When I started flying again in 2013 I was still using my Flytec 4005 from 2000. Amazingly, after sitting with the batteries in it for 7 years, it turned right on! It still worked great and it got me by for a couple of seasons. I was fine with the beep-boops and altitudes, which is about all it yielded, but it began making crackling noises and randomly turning off in flight. Old Bessey needed to be retired.
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| Flytec 4005 from 2000 |
I bought Mike's old Flytec 6015 a couple of years ago. It was a great little vario, I had my beep-boops and altitudes back and in a smaller package but never learned how to program in my name or waypoints or honestly even read half the crap on the screen. Manual schmanual. I had my altitudes and noises and I was set. But oh, how technology had advanced for those little things over the years- and the notion that one could produce a screen with airspaces seemed inconceivable. After coming within a few miles of busting through Concord airspace on an XC flight unknowingly, I realized I needed it. We used to fly with paper charts back in the day. It's like Google maps but there's no labels on anything, so if you can't orient where you are then it's of no use. I was unable to process half of the stuff I was looking at from the air when over unfamiliar terrain back then, so probably not much hope for that current-day. And come on, it's 2018..
Thus.. Ilya and I purchased 6030s from Morningside (thanks guys!)
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| Flytec 6030 from 2018 |
He and I sat down and read the entire sixty-something page manual. Yes, I read a manual- save your applause please. How much did we understand?.. approximately two pages worth. We needed help!
Enter, Tom Lanning. This past weekend Tom held a small comp clinic for the team heading down to the GSSK. It was a wealth of information, and he helped Ilya and I figure out our varios on top of giving all of us hours of XC/Competition tips and tricks. Thank you Tom!
The proof is in the pudding. This alien device was now almost easy to use, kind of.. I was able to plug my name and glider into it finally. It took me 15 minutes to convert and manually punch in waypoints for my 125 mile drive from Ilya's house in MA to my home in ME, figuring out afterwards that you can change the format of the lat/long minutes to decimals so conversion isn't necessary. Oops. I got 3 out of 4 waypoints, missing one by about 100ft because I didn't make the cylinder large enough to hit on one of the on-ramps.
But not bad for a first go at it..
Outstanding!
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