Triadis Altair User manual

triadis engineering GmbH – Eichholzstrasse 7 – Postfach – CH-3254 Messen
Phone: [phone] – Fax: [phone] – Internet: www.triadis.ch – E-Mail: [email protected]
Document name: XCSoar-A-EN
Document version: 1.8
Release date: 03/07/2008
Manual (Altair version)

Notes
i XCSoar Manual (Altair version) •XCSoar-A-EN

Preface
Revision history
Revision Date Status Author Changes, comments
1.6 EN 15/09/2007 released J.Wharington Standard XCSoar manual
1.7 EN 08/01/2008 draft D.Wettstein Altair version, layout rework
1.7 GR 02/02/2008 draft D.Wettstein German translation
1.8 03/07/2008 released D.Wettstein New features, XCSoar Altair ver-
sion 5.2
This manual applies to XCSoar version 5.2. The authors reserve the right to update this manual as
enhancements are made throughout the life of this product.
Warnings and precautions
IT IS THE USER’S RESPONSIBILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE PRUDENTLY. THIS SOFT-
WARE IS INTENDED TO BE USED ONLY AS A NavIGATION AID AND MUST NOT BE
USED FOR ANY PURPOSE REQUIRING PRECISE MEASUREMENT OF DIRECTION, DIS-
TANCE, LOCATION, OR TOPOGRAPHY. THIS SOFTWARE SHOULD NOT BE USED AS
AN AID TO DETERMINE GROUND PROXIMITY FOR AIRCRAFT NavIGATION. THIS SOFT-
WARE SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A TRAFFIC COLLISION AVOIDANCE SYSTEM.
Legal notices
Software license agreement
This software is released according to the GNU General Public License Version 2. See Appendix A
for the full text of the agreement and warranty notice.
Limited liability
In no event shall XCSoar, or its principals, shareholders, officers, employees, affiliates, contrac-
tors, subsidiaries, or parent organizations, be liable for any incidental, consequential, or punitive
damages whatsoever relating to the use of the Product.
Disclaimer
This product, and all accompanying files, data and materials, are distributed ”as is” and with no
warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. This product is used entirely at the risk of
the user. Although great care has been taken to eliminate defects during its development it is not
claimed to be fault-free. No claims are made regarding its correctness, reliability or fitness for any
particular purpose. The XCSoar project developers and contributors shall not be liable for errors
contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages, loss of data or personal injury in
connection with furnishing, performance, or use of this material.
XCSoar Manual (Altair version) •XCSoar-A-EN ii

CONTENTS
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Organisation of this manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Running XCSoar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.4 Through-life support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 Using XCSoar safely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.6 Graphical elements in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 User Interface 5
2.1 Button labels and menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1.1 NAV menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.2 DISP menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.3 Pan mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.4 CONF menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1.5 INFO Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 InfoBoxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 Dialog windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.1 Waypoint Select . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.2 Change Task Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.3 Change Landing Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.4 Task Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.5 Team Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.6 Setup Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.7 Screen Brightness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.8 Setup MacCready . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.9 Basic Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.10 Wind Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.11 Airspace Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.12 Setup Vega . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.13 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.14 Altair Flight Recorder Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.15 Waypoint Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.16 Waypoint Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.17 Airspace Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.18 Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.19 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.20 Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4 Status messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5 Status dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.6 Text entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.7 Sounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.8 Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.9 Help system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
iii XCSoar Manual (Altair version) •XCSoar-A-EN

CONTENTS
3 Display Elements 21
3.1 Zoom and map scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 Panning the map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3 Glider symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4 Trail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.5 Glide range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.6 Map elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.7 Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.8 Active task elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.9 Thermal profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.10 Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4 Cross Country Tasks 29
4.1 NAV Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2 Task Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.3 Task calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.4 Waypoint Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.5 Waypoint Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.6 AAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.7 OnLine Contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.8 Logger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5 Glide Computer 45
5.1 Flight modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.2 MacCready settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
5.3 Glide polar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.4 Basic settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5.5 Speed to fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.6 Safety heights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.7 Final glide calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.8 Display of altitude required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.9 Task speed estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.10 Optimal cruise track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.11 Analysis dialog: Glide polar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.12 Flight notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.13 Sunlight and time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6 Atmosphere and Instruments 58
