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Old February 7th 17, 05:52 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dave Walsh
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Posts: 83
Default Using new variometer technology to display real time lift coefficient?

At 16:24 07 February 2017,
wrote:
On Monday, February 6, 2017 at 10:56:51 PM UTC-5,


wrote=
:
A question respectfully submitted to the pundits who lurk

in these halls:
=20
Please forgive me if this topic has been covered before;

I have done a
=
general search on this forum and have found no mention of

it anywhere.
=20
Having been away from Soaring for about 35 years, and

having just come
ba=
ck last summer, I have been slowly re-immersing myself.

Some things have
n=
ot changed all that much, but wow, have varios ever

changed a lot!
=20
My question:
=20
With the new generation of varios out there, specifically

those that
inco=
rporate inertial sensors, would it not be advantageous for

these varios
to=
offer the possibility to the pilot of displaying the

sailplane=E2=80=99s
r=
eal time lift coefficient, CL? It would seem to me that while
thermalling,=
this display would be useful as a =E2=80=98lift reserve
indicator=E2=80=99=
, directly related to AOA. No extra sensors would be

required, since
these=
new generation varios have all the inputs necessary to

calculate CL (i.e.
=
total pressure, static pressure, g force, with the aircraft

mass and wing
a=
rea presumably entered on the ground, before the flight).

Granted, the
pil=
ot would have to know his max CL for different flap

settings, but that=E2=
=80=99s it!
=20
Would not such a display be desirable?
=20
Has this been implemented already, and I am not aware

of this?

Sounds like you are trying to find a use for stuff in the

instruments.
My question would be what are you trying to accomplish?
UH

Doesn't an extra "yaw string", mounted on the vertical side
of the canopy, tell you the angle of attack (roughly)? I think
it's all explained on the DG website. No electronics involved.