What's on your deck?

Sky flyers!  What do you use to navigate the ocean of air?  Are you a flying Luddite or a Techno-Tim?

At a recent club meeting a few of us shared what instruments we're flying with.  The clear favorite was David Hatfield's, but it was interesting to see how both new and more experienced pilots set up their kit.  ​

One of the big takeaways was that buying a $5-800 flying instrument is no longer a requirement to have access to the latest and greatest.  Indeed, the favored set up ran right around $425 and was a vario plus a tablet with a sexy sun shield.

We did get pulled in a few different directions, such as where to mount your Spot or inReach (shoulder vs flight deck), the importance of a "real" ball compass and the difficulty in finding good ones, and which vario is the "best" (pssst, the top 3 are all really good.)  

Still, we mostly stayed with what's on the deck.  Here are some quick snaps and explanations from local San Diego pilots.

This first beauty is David's deck.  He's a committed searcher for an excellent solution, and this one drew lots of ooohs and ahhhs from the crowd.  Here are the links so you can build your own:
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Tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 inch 2016. Google it and buy one new for $100, or used on eBay, offer up etc for $50.  He runs XC Track, which is for Android only.

Sun Shield: GPS Sun Shade, GPS Navigator Lens.

Anti Glare Film: [3-Pack] Supershieldz- Anti-Glare.

Vario: XC Tracer

Here's another angle so you see the Sun Shield:

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Next up is Brad Stevenson's setup, an Ascent H2 vario and then he runs XC Soar on a Samsung Galaxy S9+.  He keeps his Garmin InReach on his flight deck instead of a shoulder strap.

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Then there's Peter Hill's deck, with a Flymaster, a Spot tracker, and running XC Track on his phone.

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Here's Connor B's version, this one is V917.423A.  He is CONSTANTLY upgrading and fiddling.  He's running an XC Tracer, Garmin inReach Mini, a Kobo using XC Soar and a ball compass he pulled out of a carabiner/thermometer combo.  Ethan Vance is using the same compass.

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Here's Ethan Vance's setup.  He's using the same ball compass as Connor along with a Flytec Connect 1 for his vario.  He has both XCsoar and XCtrack. 

His notes: "I use them both on occasion, probably XCtrack a bit more. I use the phone just as much if not more for music, messages, [...] and weather...Windy or Windalert for real-time wind speeds on the nearby stations.  I feel like when my XCtracer gets here I will run the XCtrack app more consistently for the map."

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Here's Brian Stiber's setup.  He runs XCsoar on his phone and has a Skybean audio-only vario hooked to his helmet for da beeps.

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Here's Don's deck. He's running an Ascent Vario and then a separate flying app on his phone (anyone know what app that is?)

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This is Tony B's deck; the one he refers to as "the clapped out setup". Way to go, T-bone!  For those of you wondering, that's a Flytec 6015 which has been discontinued but still works for The Great Boy-er.  He's running FlySkyHy on his phone.

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We didn't talk about ALL the gear folks are carrying, including one important thing I saw on some flight decks:  A hook knife.  Find one you like and carry it within easy reach!  Here's a popular model from Superfly, here's what David Hatfield carries, and here's one you can pick up on Amazon.  Whatever you get, make sure YOU like what you carry.

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Many pilots are running an XC Tracer, a small vario that connects via bluetooth to your phone or tablet.  Like the other top varios, the XC Tracer can be customized to sing out the tones you want to hear.  That configuration of tones is called a "tune". 

​Having heard Gavin McClurg talk about his tune on a recent podcast, I asked if he'd mind sharing it with the rest of us.  Here it is for you XC Tracer flyers:

​# create your own vario tone settings below
beepOnlyWhenFlying=yes
setVolume=2
dampingFactor=2.50
ClimbToneOnThreshold=0.10
ClimbToneOffThreshold=0.10
SinkToneOnThreshold=-4.00
SinkToneOffThreshold=-4.00
tone=-10.00,200,200,100
tone=-2.02,294,200,100
tone=-1.99,294,700,82
tone=-1.01,320,400,10
tone=-0.98,320,651,29
tone=0.00,374,300,5
tone=0.00,432,500,15
tone=0.40,505,399,35
tone=1.01,579,335,50
tone=1.99,652,275,50
tone=8.00,1517,241,66
tone=10.00,1800,150,70

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Ok, that's the deck lineup on a sunny day at Blossom, I would LOVE to know what you're flying with and why you chose what to put on your deck.

See ya in the sky!

​Nik