[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fiqmDSRar3W4HImxTUUk30WNHJYk2SK5YbyfqkUpX48Q":3,"$frGNgmNjtlPfKLBt4snYCfBYvdKPoMzxfPl9JFRP6c1o":17,"me":16,"shop-vat-rates":78},{"article":4},{"id":5,"slug":6,"title":7,"summary":8,"visibility":9,"isPublished":10,"categoryId":11,"categorySlug":12,"categoryName":13,"updatedAt":14,"bodyMd":15,"legacy":16,"createdAt":14},"3f93eb93-aa78-4fd6-80ea-cf46ed9ebc60","atmo-3d-flying-with-it","Flying with Atmo 3D: the Wind page, the smart vario and the sound","Where the Wind page lives and how to read its two winds, what the smart vario shows in cruise, on thermal entry, in the climb and in manoeuvres, and how to put it on a needle, a navbox and the sound.","public",true,"e72fc8d5-81a2-4dbc-a37c-a4b06662ba99","atmo","Atmo 3D wind","2026-10-23T11:54:53.812Z","Once Atmo is running — built into an Era 57 Gen 2, or switched on by the [licence](\u002Fkb\u002Farticle\u002Fatmo-3d-activate-on-era) on a first-generation Era — it gives you two things in the cockpit: a live three-dimensional wind and a smart vario. This article shows where to find them, how to set them up, and what to expect from each in cruise, on thermal entry, in the climb and in manoeuvres.\n\n## The first minutes of every flight\n\nOn the ground Atmo shows nothing: with no airflow over the pitot there is no wind triangle to solve. Shortly after takeoff it restarts from the GNSS track, settles for a few seconds and then starts publishing. Heading — and with it wind direction — sharpens further with the first turns, so the first circles of the day are when Atmo is least certain and quickly getting better.\n\nOn the Wind page and the cyan needle, Atmo withholds a value rather than guess: an empty field or `No data` means *not yet*, never *zero*. The one exception is the `SVAR` navbox, which shows 0.0 until Atmo has a value.\n\n## The Wind page\n\nThe Wind page is Atmo's own page in the page cycle, next to the G-force page. Turn the `PAGES` knob to reach it; if it is not there, switch it on under `Setup › Pages`.\n\nThe page sits inside the vario scale. Two arrows start from the centre and point to where the wind comes from, relative to your track — straight up means a headwind. Their length grows with the wind speed. The same two winds are written as numbers, direction the wind blows **from** and speed, for example `265\u002F19 km\u002Fh`:\n\n| On the page | What it is |\n|---|---|\n| Bottom value, blue arrow | The current wind, refreshed continuously in straight flight and in circles |\n| Top value and arrow, grey | The average wind — roughly the last minute and a half, steadier through gusts |\n\nThe rows are not labelled. The speed is in the wind unit you set under `Setup › Units`. Before takeoff the page reads `No data`; the average shows `---` until it has settled, a little after the current wind. A current wind below about 1 km\u002Fh reads `calm`.\n\n**How to read the two.** The current wind tells you what the air is doing now: the shear at an inversion, the stronger wind above the ridge, the change of wind as you cross a valley. The average is the number to plan with, because it does not jump with each gust. On a long glide in smooth air both can drift until the next turn — the average smooths the current wind, it does not correct it.\n\n**What still uses the classic wind.** Today Atmo's wind is shown on the Wind page and shared with second-seat instruments and flight apps. The wind indicator on the main page, the thermal assistant and the final-glide calculation still use the Era's classic wind calculation — so you can put the two side by side in flight.