The Altitrack is a digital altimeter with a classic analog display, and let it be said immediately. It just works! Never again will you worry that you bumped your altimeter on something. Never again will you wonder if you forgot to zero it on the ground. Like the Pro Track before it, you turn it on and it will give you a fast and precise altitude measurement.
The finish of the unit is very appealing. The design is very classic but with a few twists. First of all the needle is very close to the scale. There is no noticeable difference reading the dial from different angles. The scale itself is not linear. The first half circle goes from 0 to 6000 ft while the second half goes from 6000 to 21000 ft. The asymmetric scale is an option but personally I find the added precision while under canopy to be a refreshing innovation.
Turning the altimeter over, is where you really discover what this thing can do. A large comprehensive display logs every detail of the jump (including the temperature). The altimeter will play back the jump for you afterwards both on the digital and the analog scale.
The back side is referred to by L&B as "ergonomically shaped" and indeed it does curve somewhat. I just didn't fit my hand too well. No matter how I positioned it I always had a knuckle or some other bone hitting the display. This, however, is the only minor inconvenience I could find. The first time you use it you might be a bit surprised at take-off, though. As the altimeter automatically zeroes itself to ground level it takes a few hundred feet for it to realize that you are indeed in an airplane and not just driving up a hill. The needle will remain at zero until this point, when it will align itself at the correct altitude.
I haven't had the opportunity to try all the options of the Altitrack. For example I haven't tried it on night jumps, but it is supposed to be able to light up. Also I haven't tried looking at the logs on a computer.
In summary this is by far the best altimeter I have ever seen. The fact that it is also the most expensive should not come as a surprise but in this case, you get what you pay for.
Altitrack
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in Altimeters
The finish of the unit is very appealing. The design is very classic but with a few twists. First of all the needle is very close to the scale. There is no noticeable difference reading the dial from different angles. The scale itself is not linear. The first half circle goes from 0 to 6000 ft while the second half goes from 6000 to 21000 ft. The asymmetric scale is an option but personally I find the added precision while under canopy to be a refreshing innovation.
Turning the altimeter over, is where you really discover what this thing can do. A large comprehensive display logs every detail of the jump (including the temperature). The altimeter will play back the jump for you afterwards both on the digital and the analog scale.
The back side is referred to by L&B as "ergonomically shaped" and indeed it does curve somewhat. I just didn't fit my hand too well. No matter how I positioned it I always had a knuckle or some other bone hitting the display. This, however, is the only minor inconvenience I could find. The first time you use it you might be a bit surprised at take-off, though. As the altimeter automatically zeroes itself to ground level it takes a few hundred feet for it to realize that you are indeed in an airplane and not just driving up a hill. The needle will remain at zero until this point, when it will align itself at the correct altitude.
I haven't had the opportunity to try all the options of the Altitrack. For example I haven't tried it on night jumps, but it is supposed to be able to light up. Also I haven't tried looking at the logs on a computer.
In summary this is by far the best altimeter I have ever seen. The fact that it is also the most expensive should not come as a surprise but in this case, you get what you pay for.