Flight computer

17Thermal assistant

The predicted core marked on the map while you circle, the Flight Radar tile, and the simulator you can practice with on the ground.

Works offline

What it does#

While you climb, the app watches your lift and works out where the core of the thermal sits. It marks that spot on the map as a north aligned box under a red line, and keeps updating it as the thermal drifts and your circles improve.

It works while circling and in straight line lift, so a climb along a ridge gets its core marked just the same. The same prediction drives the Flight Radar tile.

Fig. 17.1The predicted core marked on the map, with the view zoomed in for circling.

Caution

The marker shows where the app expects the core, based on where lift was. Thermals drift and change. Use it to correct your circle now, not to come back to a thermal you left five minutes ago.

Turning it on#

Where Settings › Vario › Thermal assistant
Enable thermal assistant
On or off Default: Off
Marks the predicted thermal core on the map during a recorded flight and zooms in more while circling. Turn it on if you tend to lose the core, or if you fly somewhere with broken, drifting thermals where the shape of the climb matters.

Note

It can also be toggled in flight from the Layers section of the flight menu, and forced on or off per layout page in the layout editor.

The Flight Radar tile#

Besides the map marker, there is a dedicated tile: the Flight radar. It puts you at the center and draws the air around you, using the same visuals as the live map. Before 1.7.2 it was called the thermal assistant tile; saved layouts keep working unchanged.

Trail
Your recent track curling around you, colored by climb, so the strong part of the turn is immediately visible.
Predicted core
Where the assistant expects the core, drawn as a north aligned box under a red line.
Wind pointer
Sits on the rim where the wind comes from, with the arrow pointing where it blows, matching the Wind tile's convention.
Target pointer
Points along the rim to the next task target, so you leave the thermal in the right direction. Its distance counts down to the optimized crossing.
Shortest pointer
A second arrow along the shortest way into the same zone, drawn in your shortest line color and carrying the straight distance. It needs an active task target and Show shortest line turned on in Maps, and it stays hidden while the shortest way and the optimized line agree, so a second arrow always means the two genuinely differ.
Airspace and obstacles
Nearby airspace is drawn solid when crossing its boundary at your altitude would mean entering, and dashed when you are only within the vertical warning margin. Towers and cables appear in the map's obstacle color.
Climb readout
A large vario value with its unit, readable without leaving the radar. It always keeps a corner, whichever value placement you choose.
North marker
Appears on the rim whenever the view is rotated away from north up.

Note

The radar works independently of Enable thermal assistant: placing it on a page switches the assistant on for that page by itself, so the tile is always live. It uses the same warning parameters as the airspace alerts, including snoozed alerts and disabled classes, so the radar and the alert system always agree. Its zoom, its orientation, which values sit in the corners and whether they ride the arrows instead are all set per tile in the layout editor.

Tip

Give the tile real space. It is a graphic instrument, and small it tells you nothing. On a dedicated thermal page it can be large, because you do not need your cruise numbers while circling.

Zooming while thermalling#

The assistant works with the map zoom. While you circle, the app is allowed to zoom in further than usual so your circles and the core marker are readable, up to the Thermalling zoom limit in Maps.

Tip

If your circles look like a single blob on the map, you are zoomed too far out. Raise the thermalling zoom limit and try again.

The simulator#

You can run the whole thing on the ground, with synthetic climbs, before you rely on it in the air.

Where Settings › Vario › Open thermal assistant simulator
  1. Open Thermal assistant simulator.
  2. Turn on Run simulation, which generates random circling and straight segments with drift and lift.
  3. Or turn on Auto lift mode, which cycles lift and speed automatically and includes sink on the straight legs.
  4. Adjust lift, speed, wind drift, drift direction and turn rate to see how the display reacts.

The readouts tell you what the app currently thinks: Circling or Not circling, Thermalling or No thermal, the Lift samples count, the suggested zoom and the tail point count.

Tip

Ten minutes with the simulator is worth more than a season of glancing at the assistant in the air. Learn what a well centered circle looks like on the display while you have nothing else to do.