Pilots love numbers. Best glide ratio, average speed, average vario, McCready rythm... All day log we are living among these numbers without really thinking about them, but much more feeling them, having fun with them, making choices among them. You want to know more about the way you play with them? Open SeeYou!
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In this episode 2, we will see that in few clics SeeYou can help you ask yourself the "good questions" based on facts and not feelings.
But first, some limitations : these statistics tool are very well adapted for flatland where ridge running and wave are not existing. Indeed, ridge and wave would play with numbers in a way that average glide ratio and average speed or climbs could become nuts. In fact, with these tools, we are looking mainly for a comparison between what you did and what should have been done based on McCready theory, typical flatland flight style.
What do you need to analyse your flight :
- you need software SeeYou (for Windows computer which is the version I use for this report)
- flying with a flight recorder in .igc format (so you don't need an official IGC Logger, your beloved Oudie is enough)
- and GO FLY! (if you fly on an assigned task it it better but not a big deal if not)
After the flight, get the IGC file to your computer and "open" it with SeeYou.
If you have not made an assigned task, the statistics tool of SeeYou will be very poor and limited, focussing only on the whole flight, which makes not any sense as you made some time to make first thermal, perhaps you did not start the task after this first thermal and at the end of the flight you also perhaps took some time to stay airborne, just enjoying the local area around wour airfield.
All this time you flew without really making cross country will kill the statistics.
So first step : assign a task to your trace.
For that, just follow these steps:
- zoom in on the area where you think you started your cross country task
- clic on this "moment" on the trace, the glider will appear on the trace at this place and you can already spot below the map many numbers related to this exact instant. Please write the exact time of this moment (the time is one of the most left info among all these data at the footer of the map)
- Repeat to define the "end of your cross country flight" and write the exact time.
- Then, go to Menu / Optimise (or Ctrl+L), Seeyou will immediately start to calculate optimisation of your trace depending on some sporting rules like OLC, don't let it run and go to the data to the top of the right column of this mode and change both data in blue (start of free flight and end of free flight) with the 2 "times" you wrote a step before.
- This time, let SeeYou run and it will offer you many solutions which should fit to your trace (many times, the OLC on the top will be the one to chose).
- After having chose the task adapted to your trace, just clic on "copy" at the bottom of the column.
Congratulations, you just tricked SeeYou and now you have a task assigned to your trace from when you really started to fly cross country up to when you were back to "lazy pilot mode" in local area of your arfield. And the statistics tool will focus only on this part of the flight.
Next step: a fast analysis of your flight
- clic on the symbol v=s/t on the menu bar, SeeYou toggle to statistics analysis mode on your task
- the window shows several tabs and you need to avoid the "flight" tab as, again, it is a mixed statistics of the whole task, and we know that in normal life, each leg of any task offers different performances based mainly on the wind influence, so this tab is too "global".
- Instead, focus on the tab "task" where SeeYou has cut your flight in legs, a good step forward to get much more accurate and thin numbers on your performance.
What to focus on??
When starting this post, I talkes about McCready theory which is not a perfect theory but a very good basis to check your flight. McCready focussed mainly on the relation between speed in glide and average vario. With these statistics you should now be able to answer coldly "did I use the good speed in glide based on the average vario I had?". This is a cold analysis and you will have to balance the answer: if I cruised at a slower pace than the McCready theory it was because of? (long blue areas with no lift? low cloud ceiling? difficult landing area?). If I cruised faster than the theory it was because of? (streets of cumulus?)
There will be mainy acceptable answers, but perhaps you will find not a particular factor which pushed you to not use the theory, or analysing many flights you will spot a personal trend about you. So perhaps something to change. You are your own trainer!
The 2nd number you can easily spot in the statistics is about the average glide ratio you made in cruise mode. Again this number alone does not tell anything. You will need the relation between glide ratio and average speed in cruise to ask one and only question : "do I glide better or worse than the theoric performance of the glider?".
This, again cold, number is your capacity to "glide with efficiency", and, again, you will have to balance this cold number with what was happening in flight. We all flew on some awfull days where sinking air was everywhere, and on the other hand, days with streets of cumulus made you the "king of the glide"...
You want to become a better pilot? O you are just curious about what is behind the curtains in your flights? Know you better! Open SeeYou!
Any problem to use SeeYou, contact me (@benjaminneglais)
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