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Dear Paul,
It has been very
cold here in Minnesota lately. I am
really looking forward to spring! The
good news is that we'll be getting the
gliders out for spring in only 2 months.
I have been busy adding a lot of new
products and free features to my web
site lately.
I'm really looking forward to the
SSA Convention in a few weeks.
There are many interesting new
products and technologies that will
be fun to show off. Although going
to the convention is a lot of work,
I really enjoy getting to see my
soaring friends and getting a chance
to meet many of my customers. It is
fun to put faces with names and even
get a chance to hang out and have a
beer or glass of wine together.
Let me know if you
have any suggestions for ways I can make
this newsletter better, or if
you have information to include in
future versions.
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SSA Convention |
 Join
the Fun
I'm really looking
forward to going to the SSA Convention
in Albuquerque in 2008. The convention
floor is open from Thursday, February
14th through Saturday, February 16th.
There won't be an SSA convention in
2009 - so be sure not to miss the one in
2008. It is a great time to catch-up
with friends in the soaring community,
learn about interesting new products and
sailplanes, listen to interesting
speakers on a wide variety of soaring
topics, and much more.
Convention Specials
I have been working with my
vendors to offer special discounts at
the SSA Convention on several products.
I have a limited supply of the Becker
and Zaon items. You can reserve them in
advance.
-
Becker Radios and Transponders:
5% off
-
Mountain High Oxygen Systems: 10%
off
-
SeeYou: Significant discounts - ask
at the show
-
StrePla: Significant discounts - ask
at the show
-
Zaon MRX Traffic Alert: $489 ($50
off)
-
GlidePlan: $109 ($20 off)
Training
Sessions
Several soaring product
vendors will be offering free product
support and training on Wednesday,
February 13th - the day before the start
of the convention. The SSA has
graciously made several rooms available
in the convention center and
representatives from SeeYou, StrePla,
LX, NK and others will be taking
advantage of them. You can see the
latest schedule here:
- 12 to 12:50 PM - NK ClearNav
Overview - Chip Garner
- 1: to 1:50 PM - LX Navigation
LX8000, Colibri, etc.
I had planned to offer one-on-one
customer support in the Navajo room
from 2 to 3:30 PM, but I'm pretty
sure that is not going to work out.
I had hoped to get my booth setup in
the morning, but now the move-in
schedule may not allow that. I'll
do as much setup as possible in the
late morning but I'm sure there will
be more to do in the mid-afternoon.
I'm sorry about that. I was looking
forward to it. I will be at the
training sessions from Noon to 2 PM,
and at the FLARM / ADS-B meeting at
4 PM (details below).
Help
Needed
I am looking for volunteers to help
me at the SSA Convention. I have
created a volunteer schedule. It is
available at the link below and will
also be available in my booth.
Please let me know if you can help
in any of the time slots. I need
help setting up the booth on
Wednesday, help in the booth during
the show on Thursday through
Saturday, and help tearing down the
booth on Saturday. The specific
times are on the schedule. Several
people have said they could help on
Wednesday. If you are one of them,
please confirm that the times shown
will work OK for you.
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FLARM / ADS-B In the USA - A Meeting of
Minds |
I hope you will consider joining us for
what is shaping up to be an extremely
interesting, thought provoking meeting
that may well help move forward the
development of some exciting new traffic
awareness products in the near future.
Products not only for glider pilots, but
for use in all aircraft.
The meeting is entitled:
"FLARM / ADS-B in the USA -
A Meeting of Minds".
It will be held from 4 to
5:30 PM on Wednesday, February 13th
in the Picuris, Sandia, and Santa
Ana rooms in the lower level of the
Albuquerque Convention Center. A
floor plan of the Convention Center
is available in the link below.
http://www.albuquerquecc.com/PDF/ACC-Floorplan-3.pdf
Note that the meeting takes place before
the start of the SSA Convention which
runs from Thursday through Saturday.