6.1 Variometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6.2 Air data inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
6.3 Wind display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
6.4 Wind estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
6.5 Wind settings dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6.6 Thermal locator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.7 Convection forecast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
XCSoar Manual (Altair version) •XCSoar-A-EN iv

CONTENTS
6.8 Analysis dialog: Wind, Temperature, Barograph and Climb history . . . . . . . 62
7 Airspace, Traffic and Team Flying 65
7.1 Airspace display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
7.2 Incursion events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.3 Airspace warning levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.4 Airspace warning dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.5 Airspace warning acknowlegement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.6 Airspace Info dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.7 Airspace Browser dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.8 Analysis dialog: Airspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7.9 FLARM traffic display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
7.10 Team flying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8 Avionics and Airframe 75
8.1 GPS connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8.2 Switch inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8.3 Switch Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8.4 Aircraft radio transceiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8.5 Supported variometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
8.6 Other avionics devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.7 Slave mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.8 Interface to external loggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
9 Quickstart 78
9.1 Local flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
9.2 FAI Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
9.3 FAI Task, Manual Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
9.4 AAT Task, Manual Arm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
9.5 Task with alternate start sectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
10 InfoBox Reference 84
10.1 Altitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
10.2 Aircraft state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
10.3 Glide ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
10.4 Variometer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
10.5 Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
10.6 MacCready . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
10.7 Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
10.8 Waypoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10.9 Team code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
11 Configuration 92
11.1 Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
11.2 Airspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
v XCSoar Manual (Altair version) •XCSoar-A-EN

CONTENTS
11.3 Map Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
11.4 Terrain display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
11.5 Glide computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
11.6 Safety factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
11.7 Polar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
11.8 Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
11.9 Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
11.10 Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
11.11 Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
11.12 InfoBox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
12 Data Files 111
12.1 File management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
12.2 Terrain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
12.3 Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
12.4 Waypoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
12.5 Airspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
12.6 Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
12.7 Airfield details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
12.8 Glide polar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
12.9 Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
12.10 Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
12.11 Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
12.12 Flight logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
12.13 Input events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
12.14 Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
12.15 Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
12.16 FLARM Identification file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
12.17 Dialog files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
13 About XCSoar 121
13.1 Product history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
13.2 Get involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
13.3 Open source philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
13.4 Development process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
13.5 User base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
13.6 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
A GNU General Public License 125
XCSoar Manual (Altair version) •XCSoar-A-EN vi

1 INTRODUCTION
1 Introduction
This document is a pilot’s manual that describes the functionality of XCSoar when used with Altair.
XCSoar is an open source glide navigation system for portable devices. The audience is assumed
to have a sound knowledge of the fundamental theory of flight for gliders, and at least a basic
working knowledge of cross-country soaring.
Updates to the XCSoar software may result in some of this manual being out of date. You should
read the release notes distributed with the software to keep track of changes. Updates to the
manual and software are available from http://www.triadis.ch .
1.1 Organisation of this manual
This manual is broadly organised into the major functions of the software from a pilot’s perspective.
The remainder of this section deals with how to download, install and run the software on various
platforms. Section 2 introduces the user interface concepts and gives an overview of the display.
Section 3 describes the moving map part of the display in greater detail and describes how the
software can assist in general navigation. Section 4 describes how cross-country tasks are spec-
ified and flown, and presents some of the analysis tools available to pilots to help improve their
performance. Section 5 goes into further detail on the glide computer functions as it is important
for pilots to be aware of how the computer performs its calculations.
Section 6 describes how the computer can interface to variometers and other air data sensors,
and how it uses these measurements to provide various models of the atmosphere, in particular
on winds and thermal convection. Section 7 describes how XCSoar can assist in managing flight
in special use airspace and the FLARM collision awareness system. Section 8 deals with systems
integration and systems diagnostics, the integration of XCSoar with communications devices and
with airframe switches.
