Personal flight computers

On Dec 9, 1:10*pm, Evan Ludeman wrote:
On Dec 9, 12:02*pm, "Dan Marotta" wrote:

Gotta admit that I haven't had the privilege of flying a ClearNav, but I
find XCSoar extremely easy to use and I'll bet that if I got a flight in a
glider with CN, I'd find it complex and confusing.

Naw, a five minute briefing on CN will get all the essentials. *It's
designed that way.

CN setup is less than 1/10 of what it takes to get XCSoar going. *No
exaggeration.

Power comes up a lot. *CN isn't as bad as some imagine. *400 mA is
typical average.

Evan Ludeman for CNi
For more CNi discussion, please see our forumhttp://www.clearnav.net

I fly with CN and Streak as a backup. Yes I have a moving map backup
to be able to avoid airspace violations if primary instrument fails.
In short CN is the easiest to use software available today. I still
have a wish list for some CN updates but even if they don't happen I
am still very happy with it. The Streak runs XCSoar and I must say
that with each XCSoar release I feel XCSoar is getting closer to how
CN functions e.g. task optimization, requiring less workload. I used
to use LK8000 but its task support was not as good as XCSoar. I feel
LK8000 is perfect for X-C flying but for contests there are other
choices. I also used WinPilot Pro in the past and I liked it but that
was years ago. I have never flown with SeeYou Mobile.

If I were to do it again:
1) Non competition flying I would buy in this order: Oudie with LK8000
followed by Streak with XCSoar
2) Competition flying: CN followed by Streak with XCSoar

One thing I find problematic with XCSoar is some very small fonts and
that is one of the reasons LK8000 is rated better for non-comp flying.

Now in regards to power use. My CN drained my batteries a couple of
times totally, and yes I found CN still works at 8.5 volts, . On one
battery I have 302, CN and a 2 year old Dittel radio (I don't talk
much). My battery lasted about 5 hours. Since then I am very careful
and I always use CN in PowerSave mode. On max brightness you need to
have good power supply. My next batteries will be the K2s so I can
feed the beast (I mean CN). Despite the power hungry CN I still think
it is the best unit for comp flying not so for pleasure.