\n\n## The smart vario\n\nA classic total-energy vario measures how fast the glider gains or loses energy. That is exactly right in a steady climb, but it also reacts to things that are not lift: a horizontal gust changes the airspeed and spikes the needle, and a pull-up or a push-over is never perfectly compensated by a TE probe. Atmo measures the airmass itself, so it can tell those apart.\n\nThe smart vario is one signal built from both, depending on what you are doing:\n\n| Phase | What the smart vario shows |\n|---|---|\n| Cruise and thermal entry | What the glider would climb or sink at its current speed in the air it is flying through, computed from Atmo's measurement of the airmass — so a gust is not meant to move it, and a thermal shows the moment you fly into it |\n| Established circling | The climb you actually achieve, from the instrument's total-energy vario |\n| Hard manoeuvres | Its last trustworthy value, held instead of showing the manoeuvre as lift |\n\nThe hand-over happens once you have turned about three quarters of a circle in the same direction, and it is blended over a few seconds, so the needle never jumps. S-turns and dolphin flying never trigger it, and a short straight to recentre does not undo it.\n\nTwo things to keep in mind. In cruise and on thermal entry the smart vario uses Atmo's built-in glider model — the polar and wing loading of a typical standard-class glider, not the settings of your Era — so treat its absolute level in straight flight as approximate, especially in a glider far from that class. And stalls and hard pull-ups can still briefly produce a false reading, even though Atmo is built to hold the needle through them.\n\n## Three ways to use it\n\n**The second needle.** With Atmo running, a cyan needle appears on the vario scale beside the familiar one. It is the smart vario; the original needle, its colours and its settings are untouched. Fly a few flights watching both. The difference is the point: in turbulence and pull-ups the classic needle moves and the cyan one stays quieter; on thermal entry the cyan one tends to move first. The cyan needle is hidden while it has no value to show and when the needle is set to show G-force.\n\n**A number.** The smart vario can be put in any vario field: `Setup › Indicators`, choose a `Vario NavBox` or `SC NavBox` slot and select `Smart Vario`. On the screen it is titled `SVAR`. Unlike the needle, it shows 0.0 while Atmo has no value — on the ground and in the first seconds after takeoff — and it does not work on a second-seat instrument.\n\n**The sound.** Under `Setup › Vario\u002FSC`, tick `Smart vario sound` to drive the vario tone from the smart vario instead of the classic vario. It applies in vario mode; in speed-command mode the speed-command tone is unchanged. If Atmo has nothing to say — on the ground, in the first seconds after takeoff — the sound falls back to the classic vario automatically, so it is safe to leave on. Untick it to compare the two by ear.\n\n## In practice\n\n- **Final glide.** Look at the average wind on the Wind page and compare it with the wind your final glide is using. If they disagree, plan with the more pessimistic of the two.\n- **Thermal entry.** Watch the cyan needle as you fly into lift: it reacts to the air rather than to the glider's own energy, and it is built not to mistake your pull-up for the thermal.\n- **Ridge and wave.** The current wind keeps updating on every leg, with no circling required, so you see the wind change along the ridge and across a wave band. On long, smooth legs treat its direction with some caution.\n- **Turbulent days.** The smart vario sound is calmer in gusty air, because gusts change the airspeed and not the airmass.\n\n## Second seat\n\nAtmo runs on the Era that carries the licence. A second-seat instrument on the same CAN bus receives Atmo's wind and smart vario from it and can show them on its own Wind page, as the cyan needle and in the sound — see [Atmo 3D data: second seat, NMEA and your own software](\u002Fkb\u002Farticle\u002Fatmo-3d-data-for-apps-and-second-seat).