Introduction.............................................................................. 2

Basic Operation....................................................................... 3

Sound..................................................................................... 4

Graph Display Selection............................................................ 5

Basic Displays..................................................................... 5

Altitude vs. Time 5

Temperature 5

Lapse Rate 5

Airspeed.............................................................................. 6

Glide Path 6

Airspeed 6

Wind Velocity 7

Global Positioning System.................................................... 7

Travel Path 7

Groundspeed 8

Wind Vector 8

Using Radio Buttons to Facilitate Display Navigation............... 9

Calibration and Configuration.................................................... 11

Alarms............................................................................... 12

Select Alarm 12

Sound Selection 12

Alarm Threshold 13

Notes on alarms 13

Select Aircraft 15

Pitot Tube Installation.............................................................. 16

GPS Connection..................................................................... 16

RS-232 Serial Connection 18

OEM Interface 19

Troubleshooting Serial Connections 19

Frequently Asked Questions.................................................... 20

History................................................................................... 23

GameBoy® is a registered trademark of Nintendo Corporation
FlyBoy® is a trademark of Robert Ramey Flight Instruments

Introduction

The Flyboy® vario is a flight instrument for hang glider and paraglider pilots. It is packaged as cartridge compatible with a Nintendo GameBoy® game player. It can be inserted into almost any GameBoy® to create a full featured flight instrument.

Basic Operation

With power off, insert the FlyBoy® vario cartridge as you would any GameBoy® game. Attach the nylon pitot tube and orient it in the desired direction. Turn on the power. The FlyBoy® starts with a calibration phase which lasts about 30 seconds. During this time one should keep the instrument sheltered from windy conditions. After about 30 seconds, the display should look like this.

· Vario – a “sliding” scale indicating climb/sink rate in either 100’s of feet per minute or meters per second. When the instrument is turned on – this will show 0 at the pointer.

· Altitude – will show altitude to the nearest foot or meter.

· Graph Display will be blank except for a “clock” icon in the lower left hand corner and a “creeping” line from the right which will advance at one dot per second. The icon identifies this display as altitude vs. time. The line shows relative altitude for the last 128 seconds at the rate of one dot per meter change.

The vario is now ready to use.

Sound

Whenever an increase in altitude is detected, the Flyboy® will emit a beeping sound through the GameBoy® speaker or headphones. As climb rate increases, the beeps will increase in frequency and pitch. When sink rate is below 600 feet per minute, an AAAOOGA sound is emitted. The volume can be adjusted by means of the volume control on the GameBoy®. If this volume is not sufficient, the best solution is to purchase a booster speaker. Search the web for “GameBoy® sound accessories” to find one appropriate to your GameBoy®.

Graph Display Selection

Basic Displays

All FlyBoy® varios include the following three basic displays. One can navigate between the displays using the left/right buttons of the GameBoy joypad.

Altitude vs. Time

Altitude vs Time

Temperature

Lapse Rate

Altitude vs. Time

Each vertical dot represents one meter of altitude change. Each horizontal dot represents one second. The graph is 128 dots wide so this graph shows the climb and sink for the last 128 seconds. A 45 degree slope will correspond to 1 meter per second (180 feet per minute).

Temperature

Current temperature in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius.

Lapse Rate

Temperature vs. Altitude. Each vertical dot represents 10 meters of altitude and each horizontal dot represents 1/16 degree Celsius. Since the graph is 96 dots high, this shows the temperature for the 960 meters (3168 feet) around the current altitude.

Airspeed

If the pitot tube is installed and airspeed sensing is enabled, the following displays are also available. One can navigate to between this group and the basic one with the up/down joypad buttons

Glide Path

Airspeed

Wind Velocity

Glide Path

This is similar to the Altitude vs. Time graph above. The difference is that each dot on the horizontal axis represents 10 meters (33 feet) travel through the air at the current airspeed. So the slope of the line will represent the current glide ratio and, by implication, current Lift/Drag ratio of the glider. Using this display, the pitch of the glider can be adjusted to maximize the glide ratio. Note that the vertical scale is 1 meter per dot while the horizontal scale is 10 meters per dot. So a glider with a glide ratio of 10 to 1 will show 45 degree angle on this display. Also note that this display will vary in lift and sink and be can be used to maximize glide in these conditions. However, wind direction is NOT taken into account. So if there is significant head or tail wind, the glide ratio shown in this display will be significantly different than glide over the ground.

