On Sat, 02 Apr 2011 10:34:48 -0700, 77 wrote:

Am going to fly a club K21 in the upcoming contest at CCSC and have been
trying to find some basic speed to fly data.

Both LK8000 and XCSoar have the ASK-21 polar built in: I just checked
LK8000 2.00c and XCSoar 6.0.6, so an obvious solution is to take a PNA
along that runs one of these programs. The advantage of a PNA is that its
a self-contained solution (built-in GPS), with the program and its data
files on an SD card. Plus, they're fairly cheap if you have to buy one.

Anything that runs WinMobile 5 or 6 is OK for either program. I use a
Binatone B.350. The Mio M400 seems to be popular too.

However, if your task exceeds a couple of hours, you'll need an external
power supply. Getting a 3000 mAh Li-Poly external USB power pack is
easiest since then you won't have to tap into the K-21's wiring. Most PNAs
have 800 mAh internal batteries, so using a 3000 mAh pack will more than
quadruple its run time to over 8 hours, which should be plenty. Adding in
a USB extension cable will let you put the external battery in a sensible
place away from the PNA.

PNAs are light, so at a pinch you'd probably get away with using its
standard suction cup mount to put it onto the canopy. Last week this
worked well for a fellow pilot flying a club Junior. Failing that, the
PNA's mounting clip detaches from the suction mount and can be screwed to
a suitably shaped piece of softwood which can be mounted on the K-21's
glare shield with Velcro (or duct tape if you must). Make a nice job of
the set-up and its likely to be used more than once.


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