Re: Electronic horizon?

David Smith wrote:

If Bumper is correct and the Garmin 196 GPS driven
attitude display can be used for a emergency cloud
descent then presumably the turning glider on a Winpilot
screen will give the same information, or will it ????

My experiments with GPS for turn indication showed success depends very much on the wind strength: below 20 knots, it's probably OK; above 30 knots, it's definitely not.

In strong winds, the heading changes displayed become very sensitive to turns when flying upwind, and very insensitive when flying downwind. The more wind, the worse it gets. This quite different from a gyro instrument, which has the same sensitivity regardless of the wind. Perhaps a pilot could practice and become adept at it, and maybe, maybe, in smooth air it's not a problem, even in strong winds.

Since wind is a always feature of wave flying, I do not want to rely a GPS to save my *** during an encounter with clouds. I have a T&B that I practice with periodically, though I've never come close to entering a cloud. Other club members have, however.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA
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