

A clever Canadian, Michael Cooper, has come out of nowhere with this very cool toy/tool many of us have been waiting for: a GPS unit that gives you instant feedback on your flying perfomance by generating a tone that varies with your glide ratio. He's made operation extremely simple with just a few controls and place to plug your earphones in. The device is not only a variometer (the official name for this tool, what gliders, hang gliders and paragliders use) but also a 5 Hz logger, with space for up to a million trackpoints.
At the recent Wings over Gransee performance competition (which I will post about later), Klaus Rheinwhald (author of Paralog), amongst others, tested it and was enthusiastic about it. I can't wait to try it out. If you ask me, this wil revolutionize training jumps for wingsuit pilots wanting to get the most out of their wingsuit, just like wind tunnels have been revolutionary for formation skydiving and freefly.
The device is currently selling for $249 Canadian/US $200.
Check out the website here!In Europe the FlySight is sold via
flysight.de for 249,- Euro.
Update: I've received info that the price will be going to Canadian $250. And not only does it report glide ratio, but can also vertical speed or horizontal speed (one at a time of course). And: Mirko and Klaus will be at the ProBase Wingsuit Race with some demo units for people to try (and buy!).