New software program for glider pilots

Please excuse the shameless plug, but I want folks to be aware that I
have released a new software utility for glider pilots today called
"SeeG". Made for Mac and PC, and created by the makers of GlidePlan,
SeeG allows you to explore your glider’s center of gravity in a whole
new way. For more information, go to http://www.glideplan.com. Here
are some of the things you can do:

• Find out how much nose ballast will put your CG at exactly 65% aft,
using a simple slider.
• Easily switch between Metric and English units, or weight and Volume
measures whenever it's convenient.
• Print a balance record of your glider, or your whole fleet. Print
graphs too!
• Works on single place or two seaters, with, or without nose wheels
• Make a graph of wing tank VS tail tank water to maintain your
balance point, or CG vs nose ballast to adjust it on the ramp
• Start from your current weighing to build your model. Add a preset
list of moments, or create your own custom ones.
• Store an unlimited number of gliders, or variations.
• Enter mass limits and CG limits to get automatic warnings when
anything goes out of range.

John Seaborn, one of the beta testers of SeeG, had this to say about
the program:

- Very easy to use and understand, mostly. Nice clear visual design.
- The graphing is absolutely over the top great.
- Great teaching tool as you need to understand something about glider
CG calculations but SeeG makes it very easy to play with loadings and
see the effect on the gliders GC. Very educational.
- The easy switching between Metric and English units is just
fantastic.
- The solver is just great as it can give you very fast what if data
for the various moment arms. Very, very cool.

Introductory price is just $20, or you can try the demo first. Visit
http://www.glideplan.com for details. If you try the program and
think others might benefit from it, please consider passing along this
info to your club or forum. At this price, I won’t be able to do much
in the way of advertising ☺

Any constructive feedback is encouraged here on this thread, so others
can benefit from what you find out. Help and a sample glider file are
included in the PC installer (Mac folks can download the sample file.)
so you can explore the program quickly.

Thanks!

Matt Herron (Jr.)

On Apr 20, 10:45Â*pm, "Matt Herron Jr." wrote:
Please excuse the shameless plug, but I want folks to be aware that I
have released a new software utility for glider pilots today called
"SeeG". Made for Mac and PC, and created by the makers of GlidePlan,
SeeG allows you to explore your glider’s center of gravity in a whole
new way. For more information, go tohttp://www.glideplan.com. Here
are some of the things you can do:

• Â* Â* Find out how much nose ballast will put your CG at exactly 65% aft,
using a simple slider.
• Â* Â* Easily switch between Metric and English units, or weight and Volume
measures whenever it's convenient.
• Â* Â* Print a balance record of your glider, or your whole fleet. Print
graphs too!
• Â* Â* Works on single place or two seaters, with, or without nose wheels
• Â* Â* Make a graph of wing tank VS tail tank water to maintain your
balance point, or CG vs nose ballast to adjust it on the ramp
• Â* Â* Start from your current weighing to build your model. Add a preset
list of moments, or create your own custom ones.
• Â* Â* Store an unlimited number of gliders, or variations.
• Â* Â* Enter mass limits and CG limits to get automatic warnings when
anything goes out of range.

John Seaborn, one of the beta testers of SeeG, had this to say about
the program:

- Very easy to use and understand, mostly. Nice clear visual design.
- The graphing is absolutely over the top great.
- Great teaching tool as you need to understand something about glider
CG calculations but SeeG makes it very easy to play with loadings and
see the effect on the gliders GC. Very educational.
- The easy switching between Metric and English units is just
fantastic.
- The solver is just great as it can give you very fast what if data
for the various moment arms. Very, very cool.

Introductory price is just $20, or you can try the demo first. Â*Visithttp://www.glideplan.comfor details. Â*If you try the program and
think others might benefit from it, please consider passing along this
info to your club or forum. Â*At this price, I won’t be able to do much
in the way of advertising ☺

Any constructive feedback is encouraged here on this thread, so others
can benefit from what you find out. Â*Help and a sample glider file are
included in the PC installer (Mac folks can download the sample file.)
so you can explore the program quickly.

Thanks!

Matt Herron (Jr.)

Neat program. Very useful and will make a contribution to safety. I
made up a a CG/Ballast spreadsheet that runs on a PDA but yours is
prettier and probably less prone to "fat finger" mistakes.
Congratulations. I know several glider operations who should buy a
copy immediately. Weight and balance is something which should never
be guessed at.

Just one question. Reading your web page leaves me assuming it only
runs on a Windows machine since there is no hardware requirements
paragraph - at least I didn't find it. Frankly, if this assumption is
correct, it would be more useful if it ran on a handheld device like
an iPhone or PDA since those are more likely to be in the cockpit or
at the flight line.

