Digifly Flyer

  Notable features

• Competitive price
• Small and lightweight
• Clear tone
• Long battery life
• Sensitive, without digital noise

The sensitivity of the unit is remarkable. It responds immediately to variations in height of one or two feet, yet there is little 'noise' introduced – if the pressure is steady, the reading is steady.

  Specification

Digital vario with

• 3 independently adjustable altimeters
• flight logger (date, time of day commencing, max ups, max downs, max height, min height, total climb, flight duration)
• auto logger start (requires v7.1 software)
• LCD display with 'analogue' display of ups/downs
• audible indication of ups/downs
• airspeed probe attachment point that most pilots never use

Size: 135 x 72 x 37 mm

Weight: 200g inc batteries

Battery life: Digifly say 200 hours on a pair of alkaline AA's at 20°C (these people live in Italy – oh the joy of flying in 20°C. De-rate by 25% for the frozen wastes of northern England). The unit will work on battery volts from 4.0v down to 1.9v.

Colour: any colour you like so long as it's bright orange

Nominal temperature range: -20°C to +55°C

Max height measurement: 9000m /30 000 ft (woohoo!)

Speed probe connector: 3.5mm 3-pole mini jack

Serial port connector: 2.5mm 3-pole mini jack. Allows download of logger information, and upload of firmware upgrades.

  Software history, upgrades

Latest version (February 2005) of the software was v7.1. If you have v6.9 or earlier it is worth contacting your vendor or the UK importers to have your firmware upgraded to the latest version, just for the flight logger auto-start feature. If bought from an authorised dealer, you can send it off to the UK importers (Snowdon Gliders) who will upgrade the software for you for just the cost of the return postage. Turn around is fast – typically a day or two.

Users report that version 6.9 of the software has a bug that means that although the logger gets the hour right for the start time of your flight, the minute is always 14 regardless of the actual start time. This is fixed with version 7.1.

  Product lifespan

The Flyer VL100 was replaced in the Digifly product range by the Flyer 2 in 2006. I know almost nothing about the Flyer 2, so you are on your own for that one.