings that I used were just arbitrary (but repeatable) numbers.

Call me 'old school' but I also feel that it is beneficial to the improvement of my 'seat of the pants' skills for me to center thermals without 'Digital Thermal Assistants'.

Canadian Regulation Gliders — Day VFR

605.21 No person shall operate a glider in
day VFR flight unless it is equipped with
(a) an altimeter;
(b) an airspeed indicator;
(c) a magnetic compass or a magnetic
direction indicator; and...

There's a few varios with that capability.

A computer with moving map that shows
magnetic bearing should also satisfy this
reg.

The chance that a Transport Canada
inspector would make a fuss over a
single seater without a compass is close
to zilch, but the guy who signs your
annual needs some coverage.

On Thursday, October 29, 2015 at 4:15:07 PM UTC-4, George Haeh wrote:
Canadian Regulation Gliders -- Day VFR

605.21 No person shall operate a glider in
day VFR flight unless it is equipped with
(a) an altimeter;
(b) an airspeed indicator;
(c) a magnetic compass or a magnetic
direction indicator; and...

There's a few varios with that capability.

A computer with moving map that shows
magnetic bearing should also satisfy this
reg.

The chance that a Transport Canada
inspector would make a fuss over a
single seater without a compass is close
to zilch, but the guy who signs your
annual needs some coverage.

"There's a few varios with that capability." Most interesting point...so if you have an LX80XX or LX90XX you could add the LX Magnetic compass module (expensive) and meet the Flight Manual requirement. http://www.lxnav.com/accessories/compass.html

What other varios?

My bird has a Butterfly and Lx 90XX with compass option, but I was still require to have a manual compass.

"There's a few varios with that capability." Most interesting point...so if you have an LX80XX or LX90XX you could add the LX Magnetic compass module (expensive) and meet the Flight Manual requirement. http://www.lxnav.com/accessories/compass.html

What other varios?

On Friday, 30 October 2015 00:00:20 UTC+2, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
My bird has a Butterfly and Lx 90XX with compass option, but I was still require to have a manual compass.

"There's a few varios with that capability." Most interesting point...so if you have an LX80XX or LX90XX you could add the LX Magnetic compass module (expensive) and meet the Flight Manual requirement. http://www.lxnav.com/accessories/compass.html

What other varios?

I ditched my old compass after getting Butterfly Vario as it has built-in compass. So far no one has grounded my glider, and it goes trough EASA ARC-colonoscopy every year.