Lew Hartswick wrote:
ContestID67 wrote:
I was sent a link to a gadget some college engineers-in-the-making
built. http://engenius.sece.rmit.edu.au/Abstracts/Page601.htm. It
tries to detect which way a thermal is based on temperature differences
between wing tips. Bright boys.

I have two questions;

1) Have there been other gadgets created to do the same thing? How
well did they work?

2) What do you use to determine if the thermal is on the left or the
right? This is the wing up or down when its near the thermal debate.

Thanks, John

Nothing new there, That system has been tried at least 25 years ago.
It intrigued me, as an electronics engineer just beginning to fly,
but the consensus of the "big boys" at the time was it wouldn't
be sufficiently accurate or too sensitive to random variations
or some other problems.

It might be more practical with today's sensors, far greater computing
power, and electronic attitude indicators that might let you remove
temperature changes caused by bank angle. Or maybe there is a cheap
lidar unit that can detect nearby air motion: mount 3 of them in the
cockpit, pointed in different directions, and maybe get a clue about
where the air is going up and down.

--
Note: email address new as of 9/4/2006
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org