Maps -- Polars -- Waypoints

Sources: XCSoar, Lynn Alley's site, Turnpoint Exchange, Condor landscapes .cup files.

In real flight or in Condor, you need to fly with a device to show your height-above-glide to nearby airports and to explore routes as you fly. The Condor PDA is pretty limited.

XCSoar or Top Hat

We recommend the free XCSoar or Top Hat for Android, Windows, Windows Mobile, Linux, MacOS. Top Hat is a variant of XCSoar and they use the same files. Download from your app store (tablet or phone) or from their website (computers).

You need to link your device to Condor via WiFi or via Bluetooth so it sends the GPS for your track to XCSoar. It's not hard.

Files

For an XCSoar map to match a Condor landscape, see Condor Club Goodies . Just type in the landscape name. To make your own map use XCSoar's map generator.

This next year for the safari from Norway to Greece we will probably use 9 landscapes. If you want one XCSoar map for it all, download the folder in the next paragraph and extract, and put "Europe central east.xcm" into your XCSoarData folder, and use Europe.cup for airports and landing fields.

Download a complete XCSoarData folder dated Mar 2022 that has polars, our maps and waypoints in it, as well as a working settings file (default.prf). Then extract with 7-zip and you can choose files or replace the XCSoarData folder on your device with this and you will have essentially everything. Click and choose Download symbol on the upper right.

You can download custom map areas from XCSoar's map generator.

Glider polars are found at condorutill

Resources.

• Youtube videos and tutorials on XCSoar.

• XCSoar in a flash Quick-start tutorial.

• XCSoar Manual

Starting XCSoar or Top Hat before you fly (WiFi)

• Open XCSoar. Always enter XCSoar with "Fly", not "Sim"

• Open HW Virtual Serial Port. If it's not running, click "Create COM". You might have to "login" first. If you see "Connected" on the right, you're good to go.

• If you don't see "Connected" in HW-VSP, on Condor Setup>Options>NMEA, check that "Port" is the same COM as the "Port Name" in HW Virtual Serial Port. If your WiFi has changed its IP address, you'll have to get that to match too. Recreate the COM in HW-VSP when you're ready to try again.

• XCSoar will show "GPS not Connected" until you fully enter the Condor flight.

Selecting the navigation files for a flight

• Most landscape folders have an XCSoar folder with a .xcm map for that landscape.

• Go to XCSoar>Config>System>Site Files. Select the map (xxx.xcm) and waypoint (yyy.cup) files you want. The most important waypoints are for airports. One of these will probably work: "USAairportsFullinfo.cup", "Europe.cup", "Argentina, Chile airports.cup", "Australia & New Zealand.cup", "CanadaApts.cup"

• On the same page you can also select "Advanced" then choose a file for "More Waypoints". You might choose a file for a specific landscape like "Cascade Range.cup". It will give you waypoints like mountain peaks, lakes, but not airports.

Choosing a destination

• Go to XCSoar>Nav>Waypoint List>Name and type the first part of the waypoint name, then "OK" to search, tap the waypoint then "Select" then "Go To".

• Or if you find where you want to go on the map, tap it, then "Go To".

• Or create a more complicated task under XCSoar>Nav>Task. See the XCSoar Manual for details.

Polars

You need these to select a glider so the flight computer knows the drag. The -FXB polars are with full ballast.

To install, simply copy the .xcp files into folder xcsoardata/polars. You may have to create the folder.

For SeeYou Mobile, open the XCSoar polar with a text editor and you should have all the info you need to create a SeeYouMobile polar on your device