New Digifly Leonardo Pro

[Kitt Rudd]

I have just received the new Leonardo Pro unit from Digifly.
First impressions WOW! What a good looking instrument. They have worked hard to update the style and look of the unit and I think Donini has done a fantastic job here.
The new unit continues to have a very user friendly page layout and is still very intuitive to use.
Some of the more obvious improvements compared to the orginal leonardo are;
The relocation of the speaker improving the sound quaility 10 fold.
Clearly labeled buttons which will aid the initial familiarisation time
An improved battery life (personally I did ot find this was that bad in the older unit - but I would recharge on a regular basis) The new instrument has a dual battery system an internal rechargeable lithium cell (fully charged within 3hrs) and a replaceable AA cell (I am using another lithium cell) to give over 50hrs battery life between recharges or replacement. It is also posible to connect the unit to a solar panel if you really want to goa bit more green.

Some of the less obvious improvements are;
The unit has an internal metal case to help protect the internal workings of the unit. Interesting to note I have not noticed a real weight increase with the extra battery and internal casing (will do a proper comparison to check).
It now has a fully automatic wind speed and wind direction calculation. Not yet checked this but my previous model did sometimes have a delay before updating the screen.
The logger now stores both barametric altitude and GPS altitude rather than just displaying the data on the screen.

I am really looking forward to testing this instrument properly. It is also available as a demo unit for pilots considering this new generation Vario/Gps . I believe Steve at S+W also has been sent a demo unit from this new Digifly range.
If you are considering upgrading your equipment I would seriously recommend you take a look at the Digifly offerings.