I am extremely excited about the
meeting. When I first proposed it my
goal was to try to find a way to get US
pilots to embrace either FLARM or
something similar. The main objective
of the meeting is to enhance safety for
all pilots. What I really want (my
personal goals may not be the same as
everyone else at the meeting) is for all
gliders and power planes to carry a
black box that allows everyone to be
alerted to nearby traffic that is a
threat. The black box needs to be
inexpensive enough so that everyone will
be willing to buy it and install it in
their airplane. I have learned a lot
since then and it sounds like some new
technology and products will make this
all possible in much less time than I
originally hoped.
The current goal for the meeting is to
bring together some great high-tech
minds and discuss products already
working or in the works or ideas for
future products. But I believe that it
will be a meeting at which we can all
see not just the products and
technologies, but also the "big
picture".
Thanks to the hard work done mainly by
Minnesota glider pilot Mike Schumann we
have an extremely impressive list of
people presenting at the meeting. The
proposed agenda is below:
-
4PM - Paul Remde - Agenda -
Introduction of Guests
-
4:05 - Bernald Smith (SSA Rep) -
Overview of ADS-B and the NPRM
-
4:20 - Robert Strain (MITRE) -
Technical Overview of ADS-B and Low
Cost Transceiver Project
-
4:45 - Urs Rothacher (FLARM) -
Overview of FLARM and FLARM's ADS-B
strategy
-
4:55 - Andrej Kolar - Demo of
"FLARM Radar" in SeeYou Mobile
-
5:00 - Bill Hall (Sandia Aerospace)
- Overview of Sandia's Product Line
and Interest in ADS-B
-
5:10 - Jason Clemens (ZAON) -
Overview of ZAON's PCAS product line
and ADS-B plans
-
5:20 - Questions & Panel Discussion
There will also be an very intelligent and
knowledgeable collection of technology
minded glider pilots attending the meeting.
If you are interested in safety enhancing
products then I'm sure you will find the
meeting interesting - and we hope you will
come ready to share your ideas and opinions.
This meeting is absolutely not about selling
products, it is about strategizing about
future products and technologies. It is
also designed to be an opportunity for great
minds in this field to meet and get to know
one another.
I hope you will join us. Were are trying to
get an indication of the number of people
that are planning to attend. Please
send me an e-mail if you are planning to
attend. |
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Cambridge Cradle for Compaq Aero 1550 |
 Last
One
I have only one CAA-128 cradle for
Compaq Aero 1500 series Pocket PCs
remaining in stock. They are no longer
available from Cambridge. It has been
an extremely popular cradle over the
years. I still have all the
required mounting hardware, data cables
and RJ adapters in stock. I'm sure it
will sell quickly.
Details |
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SeeYou Mobile 3.0 |
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Available Now
A new version of SeeYou Mobile is now
available. It is version 3.0. It
includes many cool new features.
Major
Upgrades: (reverse order of implementation)
Version 3.0
-
 FLARM
Radar
- Goto
FLARM
-
 Pan
and rotate map freely
- 10x
faster map display
- Support
for Aircotec XC Trainer
- Support
for multiple Waypoint files
- Support
for many Waypoint file formats
- Magnetic
declination Navboxes (Radial, MagBrg,
MagTrk)
- Waypoint
filter dialog
Minor
Upgrades: (reverse order of implementation)
Version 3.0
- FLARM
friendly name stored for later use
- Waypoint
filter dialog
- New File
Open dialogs (automatic search for
files)
-
Supported proprietary Tasman NMEA
sentences
- Display
Options dialog now multi-page
- Support
for software ports (GPD)
- Start
altitude and speed are reported at start
time
- New
actions for hardware keys: 'no action'
and 'default action'
- Changed
target zoom algorithm to prevent zooming
in too close or too far
- Minor
fixes to communication DLLs
- Numerous
fixes
Details
If you purchased SeeYou Mobile or a
SeeYou Mobile Annual License more than a
year ago, you will need to purchase a
SeeYou Mobile Annual License to be able
to use version 3.0. You can purchase
the upgrade
here. |
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Panoramic View of Airbus A380 Cockpit |
 This
bit of interesting aviation imagery has
spread across the aviation Internet like
wildfire. It is a panoramic view of the
cockpit of the new, huge Airbus A380. It
looks a tad bit complex...
A380 Cockpit View
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NK ClearNav Update |
 First
Drive
I received my first NK ClearNav beta
unit last week. I have had a lot of fun
playing with it. The bright screen is
awesome - but so is the ClearNavigator
software!
