At 3:10 this is where the HAWK wind has been a game changer for me. On weaker wind days the wind at the top of the thermal is significantly different than the prevailing wind. As I reach the top, knowing what the average and actual wind is, I can turn into it directly on exit (assuming it's along the path generally) and fly the lift line as the exit is made and accelerate into the lift air as the speed is built up. It has also helped avoid the heavy sink areas with the wind helping me model the thermal easier. Really sit down and watch the wind what it's doing as you fly through thermal #2. Final note: put the glider in the weight and balance position (level) then hit align gyros, and also use the user pitch to get the nose level point. My panel was surprisingly pitching forward (screen facing a tad skyward), about 7°. Don't forget to note these settings for each and every user profile you make. I have several profiles for one or two pilots in the DG500 so it's very helpful to write these settings down and set them in each profile.
I have a Butterfly, sameish as HAWK, and that is my primary vario, I love it. So HAWK should be good current market replacement. Butterfly is out of production.
I get wind via XCSoar from a Borgelt B800 from airspeed and track in real time. The high speed vario is very impressive I must say, its eliminating he quick changing horizontal gusts in the thermal, and you can even hear the airflow change at the same time as he vario. The key is the sensor package and its software, nice review.
Hey Pure Glide! Thanks for your valuable content - alway's enjoying it much! Recently just started flying with HAWK as well in my Ventus cM - So far it sadly is not working properly for me. HAWK indicates almost every lift about twice as strong, as my TE - Other HAWK users, who saw videos about that, were also confused. My question to you, since we almost fly the same glider - With which LX settings do you fly? What is your HAWK Wind VAR. and do you use the std. LX Ventus C/17m Polar? Thanks a lot, many regards to NZ.
Hi yeah I fly with the default hawk settings and standard Ventus 17.6 polar. Usually the problem is a leak in the TE system, or it is not connected correctly. So you might need to do a leak test? Also try the horizon calibration, that also affects it for some people.
Modern gliding tends to be Shark as opposed to Dolphin; which was great in theory but didn’t work previously because of variometer lag. Surely Hawk allows a Shark to also Dolphin and the advantage is in this area not necessarily thermal centering. The Larus by Stefly also works on two GPS antennae which must be placed a metre apart. It definitely seemed to work for Stefan Langer at the WSGP event.
Looks great. 👍 Would be interesting to see, when you go to Omarama again, how it will help with the mountain flying. I think you will find that the accurate wind indication will not only make it easier to find the lift, but also help to keep you out of trouble (lee side turbulence). 👍👍
One comment on electronic compensation: Putting the S10 or LX9070 on electronic compensation only is absolutely possible and in my opinion advisable even without Hawk. I tried and compared with Total Energy Probe compensation and I think electronic comp works slightly better since you can also play around with the compensation factor a little bit. Tried with the 9070 and S10 and compared carefull by letting one run TEK compensated, the other one electronic. S10 is a very nice device, like it.
Just switch off the TEK needle. It doesn't really matter whether you are ignoring pneumatic TE or ignoring electronic TE when you are using the HAWK vario
I’m a glider student pilot following your channel. I have been paragliding for many years and was used to hear the vario beeping while thermaling. Unfortunately In the club where I’m learning to fly they don’t use audio variometers. I was looking for some portable audio variometers to pair with mobile phone apps. The only ones I found on internet are paraglider’s varios like “XC Soar miniV (XC Soar-Swiss) or “Bip Bip Pro V2 (Stodeus-France) but I guess they are not “total energy compensated” so I was wondering if they could be useful for thermaling in a glider. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks a lot for your help and for sharing your skill and passion
Borgelt Dynamis determines the gusts differently. It comes with two GPS antennas, one of which has to be installed in/on the rear fuselage. Rumors have it, Nixus has it installed.
Dynamis uses essentially the same algorithm, so the gust removal will be very similar. It came out earlier, is very expensive, and is a bit more complicated to install from what I've heard. But worth considering if you're a Borgelt fan :)
Hello! The TE red actually looks a bit late. I have had this impression even before the Hawk became available. My TE settings (when flying with LXnav V9) are: 0.7s time constants, 1.3s time for AVG, and "Smart filter" set to 1 or 2. I find it much more useful while looking for the core. What were your settings during this test? Thank you! Aldo
Surprised you don't have a directional indicator replacement in there as well. Can understand traditional ones aren't practical from powered planes since they are gyro based so heavy but units such as a garmin g5 use magnotemeter now so much less weight.
Yeah most gliders don't have Artificial Horizons due to the cost and power consumption. Some do however. I'm not sure I'd trust only this one electronic device for real cloud flying, you really need a turn and slip or mechanical backup as well. But as an emergency tool it could be very useful.
Excellent description, thanks. One question: Nearly every time the Hawk vario showed lift you said something like "yes I can feel it" - if the lift can be felt (and we know it can, and that's the best way to centre a thermal...) what advantage is the Hawk? Do we know how it tries to ignore gusts?