The remainder of the manual contains mainly reference material. Section 10 lists the types of
information that can be displayed in the grid of InfoBoxes next to the map display. The configuration
of the software is described in detail in section 11. The formats of the various data files that program
uses, as well as where to obtain them from and how to edit them, is described in section 12.
Finally, a short history and discussion of XCSoar’s development process is presented in section 13.
1.2 System requirements
•Altair The triadis engineering GmbH Altair glide computer is a glide computer factory installed
with XCSoar.
•GPS data source The Altair Pro version contains an internal GPS. The standard version addi-
tionally needs an external GPS data input. This must be a NMEA-0183 data source that
outputs GPRMC and GPGGA sentences. Suitable devices include handheld serial GPS
devices, glider flight loggers, GPS-integrated variometers, and FLARM. Up to two GPS de-
vices may be used simultaneously, giving XCSoar a degree of redundancy of the GPS fixes.
1.3 Running XCSoar
XCSoar starts up automatically when Altair is powered on. The PWR/ESC button (top left) on Altair
has multiple functions:
1 XCSoar Manual (Altair version) •XCSoar-A-EN

1 INTRODUCTION
•Powering on Press and hold the PWR/ESC button for one second. The LED in the button will
light up, and XCSoar will start after Altair has booted.
•Powering off Press and hold the PWR/ESC button for approx. two seconds. Altair will switch
off.
•Escape Pressing the PWR/ESC button quickly acts as an Escape key, typically used to close
dialog pages or as a cancel function.
Start-up and user profiles
When XCSoar starts up, it displays a start-up screen with a safety reminder and a profile selector.
XCSoar allows multiple independent configurations to coexist for different purposes, such as:
•Different pilots
•Competition versus casual flying
•Flying in different locations
These configurations can be saved in profiles. To proceed, select your profile and press Enter.
The customization of profiles is described briefly in section 12. When multiple profiles are avail-
able, changes to configuration settings will only affect the profile selected at start-up; others are
unaffected.
Splash screen
When XCSoar starts up, shuts down, or loads large files, such as airspace, waypoints etc, a
progress bar with a description of the current process is shown below the safety reminder. The
current software version is displayed in the header.
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Last flight statistics
The previous flight’s statistics are automatically saved when XCSoar is shut down, and loaded
again at startup. This allows the flight to be reviewed even after shutting down Altair. Note that
these persistent flight statistics use approximately 85 kilobytes of storage.
Previous flight statistics are automatically reset on a new takeoff in order not to affect the current
flight.
Persistent settings
The basic settings (MacCready setting, Bugs, Ballast, QNH, maximum forecast temperature) are
preserved when XCSoar shuts down and restored when XCSoar initialises.
Exiting the program
To shut down Altair (XCSoar), press the PWR/ESC button for approx. two seconds and confirm the
shutdown process by pressing YES on the dialog that comes up.
1.4 Through-life support
Troubleshooting
A small team of dedicated developers produces XCSoar. Although we are happy to help with the
use of our software, we cannot teach you about basics of modern information technology. There
are ample existing resources dealing with these. If you have a question about XCSoar please email
us at xcsoar-[email protected].
You may find some solutions to standard problems in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section
of the XCSoar website.
Furthermore, we recommend to subscribe to the XCSoar users mailing list so you will be kept up
to date with latest developments.
A log file of the startup functions of XCSoar is generated to the file xcsoar-startup.log. This
is transferred to the ‘FromAltair’ directory by AltairSync if a USB drive is plugged in when Altair is
first switched on. It can then be sent to the XCSoar developers to help determine the cause if the
program crashes at startup.
XCSoarPC
XCSoarPC may be used to become familiar with XCSoar’s interface and functionality in the comfort
of one’s home. All files and configuration used by XCSoarPC are identical to the Altair versions, so
it can be helpful to try out customizations on the PC version before using them in flight.