\n\n## Where to go next\n\n- [Atmo 3D: calibration, accuracy and troubleshooting](\u002Fkb\u002Farticle\u002Fatmo-3d-calibration-and-troubleshooting)\n- [Atmo 3D wind: what it measures and how it works](\u002Fkb\u002Farticle\u002Fatmo-3d-wind-what-it-is)\n- Why a vario feels slow, and what the filter really does: [vario lag](\u002Facademy\u002Fvario-lag) and [total energy](\u002Facademy\u002Ftotal-energy) in LX Academy.\n",null,{"categories":18,"articles":51,"search":77},[19,22,28,34,40,45],{"id":11,"slug":12,"name":13,"description":16,"sortOrder":20,"articleCount":21},15,5,{"id":23,"slug":24,"name":25,"description":16,"sortOrder":26,"articleCount":27},"42232637-6088-4100-9314-0b4986098818","getting-started","Getting started",20,7,{"id":29,"slug":30,"name":31,"description":16,"sortOrder":32,"articleCount":33},"9d0897b6-42d0-4643-8ceb-e8a02ce4a854","navia","NAVIA",25,11,{"id":35,"slug":36,"name":37,"description":16,"sortOrder":38,"articleCount":39},"92b87517-c814-4237-b180-19df9cb80b16","connectivity","Connectivity",30,3,{"id":41,"slug":42,"name":43,"description":16,"sortOrder":38,"articleCount":44},"db776f9a-4f67-42bf-94bc-171c93f10cea","service-repairs","Service & repairs",1,{"id":46,"slug":47,"name":48,"description":16,"sortOrder":49,"articleCount":50},"48e22b59-26c1-477f-b136-3d3728b6dc22","device-guides","Device guides",40,12,[52,58,64,65,71],{"id":53,"slug":54,"title":55,"summary":56,"visibility":9,"isPublished":10,"categoryId":11,"categorySlug":12,"categoryName":13,"updatedAt":57},"f365b994-4bad-49e1-bdcc-e8796f3e06a5","atmo-3d-wind-what-it-is","Atmo 3D wind: what it measures and how it works","The wind triangle in three dimensions, why Atmo needs no compass and no second antenna, what it learns in flight, what you see in the cockpit, and the honest limits of measuring wind from motion.","2026-10-23T11:54:53.787Z",{"id":59,"slug":60,"title":61,"summary":62,"visibility":9,"isPublished":10,"categoryId":11,"categorySlug":12,"categoryName":13,"updatedAt":63},"33138e94-424c-46f4-988d-bc8782d42338","atmo-3d-activate-on-era","Activating Atmo 3D on your Era","Which Era instruments run Atmo, buying the licence with your serial number, loading Fusion.lic from the SD card, the restart that switches it on, and how to check that it is working.","2026-10-23T11:54:53.804Z",{"id":5,"slug":6,"title":7,"summary":8,"visibility":9,"isPublished":10,"categoryId":11,"categorySlug":12,"categoryName":13,"updatedAt":14},{"id":66,"slug":67,"title":68,"summary":69,"visibility":9,"isPublished":10,"categoryId":11,"categorySlug":12,"categoryName":13,"updatedAt":70},"e06ea0f7-60ef-46a4-9b8d-73f82a97e8cb","atmo-3d-calibration-and-troubleshooting","Atmo 3D: calibration, accuracy and troubleshooting","What Atmo calibrates by itself, the level reference it takes from you, what accuracy to expect, and a symptom table for the questions pilots ask after their first flights.","2026-10-23T11:54:53.820Z",{"id":72,"slug":73,"title":74,"summary":75,"visibility":9,"isPublished":10,"categoryId":11,"categorySlug":12,"categoryName":13,"updatedAt":76},"ad551cb0-7738-4375-8f50-edae5b333775","atmo-3d-data-for-apps-and-second-seat","Atmo 3D data: second seat, NMEA and your own software","How Atmo shares its wind and smart vario with a second-seat instrument over CAN, and the $LXBC,FUSION and $LXBC,FAST sentences field by field for anyone building on them.","2026-10-23T11:54:53.828Z",false,{"AT":26,"BE":79,"BG":26,"CY":80,"CZ":79,"DE":80,"DK":32,"EE":81,"ES":79,"FI":82,"FR":26,"GR":82,"HR":32,"HU":83,"IE":84,"IT":81,"LT":79,"LU":85,"LV":79,"MT":86,"NL":79,"PL":84,"PT":84,"RO":80,"SE":32,"SI":81,"SK":26},21,19,22,24,27,23,17,18]