North-Up versus Direction-Up?
It is winter here and the only soaring we are doing in Chicago is in
the hangar . During an energetic discussion on the pros and cons of
various soaring programs, I mentioned I fly "Direction-Up", rather
than "North-Up".
WHOA! You would have thought that I had said I was going to give up
soaring to fly helicopters by the dirty looks that I received.
Now, to be fair, with every GPS device I use (car, boat, GA), I
*ALWAYS* orient the map as north-up, and prefer it overall...except,
that is, when soaring. I started using north-up at first, but soon
found that a direction-up display was much better in letting me
anticipate the timing of rolling out of a thermal and heading towards
the next turn point. Attempting to coordinate the rotating glider
icon on a stationary north-up map, with the view outside and/or
compass, all while centering a thermal, is a bit like patting my head
and rubbing my stomach at the same time. Maybe this is unique to a
thermal-only soaring climate. NOTE: I am not directionally
challanged.
Anyway, I wondered what others use relative to the type of soaring
they do.
Thanks, John
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