Colibri X: task declaration, logging and getting the flight out

The Colibri X is a flight recorder with a full navigation instrument wrapped around it, and the two halves follow different rules. The half you fly with is forgiving: change your mind about the task at any point and the instrument keeps up. The half that writes the .igc file is not forgiving at all, because that file has to convince somebody who was not there.

This article covers declaring a task before flight, what the declaration carries besides turnpoints, the logger settings that shape the file, and the routes for getting a finished flight out of the instrument.

What the recorder is for

The Colibri X records to internal memory in the IGC format, continuously, from the moment it decides you are flying. That file is the evidence for a badge, a record or a competition claim, and on most days it is the only artefact a scorer will ever look at.

Two things follow. First, the file is only as good as what you told the instrument before takeoff — the recorder cannot invent your name, your glider or your intended task after the event. Second, the original file is the one that counts: validate the G-record before submitting, and keep the original somewhere you will still have it next season. The theory behind all of this is in the academy article on IGC logs.

Declare before you fly, not after

A declaration is the statement of intent written into the header of the IGC file: who is flying, in what, and where they intend to go. It must be in the instrument before takeoff.

A task loaded after landing is not a claim. It is a route drawn over a flight that has already happened, and it will be rejected. This is the commonest way a good flight becomes an unclaimable flight, and it costs nothing to avoid — set the task on the ground, with time to read it back.

The five ways a task arrives

A task can be built from turnpoints, airports, or a mixture of both, and it can reach the Colibri X by five routes:

1. Uploaded from a Zeus, where the Colibri X sits alongside it in the panel.
2. Sent from a third-party device over Bluetooth as a declaration — a phone running XCSoar, an Oudie or a similar PNA.
3. Downloaded from the web.
4. Created on the device, on the Edit task sub-page.
5. Loaded from a .cup file through Load task.

On a two-seat installation the front-seat device can send the task back to the second seat. Task files must be .cup; nothing else is read.

The Colibri X forwards a task declaration onward to external devices — a MOP sensor, a FLARM unit — when it receives one over the user port, when it receives one over Bluetooth, when a task is loaded from a .cup file, and whenever you leave the task-edit page. Edit a task and stay on that page, and the downstream devices have not yet been told.

What goes into the declaration besides turnpoints

Turnpoints are the part pilots remember. The rest of the header is set once and then quietly stays wrong for a season.

Each pilot profile is also the user profile that all your other settings are saved into, so creating a profile per pilot is worth the two minutes rather than editing one shared entry.

Logger settings

The Logger sub-menu holds everything that shapes the file itself:

• Interval — how often a position fix is written in normal flight.
• Event interval — the faster rate used while the event function is active.
• Event fixes — how long the event interval stays in force, counted in fixes.
• Start speed — the indicated airspeed at which logging begins.

The event function is an IGC-mandated feature. Pressing it switches the logging rate to the event interval for a set period and writes a distinct event line into the .igc. It exists because memory used to be scarce and normal intervals were coarse, so a sector had to be caught at higher resolution on demand. Today it is more often used to mark intent — some competition start procedures ask the pilot to mark the moment of crossing — and it remains genuinely useful any time you want a timestamp you can find again.

Trigger it either with an external button wired to the inputs interface, or from the info page with the lower push-rotary knob. Either way a notification box confirms it.

Getting the flight out

To a microSD card

The default route, and the one that works with no infrastructure. Open the Logbook page, scroll to the flight, press in to open the flight info, and choose the transfer to microSD card. The list is long on a well-used instrument: turning the upper knob jumps ten flights at a time, and pressing it in while turning jumps a hundred.

By e-mail over WiFi

Four conditions must all be true before this works:

1. An e-mail address is set up, under Setup > Network > Mail > Add mail, and marked active.
2. A WiFi connection is established — set Wireless mode to WiFi Client, then pick the network in Wireless setup and enter the password. Passwords are case-sensitive; the address is not.
3. The flight exists in the logbook.
4. You are not in flight mode.

Then open the flight from the Logbook page and choose Send to email. The instrument prepares the data, uploads it, and tells you when it is done.

Over Bluetooth

Bluetooth is not a download route, and expecting it to be one wastes an evening. It carries live NMEA data out to a phone or PNA, and carries declarations and settings such as MacCready, bugs and ballast back in. The finished .igc still leaves by card or by e-mail.

Housekeeping

Internal memory is generous — 8 GB on earlier units, 16 GB on newer ones — which is exactly why flights accumulate for years. Download them anyway, on a schedule, and keep them somewhere that is not the instrument. Memory being large is not the same as memory being a backup.

Updates come from LX support: send your contact details, device type, target software version and serial number, and you will be given an update code. Copy the .lxu file to the root of the microSD card, then Setup > Service > Software update, enter the code, and confirm afterwards in Setup > Service > Device info that the version really changed. On a standalone unit the instrument switches off after copying the file — press the lower push-rotary knob to turn it on again so the update continues; the Zeus version restarts by itself.

Do not cut power during an update. Data corruption can follow; if it does, contact LX support immediately to recover the unit. After the main unit finishes, leave the Colibri X on for at least five minutes so it can update the CAN devices behind it.

When it goes wrong

Where to go next

• Firmware and databases for this instrument: the Colibri X download page.
• What a valid claim actually requires: the academy articles on IGC logs and task flying.
• Product details and accessories: Colibri X.
• Anything that behaves differently from this article: your dealer first, then LX support.