Avionics News November 2012 - 35

Serious glider/sailplane pilots often carry two different variometers. And, since we’re on the subject of gliders and sailplanes, while the nonpowered flying community is pretty clear on which is which, the Federal Aviation Administration views them both the same. Motor-gliders and gliders with sustainer motors are totally different, but more on this later.

tion and automatically highlights any airport within your gliding range. It makes it a lot easier and safer today. “Years ago, a pilot would use a combination of intuition, feel and printed tables or a circular glide calculator that looked like an E6B, but was specifically calibrated for gliders to figure this out. With the current tech-

Remde explained another feature that a cross-country glider/sailplane pilot likes is called speed to fly. “Cross-country glider flying is a combination of circling in a thermal to climb and then cruising at high speeds to the next thermal,” Remde said. “The faster you fly, the faster you sink. So, the more lift you have,

What’s Bugging You?
“The more sophisticated flight computers include moving maps, airport and turn point and task information, highly sensitive variometers, even now terrain displayed directly on full-color screen,” stated Tim Mara, owner of Wings and Wheels Soaring Supplies Inc. “The units cannot only calculate glide information based on glider polar (L/D based on speeds flown), they can adjust their glide estimations to the amount wing loading ballast carried.” Mara explained that most new competition sailplanes carry water ballast in the wings, which can be dumped at the pilot’s discretion. “These units also can make glide calculations based on the percentage of bugs on the wings,” he added. “The newer airfoils are that sensitive to the degradation of the airfoil’s performance.” In addition, Mara said that all the new units now use GPS, and most use FAI/IGC-certified flight recorders recognized and accepted for local and world records. “All of today’s panel-mounted displays connect to the variometer,” Remde said. “It takes all the informa-

ABOVE: While a fully-loaded panel like this looks appealing, pilots flying gliders, sailplanes or motor-gliders have to be aware of certifications. For example, the center-mounted MFD with FLARM in this aircraft is not approved for use in the U.S. OPPOSITE PAGE: Small panel spaces haven't stopped avionics manufacturers from filling gliders, sailplanes and motor-gliders with all kinds of high-end functions and capabilities, including multifunction displays and digital variometers.

nology, you just look at the screen and see exactly how much range you have at your current altitude and lift. You know in a glance if you’re going to make the airport or need to start looking for an off-airport landing site.”

the faster you can fly. Say you have an average of 5-knots lift. Based on your flight computer, you can fly at about 80 or 90 knots to the next thermal.”
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Avionics News November 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News November 2012