Soar Dg808s Instruments

[B21 19]

The instruments in the SOAR DG808S have been modified from the Microsoft original.

1. Airspeed Indication (ASI) - no change

2. Winter vario - displays 'Total Energy' lift/sink, rather than vertical climb. CumulusX *also* provides this calculation so if you have that there's little change. The basic principle is simple - add or subtract a 'compensating value' to the displayed climb/sink rate if you are accelerating or decelerating. This has the effect of cancelling out 'stick thermals' based purely on the pilot pushing or pulling on the stick. At a steady speed, the TE vario reading is *identical* to the uncompensated 'vertical climb' reading. Further information on the total energy calculation can be found on the Wikipedia here. The tiny red needle you might have noticed is a backup display of the FSX 'variometer rate' - if you have CumulusX running this will display pretty much the same as the main TE needle, but if not you'll see it swing wildly as FSX just uses pure vertical climb.

3. Cambridge vario - this has major changes:

* The *needle* now reads 'NETTO', which is the TE climb/sink reading above adjusted again for the sink due to the aircraft glide ratio at the current airspeed. This means the needle is indicating what the outside air is doing, so long as the performance of the glider is exactly as calibrated. This is by *far* the most useful indication of lift to help your cross-country performance whether thermalling or ridge soaring. If you do something to change (worsen) the performance of the glider (open airbrakes, put wheel down, dump ballast) the netto instrument will recognise the glider is descending relative to the calibrate performance and interpret that as the air must be sinking outside the glider. (see Wikipedia here). In general in still air the Netto should read zero regardless of the steady speed you're flying. As you blast along a ridge at 100knots+, the netto gauge will correctly indicate strongly rising air - remember this does not mean you are actually climbing, you need the Winter TE indication for that. But the netto gauge accurately tells you you *could* climb if you slowed up, while at 100 knots the TE gauge is simply displaying your sink rate.

* The digital display shows "Arrival Height" in either feet or meters (displayed at 'b' in screenshot) depending on the FSX units setting. This is the height AGL you are expected to arrive at the next waypoint (either Mission Point-of-Interest, or GPS waypoint, or if neither is set then the display just shows current altitude MSL). This calculation takes into account the prevailing wind speed and direction, the distance and bearing to the waypoint, the altitude of the waypoint, and the polar of the glider. The calculation is dependent upon the Maccready Setting (displayed at 'a' in screenshot, see Wikipedia Speed to Fly) which is set by the (+) and (-) buttons on the rim of the vario. The simple principle is you set the rate of the next thermal expected (in knots or m/s depending on FSX units) and the vario will assume you are flying at the correct speed-to-fly given that expected climb rate. E.g. if you expect the next thermal to be 6 knots (maccready setting 6) you will be zooming around at an airspeed of 100knots, but a maccready setting of zero implies you will be flying much slower (in fact at max L/D, say 60 knots). So... as you crank up the maccready setting you will see the arrival height come *down* because if you fly faster you'll come down steeper and arrive lower. If you want this to be simple, set the Maccready to 4 and forget about it, but watch the 'arrival height' on your final glide, only start the final glide when the arrival height is (say) 200 feet, and if the arrival height decreases then slow up which will (should) get it back on track. If you fly through heavy sink, the arrival height will start sinking like a rock and speeding up or slowing down won't necessarily save you, i.e. the gauge is not a safe-arrival-teleportation-device.

* The current flap setting is indicated for convenience at 'c' in the screenshot. At 70 knots plus you should be in -1 then -2 flap, below that you feed in zero then +ve flap. Thermal on +3 and do the landing on +4. A reminder - don't forget to dump the water a couple of minutes before you land.

4. Altimeter - no change except it is moved to this position, swapped with the Winter vario.

Ian

[wingman5 149]

Hi guys

I may be at risk of embarrassing myself by displaying my ignorance , but .... am I missing something with the original Cambridge vario in FSX?

Looking through its XML file I notice it has multiple overlays for functions such as " variometer_label_push_speed_up " , and "circling mode "etc.but there are no controlling parameters so they all display constantly , which surely could have been achieved by drawing them all on the background texture ! Is there something I haven't found that gets these working ?

But the main reason for my writing is I am close to finishing a Genesis2 which has a multi-function gauge like the Cambridge , and I wonder if it would be ok to incorporate your new codes for the t/e vario , arrival height and l/d in it ?

Best regards

Dave R

[Hodge7 0]

All the instrumentation for the soar DG is sounding fantastic, I'm looking forward to flying with all this extra technical stuff.

Is there any tweaking left to do or is the new DG done and dusted. I mention this because I saw that b21 and funky were considering a fix related to the side effects of changes to the existing DG.

Jeff

[B21 19]

Is there any tweaking left to do or is the new DG done and dusted?

Jeez... I do have a zip from Peter which has an improved glider install (it doesn't crap on the MSOFT DG) and the air file has been tweaked. I think the proper thing for me to do is re-calibrate the netto vario and build an install zip that installs the aircraft/instruments/mission and reverses out the V1 aircraft.cfg change to the stock DG808S. It's just finding the time to do these things. So "yes" I'll do it, and I suppose on that basis I should get it done in the next couple of days.

Ian

[B21 19]

okay - I've created a new install package - glider/air file/aircraft cfg/instruments/mission - which both installs the SOAR DG808S V2, and resets the stock DG808S aircraft.cfg back to the original.

The zip (as soardg_2.zip release candidate 1) is in Bert and Peter's email inboxes. Assuming they don't find errors, we'll post up the final final version (from me anyway) very soon. From my tests the install is a complete no-brainer (drag and drop from the zip into your FSX main folder) and the glider, instruments and mission all do what they're supposed to do. Soon after we have the agreed glider, I'll update my Mifflin missions, mainly with new weather, to use the SOAR DG.

Ian

[Hodge7 0]

Sounds great! and I am definitely aware that you are doing a lot of work on multiple fronts, how the heck you find time for it all I don't know!

You are obviously retired, living the life of riley and also a life of real and virtual gliding; hang on, that can't be right, I am sure a saw a very young child sitting in a glider on your website. I have twin 6 year olds and they keep me busy.

Looking forward to the final release after the powers that be have checked it.

Jeff

[bruin 3]

Release of soardg_v2 is expected in a few days. There are still a few minor things left to do.

Bert

[bruin 3]

Final version of the SOAR DG808_V2 is produced and sent to Don to upload to the SOAR downloads section.

Bert

[bruin 3]

SOAR DG808_V2 is downloadable in the SOAR downloads section. :yahoo:

Note for those who have installed SOAR DG808S V1:

The install proces of V2, as described in the readme. It will:

- bring the default FSX DG-808S back to default;

- disable SOAR DG808S V1;

- show SOAR V2 in the aircraft select list as a variation of the default DG-808S.

Bert

[Hodge7 0]

Installation of V2 was easy and is working like a charm. The new Soar DG is sensational, a Ferrari compared to the original DG.

Have done some test flying in the new Mifflin Day 1 and crikey, I actually had some trouble getting it down from 6000' to the ridge - nothing like a decent glide ratio instead of flying the old brick. Netto is great and I am looking forward to getting the hang of the new "Cambridge" instrument, particularly the use of the McCready setting and arrival height.

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this project a great deal because just knowing that the DG is now a reasonable copy of the real thing is an enormous enhancement to soaring in FSX. I look forward to flying in future missions and competitions using this glider.

:respect: :respect:

Jeff