Best Glide for a Paraglider

Below is a Java Applet which shows the best glide values for a Paraglider.

Switch between various makes. Make-3 is 3 points for the polare. Make-4 uses 4 points to define the polare. Make-5 uses 5 points for the polare.

Move your cursor inside the Applet and point it into the upper left quadrant.
The grid is a 10km/h raster
The green line shows the tangent for the best glide angle
The number on top of the polar is the speed to fly for best glide
The 2 numbers at the cursor are wind speed in km/h and air sink in m/s
The Java Applet should be below this line. If not then you might need the JAVA runtime environment. Or a JAVA enabled Web Browser.


Explanation of the expressions used...
WS stands for Wind Speed in km/h
AS is Air Sink, m/s
GR Glide Ratio
SP is the polar speed to fly
SI polar sink
GS Ground Speed in km/h what your GPS will show you
 TS Total sink, what you will see on your Vario

 

Want to  run the Applet on your computer and add your glider data

Download the Best zip file

In the zip file is a Java jar file, one can use zip to unzip the jar file.

Then modify the wingdata.xml file and add your glider data to it.

The wingdata.xml file format

  PolarCount can be 3 or 4 or 5 for the amount of polare points

The first point has to be the minimum sink point. Where the polare tangent is horizontal.

The next points have to points on the polare as the speed increases.

The last point is the top speed on the polare.

A point is defined by the speed in km/h   and a sinkvalue im m/s
 

Run the code on your computer in Java

Java 1.4 has to be installed

To run the code on your computer,  get the Best.jar file .

In a Command Window,  jar -xvf Best.jar 

And use    java BestTurn   to bring up the code on your computer.

How to add your own Wing Data Information into the wingdata.xml file.

 

The sample data provided is based on the info available from
http://parapente.para2000.free.fr/wings/index.html
The wingdata.xml file format
<Wing WingId="Effect38-3" Name="Effect38 3 Points" Span="9.93" MinSpeed="22" TrimSpeed="37">
<PolarData PointCount="3">
<PolarPoint Speed="30." Sink="-1.15" />
<PolarPoint Speed="36." Sink="-1.31" />
<PolarPoint Speed="50." Sink="-2.9" />
</PolarData>
</Wing>

WingId has to be unique, no 2 wings can have the same Id
Name can be anything you choose, a long string that explains a bit more
Span is the projected ( not the flat) wing span
MinSpeed would be stall speed
TrimSpeed is toggles up and no accellerator applied
PointCount can be 3 or 4 or 5 for the amount of polare points
The first point has to be the minimum sink point. Where the polare tangent is horizontal.
The next points have to points on the polare as the speed increases.
The last point is the top speed on the polare.
A point is defined by the speed in km/h and a sinkvalue im m/s

Polar data info you find at
http://www.para2000.org/wings/index.html

The code has also been integrated with T3D2

http://sourceforge.net/projects/t3d2

http://t3d2.sourceforge.net/



Known bugs :

Not very robust code, do not deviate and experiment with different input format.
The code will freeze up your computer.

5 point polare go wobbly, having dents, typical behaviour of a spline curve as the degree goes up