User manual

XCSoar User Manual

6.4 Wind estimation

XCSoar offers two ways of estimating wind during ﬂight.

Circling : This method uses GPS position ﬁxes to estimate the wind

based on drift, typically while thermalling; and is available

on all XCSoar installations.

ZigZag : This method uses GPS position ﬁxes and true airspeed mea-

surements to estimate the wind, typically during cruise. It is

only available where XCSoar is connected to an intelligent

variometer that outputs true airspeed.

The wind magnitude and direction can also be adjusted manually

from the wind settings dialog (see below).

Statistics are gathered so that winds are recorded at different heights

and times. When the glider’s altitude changes signiﬁcantly, the

statistics are consulted to determine the best estimate of the wind

based on previous measurements.

For PC and Pocket PC with touchscreens, you can also do this by

highlighting the wind InfoBox and using the cursor keys (up and

down increase and decrease the magnitude, left and right rotate the

wind direction).

The conﬁguration settings dialog allows control of which estima-

tion method is used for wind updates, via the ﬁeld ‘Auto Wind’:

• Manual

• Circling

• ZigZag