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Era 57 Gen 2
The new Era ships with Atmo on board — the wind page, the airmass vario and the thermal average, from the first flight.
Explore Era 57 Gen 2 →LX NAVIGATIONNEW
Atmo
3D wind
The wind you fly in.
All three dimensions, live.
Atmo reads the wind on every straight kilometre and in every circle — direction, speed and the vertical motion of the air — with no compass, no second antenna and no extra probe.
WHAT YOU GET
Three numbers, not one.
A wind arrow used to be a direction and a speed, refreshed whenever you happened to circle. Atmo makes it a live, three-dimensional measurement of the air you are flying through.
3D
Horizontal and vertical.
Every other wind display gives you two numbers. Atmo adds the third: how fast the air itself rises or sinks around you. That is the netto vario — measured from the airmass, not inferred from a probe that also feels every gust.
LIVE
In straight flight, not just in circles.
Classic instruments learn the wind from the drift of your circles and hold it between thermals. Atmo solves the wind triangle continuously, so the number is fresh on the glide, on the ridge and on the final glide.
0
No compass. No second antenna.
Heading comes from the physics of motion — inertial sensors, GNSS and airspeed fused a hundred times per second — so there is no magnetometer to calibrate and no second GNSS antenna to route through the fuselage.
Thermal average every circle
Wind and climb averaged over exactly the last full circle, not a sliding clock — so what you see is the thermal, not the gust that hit you on the upwind side.
Gust-immune vario
A horizontal gust changes airspeed, not the airmass. Atmo tells the two apart, so the needle shows lift — not the bump.
Self-calibrating
Pitot position error and air density are learned in flight. Nothing to enter, nothing to trust blindly.
HOW IT WORKS
The wind triangle, solved a hundred times a second.
Ground velocity comes from GNSS. Air velocity comes from the pitot and from attitude. The difference between the two vectors is the wind — in three dimensions, if you know where the nose points and how the fuselage sits in the air. Atmo knows both without a compass.
SENSE
Inertial sensors, GNSS velocity, airspeed and pressure — the sensors a modern LX instrument already carries.
FUSE
A 19-state estimator fuses them a hundred times per second: attitude, the air velocity in three axes and the 3D wind, each with its own confidence.
MODEL
The glider is part of the equation — its polar, its wing loading and the angle its fuselage flies at every speed. That is what makes the vertical wind observable at all.
CHECK
Every number carries a confidence. Atmo blanks what it cannot vouch for — on the ground, in a stall, with a blocked pitot — instead of guessing.
Curious about the theory? How your computer knows the wind →
Air vector + wind = ground vector. Atmo solves it in three axes, continuously.
COMPARED
Three ways the industry measures wind. And Atmo.
Most instruments infer the wind from the drift of your circles. Some add a compass to solve it in straight flight; some add a second GNSS antenna instead. Atmo does it with the sensors already in the instrument.
FEATURE
CIRCLING-DRIFT WIND
COMPASS-BASED WIND
DUAL-ANTENNA SENSOR BOX
ATMO
Wind in straight flight
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Vertical wind (airmass vario)
No
Yes
No
Yes
Compass to calibrate
—
Yes
No
No
Second GNSS antenna to install
—
No
Yes
No
Wind and climb per full circle
Yes
—
Yes
Yes
Learns pitot and density errors in flight
No
—
Density
Yes
Extra hardware in the panel
None
Sensor unit
Sensor box + antenna
None on Era Gen 2 and Navia Sense
— not applicable or not published. Methods described, not brands: the first column is the classic vario or flight computer, the second an inertial wind system with a magnetometer, the third a sensor box that adds a second GNSS antenna for heading.
IN THE COCKPIT
What changes when the wind is right.
FINAL GLIDE
The headwind on your glide is the wind of the last minute — not the wind of the last thermal.
THERMAL CENTRING
Vertical air motion shown where you are: entering a thermal reads as lift before the glider has climbed a metre.
RIDGE AND WAVE
Shear across the ridge, the rotor edge, the wave band — live wind at every heading, no circling required.
QUIET VARIO
Gusts move the airspeed needle, not the vario. What you hear is the airmass.
WHERE TO GET IT
Atmo flies in three instruments.
SOFTWARE UPGRADE
Era 80 · Era 57
Instruments already in your panel carry the sensors Atmo needs. A software upgrade switches it on.
Buy the licence →INERTIAL WIND + VARIO
Navia Sense Gliding Pro+
The Navia sensor unit with Atmo activated — 3D wind and airmass vario for the whole Navia panel.
Explore Navia Sense →Questions pilots ask.
Frequently asked questions
Does Atmo need a magnetometer or a compass?
No. Heading is derived from the motion of the glider — inertial sensors against GNSS velocity — so there is nothing to calibrate and nothing that ferrous ballast, wiring or a phone on the glareshield can disturb.
Does it need a second GNSS antenna?
No. One GNSS receiver is enough. Atmo does not measure heading between two antennas; it observes it from the flight path itself.
What is the vertical wind good for?
It is the vario a glider pilot actually wants: the motion of the air, separated from the motion of the glider. It does not react to a horizontal gust or to a pull-up, and it reads lift on entering a thermal before the glider has started to climb.
Can I add Atmo to an Era I already own?
Era 80 and Era 57 carry the sensors Atmo needs. A software upgrade activates it — ask your dealer or see the shop.
How accurate is it?
Every Atmo number carries its own confidence, and the display goes blank rather than guess — on the ground, in a stall, with a blocked pitot. Heading, and with it wind direction, is measured best while the glider turns, which is exactly when it matters most.
Atmo3D wind
Shipping with Era Gen 2 and Navia Sense Gliding Pro+. A software upgrade for the Era in your panel.
NOT SURE YET?
Talk it through before you decide.
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