Display
The main, so-called map view of Cumulus consists of three information areas.
These contain:
- the flight information
- a map
- a status bar
Flight information
The group of small windows on the left-hand side are (from top to bottom
and left to right) as follows:
- To - Selected target and in parentheses its elevation. Tap on display
to select a target from the Waypoints, Reachable or Airfields
lists.
- Arr - Arrival Altitude above (positive) or below (negative) the
selected target (see glide path).
- Arrow - Bearing to target relative to the current heading.
Tapping on the icon will save the current position as a
waypoint, which will show up on the map as a green
flag.
- Dis/Eta - Distance to, or estimated time of arrival at, selected
target, respectively. Tap on the display to toggle between
the two.
- Brg - Bearing to target. Tapping on this number causes the reverse
course to be shown with a red label background for five
seconds.
- Gs - Current ground speed
- Trk - Track (also indicated by the direction of the glider symbol)
If you tip at the display it opens the FLARM Radar view.
- Wd - Wind speed and direction. This can be toggled with the LD
display by tapping on the Wd display.
- LD - Required and current LD to selected target. Can be toggled
with Wind display by tapping on the LD display. See also
LD description for more info.
- Var - Variometer display normally derived from the gps altitude. If a
logger device provides variometer information this is used
instead. Tap on the display to bring up a dialog box where you
can change the integration time and the TEK adjustment.
- Msl/Std/Agl/Ahl - Current aircraft height in relation to MSL,
standard pressure, ground altitude below the aircraft or
altitude of the home site. For further explanations,
see here.
Tap on the display to get the dialog box sub-menu.
- Mc - McCready value used for glide path and best speed calculation.
Tap to open the in-flight dialog for changing the expected lift,
water ballast amount or deterioration in performance due to bugs.
This display is only active, if a glider has been selected.
- S2f/MU - Best airspeed for the current McCready setting, wing loading
and bug setting. This display is only active, if a glider
and a target are selected. The target is to see in the
To window. Variometer information is not considered
at present: it is set to zero.
If you tip at the window it toggles the menu bar,
placing it along the top of the display. The letters
MU shall remember to that.
Of course all information is displayed in the units you selected in
the Settings/Units dialog.
Map
The map displays a graphical representation of the current position
(indicated by the intersection of the fuselage and the wings in the glider
symbol) and heading (indicated by the rotation of the glider symbol). If there
is no GPS fix, Cumulus displays an X symbol instead of a glider. See under
Manual Navigation for more details. The
current scale is displayed in the lower left corner of the map.
If Cumulus is connected with a Flarm device and the current map scale is low,
the most important object reported by Flarm is also drawn at the map as circle
and labeled with the distance and the relative vertical separation.
Just as you can select in the Flarm menus a Flarm contact, which shall displayed
at the map too, if it is in view.
The map shows the terrain elevation using colours. The detail level of this
display changes with the zoom factor: more zoom gives more detail in the terrain
shapes. You can turn off drawing of the elevation at the
Settings/Map Objects page.
Depending on the maps you installed, Cumulus displays airports (the type is
indicated by the standard ICAO symbol), cities (yellow), highways (red/white),
roads (red), railways (dark dashed line) and water (blue). Not all details are
displayed at all zoom factors. Cumulus also displays airspace structures, the
different types being indicated by different colours configurable under
Settings/Airspaces.
For basic information on
an airport or airspace structure simply touch the related symbol or area on the
screen, when the info on the interesting object will appear in a pop-up window.
The window disappears automatically after a certain time. That can be configured
in the
Settings/Information menu.
If you touch on an airfield icon, you will get detailed information on this
item. You can add an airfield to your waypoint list if it isn't in the list
already. Added waypoints will have a normal priority.
Cumulus can calculate which airfields or waypoints are within reach. These
airfields/waypoints have a green background to them. If you would arrive below
the safety height, the point has a magenta background to it. The line to the
currently selected waypoint is coloured to match, and will be in red if the
waypoint is not within reach. The safety height margin is set at the
Preflight Settings/Common page.
Status bar
The status bar displays the following items (from left to right):
The first item shows the mode Cumulus is operating in. If no GPS connection
has been established (i.e., Cumulus is in Manual mode), G-0 will appear,
otherwise G-N, where N is the number of satellites in use by the GPS
receiver.
The next item in the status bar combines a logging and flight indicator.
If IGC logging is enabled and running, the background is green, whereas if the
logger is in standby mode (autostart), the background is yellow. A grey box
means that the logger is not enabled. The flight status symbol is shown by one
of the character symbols below:
- ? - Unknown
- C - Cruising
- L - Circling Left
- R - Circling Right
- S - Standstill
- W - Wave
The next item shows the number of received Flarm devices. If no Flarms
to see around F-0 will appear, otherwise F-N, where N is the
number of received Flarms. This item is only to see, if Cumulus is connected
with a Flarm device.
The next item in the status bar indicates the current position in latitude and
longitude.
The next item shows the glider selected.
The rest of the status bar is used to display warnings and other information.
If you want to maximize the screen area for the map display,
you can disable the status bar via the menu entry Toggles/Statusbar.
Altitude display
The altitude display can present the aircraft's
altitude according to four different references. All are derived from the GPS
altitude unless there is pressure altitude information provided from an external
device.
- Msl - Altitude above mean sea level.
- Std - Altitude based on standard pressure 1013,25 hPa. This used to
determine the vertical warning distance to airspaces defined by
flight levels. As Cumulus does not "know" what the current pressure
at sea level is, this must be given as (an area) QNH in
Setup/Pre-flight setup/Common.
- Agl - Altitude above ground level. Only available when terrain data have
been loaded.
- Ahl - Altitude above home site level. Requires the right
elevation setting above MSL
here.
You can very easy modify the altitude display. Tip on the display and a
configuration dialog is opened, where you can change the altitude reference,
the unit, the height correction factor and the QNH. The height correction factor
is used to compensate the difference between the delivered and the true
altitude. Often differs the GPS or pressure altitude from the expected altitude.
Glide path
The glide path indicator gives you an estimate of whether or not your selected
target is in range. It calculates the performance of your glider using the
polar values given in the
Settings/Gliders menu. It
is assumed that you fly at the indicated best airspeed for the current
McCready value. You can enter a minimum arrival height on the
Preflight Settings/Common page.
If the indicator shows a negative value, you are below the glide path and
the target is not within reach. If you are above the glide path, i.e.,
the target is reachable, you can probably fly a bit faster to reach it sooner,
depending on the polar of your glider. The theoretical value of the speed to fly
can be found by increasing your McCready value until the glide-path indicator
shows just slightly positive.
LD-Display
In addition to the glide path indicator you can check
your situation with the LD display, too. A precondition for the LD calculation
is that you have selected a target, otherwise nothing is displayed. The LD
display consists of two values, separated by a slash. On the left side is
displayed the required LD to the selected target - normally this should show
positive! The safety height margin and the elevation of the target are both
taken into account in the calculation, as is also the calculated wind. On the
right side is displayed the current LD as calculated over the last 60s. If the
current LD is higher than the required LD you should be on a safe glide path to
your selected target. If you have climbed or flown at the same altitude in the
last 60s, the display shows a value like >99. If the calculation
result is not sensible, a dash is shown in the display.