Best performing Vario?

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

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

It is the only instrument I have seen that looks as good in direct sun as my Ultimate Le flight computer.

They have recently added the ability to use SeeYou .cup files for the goto function, it is in the approval process for the ICG approval for the flight recorder and a compensation menu for the SC speed to fly has been added.

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


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

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?

Richard
What about the performance of the vario to show lift-sink with the new technology
Does it deliver?
S6

On Thursday, February 7, 2013 3:13:05 PM 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? Richard What about the performance of the vario to show lift-sink with the new technology Does it deliver? S6

I don't know. The Butterfly Vario performs as well as a LX1606 or LXNAV V7 with more features.
I have heard that the pressure sensors on the new varios can read 1 cm of altitude a 100 times per second. I guess the question is can inertial sensors add much to this?

Richard
www.craggyaero.com

they might not add much to the vario functionality, but don't underestimate the advantage of having the wind measured 20 times per second too. the butterfly vario measures all environmental influences on the aircraft like lift/sink and horizontal wind, and in theory should be able to filter horizontal gusts better than a traditional vario.

On Feb 7, 7:40*pm, Tobias Bieniek
wrote:
they might not add much to the vario functionality, but don't underestimate the advantage of having the wind measured 20 times per second too. the butterfly vario measures all environmental influences on the aircraft like lift/sink and horizontal wind, and in theory should be able to filter horizontal gusts better than a traditional vario.

Having hardware the right hardware is just a prerequisite knowing how
to process data from all these sensors to filter out gusts is the real
difficult part. It will probably take years before really good
solutions appear. These algorithms will become closely guarded secrets.

Best performing vario I've used? Peschges VP-4E Nav. Not that it's an amazing vario, just that I haven't had a chance to spend much time with anything much more modern!

As is is I've been following this thread and others with interest as, if the pilots in my club decide to install PowerFLARM in all our gliders I'm pretty much going to have to update my vario to one which has the ability to display Flarm data (limited panel space and the desire to keep my mechanical vario and still have space for a transponder). So far the LX7007C basic combined with a PowerFLARM brick seems like the most likely option though I'm also considering many of the other setups talked about here. I despise using touch screens though so that kind of limits my options.

I'm trying not to think about the fact that by the time all this equipment is installed, wired and signed off I'll have just spent on my avionics a sum roughly equivalent to one quarter the likely market value of my glider!

On Friday, February 8, 2013 1:13:05 AM UTC+2, 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?



Richard

What about the performance of the vario to show lift-sink with the new technology

Does it deliver?

S6

After reading this thread one can conclude that quality of variometer signal is of secondary importance to most glider pilots. There doesn't seem to be many posters who really can comment on variometer quality. Colour displays, flashing lights and dozens of useless features rule... It's a shame really.

On Friday, February 8, 2013 2:21:45 PM UTC+1, rk wrote:
After reading this thread one can conclude that quality of variometer signal is of secondary importance to most glider pilots. There doesn't seem to be many posters who really can comment on variometer quality. Colour displays, flashing lights and dozens of useless features rule... It's a shame really.

So, what is your definition of a quality variometer? A pellet vario will give you raw data, is that what you want? Come on, fess up, what gets you up best?

Kirk
66
Ilec SN10B, Westerboer VW910, Themi. Mechanicals are just so 20th century....

How important is the setup? The electronic varios all offer numerous configuration options. How about sharing thoughts on how best to set them up? For example who uses smart filtering on an LX vario, what setting and why? (Except of course that smart filtering does different things on different versions of LX).

The best vario for you may be the one you know best with the setup you know best.

On Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:53:54 -0800, waremark wrote:

How important is the setup? The electronic varios all offer numerous
configuration options. How about sharing thoughts on how best to set
them up? For example who uses smart filtering on an LX vario, what
setting and why? (Except of course that smart filtering does different
things on different versions of LX).

The best vario for you may be the one you know best with the setup you
know best.

Agreed. As I said above, I use an SDI C4. It allows you to set both the
info you need to see in each stage of the flight (cruise, climb, after
leaving the thermal) and how it should switch between cruise and climb
mode (choice of manual, speed and GPS-detected thermal turn). I use
speed. It has different speeds for cruise-climb and climb-cruise and,
after tuning it to my glider and flying style, I find its usually in the
mode I want, i.e. I don't need to touch it or change airspeed to put it
in the mode I want.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
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