XCSoarPC can also be connected to external devices and operates just as Altair does. Suggested
uses include:
•Connect the PC to a FLARM device to use XCSoarPC as a ground station display of
FLARM-equipped traffic.
•Connect the PC to an intelligent variometer such as Vega to test configuration settings of
the variometer.
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1.5 Using XCSoar safely
The use of an interactive system like XCSoar in flight carries with it certain risks due to the potential
distraction of the pilot from maintaining situational awareness and eyes outside the cockpit.
The philosophy guiding the design and development of the software is to try to reduce this distrac-
tion by minimising the need for user interactions as much as possible, and by presenting information
in a clear fashion able to be interpreted in a glance.
Pilots using XCSoar must take responsibility for using the system safely. Good practice in the use
of XCSoar includes:
•Becoming familiar with the system thoroughly through training on the ground.
•Performing clearing turns before interacting with XCSoar in flight in order to ensure there is
no collision risk with other traffic.
•Setting up the system to take advantage of automatic functions and input events so that
user interactions can be minimised. If you find yourself mechanically performing certain
interactions frequently, ask yourself (or other XCSoar users) if the software can be made to
do these interactions for you.
1.6 Graphical elements in this document
The following elements are used in this document to simplify understanding:
•Onscreen menus
•Dialogs
•Buttons
•Warnings
•Remarks
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2 User Interface
This section describes the fundamental user interface concepts used by XCSoar, and is intended
as an overview. More detailed descriptions are given in following sections.
The XCSoar display is composed of several parts:
•Map area The bulk of the screen is dedicated to the GPS moving map display. Various symbols
relating to glide computer information are overlaid on the map area. Icons and text may
appear along the lower edge of the screen to indicate status of connected devices, operating
modes etc.
•InfoBoxes A grid of data values is displayed to the right of the screen. These so-called InfoBoxes
display data from the GPS and other input devices as well as data generated by the glide
computer.
•Gauges Gauges (upper right corner) provide instrumentation displays. All gauges are optional
and some may only have meaningful information displayed when XCSoar is connected to a
supported instrument.
•Button labels and menus These buttons are drawn in black (resp. grey) text on a green back-
ground.
•Status messages Text is displayed over the map area in status message boxes. This text is
used to present detailed information to the pilot when certain events occur.
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•Dialog windows Larger dialog windows, usually containing graphics and buttons, are used to
present detailed data to the pilot regarding waypoint details, statistics and analysis etc.
To interact with XCSoar, you can either use the Altair buttons or external switches and devices
connected to XCSoar. For XCSoarPC, clicking the mouse over an item is equivalent to touching it.
2.1 Button labels and menus
The button menu is a set of buttons drawn on the screen and activated by hardware button presses.
Using buttons and the button menu are the primary ways the user interacts with XCSoar.
Interface basics
The menu is organised into different groups of functions, usually in the form of a hierarchy. However,
the specific menu layout depends on the hardware button configurations.
XCSoar can also accept input from external keyboards, game-pads, joysticks, stick grip switches
etc. A wide variety of functions can be assigned to these inputs.
For Altair, there are four major menus, activated by pressing one of the vertical strip of hardware
buttons on the left of the display. When a menu is activated, a strip of onscreen buttons appear
along the bottom of the display. At the last page, pressing the menu button again will turn that
menu off and the horizontal strip of onscreen buttons disappear. Three dots on the right side of a
menu title (e.g. NAV... ) indicate that there is another row of buttons, whereas three dots on the
left side (e.g. ...NAV ) indicate that the menu will be closed the next time you press this menu
button.
Pressing the particular menu button again will cycle through several pages of items. Pressing the
corresponding horizontal button will activate that item.
On the PC version (XCSoarPC), these mode buttons are activated by the F1,2,3,4 keys (menu
buttons). The F6,7,8,9,0 keys (F buttons) correspond to the horizontal strip of buttons.
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If the user doesn’t interact with the computer for a certain time, the menu will close automatically.
This menu timeout is configurable. The escape key on PC, or the PWR/ESC button on Altair, can
also be used to close the current menu.