Area Task Support
When I first started playing with my
ClearNav demo I was extremely impressed
with the brilliant new way the ClearNav
handles area tasks. Competitive
software requires that you move the turn
point within the turn area. That can be
cumbersome and even dangerous to do in
flight. The ClearNav is much simpler
and more intuitive. There is no need to
move or manipulate the turn location in
any way. A blue arc is show inside the
turn area. It is a locus of points
within the turn area that lie along an
ellipse such that making your turn at
any point on the line will give you the
same distance around the course. The
software places the blue arc
automatically based on your estimated
speed around the course and the task
time. Task course lines are drawn in
fine black lines from the start point,
to a point on the blue line and then on
to the center of the next turn area. If
you are flying fast then blue arc moves
to a point on the far edge of the turn
area. If you are flying slowly the blue
arc moves to a point on the near side of
the turn area. When the blue arc
reaches the far or near side of the area
then the turnpoint in the next turn area
moves away from the center of that area
to compensate. For example, if you are
flying slowly then the blue arc will
move to the near side of the turn area
you are headed for and the turn point in
the following turn area will move closer
to the near edge of that area. I
think this way of handling turn areas is
revolutionary and brilliant!
Congratulations Chip Garner on this
innovation! It is brilliant because you
never need to move the turn point
manually, you just glance at the screen
and fly to a point on the blue arc.
That makes flying safer because you will
keep your eyes out of the cockpit and it
also makes you faster because you can
focus your efforts on flying fast - not
fiddling with the software.
 Glide
Amoebas
The glide amoebas show your
gliding range graphically on the
map. They take into account the
wind, glider polar, altitude and
surrounding terrain. Over flat
terrain they look like circular
rings. Over mountainous terrain
they look like, well... amoebas. A
ridge shows up as a flat
"impassable" line while long
extended "fingers" show where it is
possible to glide through mountain
passes or down into valleys. In flat
land soaring the footprint will be
much more circular or ellipse
shaped. This is a very powerful
feature. Past generations of
soaring software highlighted
reachable airports on the map -
which is also nice, but in
ClearNavigator you can see at a
glance not just what airports are
reachable (any airport inside the
glide amoeba) but you also know how
far you can glide over the ground -
or down into a valley. To me the
most powerful feature of any soaring
software is the ability to glance at
the screen and know instantly
whether or not you can make it to a
nearby landing site. The Glide
Amoebas makes that very clear and
intuitive and easy to use in flight
- Fantastic!
Beta Testers Wanted
I will receive 10 beta
units soon to sell at a discounted
price to customers that are willing
to help with testing and debugging
the software and hardware. Software
upgrades will be easy to do using
the USB memory stick. The system
will be upgraded over time to the
final configuration. I don't know
whether or not it will be necessary
to send the hardware back to the
factory for upgrades. I don't think
that will be necessary, but I can't
be certain. Please let me know if
you are interested in buying a beta
unit. I have started a waiting
list.
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Glide Navigator II Update |
 Password
Tied to Pilot Name
Glide Navigator version 3.0 offers a new
password scheme that is tied to the pilot
name rather than the GPS or PDA. That means
that you will not need to purchase a new
password in the future when you upgrade your
PDA or GPS. There are no other new features
at this time.
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GlidePlan |
|
Now Available from Cumulus Soaring,
Inc.
 GlidePlan
is software for PC or Mac that displays U.S.
Sectional Aeronautical Charts and can be
used to plan cross-country soaring flights
and print maps with distance and glide range
rings. It is popular with:
- Contest
pilots that want to print customized
maps
-
Cross-country soaring pilots that don't
own an expensive flight computer and
want to print maps with glide range
rings - or do own a flight computer and
want printed maps as a backup.
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Gadringer-Gurte GmbH - Seat Belt Systems |
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Now Available from Cumulus Soaring,
Inc.
Gadringer-Gurte GmbH is well known
around the world for their high-quality
seat belt systems.
