On Tuesday, July 30, 2013 7:42:18 AM UTC+2, jfitch wrote:

Pretty much what he said. I would add that the depiction of all Flarm contacts, with associated information on the Thermal Assistant page is at the very least entertaining and very good for situational awareness.

The trouble with all these graphic displays is that they require a certain amount of time to look at and analyze the data presented prior to using it to center the thermal. We use audio varios to get away from looking at a needle, and now we have pretty pictures!

I use SYM but not the climb page - instead I have a Themi that consistently reminds me to move towards the stronger part of the circle (wind corrected). Usually I've already decided to move my circle when the Themi lights up, but sometimes it does a better job of remembering where the surge is.

SYM has a provision for an aural cue to suggest when to roll out to move the circle, but haven't tried it.

Considering the age of Themi, and the fact that it uses (as far as I know) only GPS to track the thermal, I'm surprised there hasn't been a second generation Themi2 that would use better sensors to map the thermal, but still keep the simple visual cues (LEDs on the glareshield).

Kirk
66