Actually this is about exactly what WinPilot (PC version does). The thermal databases aren't (AFAIK) publicly available, but the technique works and one can add as many IGC files as are available.
There are some guidelines about what IGC files to include that I think are more reasonable than just "huge amount" of IGC's. For example the manual suggests only to use IGC from days with sparse clouds (or blue days) as basically ANY point can trigger a thermal if it just happens to be the ONLY spot around where the sun shines. I also feel that maybe just wind direction and/or time of day may not be enough of constraints, though I also think that defining more constraints makes it even more difficult to utilize any results in real life... ;) I tried it on WP maybe 6-7 years ago and at least for once I headed to a cross on the map and - yes, the thermal was just there :) But many times not, the thermals bubbles have their schedule (a few times glided just above or below a turning glider and getting nothing) so I think the best we may obtain is to notch the probabilities a bit higher - which may be a slight advance even with just that. But of course it doesn't hurt if we produce the mechanics and the databases and then possibly fine-tune it. hannu On 30.8.2011 21:14, Ronald Niederhagen wrote: > I think a more promising approach would be to evaluate MANY flight logs > (IGC files). I heard this idea before but I am not aware of any > (publicly available) results. The idea, as far as I understand, is to > evaluate flight logs to see where climb rates were measured, and > correlate this with the wind conditions, the time of the day, > temperature, and maybe a couple more parameters. The assumption is that > thermals build up always in the same spot under certain conditions. I > guess we all agree to that. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Special Offer -- Download ArcSight Logger for FREE! Finally, a world-class log management solution at an even better price-free! And you'll get a free "Love Thy Logs" t-shirt when you download Logger. Secure your free ArcSight Logger TODAY! http://p.sf.net/sfu/arcsisghtdev2dev _______________________________________________ Xcsoar-user mailing list Xcsoar-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xcsoar-user
