SoarPilot was designed with both the sport and competition sailplane/paraglider pilots in mind. It enhances a pilot’s sectional information helping him/her to make informed speed & distance decisions when flying around the local airfield or going cross-country. In addition, using an attached GPS and the logger function, the pilot can download and plot the flight track information after flying for futher analysis or just for fun!
It will run on the popular PalmOS compatible devices with PalmOS 3.0 or higher as well as most Windows WinMobile/PocketPC devices using StyleTap® support, and is available free of charge. It uses the McCready theory to calculate the speed-to-fly/final glide and the altitude required to fly a certain distance assuming a given head/tailwind and airmass movement. If a GPS is not available, the distance to fly can be entered manually. However if one is available, SoarPilot can process GPS data using the PalmPilot’s serial interface. The GPS must be capable of outputting data which is compatible with the NMEA-0183 version 1.5 or 2.0+ (auto-select) standards. The program makes use of the GPRMB, GPRMC, GPGGA & PGRMZ sentences. The PGRMZ sentence is used for NMEA-183 version 1.5 to get GPS altitude from a Garmin GPS. Altitude is taken from the standard GPGGA sentence for version 2.0+.
It can also now parse the proprietary sentences from the Volkslogger, Colibri, Cambridge 302/GPSNAV, Garmin (select models), PosiGraph, Zander and other loggers for pressure altitude information. In addition, if connected to a Borgelt B50 or Cambridge 302, all additional information from both units is used to enhance the accuracy of many of the calculated values.
The latest released version of Soaring Pilot program can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
An online Manual is also available as well as a FAQ (frequently asked questions section). Please check the FAQ as well as the SoaringPilot Yahoo group archives (described below) before contacting us at help@soaringpilot.org.
Also for this purpose, a Yahoo Group for Soaring Pilot has been established. It can be found at: (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soaringpilot/). Viewing the message archive is open to the public, however if you wish to post to the group, you must join. Joining the email list can be done different ways:
If you subscribe through the Yahoo Groups webpage, you will be walked through establishing a YahooID and password. This will allow you to "login" to the yahoogroups site giving you access to view the list of members as well as access to any photos or other information that members are allowed to post into the download area. You also have the ability to post to the list directly through the webpage as well if you are logged in. To subscribe with this method, simply click on the icon below.
Click to join soaringpilotIf you just want to subscribe to list without having access to the additional information described above, you can simply send a message to soaringpilot-subscribe@yahoogroups.com . Whatever email address you use to send the message to that address will be automatically subscribed to the group. Alternatively, you may unsubscribe to the group by sending an email to soaringpilot-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.
You can also accomplish the same result by entering your email address in the field below and clicking on the icon:
I monitor the posts to the group and will attempt to answer questions promptly however there is already a descent amount of historical information and troubleshooting tips that is easily searched through the group webpage (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/soaringpilot/). In addition, I also forward answers to questions/problems that are sent to help@soaringpilot.org that I feel would be pertinent to a wider audience.
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