By gust, I mean a burst in horizontal air movement, that the traditional vario picks up as a gain or loss in energy, and thus goes up or down, when the glider isn't really going up or down. The HAWK doesn't ignore gusts, it picks them up as a change in horizontal wind instead of vertical air movement, simply because that's the way the algorithm works. So you are in theory getting a more accurate view of what's actually happening. Now is that actually useful for thermalling? It'll take a bit more time to figure out I suspect, but surely a more accurate view of what's happening is useful?
It takes practice/training to make decisions based on what you're feeling in your guts. When you get good, these decisions are made without much conscious thought. For example, climbing in rotor is a rather intuitive sort of flying and TE varios are pretty useless (besides the averager function). If you're still tuning your perceptions and decision making it hurts to get wrong feedback from a wrong total energy vario. If we put HAWK in our trainers, maybe everybody would learn to find lift without relying on instruments. That said, in the US, students mostly fly with non-audible varios, so they're forced to develop a feel for finding lift by gut feel. Some never do, get frustrated and quit. HAWK could be a substitute for skill in some situations, but it could also be used to develop skills for finding more subtle forms of lift. The sorts of micro lift that gives you an effective L/D of 200 when flying a straight line.
@@Paul-vh6ul Hi Paul, I've been flying gliders since 1995 and have learned (eventually!) to exploit those gut feelings. I also tinker with electronics and have designed a TE vario which gives the same results as an LX Nav S3 - my question is would it be worthwhile incorporating an accelerometer to measure lift forces? Is this basically what Hawk does? We all fly with audio varios here (UK) - the sky near the airfield can get crowded!
@@PureGlide however when you're in a gust you are actually gaining energy. If you pull you will convert such energy to height. So, why would one not want to be alerted?
From the comfort of my armchair... +1 built in artificial horizon +1 for removing the need for TE plumbing 0 Not sure it makes a significant improvement around a triangle The interesting thing for me would be to see the impact it makes, if any, on ridge soaring
Are there Varios that don’t beep? I can’t tolerate that high-pitched sound. My head would literally explode. Any chance there are Varios that "indicate" differently?
There’s a volume knob on all of them. So you could just turn it to silent and look at it. But that’s the point, you’re not meant to be looking down, you have to look out! Some are more pleasant than others. Or have tone options. You get very used to it. Many have it unnecessarily loud.
I wonder if HAWK would help you find lines of convergence when there are no clouds in the sky, especially when convergence shows up in the wind aloft forecast. I'm also interested in an instrument that would help me find some of the shorter cloudless lines of convergence lift that I've stumbled into accidentally. I'm happy to reduce my rate of sink by using these weaker lines of lift.
I've used it successfully on two lift lines (of two I noticed and were going where I wanted to go). On one lift line: I went 10km without losing any height. Just kept the instant wind on the nose when I felt that the lift was directly under me. Worked like a charm. I don't think it was convergence but was a blue thermal line. Can't tell. It wasn't being depicted by visual clues other than the wind being down the nose.
Hi, I’d like to know which Hawk parameters (vario, netto or relative) you have assigned to the needles, and whether you use the same in Vario and SC modes.
Hi I was flying around with the needles set to Vario most of the time in this video, just so I could compare the normal vario to the hawk vario. I've got mine set to manual change over to SC mode with a button.
Very interesting - I have a question - what is powering the instruments? If it's a battery is it kept charged with an inner RAT(ram air turbine) during flight or are you dependent on not running out of battery power?
I ordered a S100 with HAWK option at end of november 2021. They said they will be able to deliver in february 2022 (because of pandemic, obviuosly). We are now at the begonning of April... nothing... I'm a little bit upset...
Hey there. First of all, I really like your videos. Have you heard of the XCVario? It's also packed with many sensors and a great OpenSource Software. On the website they say: "The XCVario always shows the 'real' climbing, regardless of the angle of sideslip, mosquitoes or flap position, in contrast to a HAWK variometer, which only shows a theoretical 'potential climb', which is usually not achieved in practice...". I would really like to see a comparison of these two systems.
Hi yeah heard of it, but haven't tried it. Unfortunately I'm not likely to buy another vario system to try, but no doubt others who use it will at some stage. Cheers!
The XCVario looks like a very interesting platform above all, as you point out, it's open. LXNAV seems to be more mature but I suspect that XCVario would be better value for money.
@@PureGlide At only euro 400 with a compass and flap sensor, its great value. You can get a very Good Android display for about he cost of the LX upgrade too. A good phone would be fine, and even carry a spare if you like. Ive been using XCSoar for many years, and am very happy with it.
I think XCVario uses a magnetic direction sensor like the Butterfly vario. HAWK does it's magic without the magnetic sensor. It would be interesting to see HAWK and Butterfly (or XC Vario) side by side in a video. I suspect that LXNav has already done that experiment during HAWK's development.
I can! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OR9zJwcGxoQ.html actually another reason it is handy not mentioned: it makes it more obvious in my videos if the string is straight, as the camera is off to the side.
I once lost one of my two yaw strings in flight and it was nice to have a spare. Having two makes it easier to notice small amounts of adverse yaw. One string is better for trainers because two strings demand unrealistic perfection from students.
Does pricing policy differ between markets? Here in UK the AHRS is always included in the cost of the HAWK upgrade but there is a temporary discount for those who have already recently bought the AHRS before HAWK was available.
