Settings

The Flight Settings page allows entering information regarding the weather and current state of the glider. All the entry is done by touch only (no typing). The pilot can enter the following: -wind speed and direction (by pressing the left arrow button the pilot has also an option to use the vector wind that has been calculated automatically. If the 'Auto update' check box is enabled, the calculated wind automatically becomes the current wind) -water ballast -bugs -altitude (altimeter setting) [this box isn't available in WP Lite]
The Map group box allows selecting the map orientation (North_Up or Track-Up). Goal Height - Safety buffer used in computing final glide. Altitude Required to reach a goal is the sum of the Glide Altitude needed to fly from the current position to the goal, the Goal Elevation (from the WinPilot.dat file), and the Goal Height selected here. Trace Size box allows changing the number of gps fixes visible behind the glider in high zoom modes. When the Advance TP option is enabled, then upon reaching a given turnpoint WinPilot automatically advances to steer the pilot towards the next turnpoint of the task. If the Auto Zoom feature is enabled, the map automatically zooms in when the glider is close to the next turnpoint.
The Airspace settings page allow selecting which airspace classes should be displayed on the screen. If a given type is not present in the database, its check box is disabled.
The Font Selection page allows selecting different size of fonts and text on the map, depending on pilot's preference. It also allows replacing the full arrival label text (i.e. turnpoint #:arrival altitude) with just an underline of the turnpoint number, signaling that the airport (landpoint) is within reach.
The NAV Boxes selection page allows enabling the following boxes on the main map screen: Destination Pointer (TP Arrow), Destination Distance (TP Distance), Ground Speed, Track, Bearing, Wind In Use, Automatically Calculated Wind, Average Lift for the past 20 seconds (Current Thermal and All Thermals averager will be available soon). Click here for more details.
The Rules page allows control over the turnpoint control zones and start gate shapes and dimensions. By selecting an Angle of 90 degrees in the Turnpoint control group, the user can enable standard FAI sector shape, or by selecting 360 degree angle he can enable cylinder-type turnpoint control zone type. It is also possible to specify any other angle between 0 and 360 degrees. The Radius edit box allows specifying the size of the tp sector or tp cylinder. This page also allows specifying start gate type and width (in the lower group box). The following start gate types are supported: band-shaped, cylindrical (beer can), or arc-shaped.
The Units page allows specifying units for Height, Climb, Distance and Speed.
The Files dialog allows an easy selection of: Turnpoint file, Airspace description file, Task file for a given site, and polar data to be used in final glide computations. The selections can be made at any time. There is practically no limit on the number of soaring site/glider data that can be stored on a Windows CE device.
The Polar page allows reviewing polar curve currently being used. The data is taken from file that is displayed in the upper part of the dialog. There is practically an unlimited number of polar files that can be stored on a Windows CE device. User can switch between polars at any time by touching the ‘New’ button, or by switching to the ‘Files’ page. Polar calculation is based on a 3 point polar approximation described in details in Reichmann's book [1]. 1, 2 and 3 - user selectable points on glider's polar (program automatically calculates L/D for each point). Mass Dry Gross - mass of glider with pilot, but without water ballast in kg. Water Max – capacity of the water ballast tanks in liters.
Volkslogger Declaration Transfer By accessing Menu.Logger, the pilot has an option to send or modify the electronic declaration stored in a Volkslogger (other loggers don't support this feature). If there is an active task selected in WinPilot, this dialog gives an option to replace the logger's task with the one active in WinPilot. In addition to Task, the following fields are editable: Pilot Name, Glider Type, Registration#, Class, and Contest Id. When a task is transferred to the logger, also the settings from WinPilot 'Rules' page are transferred automatically.