XCSoar Getting Started

As some of you know the XCSoar moving maps for the club gliders (a.k.a. “Kobos”) now have sound capability.  When in normal use (ie in “FLY” mode), as well as the warning messages on the screen, they will produce different sounds when the following events occur in flight:

1)      When a task is started

2)      When a task turnpoint has been reached

3)      When a task has been completed

4)      When approaching airspace

5)      When first entering airspace

When you get any airspace warning the screen message will give you the option of “ACK” or “ACK DAY”.  Tapping “ACK” will acknowledge that instance of airspace intrusion however tapping “ACK DAY” will stop warnings about that piece of airspace for the rest of the day.

Please put the units in the gliders (2 in the K21 and 1 in each Astir) so that everyone gets used to using them.  Here’s a few basic pointers:

1)      When attached to the mounts in the aircraft and plugged into the bayonet connector on the panel, they will normally turn on when the glider master switch is turned on.  If they don’t turn on at that point press the physical blue button on the back side, top right of the unit

2)      When the “power on” screen comes up ( it says “XCSoar 7” in the centre) tap the “FLY” button on the screen.

3)      To turn off the unit, quit the main program via the main menu (see below) to get back to the “power on” screen then tap the “Poweroff” button lower right of the screen. Do not try and use the blue button on the back of the unit as this will not do a complete shutdown.

4)      When removing the unit from the glider DO NOT LEAVE THE MOUNT LOCKING RING ON THE MOUNT IN THE GLIDER – RETURN THE RING TO THE BACK OF THE UNIT TO AVOID THE RISK OF A LOOSE RING DROPPING AND JAMMING CONTROLS.

5)      To use the moving map tap the “FLY” button. This will bring up a screen that lets you choose different profiles. Tap inside the profile box and then select the one you want (either “Default” , “NORTH UP” or “TRACK UP” depending on what map orientation you want). Pressing “Continue” will then load the main program.

6)      To get into the main menu either carefully tap the centre of the “M” button top right of the map or double tap anywhere on the map. (The main menu screen will time out after 7 seconds of no activity).

7)      The main menu gives options to quit the main program or setup lots of different items (tasks / display / config etc) as well as turn the volume up or down.  The unit will remember the volume settings from one day to the next so that it can be set at a sensible level for that glider and left alone.

The best way of learning how to use the maps is to play with them at home and the members section of the club website has a PC simulation that you can download for a windows PC / laptop.