Good points Evan,

From my experience last year, V6.4 was very stable, all rules and
optimizations worked as necessary. As far as the heads down time goes,
I think a lot of that has to do with the pilots setup, I for one barely
touch my Streak in flight, the information I require is on my screen
when needed, automatic thermal mode, automatic final glide mode etc. All
information provided at a glance. Most of the interaction comes in the
form of a swipe across the screen to switch to a different page but only
when necessary, which is rare in my case. Your point about most of the
top guys in the US flying with CN or SN10 is well made, on the other
hand the winner of 2013 WGC Club Class was flying with XCSoar.

http://www.xcsoar.org/discover/2013/...Argentina.html

I'm by no means saying that XCSoar is perfect, but it is constantly
improving, conversely it is part of the problem, new features mean more
bugs and more complexity. While XCSoar is extremely configurable,
configuring it just right can be a daunting process.

Cheers,
Luke Szczepaniak

On 03/11/2013 2:11 PM, Evan Ludeman wrote:
On Monday, March 11, 2013 12:22:15 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Monday, March 11, 2013 10:13:55 AM UTC-5, waremark wrote:

I would recommend making a fairly quick choice between the software options and putting the time into studying the chosen version. They will all do your job well. If you spend too long choosing you will not only waste time but also end up confused.



So, Max, Paolo or US pilots:



Is either of these two packages useable in a US contest? Do they depict US start, turnpoint and finish definitions, tell you if you're under the top for 2 minutes, help plan time completion for area and mat tasks, compute final glides to a finish cylinder with a minimum altitude, compute final glides around additional turnpoints (mat)? Can you input a task in less than 15 minutes? Is there a quick task A task B option (almost all in air task changes are now A to B)?



I tried xcsoar many years ago. Charlie Spratt changed the task in the air. 15 minutes later on my second reboot, I swore it off. Is contest task entry any easier than back then?



If not, is anyone working on a "US contest" package for either program?



Please no flame wars on how stupid our rules are for using cylinders, 2 minute rules, in air task changes, etc. The rules are what they are. The question is, can this software help a pilot to deal with the rules as they are?



John Cochrane

I spent most of three seasons using XCS for US contests. On Ipaq 3950s to start, later on Dell Streak 5. Nine or ten contests IIRC. Something important was always busted in software. Start rules, AAT task optimizer, little things :-/. I wrote lots of trouble tickets. Some got acted on right away, some never. I haven't used XCS since version 6.3.

There's a timer that can be used to tell you how long you have been under max height.

When things work in XCS, they work well. Task editing is easy on the ground. Task editing in flight depends on your interface, and all of the hardware that I am familiar with that runs XCSoar is touch screen driven. I grew to hate touch screens in flight. My big problem with a touch screen is that I have to look the display for every single poke. This sounds trivial. In fact it adds up to a lot of distraction.

There are better solutions for racing. The two that I am aware of that demonstrably work (i.e. guys win with them, a lot) are SN10 and ClearNav.

The reason that these devices work better is that they take about a quarter the head down time that XCSoar does. Better user interface, easier to read displays in about equal parts. Neither attempts to do nearly as much as XCSoar can, but an awful lot of what XCSoar can do isn't helpful for racing.

The best clues to efficient soaring are outside the window. Less distraction equals better performance in my cockpit, and probably yours too.

By way of disclosure, I work part time for CNi, however this post is my personal opinion, informed by experience.


Evan Ludeman / T8