wrote:

That said, it works very well in flight. I was quite skeptical when it
was announced, and I ignored it for a few months. I figured I did not
need any help centering. When I did turn it on I was amazed how
accurate it was. It only comes on if you are not thermalling evenly.
If you do a quick centering turn when the best lift bubbles are
showing ahead of you you will almost always get better lift. I have
assigned a hardware button to force it on when I want it. Keep your
head out of the cockpit!!

My experience exactly matches Bob's. I can do as well or better than the
Assistant when I'm paying attention, but often I'm not, because I'm
watching the other gliders near me, putting away the engine, trying to
figure out where to go next, looking at the map, using the radio, trying
to retrieve the sandwich that fell behind the seat, etc. There were a
lot more distractions from attentive thermalling than I realized,
because there wasn't anything keeping track of what I should be doing.

I also assigned it to a hardware button.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org