Menu button labels appear as grey text instead of black if the corresponding function is not avail-
able. For example, the AAT Target button will appear grey if the task is not an AAT task.
Several menu button labels have dynamic text based on context, in order to make it clearer as
to what happens when the button is pressed. The convention is used that a button’s label de-
scribes what will happen when the button is pressed. For example, if the button says Map Off ,
then pressing the button will turn off terrain and topology, and the button label will then change to
Map On . In the menu list described below, generic labels are used.
Menu overview
This section describes the default layout of the menu system. The functions performed by each
button are explained more in detail in the following sections.
The primary menu buttons are activated by each of the vertical strip of buttons on Altair, from top
to bottom:
NAV Navigation and task settings
DISP Display and map settings
CONF Configuration of XCSoar, connected devices, and in-flight settings
INFO Display of various information dialogs
2.1.1 NAV menu
•Change ..Pt Change the current task, landing or waypoint. See 4.1 for more details.
•NavTo ..Pt Change navigation mode. See 4.1 for more details.
•Task Edit Opens Task Editor . See 4.2 for more details.
•Advance .. Manually advance to or arm next task point. See 4.2 for more details.
•Final Force Switches between automatic and forced final glide mode. See 5.1 for more details.
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•Team Code Opens Team Code . See 7.10 for more details.
•AAT Target Configuration of the AAT target settings. See 4.1 for more details.
2.1.2 DISP menu
•Pan On Activates pan map mode. See 3.2 for more details.
•Mark Location Drops a marker at the current glider location. See 3.7 for more details.
•Setup Display Opens Setup Display . See 2.3.6 for more details.
•Map Off Switches terrain and topology on/off.
•Default Restores default display settings.
•Zoom Auto Switches between automatic and manual zooming. See 3.1 for more details.
•Full Scrn On Switches between full screen (without InfoBoxes) and normal display.
•Bright Adjust Opens Screen Brightness . See 2.8 for more details.
2.1.3 Pan mode
•Pan Off Turns pan mode off.
•Zoom In Zooms in the map display.
•Zoom Out Zooms out the map display.
•Nearest Waypoint Opens Waypoint Browser . See 4.4 for more details.
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2.1.4 CONF menu
•Setup MC Opens Setup MacCready . See 5.2 for more details.
•Setup Basic Opens Basic Settings . See 5.4 for more details.
•Setup Wind Opens Wind Settings . See 6.5 for more details.
•Settings Airspace Opens Airspace Browser . See 7.7 for more details.
•Setup Vega Opens Setup Vega if Vega is connected. See 6.1 for more details.
•Setup System Opens the XCSoar configuration dialog. See 11 for more details.
•Setup Logger Opens Altair Flight Recorder Setup . See 4.8 for more details.
2.1.5 INFO Menu
•Waypoint Details Opens Waypoint Info for the active task waypoint. See 4.2 for more details.
•Nearest Waypoint Opens Waypoint Browser with the nearest task waypoints. See 4.4 for
more details.
•Nearest Airspace Opens Airspace Info with the nearest airspaces. See 7.6 for more details.
•Status Show Opens Status . See 2.5 for more details.
•Aux Info On Toggles the InfoBox display between normal (flight-mode specific) or auxiliary In-
foBox display. See 2.2 for more details.
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•Analysis Show Opens Analysis . See the different ‘Analysis dialog: ...’ parts of this document
for more details.
•Checklist Opens Checklist . See 12.10 for more details.
•Message Last Repeats the last status message.
Default buttons
When no menu is active, (so-called default mode), the horizontal row of buttons in Altair perform
the following functions (from left to right):
F6 F7 F8 F9 F0
Setup
Basic
Final
Force
Display
Mode
FR
Event
FLARM Dsp
On
Pressing PWR/ESC on Altair displays labels for these default menu buttons.