Bill D

I forgot to mention that there is also a bundle of Glideplan and SeeG
available together for an even steeper discount on the store. For
those that have already purchased SeeG, drop me an email and I will of
course honor your purchase for the bundle price if you wish.

Matt (Jr.)

Bill,

The program runs on either a Mac or a PC. A handheld version would be
great, and is on my radar, but it would have a significantly reduced
feature set from this full version.

Matt


Just one question. *Reading your web page leaves me assuming it only
runs on a Windows machine since there is no hardware requirements
paragraph - at least I didn't find it. *Frankly, if this assumption is
correct, it would be more useful if it ran on a handheld device like
an iPhone or PDA since those are more likely to be in the cockpit or
at the flight line.

Bill D

On Apr 20, 9:45*pm, "Matt Herron Jr." wrote:

Any constructive feedback is encouraged here on this thread, so others
can benefit from what you find out. *Help and a sample glider file are
included in the PC installer (Mac folks can download the sample file.)
so you can explore the program quickly.

I had a quick look at the website and don't see any support for
deriving a pilot "arm". The value for the pilot arm in some
manufacturer's data is very generic. I determined my own arm (depends
on seat position, parachute thickness, pilot build, etc), just by
making a couple of quick tail weight measurements using a bathroom
scale.

Andy

Andy,

There is a "Moment Calculator" built in that can derive the pilot arm
from a weighing of the glider with and without the pilot in it (as is
done in a typical official weighing). Just plug in the two sets of
weighings and it figures out moment arm and mass. I like the idea of
just using the tail wheel and a bathroom scale though. That's going
on the feature wish list. You would of course still need to know the
main wheel to datum distance. But you wouldn't need a 1000 lb scale.

Thanks,

Matt


I had a quick look at the website and don't see any support for
deriving a pilot "arm". *The value for the pilot arm in some
manufacturer's data is very generic. *I determined my own arm (depends
on seat position, parachute thickness, pilot build, etc), just by
making a couple of quick tail weight measurements using a bathroom
scale.

Andy

On Apr 21, 9:31*am, "Matt Herron Jr." wrote:
*Bill,

The program runs on either a Mac or a PC. *A handheld version would be
great, and is on my radar, but it would have a significantly reduced
feature set from this full version.

Matt

Just one question. *Reading your web page leaves me assuming it only
runs on a Windows machine since there is no hardware requirements
paragraph - at least I didn't find it. *Frankly, if this assumption is
correct, it would be more useful if it ran on a handheld device like
an iPhone or PDA since those are more likely to be in the cockpit or
at the flight line.

Bill D



I look forward to the iPad version. You will be able to use the built
in weight sensor, simply roll the glider main or tail wheel onto the
iPad and the technology can do the do the rest.

Darryl

On Apr 21, 5:24*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote:
I look forward to the iPad version. You will be able to use the built
in weight sensor, simply roll the glider main or tail wheel onto the
iPad and the technology can do the do the rest.

Darryl

And, as Stephen Colbert demonstrated, you can also
use the iPad to chop vegetables to make Salsa...

What ever happened to the good old days, when
racers just added lead in the tail til it was really
scary, then removed a bit ? Or so I've been told...

See ya, Dave "YO electric"

On 2010/04/22 11:06 AM, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Apr 21, 5:24 pm, Darryl wrote:
I look forward to the iPad version. You will be able to use the built
in weight sensor, simply roll the glider main or tail wheel onto the
iPad and the technology can do the do the rest.

Darryl

And, as Stephen Colbert demonstrated, you can also
use the iPad to chop vegetables to make Salsa...

What ever happened to the good old days, when
racers just added lead in the tail til it was really
scary, then removed a bit ? Or so I've been told...

See ya, Dave "YO electric"
My Std Cirrus has a little circular cover on the fin that gives access
to a neatly installed little mounting point for lead disks. Apparently
the first owner had a habit of adjusting the scariness frequently.

Apparently -with the CG right at the back it gets interesting. I am so
heavy it is difficult, but my erstwhile partner found it quite
unpleasant - 20kg lighter than me.

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

On Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:06:24 -0700, Dave Nadler wrote:

On Apr 21, 5:24Â*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote:
I look forward to the iPad version. You will be able to use the built
in weight sensor, simply roll the glider main or tail wheel onto the
iPad and the technology can do the do the rest.

Darryl

And, as Stephen Colbert demonstrated, you can also use the iPad to chop
vegetables to make Salsa...

It blends nicely too. There are videos.....


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