Setting up the variometer

[Curtis Miller]

Hi all,

I need some input on setting up the variometer. I don't seem to be getting very useful sounds and I suspect I may have things set up incorrectly. If I understand correctly, there are two primary things to set, those being sink rate and climb rate. The percentage of energy compensation is a third that I'll skip for the moment.

What I've been doing is setting the sink rate to something that I think is close to the actual sinking speed of my plane. If I get a lot of climbing signals when I'm clearly not climbing then I assume that I've set the sinking rate too high and it needs to be lowered. Over time I've come up with a good approximation of the sink rate but I almost never hear the signal for sink except for brief whoops in turbulence. I'm flying big scale gliders and my sink rate is set at about 100 feet per minute.

I suspect the problem may be in the climb rate setting. My best guess as to what this setting does is to establish the minimum climb rate at which you want to get a climb signal. I don't know if this is right. I also don't know if the number is the total climb rate or just the amount over the sink rate. What I'm doing is setting the climb rate to something like 20 feet per minute just so I get signals when there's mild lift.

I don't know if the climb rate figure also applies to sink or even if I am understanding this setting at all.

Could someone give me a real world example of how these settings work?

[billpa]

HI Curtis,

Correct on sink rate. the min climb rate sets the upper "error bar" for which there will be no variometer tone. For example, if you did not want to hear a tone for climbs less than 100 fpm, you would set this to 100.

The other key parameter is averaging period. Generally, the calmer the air, the lower the averaging period can be. 0.2 seconds is a good minimum starting point.

Regards,

Bill, for Eagle Tree

[Curtis Miller]

Hi Bill,

I talked to Don the other day and he thought the main problem I had was having the averaging period set too short. I believe your documentation recommends a very short period, as low as 0.1. That's where I had it set. He suggested as high as 0.4 to 0.5. Does that sound right?


Curt

[billpa]

Hi Curtis,

Don is correct - it's good to hear that Don and I are recommending the same things! :-)

I would experiment with the higher averaging and see if that resolves your issue. Please let me know how this goes.

I checked the the manual, and it says this:

“Vario Avg Secs” – This setting controls the averaging period of the variometer, in 10ths of a second units. For faster
response, lower periods are recommended, but in rougher air longer periods may be required to avoid false alarms. Pressing
up/down arrows changes the averaging period.


Regards,

Bill, for Eagle Tree