Rotary knob
In default mode, the rotary knob performs the following functions:
•Outer knob counterclockwise Zoom in
•Outer knob clockwise Zoom out
•Inner knob counterclockwise (No function assigned)
•Outer knob clockwise (No function assigned)
•Knob button press Clear status message or acknowledge airspace warning
In dialog forms, the rotary knob in Altair performs the role of the cursor and enter keys:
•Outer knob counterclockwise Up cursor
•Outer knob clockwise Down cursor
•Inner knob counterclockwise Left cursor
•Inner knob clockwise Right cursor
•Knob button press Enter key
Dynamic menu labels
Certain menu items now have dynamic labels to make it clearer what happens when the menu item
is selected. The convention used is for the labels to display the action that will be performed once
the menu item is selected. Items that are not available are greyed out to indicate that selecting the
menu item will not do anything.
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2.2 InfoBoxes
The customizable InfoBoxes are used to display informations re-
garding atmosphere, flight, task, etc. The available fields are
listed in section 11.12.
Screen display modes
The screen can be toggled between the following main display modes:
•Map with standard InfoBoxes (flight mode specific; see 5.1 for more details).
•Map with auxiliary InfoBoxes
INFO Aux Info On
•Full-screen map, InfoBoxes hidden
DISP Full Scrn On
When auxiliary InfoBoxes are displayed, the word ‘AUX’ appears at the lower left corner of the map
area.
2.3 Dialog windows
XCSoar contains two categories of dialog windows: interactive ones that can be used to set up
tasks, configure and modify settings, and informational ones that simply display information.
Controls
A cursor shows the active button, tab or data field. This cursor appears as a highlighted area with
black borders around the corners. When rotating the outer knob (up/down) on Altair, the cursor
cycles through the next or previous elements (buttons, menus, fields, etc). When rotating the inner
knob (left/right), the value of the element under the cursor can be modified.
Pressing the enter key selects or activates the element under the cursor (button, data field).
Many of the dialog windows have multiple pages of information and are controlled in a consistent
fashion. Press the or buttons to select the next or previous page of the dialog, and the
Close button to make the dialog disappear. The PWR/ESC button can also be used to close
dialogs.
The user must close the dialog to return to the normal map mode. When a dialog has been opened,
the Altair buttons change their functions or are disabled until the dialog is closed.
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In some dialogs, items that are not relevant or valid are not displayed (e.g. AAT details in a non-AAT
task).
We will now list all dialogs of the current XCSoar version like they appear in the onscreen menus.
Most of them are described in detail in other sections; in these cases there is only a basic descrip-
tion in this part.
2.3.1 Waypoint Select
Access: In navigation mode WayPoint: NAV Change WayPoint
Description: Search and change waypoints. For more details see 4.2.
2.3.2 Change Task Point
Access: In navigation mode TaskPoint: NAV Change Task Pt
Description: Change the current task point. For more details see 4.1.
2.3.3 Change Landing Point
Access: In navigation mode LandingPoint: NAV Change Landing Pt
Description: Change the current landing point. For more details see 4.1.
2.3.4 Task Editor
Access: NAV Task Edit
Description: Set up and modify tasks. For more details see 4.2.
2.3.5 Team Code
Access: NAV Team Code
Description: Setting team codes and showing team mates’ positions. For more details see 7.10.
2.3.6 Setup Display
Access: DISP Setup Display
Description: Settings of the map display.
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•Dsp Mode Change display mode. For more details see 2.2 resp. 5.1.
•Airspace Airspace settings. For more details see 11.2.
•Gliderange Switch gliderange on/off. For more details see 3.5.
•Trail Change trail display settings. For more details see 3.4.
•Terrain Switch terrain on/off.
•Topology Switch topology on/off.
•Labels Switch waypoint labels on/off.
•Orientation Change map display orientation. For more details see 11.3.
2.3.7 Screen Brightness
Access: DISP Bright Adjust
Description: Adjusts the screen brightness. For more details see 2.8.
2.3.8 Setup MacCready
Access: CONF Setup MC
Description: MacCready settings. For more details see 5.2.
2.3.9 Basic Settings
Access: CONF Setup Basic
Description: Basic settings. For more details see 5.4.
2.3.10 Wind Settings
Access: CONF Setup Wind
Description: Wind settings. For more details see 6.5.
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