On Jul 4, 11:58*am, Mike wrote:
Hey guys, after my first gliding (sorry, I'm English ) session a
few months ago I'm dying to get into the sport, and I've got a couple
more sessions lined up over summer.

Anyways, amongst other things I'm a keen software developer and I've
recently stumbled across Google's Android. For those of you who aren't
familiar with what it is, it's an operating system designed to run on
mobile phones - very similar (if not better) than the iPhone OS.

I have found out that most phones have a full range of sensors (pitch,
yaw, digital compass and GPS to name a few) and was thinking that
Android would be the ideal platform for a small alternative instrument
panel.

Not having had much gliding experience I'm really not sure what to
include. So my question is, as a glider (hang-gliding included) pilot,
what sort of instruments do you regularly use or would find handy to
have displayed.

I was thinking something along the lines of a navigation system
(relatively easy to implement) and basic flight instruments such as
heading, altitude, airspeed etc.

Please bare in mind that this is obviously no replacement for any of
the instruments you already have and never will be, it's simply a
small project that I intend for it to make things a bit easier/
accessible for the pilot.

Would love to hear your feedback.

Regards,
Mike

GPS is likely really all that is interesting in real soaring
applications. Look at SeeYou Mobile, WinPilot and XCSoar as example of
leading soaring software. The consumer grade compasses etc. are not
that useful in our cockpits. XCSoar is being ported to Linux and
Android. Without a lot of experience in soaring your best bet may be
to help that effort if you are interested.

Darryl