On Friday, September 19, 2014 2:18:08 PM UTC-7, wrote:
The specs make no mention of a magnetometer, only a gyro based system. Curious how this effects instantaneous wind calculations.



A careful reading of the literature on the S80 shows that a magnetic compass module is needed for instantaneous winds.

That kind of suggests that the wind is really calculated from GPS/TAS/Heading, doesn't it?

On the Butterfly, wind is inertially derived and truly instantaneous - like 20 times per second. If you use iGlide you can see this in the thermal assistant: every second there is a proportional lift dot, in each lift dot is an instantaneous wind direction arrow, and (at least in nicely organized thermals) these point towards the center of the thermal.