Instrumentation ergonomics

[tango4]

Piece of PocketPC based moving map display software. Trace of flight shows
areas of lift and sink. My first instinct was to make trace green when in
the lift and red when in the sink. Not too clever when a whole bunch of you
are red/green colourblind!

So, any suggestions on this one? How about blue and yellow? Yellow washes
out very easily on a sunlit PDA screen.

Ian

[Simon Waddell]

What about black: solid in lift; dotted in sink?


"tango4" > wrote in message
...
> Piece of PocketPC based moving map display software. Trace of flight shows
> areas of lift and sink. My first instinct was to make trace green when in
> the lift and red when in the sink. Not too clever when a whole bunch of
you
> are red/green colourblind!
>
> So, any suggestions on this one? How about blue and yellow? Yellow washes
> out very easily on a sunlit PDA screen.
>
> Ian
>
>

[Bert Willing]

Well, Daltionians have quite some problems to get a medical in many
countries, so you might stick to green/red as well :-)

--
Bert Willing

ASW20 "TW"


"tango4" > a écrit dans le message de
...
> Piece of PocketPC based moving map display software. Trace of flight shows
> areas of lift and sink. My first instinct was to make trace green when in
> the lift and red when in the sink. Not too clever when a whole bunch of
you
> are red/green colourblind!
>
> So, any suggestions on this one? How about blue and yellow? Yellow washes
> out very easily on a sunlit PDA screen.
>
> Ian
>
>

[Simon Waddell]

For PPL maybe, not necessarily for gliding - I'm living proof as far as UK
and Switzerland is concerned.


"Bert Willing" > wrote in
message ...
> Well, Daltionians have quite some problems to get a medical in many
> countries, so you might stick to green/red as well :-)
>
> --
> Bert Willing
>
> ASW20 "TW"
>
>
> "tango4" > a écrit dans le message de
> ...
> > Piece of PocketPC based moving map display software. Trace of flight
shows
> > areas of lift and sink. My first instinct was to make trace green when
in
> > the lift and red when in the sink. Not too clever when a whole bunch of
> you
> > are red/green colourblind!
> >
> > So, any suggestions on this one? How about blue and yellow? Yellow
washes
> > out very easily on a sunlit PDA screen.
> >
> > Ian
> >
> >
>
>

[tango4]

As long as a bloke can tell blue from green/brown thats fine with me. He can
at least keep things the right way up in the sky!

Does this affliction really stop people from flying gliders in the 'States?

Ian



"Simon Waddell" > wrote in message
...
> For PPL maybe, not necessarily for gliding - I'm living proof as far as UK
> and Switzerland is concerned.
>
>
> "Bert Willing" > wrote in
> message ...
> > Well, Daltionians have quite some problems to get a medical in many
> > countries, so you might stick to green/red as well :-)
> >
> > --
> > Bert Willing
> >
> > ASW20 "TW"
> >
> >
> > "tango4" > a écrit dans le message de
> > ...
> > > Piece of PocketPC based moving map display software. Trace of flight
> shows
> > > areas of lift and sink. My first instinct was to make trace green when
> in
> > > the lift and red when in the sink. Not too clever when a whole bunch
of
> > you
> > > are red/green colourblind!
> > >
> > > So, any suggestions on this one? How about blue and yellow? Yellow
> washes
> > > out very easily on a sunlit PDA screen.
> > >
> > > Ian
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

[BTIZ]

no medical certification required to fly gliders in the "States".. you self
certify as "airworthy"

BT

"tango4" > wrote in message
...
> As long as a bloke can tell blue from green/brown thats fine with me. He
can
> at least keep things the right way up in the sky!
>
> Does this affliction really stop people from flying gliders in the
'States?
>
> Ian
>
>
>
> "Simon Waddell" > wrote in message
> ...
> > For PPL maybe, not necessarily for gliding - I'm living proof as far as
UK
> > and Switzerland is concerned.
> >
> >
> > "Bert Willing" > wrote in
> > message ...
> > > Well, Daltionians have quite some problems to get a medical in many
> > > countries, so you might stick to green/red as well :-)
> > >
> > > --
> > > Bert Willing
> > >
> > > ASW20 "TW"
> > >
> > >
> > > "tango4" > a écrit dans le message de
> > > ...
> > > > Piece of PocketPC based moving map display software. Trace of flight
> > shows
> > > > areas of lift and sink. My first instinct was to make trace green
when
> > in
> > > > the lift and red when in the sink. Not too clever when a whole bunch
> of
> > > you
> > > > are red/green colourblind!
> > > >
> > > > So, any suggestions on this one? How about blue and yellow? Yellow
> > washes
> > > > out very easily on a sunlit PDA screen.
> > > >
> > > > Ian
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

[Martin Gregorie]

On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 17:57:30 +0200, "Simon Waddell"
> wrote:

>What about black: solid in lift; dotted in sink?
>
I was going to suggest two widths of black line, but this sounds cool.
Better yet? why not make it configurable with a choice of, say,
red/green, black solid/dotted and red/blue?


