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Cumulus supports multiple gliders that you can configure. You can then choose the glider you will be using for a particular flight from a list and have all the relevant data instantly available. Using the buttons above the list, you can add (paper icon), edit (pencil icon) or delete (trashcan icon) gliders from your list. As with other settings, changes are only stored if you exit the settings dialog with the OK (green with the white tick) button. If you accidentally delete a glider from your list, just tap the cancel (red with the white x) button and you'll be fine.
If you tap the add or edit buttons, you'll be presented with a new dialog.
Here you can enter information about your glider. The polar is used for the
final glide calculations. Select your glider from the list or enter the
correct values for your glider in the boxes. The values represent three points
on your glider's polar; these are used to make an approximation to this curve.
These points are given as pairs of speed (in km/h) and rate of sink (in m/s).
For optimal results, take the values at the speed for best L/D as the first point,
VNe as the third, and a point halfway between these as the second point.
Note that the boxes for Added load and
Max. water are only intended for use in checking what the polar would look like
at the all-up weight given by Empty weight + Added load + Max water. They do not
affect the in-flight speed-to-fly or gliding angle calculations. However, if your
glider can carry water, leave the full amount entered here, as this value will limit
the actual amount you can enter on the
Preflight Settings/Glider
menu page. The actual Added load is also entered on the same page.
If the Wing area box contains a non zero value the Wing load is
calculated and displayed on the polar page. The unit for the wing area
is square meters (m²), the wing load is displayed in Kg/m²
You can see a graphical representation of the resulting polar if you select the Show Polar button. Included in this display is information on the speed for the best L/D for the selected glider. Using the cursor rocker you can simulate wind and lift by pressing the up/down (lift) and left/right (wind) buttons. The related tangent is calculated, and the best speed-to-fly and resulting sink are displayed accordingly. With the Space key you can return to the original state of the polar.
To add your own types to the selection list, please edit the file glider.pol located at /opt/cumulus/etc. But better would be to send your polar data to the Cumulus team for insertion into that file.
The values for registration and call sign are used in the IGC logfile and as a unique identifier for the glider.
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