Airspeed

The FlyBoy® measures dynamic air pressure with a Pitot tube. This measurement is used to calculate the true airspeed. This calculation takes into consideration that fact that a glider “floats” upon a “cushion” of higher pressure air under the wing. Once the glider is no longer flying, this number is no longer valid. Hence, on the ground before launching, this display should show a number which approximates the stall speed of the glider. Below, we explain how to set the glider stall speed in the FlyBoy®.

Wind Velocity

Current wind velocity in either miles or kilometers per hour. Note that this is a very accurate measure of wind velocity. This can be verified by walking with the instrument indoors and reading your airspeed. It can be handy for checking wind direction before launching. It differs from Airspeed above, in that there is no adjustment made for the fact that the glider induces a change static pressure under its wing. It is not useful when the glider is in flight.

Global Positioning System

If a GPS unit has been connected to the FlyBoy® and GPS option has been enabled, the following group of displays is available. One navigates

Travel Path

Groundspeed

Wind Vector

Travel Path

This is the true glide path over the ground. It is differs from the glide path in that the horizontal distance is taken from the GPS input. Adjusting glider pitch to “flatten” the slope of this line will maximize distance traveled over the ground for the current air conditions. That is, Lift/Sink as well as Tail/Head wind will be taken into account. The path traced by the graph is the path the glider follows as would be seen by and observer from the ground.

Groundspeed

Speed and compass heading over the ground as determined by the GPS.

Wind Vector

Given input from the Pitot tube and GPS while the glider travels at various headings, it is possible to determine the wind velocity and heading. This display shows the heading and velocity of the glider in relation to the glider. That is, it provides a “virtual windsock”. The display shows two icons. One represents the glider while the other represents the source of the wind in relation to the glider. On the above diagram

· Source of wind is at about the 10 o’clock position relative to the glider heading.

· Wind is fairly strong. The display shows are larger distance between the source of the wind and the glider icon. If there were a light wind the glider and wind source icons would be much closer together as is shown here

Text Box:

· Wind direction and strength are fairly well defined. This is shown by the relatively small “error ellipse” showing the wind source. In a gustier wind whose direction and strength are unstable, the above display would look more like the following:

Text Box:

The error ellipse gives an indication of the uncertainty of the estimate of wind direction and velocity.

This uncertainty might be due to

· If the glider heading has not changed in a while, there is not enough information to precisely calculate the wind direction and velocity. In this case, making a 360 degree turn should result in a display with a smaller error ellipse.

· If wind conditions are unstable, any estimate of the “true” wind direction and velocity is going to be of limited value. In this case, there is a limit to how precise the estimate can be. This will result in an error ellipse whose size cannot be decreased by making a 360 degree turn.

So this display gives a concise and meaningful description of wind conditions. This can be very useful when setting up for landing where there aren’t other obvious wind indicators and for flying cross country at high altitude.

Using Radio Buttons to Facilitate Display Navigation

So far we’ve described three groups of displays of three displays each. One can navigate from group to group via the up/down buttons on the joypad. The small icon on the lower left of the graph display indicates which group is currently selected. Within a group one can change displays via the left/right buttons on the joypad. That is, the displays are arranged as a three by three table selects the next display with one of the joy pad buttons. This is easy enough to do in flight. To make this even easier, one can assign each of the A and B radio buttons to one’s favorite displays. Once such an assignment is made, one can jump directly to the display with one press of the assigned radio button. Pressing the same radio button again will return to the original location.

To assign a radio button to a particular display:

· Navigate to the desired display.

· Hold down the desired radio button.

· Press and release the “Select” button.

· Release the radio button.

Calibration and Configuration

		Calibrate altitude. Use up/down on joy pad to adjust current altitude.
		Select foreground color.
		Select background color.
		Select English or metric units.