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The main view of Cumulus consists of three rows of information, a map below, and a status bar. This screen is also called the map view.
Flight information
The indicators on the top three rows indicate:
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 in stead of a glider. See
manual navigation mode for more details. The current scale is displayed in the
scale indicator in the lower right corner of the map.
The map shows the terrain elevation by using colors. The detail level of this display changes
with the zoom factor: more zoom is more detail in the terrain shapes. You can turn off the
drawing of the elevations from the Map Settings dialog.
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) and railroads (dark grey),
water (blue). Not all details are displayed in all zoom factors. Also Cumulus displays airspace
structures. The different types are indicated by using different colors. For basic information on an
airport or airspace structure simply touch the related symbol or area on the screen. You will get
displayed then the info on the interesting object in a pop up window. The window disappears after a
certain time automatically. This time behaviour can be configured more in detail in the menu
General Setup under the tab Information.
If you press-and-hold on an airfield, you will get detailed information on this item.
You can add airfields to your waypoint list if it isn't in the
list already. Added waypoints will have a normal priority.
Cumulus can calculate what airfields or waypoints are in
reach. These waypoints get a green circle beneath them. If a
point is within reach below the entered safety altitude, it
gets a magenta circle beneath it. The line to the currently
selected waypoint is coloured to match, and will be in red if
the waypoint is not within reach.
Status bar
The status bar displays three things. The first item tells the mode Cumulus is operating in. If no GPS connection has been established this will set to Man. Otherwise it will set to GPS and the number of received satellites.
The second item in the status bar is a combination between logging and flight indicator. It displays at the left side a L if igc-logging is enabled. Ls is displayed if the logger is in standby mode. The indicator will light up bold every time an entry is made. The flight status symbol is either shown in the center of the box alone, if logging is not active or right beside of the logging indicator.
The following characters are used for flight state display:
If you want to maximize the screen area for the map display, you can disable the status bar via the menu entry View/Statusbar.
Glide path
The glide path indicator gives you an estimation on whether or not your selected target is in reach. It
calculates the performance of your glider using the entered polar-values on the Settings dialog's
Glider tab.
It is assumed that you fly at the indicated best airspeed for the current McCready value.
You can enter a minimal arrival altitude on the
Personal tab.
If the indicator shows a negative value, you are under glide path and the target is not in reach. If you
are above glide path, the target is in reach, and you can probably fly a bit faster to reach it sooner,
depending on the polar of your glider.
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