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#403442
I don't know how u guys do things, but I fly with a 6015. I have the main LZ waypoint selected for the majority of my flights. Sometimes I decide to leave and go XC. When I do so, sometimes I need to select a new waypoint. I find that having to let go of the bar & fly one handed often leads to me spiraling out of control. Its astonishing to me the amount of buttons I have to push to get to the waypoint menu & find the one i want & finally select it. Does anyone have any tricks to mitigate this problem, ei instrument placement or one handed flying techniques?
#403443
DAVE 858 wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 1:58 pm I don't know how u guys do things, but I fly with a 6015. I have the main LZ waypoint selected for the majority of my flights. Sometimes I decide to leave and go XC. When I do so, sometimes I need to select a new waypoint. I find that having to let go of the bar & fly one handed often leads to me spiraling out of control. Its astonishing to me the amount of buttons I have to push to get to the waypoint menu & find the one i want & finally select it. Does anyone have any tricks to mitigate this problem, ei instrument placement or one handed flying techniques?
I'm not familiar with the menu screens on the 6015 but I often have to deal with making a dozen menu button pushes when I'm using the wrong polar on my 6030 or I left my units in km when I need to be on miles. Changing either of these requires a lot of button pushing. The worst that ever happens to me is straying out of lift or steering off course by a hundred meters or so. I think the reason I'm not going into a spiral may be due in part to the enormous amount of time I spend flying while staring at my instruments and the fact I have a GPS map screen always displayed on one instrument so I can see my path in space. It also helps tremendously to have a really solid vario pod and mount. I use a Dustin pod and the machined aluminum bracket that Flytec sells for like $75 that fits on the WW aluminum speedbar. I can actually steer my gliders my holding the vario pod like it was a big hand grip as long as it's not too turbulent.

If you're using a typical bracket that only has enough strength to keep the vario from falling over then I'd suggest you practice flying with one hand while looking at where you're going until you can steer reasonably well. Next I'd practice one-handed flying and button pushing when you don't need it. If that doesn't help (and I suspect it may not) then I'd invest in a sturdy bracket that allows you to steer by holding the vario pod so you can still press the buttons with your thumb while holding on.

Good luck!
#403445
deleted.
Last edited by red on Mon May 07, 2018 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
#403446
DAVE 858 wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 1:58 pm I don't know how u guys do things, but I fly with a 6015. . . . I find that having to let go of the bar & fly one handed often leads to me spiraling out of control. . . . Does anyone have any tricks to mitigate this problem, ei instrument placement or one handed flying techniques?
Dave,

At the risk of being obvious, I suggest that you trim the glider for long-term straight-line flight, at the correct airspeed. The glider will not know when you let go, then. It is also a most relaxed way to fly. Add only the control inputs needed for turns or extra speed.

Locally, Ridgerunner here is our premier one-hand flier, always taking pictures or whatever with the free hand. :) He also flies one-handed to reduce drag on long stretches of XC flights. He has one neat solution for you.

https://user.xmission.com/~jmr/HANGLIDE/PHYN/PHYN.HTM
.
#403448
No wonder no new hang glider XC records have been set for a decade or more - despite gliders and harnesses that perform better than ever. You'd think all this instrumentation would facilitate longer flights, but in fact it takes your eyes and your mind off of the important things, like looking for signs of lift - circling birds, forming cloud wisps, and maximizing the thermal core, drift direction, etc. But you'll never convince the average weekend warrior pilot that multiple electronic gadgets with 1000+ functions won't magically turn him into Manfred Ruhmer. It's proven that you can't safely drive and operate a cell phone; why would pilots think they could fly and operate complex GPS flight decks? For me, I've abandoned instrumentation completely. It's amazingly liberating to really fly like a bird.
#403451
I usually don’t mess with it and only run the Longsword LZ waypoint & that gives me a snapshot of LD Required & current LD. It’s nothing to rely on but simply just a snapshot. I find it useful, if nothing more than a confidence boost.

The problem is these instruments are entirely too complicated to use in flight. Just to select a waypoint u have to push waypoint & hold it, then the F2 key & then u have to scroll through the list of waypoints until u find the one u need, which requires pushing the arrow down key for every waypoint in the menu! Finally u have to press OK once you have found whatever waypoint u are looking for.

I find it ridiculous that it’s 2018 & this is the best we can come up with... When the f--- are we going to invent an integrated helmet vario gps with heads up display. Instead of uploading a list of waypoints, one simply looks at a spot on the earth & with the blink of one eye or a voice command any spot becomes a waypoint & u have instant information. There is no reason we can’t have this as all the technology is there.
#403467
DAVE 858 wrote: Wed May 09, 2018 2:59 pm Important note, the 6015 has no side arrows. I was wondering why I didn't see that tip in the manual.
Actually, the 6015 does have side arrows. These are the F1 and F2 keys. Whether the waypoint selection screens will jump from page to page is still dubious. I'm reading the manual right now and you can avoid a lot of button pushing by simply holding down the ROUTE key for several seconds followed by a quick push on the F1 key. This takes you into the waypoint selection menu. Somewhere else in the manual it indicated that by holding the up or down arrow keys down, the waypoint may scroll rapidly. I don't know if this will work in flight because this was part of the route setup process. In any event I think you may be able to streamline the process.
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#403470
Thats the procedure. & I do not believe the list of waypoints is in order of closest to farthest, but ill have to check next time. That is still alot of buttons. I guess its less of a big deal for PG pilots, who sit in a lazy boy chair & often have both hands free to operate instruments, smoke dope, & watch tv or whatever the hell they do with all the s--- they have on their flight decks.
#403471
DAVE 858 wrote: Thu May 10, 2018 1:11 pm Thats the procedure. & I do not believe the list of waypoints is in order of closest to farthest, but ill have to check next time. That is still alot of buttons. I guess its less of a big deal for PG pilots, who sit in a lazy boy chair & often have both hands free to operate instruments, smoke dope, & watch tv or whatever the hell they do with all the s--- they have on their flight decks.
Get rid of all your extraneous waypoints. Alternately see whether you can find a good deal on a 6030. They're much easier to switch waypoints in flight and can show you your glide angle to the waypoint or your estimated arrival altitude at the waypoint.