Waypoints for Maxx III

With firmware update R11_RC05 you fly your route straight from the vario – no smartphone. R11 is released as a beta first.

Your route comes from the web app. At my.xctracer.online you read in a task code or a QR code from XContest, or import an XCTrack file. The route appears on the map with all its cylinders, together with the total distance and the optimized distance. One click sends it to the vario over Bluetooth – up to 20 waypoints. From then on the vario navigates on its own; you no longer need your phone in the air.

Always the three numbers that matter. Top left tells you where you are heading: "Start", "WP3 Sibilla", "Goal". To the right of it, the distance, the arrival height above ground and the glide ratio required. The arrival height is the number you watch on glide. If it reads −103 m, you are a good hundred metres short of reaching the turnpoint at ground level. Keep climbing and the number moves up – −6 m, then +13 m – and you know the point is in the bag. The required glide ratio next to it compares directly with the one you are actually flying, which sits on the standard screen below the vario: on the left what you fly, at the top what you would need.

The whole task at a glance. The Wind & XC screen shows every cylinder, the optimized track through them and your own position in the middle; the active cylinder is shaded, the part you have already flown is dashed. Choose between a clean white overview with scale bar and map compass, or the topographic map in flight direction, there together with the thermal hotspots. The optimized path is recalculated continuously from your current position – so after a detour, or after climbing out in a thermal off to the side, the arrow points at the shortest way from where you actually are, and not at the line that was planned before take-off.

And on the standard screen? It deliberately stays quiet there: the middle column shows the label of the active waypoint and an arrow pointing in its direction relative to your course. That is all you need – the numbers are on the XC map, and the standard screen stays the screen for flying.

Operable without looking. "Waypoints" sits at the top of the menu: open the menu, hold the button – the cursor is already on "Next WP", and another long press advances. Below it are "Prev WP" and deleting the route. That way you can step to the next waypoint without taking your eyes off the air. After switching manually, the vario goes straight back to the screen you came from.

How the vario advances. Start means: leave the cylinder. Turnpoint and goal mean: fly in. Every cylinder you take is confirmed with three rising beeps, after which the vario moves on to the next point by itself. Start times and start gates are deliberately not evaluated by R11 RC05 – this is about cross-country navigation, not about competition.

Available now as a beta. The beta version R11_RC05 is available for download from today. The updated user manual will follow.