On Friday, December 14, 2012 2:53:53 PM UTC, Lucky812 wrote:
I have limited XC experience and

have never competed so my question is what information do other pilots

have as their �default� information configurations for these programs

(cruise/thermal/final glide)?



Do these informational configurations change for XC vs racing?


First, I concur with Martin that it is vital to have appropriate files for airspace and waypoints, and to understand the files which you have. It is also important to have the rules and observation zones set right for the type of tasks you fly.

What is really important is to be able to know what you are looking at very quickly. I prefer to have the same info in the same screen positions regardless of whether in thermal, cruise or final glide. I prefer to have a north up display with the same airspace info on as my paper chart, and I also turn off map and terrain info (I fly in flatland UK). I have landable waypoints showing with arrival heights. I zoom in manually (or change manually to another map page which is more zoomed in) when close to an airspace boundary or a task zone. I normally fly tasks, so would not change for comps except for assigned area tasks.

The data on your nav screen will depend somewhat on what is shown on your other instruments - for example, I have both current average climb rate and arrival height at next waypoint on my vario display so don't need those on the map screen. The thing I look at most often is which way to steer to my next waypoint, so I have that at the top of my map. Other items which I always want are Bearing and Distance to next waypoint, Ground Speed, Wind, and Final Glide to end of task.