User manual

XCSoar User Manual
Currently XCSoar supports the triadis Engineering Vega intelli-
gent variometer, the Cambridge 302 DDV, Borgelt B50/B500, and
LX Navigation LX1600 variometers. Note that the level of sup-
port for each device varies, and not all manufacturers release their
protocols to allow the XCSoar developers to provide full support.
For Vega, a small icon displaying a circling glider is displayed
when the variometer is in climb audio mode.
6.2 Air data inputs
Where additional aircraft dynamics or air mass data are provided
by an intelligent variometer, XCSoar can often make use of it or
display it in a separate InfoBox. Key sensor measurements that
XCSoar uses include:
Gross total energy variometer : (rate of change of the total energy of the aircraft) Used for
display, and for calculation of netto variometer.
Netto variometer : (estimated vertical velocity of the air mass at the aircraft)
Used to for display, and to colour the snail trail so that it
may effectively show areas of lift and sink.
Aircraft acceleration : (load factor) Used for netto variometer calculations where
an external netto variometer is not provided.
Barometric altitude : Used for display
Indicated airspeed : Used for display, in compensating final glide calculations for
aircraft kinetic energy, and in netto variometer calculation
where an external netto variometer is not provided.
Air density : Used for calculating true airspeed from indicated airspeed.
6.3 Wind display
A continuous display of wind strength and direction is provided on
the map. The wind information is derived from the gliders wind
drift during thermal flight (climb mode).
The wind direction and speed are displayed as a wind vector on
the moving map display and optionally in numeric form in the data
display fields. The length of the vector indicates the wind magni-
tude, and this magnitude is also displayed near the wind vector.
The wind data is one of many data sources used to calculate final
glide information. It is possible to manually adjust the wind used
in all calculations.
87