Element Speed:Vario

Profile types

The Element Speed offers 5 profiles for weak, regular, and strong thermals, for ridge/coastal soaring, and for balloon flights.

Press and hold Menu
Use the arrow keys to scroll to Vario profiles, press OK
With Select you enter the list of profiles, select from weak, regular, strong, soaring, or balloon with OK
Return with ←.

Profile customisation

Each profile can be customised to the pilots preference. All values which are changed are saved in that particular profile. In order to edit and profile, it must first be selected as described above. Like most all varios, the Element Speed beeps when you climb and sounds a low tone when you sink. But the vario acoustics are slightly more sophisticated than that. In addition to the familiar climb and sink tones, your Element Speed also features a near-thermal Tone to help you find weak thermals and it can sound a sink tone if you are sinking rapidly.

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  The various tones for the Element vario

Press and hold Menu
Use the arrow keys to scroll to Vario profiles, press OK
Choose Settings to customise the profile you have activated as described above
Return with ←.

You may customise:

• Sensitivity: Choose from a slow, regular, or fast reaction
• General audio:

Tone change: Linear or harmonic. This describes how the vario tone changes with increasing vertical speed. With the setting "linear", the tone frequency goes up linearly with the vertical speed. So the change from 1 m/s to 2 m/s gives the same change in frequency as the change from 5 m/s to 6 m/s. With the setting "harmonic", the change is different. This is because we perceive frequencies differences differently, depending on how high the frequencies are: On a piano, B3 and C4 have 246.942 and 261.626Hz. Difference is 14,684 Hz. If we take it a few octaves higher, B6 and C7 have 1975.53 and 2093.00. Difference is 117,47Hz. To the human ear, the difference is exactly one tone - just a few octaves higher. So with the setting "harmonic", we change the frequency in a way so that a climb frequency of 0.1 m/s will always be perceived as the same tone difference, regardless of the absolute climb values.

Tone rise: Off, slow, medium, fast

Cadence change: Logarithmic or linear. This describes how the vario cadence (the number of beeps per second) changes with increasing vertical speed. With the setting "linear", the cadence goes up linearly with the vertical speed. So the change from 1 m/s to 2 m/s gives the same change in frequency as the change from 5 m/s to 6 m/s. Because this will make for some very fast, nervous beeping with higher climb rates, we introduced the logarithmic setting. With this, the beeping still gets faster the faster you climb, but it does not increase as much. The change from 1 m/s to 2 m/s is much more than the change from 5 m/s to 6 m/s.

Cadence rise: Off, slow, medium, fast

• Climb tone:

Active: Activate or deactivate the climb tone.

Threshold: Set the threshold at which the climb tone sets in.

• Near-thermal tone:

Active: Activate or deactivate the near-thermal tone.

Threshold: Set the threshold at which the near-thermal tone sets in.

Duration: Short, long, or constant defines the actual tone length with which you like the near-thermal tone played by the vario.

Volume: Off, reduced, default, and loud are values relative to your general audio volume.

• Sink tone: The settings here are the same as for the near-thermal tone.
• Last thermal threshold: The Element Speed records thermals using readings of its numeric vario. You can adjust the threshold of the last thermal value from between 0.1 to 3.0 m/s (or 0.2 to 6 ft/min x 100). The default setting is 0.5 m/s or (1.0 ft/min x 100).

Profile reset

In order to reset a profile to its original settings, you must first select it as described above, then perform the reset:

Press and hold Menu
Use the arrow keys to scroll to Vario profile, press OK
Select the profile you want to reset
Then scroll to Reset profile, press and confirm with OK
Cancel with ←.

Vario integration

The vario integration is as such not part of any profile and is therefore set as a global value. This value may be adjusted from 1 to 60 seconds. Though the default setting is 10 seconds, it may be useful to adjust the averaging interval to a longer setting. A good strategy is to set the numeric vario averaging interval to at least the time it takes you to turn a complete circle when thermalling: approximately 15 seconds or longer.

Press and hold MENU.
Use the arrow keys to select Flight settings, press OK.
Use the arrow keys to select Vario integration, press OK.
Set the desired integration time.