On Thursday's flight from Crestline I brought along a Flyte Park Microvario to test it out on a longer duration flight in a variety of conditions. This was a 3:32hr flight w/ 27,000' of total climbing and fairly wide variety of lift and turbulence.
In this video I go into a lot of decision making and show a lot of vario display. I erred by mounting the Microvario to the opposite side of my helmet from my helmet speaker and ear mic so it's not as loud in the video as in my left ear but you should get the idea.
I was thinking of flying with one as I have all the other information displayed on my GPS. how would you rate the vario? Aircraft shadow, same thing happened to me Wednesday when making the cross over huge shadow just in front of me.
Couldnt immediately locate him . Turns out it was a C17 heading for March at
high altitude. _________________ H4 (1979) Lake Elsinore. Ca. U2 160 (Sweet)
Last edited by Eteamjack on Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
I was thinking of flying with one as I have all the other information displayed on my GPS. how would you rate the vario?....
So far I've done two flights with it and used just 1 of the 16 different settings. It sounds like a video game and I find that I climb pretty good and scratch even better with it. It switches on quickly and the stated battery life is really long. I plan to keep it in my helmet or harness so I'll always have it. I will eventually try some of the different settings and see if any suit my flying style better. So far so good however.
I was thinking of flying with one as I have all the other information displayed on my GPS. how would you rate the vario?....
So far I've done two flights with it and used just 1 of the 16 different settings. It sounds like a video game and I find that I climb pretty good and scratch even better with it. It switches on quickly and the stated battery life is really long. I plan to keep it in my helmet or harness so I'll always have it. I will eventually try some of the different settings and see if any suit my flying style better. So far so good however.
What's the benefit of having this and another vario?
...What's the benefit of having this and another vario?
None really other than this stays with your helmet or harness and can act as a spare in the event of a failure or forgotten main vario. I also found that the sensitivity and tone warbles helped me work marginal lift better than the tone on my Flytec 6030. I do a lot of flying where i push it hard and even a subtle difference can determine whether I end up on the deck or get up and go home under wing rather than over rubber and asphalt. YMMV
Have you ever have any issues with control airspace ? Maybe I shouldn't ask such a question.
Thanks and good question. I fly over class C airspace from time to time and have it in my Flytec 6030. I just need to maintain my altitude above the ceiling. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about it. The topic deserves its own thread.
...What's the benefit of having this and another vario?
None really other than this stays with your helmet or harness and can act as a spare in the event of a failure or forgotten main vario. I also found that the sensitivity and tone warbles helped me work marginal lift better than the tone on my Flytec 6030. I do a lot of flying where i push it hard and even a subtle difference can determine whether I end up on the deck or get up and go home under wing rather than over rubber and asphalt. YMMV
For $99 it makes sense. Pretty good deal for a backup vario.
Brian Vogel will be sending me the next incarnation for testing when it's ready and I'll report back on its utility. I need to try some of the other setting on the model I have now. I want to match the response profile to the anticipated flying conditions. On my last flight I had dozens of different types of lift but only one was so turbulent that I had to switch back to the much smoother but lagged response of the Flytec 6030.
Thanks for the link,
Regarding your video editing. Do you have the option to adjust the datarate (Kbits/sec) on your editing program?
And if yes, what is your prefered settings?
You have (a) crisp and good looking video(s)
Thanks
Jan
...Regarding your video editing. Do you have the option to adjust the datarate (Kbits/sec) on your editing program?...
Hi Jan,
I render my videos in MP4 at 13Mbps using the highest quality and the slowest rendering time. I find this looks nearly as good as the original GoPro MP4 and I can later add titles and re-edit from the initially rendered file and all subsequent renders are very fast w/ minimal losses to the finished product.
YouTube cuts the data rate by 1/2 and there is a noticeable difference in quality but it still looks really good.
I have not forgotten how bad YouTube was four years ago and how the only good quality hosting was on Vimeo. Things have come a very long way but editing is just as time-consuming as ever.
As an H2, I always learn something from watching your vids. As always, thanks for going to all the trouble.
BB
Thanks BB. I tried to narrate and edit this one so pilots can a sense of what I'm reacting to and how I'm making my decisions. I located a nice-looking binaural mic setup on ebay that I'm tempted to buy and try for a more natural audio. All I need is a mannequin head to put inside my helmet w/ the mic then attached to my glider rack and go for a ride. I want to see if I can reduce the wind roar but pick up better ambient sounds. I want to use this same setup on my bicycle too and make narrated tours of interesting places around L.A. .
There is a similar vario available ,it has a buffered photovoltaic cell . No batteries are required ,it is made by renschler,germany.
I fly with it for several years,and very pleased with it.Sounds like you have a vario inside your head.Since i have a larger distance to my standard vario
because i fly supine ,the mini vario works very well.Great as a backup,no batteries.
Drawback,here in Holland they cost 119 euros.....
Regards ,(sitting) Bob.
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