Thanks @mutley - Iām really liking this idea evolution. Even though the problem persists of device orientation this certainly takes things one step closer to being intuitive. The issue of a pilot flying in a strong head wind with a negative ground speed still remains though.
What do you think of a combination of the 2 concepts?
I was on a high pull night jump a while back and got a bit lost under canopy. Leaving out the why and the whatā¦ This feature would have put me to rest in a ton of ways.
Why not rule out the thinking your hands should be anywhere else aside from toggles in hands and hands on risers for this feature.
Promotes safe flying.
if you are lostā¦ one should assume youāre hands on the rears anyway and the lit logo pointing to the sky.
If the logo is UP you lock orientation.
If the center dot is the target drop zone Iām a huge fan of keeping things simple.
A much more simplified visual reference for finding center.
Simply design the center target as DZ and radius circles to expand or contract based on distance from center. If the radius circles are shrinking smaller you are flying toward the targetā¦ if they are growingā¦ you are flying awayā¦ bangā¦ wrist orientation doesnāt matter and the problem of arrows pointing all over is solved.
I know there are a lot of considerations to be taken into account with the use of such a feature as mentioned before,
Orientation, negative ground speed and all that, along with potential destractions.
I do like the bullseye idea, but while talking to another jumper, we came up with this idea to but forward too,
Rather than changing one of the boxās at the top for a small arrow or bullseye, use the orientation of the device, ( top of the screen references forward regardless) and use the corners as a quick glance orientation,
Top center = ahead
Top left / right = off to the left or right of center,
Left and right sides = left or right,
And so on with the bottom of the scream reference to rear.
Sorry for my bad english google! Brentās answers are particularly sensible and reasonable. Why in this case do not do as for boat tracking? That is, the point of the LZ is indicated along with your position and direction. Can we use maybe an SOS button? I jumped once above the clouds and I avoid doing it again.
If the purpose of this function is just to aid you through cloud or help you on a long spot I donāt think you really need a map that will guide you all the way to the LZ.
First of all, Iām a dumbass and donāt really understand how the hardware works haha, but could you do something like a ground speed or distance to LZ counter accompanied with a green or red flashing background. Green means your heading towards LZ red means away. This removes the device orientation and negative ground speed issue.
I am almost ready to start getting this feature developed for the beta firmware channel. No matter the chosen UI implementation, it would be wise to only enable it when in canopy mode above 1000ft then revert to simple altitude.
The below UI is a basic mockup that will be refined throughout the testing phase. Your continued thoughts are welcomeā¦
Wicked! Looking forward to how this turns out. I would imagine this would and should only be a tool for high pulls / quick glance and should disappear at a certain height leaving only the important stuff (maybe thatās what you just saidā¦ just clarifying).
I would almost raise the awareness to 1.5k at 1k you should already be focused and starting downwind assuming a normal pattern.
Experience leveled jumper would only be using this on a high pull, or quick directional reference. ((keeping it as simple as possible would be ideal))
a student would have a much larger canopy, pulled higher, with much more air time and shouldnāt be using that other than to help match up with what they are seeing. You donāt want them locking eyes on that thing under 2k. Assuming they pulled at student level.
Add a disclaimer to enable the feature too, then that covers the use of it. I confirm I have X jumps, am X licence holder (B or above for UK/USPA?). Students should not be using these devices, our CI would never clear it for a student. As an aside, this weekend we had tandems all over the place, they could see the DZ when they left the plane, but the cloud came in so quick they lost directional awareness, this feature would almost certainly have helped.
Well, section 7 of the BPA operations manual requires C license and above to carry a GPS device, although it doesnāt state what āGPSā means. It can be a GPS navigator?
Another way to indicate direction without an arrow that can be misinterpreted is bearing/heading like the 401 has. I use it frequently on my 401 during long stand off jumps. Bearing is what direction the DZ is from you currently and heading is your current magnetic direction.
@skyhopperZH - yes a large release is about to drop. We are in the final stages of testing which has taken a little longer because of the limited jumping available to our test jumpers. Usually we like to have at least a few hundred jumps performed in different environments before rolling out. Weāre up to around 70 for this version but so far so good. The direction/distance indicator is unfortunately not a part of this release.
Even a distance indicator to the LZ alone would be better than nothing. That way you can at least tell if youāre getting closer or further away from the LZ.
Hi Dekunu!
Let me take this topic up to the top. I wonāt be mistaken if I say that this is the most anticipated function. Are there any predictions for its appearance in the firmware?
Thx a lot!