Please write book

On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 07:27:54 -0700, Soartech wrote:

On Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at 12:32:01 PM UTC-4, chris johnson wrote:
I wish someone would write a soaring book on flight computers. How to
choose one, program, trouble shoot them, use them. Combine book with
YouTube explanations.

Chris,
The easiest, least expensive choice is to use XCSoar on an Android phone
or tablet. That said, I have lots of questions that are not covered well
in the manual and I am forced to either ignore certain features to try
to understand them while flying. A good video tutorial would be really
helpful.

You have another choice as well: run XCSoar in simulator mode at home
while you work out what settings suit you best and see exactly what it
does in a variety of situations.

Don't want to mess up your current configuration? Download the Windows
version and run it on your PC (it also runs just fine under Wine on a
Linux box) and then, if you decide you prefer the configuration you've
set up there, copy it over to the rig you fly with.



--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Condor can output a data stream that can be used with most portable glide computers (XCSoar, LK8000, SeeYou Mobile, etc.). This has helped me to refine my setup in XCSoar (but it works with most devices) that have a serial or Bluetooth input. It also lets you pause the flight while you modify the settings; heads down on the computer is not usually dangerous ;-)

You have another choice as well: run XCSoar in simulator mode at home
while you work out what settings suit you best and see exactly what it
does in a variety of situations.


Martin, I have tried this but there is no way to simulate thermalling or flying at altitude in the simulator that I can see. Kind of boring just sitting on the ground. Maybe we need a wiki for the Simulator too.

On Thursday, 16 July 2015 02:35:07 UTC+2, Soartech wrote:
Martin, I have tried this but there is no way to simulate thermalling or flying at altitude in the simulator that I can see. Kind of boring just sitting on the ground. Maybe we need a wiki for the Simulator too.

Have you read the XCSoar manual?
There's a lot of information in it's 170+ pages.
Simulator mode is described on page 22 of the XCSoar manual.
http://max.kellermann.name/download/...oar-manual.pdf

With XCSoar in simulator mode you just drag the glider icon located in the centre of the map to start flying.
Drag it in the direction you want to fly. The drag length is proportional to the airspeed.

Adjust the heading/track by:
- Dragging the glider icon in a direction or
- Using the left/right cursor keys or
- Click on the track info box and adjust the track manually.

Adjust the airspeed by:
- Dragging the glider icon further or
- Click on the airspeed info box and increment/decrement the airspeed.

Adjust the altitude by clicking on the altitude info box and increment or decrement the altitude.

There is even a way to play NMEA data via a TCP port so that XCSoar thinks it is flying or alternatively you can hook it up to a flight simulator like Condor (without needing to use serial cables IIRC).

On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 17:35:04 -0700, Soartech wrote:


You have another choice as well: run XCSoar in simulator mode at home
while you work out what settings suit you best and see exactly what it
does in a variety of situations.


Martin, I have tried this but there is no way to simulate thermalling or
flying at altitude in the simulator that I can see. Kind of boring just
sitting on the ground. Maybe we need a wiki for the Simulator too.

Yes, just looked: at XCSoar. Version 6.7 has no Sim controls that I can
find but the option to run in Fly or Sim mode remains on the start up
screen. Then it turns out that half the menu function buttons can't be
clicked but require arrow keys and Enter to select them and you can't
tell until you try which is clickable and which must be keyboarded.

Sorry about giving you a bum steer.

All I can say is that I use LK8000 5.0a, primarily because I prefer its
display layout to that used by XCSoar, but of course ymmv. The LK8000 SIM
menu lets you set flying speed, altitude and turn rate so you can fly a
simulated task. All I can say is tat I'm very surprised that XCSoar 6.7
doesn't.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Use the mouse as you would use your finger.

On 7/16/2015 5:00 PM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jul 2015 17:35:04 -0700, Soartech wrote:


You have another choice as well: run XCSoar in simulator mode at home
while you work out what settings suit you best and see exactly what it
does in a variety of situations.


Martin, I have tried this but there is no way to simulate thermalling or
flying at altitude in the simulator that I can see. Kind of boring just
sitting on the ground. Maybe we need a wiki for the Simulator too.
Yes, just looked: at XCSoar. Version 6.7 has no Sim controls that I can
find but the option to run in Fly or Sim mode remains on the start up
screen. Then it turns out that half the menu function buttons can't be
clicked but require arrow keys and Enter to select them and you can't
tell until you try which is clickable and which must be keyboarded.

Sorry about giving you a bum steer.

All I can say is that I use LK8000 5.0a, primarily because I prefer its
display layout to that used by XCSoar, but of course ymmv. The LK8000 SIM
menu lets you set flying speed, altitude and turn rate so you can fly a
simulated task. All I can say is tat I'm very surprised that XCSoar 6.7
doesn't.



--
Dan Marotta

On Wednesday, 15 July 2015 21:17:55 UTC+2, Martin Gregorie wrote:
You have another choice as well: run XCSoar in simulator mode at home
while you work out what settings suit you best and see exactly what it
does in a variety of situations.

Don't want to mess up your current configuration? Download the Windows
version and run it on your PC (it also runs just fine under Wine on a
Linux box) and then, if you decide you prefer the configuration you've
set up there, copy it over to the rig you fly with.

FYI: There is a native port of XCSoar for Linux (and OSX).
There is no need to muck around with Wine.

If you're running Debian/Ubuntu you can even do a "sudo apt-get install xcsoar" from the command line and be up and running within minutes (although the version will be a little dated). Then just download a map and waypoint file and you're good to go.

On Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at 12:32:01 PM UTC-4, chris johnson wrote:
I wish someone would write a soaring book on flight computers. How to choose one, program, trouble shoot them, use them. Combine book with YouTube explanations.

how about we start a Wiki for Soaring?

On Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 11:21:03 AM UTC-4, Bob Pasker wrote:
On Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at 12:32:01 PM UTC-4, chris johnson wrote:
I wish someone would write a soaring book on flight computers. How to choose one, program, trouble shoot them, use them. Combine book with YouTube explanations.

how about we start a Wiki for Soaring?

go ahead everyone, write a book:

http://soaring.wikia.com/

On Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at 9:32:01 AM UTC-7, chris johnson wrote:
I wish someone would write a soaring book on flight computers. How to choose one, program, trouble shoot them, use them. Combine book with YouTube explanations.

I wouldn't expect a "Consumer's Guide" of flight computers to be published any time soon. Researching out internet forums on which flight computer system is best will get you a great deal of biased information. Everybody has an opinion.... and, of course, theirs it correct ;-)
I would suggest that you download all the popular flight software simulators and decide for yourself which is best for you. After choosing which program you like, decide on the hardware that best suits your needs.
This will take some time and effort on your part, but I suspect the results will make you happy!
Good luck.