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

[N5360C]

Or how about a trace of pluses for up and minuses for down? No charge
for the suggestion, but I'd take a free piece of hardware for such an
intuitive suggestion. Fred

[tango4]

Dots and dashes and plusses and minusses are a pain without doing some
secondary processing on the flight track. In the scales where the trackdots
are laid over one another you can't discern where there was lift and where
there wasn't because the plusses and minuses all bleed together.

I'm leaning towards the following solution, track is laid down in a single
colour and where a 'significant patch' of lift is detected simply pasting a
lift symbol over the trace, the same for sink areas. In the smaller scales
making a selection of plus and minus signs or alternative colours.

Ian

[Mike Borgelt]

On Sun, 7 Sep 2003 15:07:58 +0000 (UTC), "tango4"
> wrote:

>Dots and dashes and plusses and minusses are a pain without doing some
>secondary processing on the flight track. In the scales where the trackdots
>are laid over one another you can't discern where there was lift and where
>there wasn't because the plusses and minuses all bleed together.
>
>I'm leaning towards the following solution, track is laid down in a single
>colour and where a 'significant patch' of lift is detected simply pasting a
>lift symbol over the trace, the same for sink areas. In the smaller scales
>making a selection of plus and minus signs or alternative colours.
>
>Ian
>

If this is intended for use in flight how about deleting that feature
so thata the pilot looks outside more.

Mike Borgelt

[Marc Ramsey]

"Mike Borgelt" > wrote...
> "tango4" > wrote:
> >I'm leaning towards the following solution, track is laid down in a single
> >colour and where a 'significant patch' of lift is detected simply pasting a
> >lift symbol over the trace, the same for sink areas. In the smaller scales
> >making a selection of plus and minus signs or alternative colours.
>
> If this is intended for use in flight how about deleting that feature
> so thata the pilot looks outside more.
>

I've implemented this feature in my PDA software, and found that it is
essentially worthless for thermalling, which is the most likely scenario for
head down flying. What it is invaluable for is returning quickly to areas of
lift, and in particular, for working patches of wave. In either case, an
occasional glance is all that is required to make sure one is heading in the
right direction.

In my case, I use fixed size (2x2) dots for the track, black for climb less than
0, increasing intensities of green for 0 to 5 knots, and full intensity green
for over 5 knots.

Marc

[Ray Lovinggood]

One feature I would like to see added: Voice command.
Especially useful when a task is changed when you
are already in the air. Eyeballs can stay focused
to things outside of the cockpit and the pilot just
simply (yea, right; everything is simple with computers...)
speaks to the instrument stating 'Change to Task B'
or 'New Task: turnpoints 1, 17, 31, 54' or whatever.

Maybe I can get that as standard on my LS (I mean DG)
22 when I order it in about 20 years?

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA
LS (DG?) 1d

[tango4]

It'll come a little sooner than that I think but I suspect there may be some
other interaction too. A bit like a PDA PTT otherwise the white noise in a
sailplane cockpit will continously be chewing processor power.

The other thing to consider is voice feedback. It may sound a bit silly but
you could concentrate outside the cockpit and interface to a PDA via a
joystick mounted or left hand keypad if the PDA was telling you what it was
up to.

Ian

"Ray Lovinggood" > wrote in message
...
> One feature I would like to see added: Voice command.
> Especially useful when a task is changed when you
> are already in the air. Eyeballs can stay focused
> to things outside of the cockpit and the pilot just
> simply (yea, right; everything is simple with computers...)
> speaks to the instrument stating 'Change to Task B'
> or 'New Task: turnpoints 1, 17, 31, 54' or whatever.
>
> Maybe I can get that as standard on my LS (I mean DG)
> 22 when I order it in about 20 years?
>
> Ray Lovinggood
> Carrboro, North Carolina, USA
> LS (DG?) 1d
>
>
>

[tango4]

I found the display format I'm using very helpful in centring the lift. More
than once it was helpful when scraping away from low altitude in the
Pyrenees when I first used it. A couple of turns and it was usually quite
obvious if you were off centre. You are quite right about the head down
stuff though. One has to be very careful not to get focussed on the display

Ian


"Marc Ramsey" > wrote in message
. com...
> "Mike Borgelt" > wrote...
> > "tango4" > wrote:
> > >I'm leaning towards the following solution, track is laid down in a
single
> > >colour and where a 'significant patch' of lift is detected simply
pasting a
> > >lift symbol over the trace, the same for sink areas. In the smaller
scales
> > >making a selection of plus and minus signs or alternative colours.
> >
> > If this is intended for use in flight how about deleting that feature
> > so thata the pilot looks outside more.
> >
>
> I've implemented this feature in my PDA software, and found that it is
> essentially worthless for thermalling, which is the most likely scenario
for
> head down flying. What it is invaluable for is returning quickly to areas
of
> lift, and in particular, for working patches of wave. In either case, an
> occasional glance is all that is required to make sure one is heading in
the
> right direction.
>
> In my case, I use fixed size (2x2) dots for the track, black for climb
less than
> 0, increasing intensities of green for 0 to 5 knots, and full intensity
green
> for over 5 knots.
>
> Marc
>
>