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Soaring Instrument Overview Videos |
 Free
If a picture is worth a thousand words,
then a video with sound must be worth a
million. I have just started creating
free online product overview videos. I
plan to create them for all the soaring
instruments I sell. So far I have
created videos of the Cambridge 300
series and Tasman V1000 variometer. They
allow you to see and hear all the
functions of the units. It is a great
way to see if it is the right vario for
your glider. Or, if you already own
one, it is a good refresher course on
how to use it.
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Training Videos - Now FREE (low
resolution) |
 SeeYou
Training
I have made full length, low resolution (320
x 240 pixels) versions of all the SeeYou
Training videos available online - free of
charge. If you find them useful and would
like to support my efforts (creating them
was a lot of work), and you would prefer to
view them at full resolution (1014 x 636
pixels), please order the training CDs.
 Pocket
PC Training
I have made full
length, low resolution (320 x 240
pixels) versions of all the Pocket
PC Training videos available online
- free of charge. If you find them
useful and would like to support my
efforts (creating them was a lot of
work), and you would prefer to view
them at full resolution (800 x 600
and 332 x 504 pixels), please order
the training CD.
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Contest Launch Time-Lapse Video |
 I
used "interval recording" on my
camcorder to speed up the process of
bringing gliders out to the runway,
moving them out onto the grid and then
launching. The segment was recorded at
the
2007 Albert Lea Soaring Contest. At
first I wasn't happy with the stop and
go nature of interval recording, but I
do like that it allows the capture of
audio sound during the short recording
segments.
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Articles Needed |
|
I am looking for someone to write a
short article for the next edition
of this newsletter on the highlights of
the SSA Convention. Since I'll be busy
working at the convention, it would be
great to get input from someone else.
Let me know if you are interested.
I am also always looking for interesting
articles for this newsletter.
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Cambridge Aero Instruments Update |
 Long
Lead-times
The Cambridge Aero Instruments 302,
302A, 303 and 306 are extremely popular
soaring instruments used in sailplanes
around the world. However, they seem to
have very long lead-times recently. I
have a few 302, 302A, 303, and 306 units
in stock, but if you are planning to
install one this spring I highly
recommend that you order them very
soon. After my inventory is depleted
I'm told it will take several months to
get more units. The units will be
available and supported well in the long
term.
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New International Soaring Magazine |
 Gliding
International
I had been a happy subscriber to
Gliding Kiwi magazine from John
Roake in New Zealand for quite a while.
My favorite part of the magazine was the
international news section in the very
back of the magazine. It always
included tidbits of information from
around the world that I had not heard
anywhere else. Then, back in December I
received my first copy of Gliding
International. It is a new
publication from John Roake. John is no
longer publishing a magazine for the
national New Zealand gliding
organization Gliding New Zealand.
The great news is that the new magazine
is fantastic. It is a great collection
of soaring news from around the world
combined with great articles and
photos. John has connections with
glider manufacturers and soaring legends
around the world. I particularly like
the sailplane reviews and photos from
Jochen Ewald.
You can subscribe online and have the
magazine mailed to you anywhere in the
world. The price is $52 US for 1 year
or $100 for 2 years. It is currently
published every other month but will
probably go to every month in the near
future. I will be selling subscriptions
at the SSA Convention.
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DG-300/17 Flutter Testing |
 Don't
Try This at Home
This is a very interesting short video
showing flutter on a DG-300/17. As
stated on the web site, the glider was
intentionally overballasted for the
tests. I applaud DG for putting
interesting data like this on their
fantastic web site.
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Coming Next Month |
- SSA Convention Highlights
- Update on the JS-1 Revelation 18
m sailplane from South Africa
- Why the new EW microRecorder is so
popular
- Favorite soaring magazines from
around the world
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Thank you for
taking the time to read this
newsletter. I hope you have found it
interesting. If you did, please forward
it to your soaring friends using the
link at the bottom of the page.
I consider myself
a servant. Please let me know if there
is anything I can do to help you find
the right soaring instruments for your
needs, or help you learn how to use
an instrument or software product.
Also, let me know if you have any
suggestions for products or services to
add to my web site, or ways that I can
serve you better.
I feel blessed
because I love my job. I enjoy serving
the soaring community. Like you, I am
passionate about soaring. Thank you for
your business, I sincerely appreciate
it.
Sincerely,
Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
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