Digifly’s Air SE flight instrument is a toned-down GPS-vario, ideal for those who don’t need the advanced functions of the full Air. It comes with a toned-down price to match, and can be upgraded to the full version at any time simply by buying a software activation code.
The functionality on the full Air that is not on the SE is its in-flight real time telemetry connection via BT or USB with a smartphone or tablet, and download/upload of waypoints or tracks via Bluetooth. Digifly say:
This choice [to make it upgradeable] is driven by the opportunity to provide a low price tool with all the necessary functions for competitions and crosses and it is in line with the Digifly’s production policy to provide a constant firmware maintenance and improvement (also for the discontinued models).
The Air is built with ten sensors (a barometric capsule, three accelerometers, three magnetometers and three gyroscopes), which Digifly say minimises the inertia effects and imprecisions that plague other varios currently on the market.
It also auto-modulates its sensitivity according to the air: increasing sensitivity in weak conditions and decreasing it in strong conditions. In addition, they say, in contrast to traditional variometers based on a pressure sensor only, it is not affected by false readings due to acceleration.
Digifly say that aeronautical maps with airspace will soon be available to download for free for all the Air instruments.
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