Soaring

[b52bob]

Just became enamored with gliders and soaring....great fun.

Where are your favorite places to soar?

Bob

 

[Kiwikat]

SoCal is generally my favorite area to soar above in FSX. Can't wait for the Aerosoft gliders to be released. They are coming s**n too!

 

[SirBenn21]

SoCal is generally my favorite area to soar above in FSX. Can't wait for the Aerosoft gliders to be released. They are coming s**n too!

Can't wait as well. On my buy list.

I've always mucked around with gliders, but have either found it a bit boring due to the poor weather generation or to much effort to set one up. I normally set up a network soaring race mission and see how quick I can do the coarse, which I really enjoy even if I'm by myself.

Who knows where to get good soaring missions where you can change the glider you want to fly?
I wish someone like REX could generate soaring weather.

Ben

 

[simkid22]

Minden Nevada USA them over the hills to Lake Tahoe!

Here are some native FSX gliders, look for the DX10 compatible *
http://www.fsglider.de/p_e.htm
Here are some good resources:
http://www.virtualsoaring.org/
http://carrier.csi.cam.ac.uk/forsterlewis/soaring/sim/fsx/index.html

 

[tigisfat]

Warner Springs, CA. Kiwikat nailed it. It's beautiful and there's lift year 'round. You'll find that if you have megascenery Socal, the glider offshoots and large grass area are modelled well enough for simulating. Every time I go gliding in real life, I get excited about gliding in FSX. Unfortunately, it's not very well simulated.

 

[Cazzie]

So good to see my favorite form of flying being covered in FSX. Start with empeck's wonderful "Pirat".

I like using the airport at New Castle, VA, home of the Blue Ridge Soaring Society. Winch launch or hit Shift + Control + Y and get a tow plane.

It helps to have UTX to correctly show the rivers and roads.

Caz

 

[Matt Wynn]

ooh nice pics Tigis, is that a Grob G103 Astir in that second image?

 

[anatolpopov]

I downloaded updates for Stemme for FSX, but can't download original aircraft what is required (fs2002), is it available anywhere else than avsim?

 

[tigisfat]

ooh nice pics Tigis, is that a Grob G103 Astir in that second image?

Yes it is, it's a G 103 acro. It's not mine, but it may as well be because I'm the only one that uses it anymore. I visit Socal probably six times a year on business and I always go soaring at Warner Springs.

 

[tigisfat]

What FSX needs to simulate is the fact that a small rock outcropping can have a glider climbing faster than 1,000 feet per minute. Overall, FSX has some cool features for soaring, but there just isn't enough lift.

 

[jetstreamsky]

Use CumulusX and Simprobe to get lift, both thermal and ridge lift.

Set up some weather using FSX simply put 16 kts or more perpendicular direction to the ridge you want to fly, add a few cumulus clouds a medium level and cirrus way up high for visual appeal.

Try starting from Locarno in the Swiss Alps and New Zealand around Mount Cook starting at Glentanner for excellent flying areas.

Use FSRecorder to keep your flight and then do it again while playing your flight, makes great company, adds a lot of visual appeal and challenges yourself to beat your prior flights or find new routes to the same destination.

Install the Altiports in the Alps for some high altitude airfields to rise to and land at.

I fly multiplayer with a friend, we record our flights and swap the files so we can 10 or so gliders 'racing' to our destination.

Try it, its very involving.

 

[tigisfat]

Use CumulusX and Simprobe to get lift, both thermal and ridge lift.

Set up some weather using FSX simply put 16 kts or more perpendicular direction to the ridge you want to fly, add a few cumulus clouds a medium level and cirrus way up high for visual appeal.

Try starting from Locarno in the Swiss Alps and New Zealand around Mount Cook starting at Glentanner for excellent flying areas.

Use FSRecorder to keep your flight and then do it again while playing your flight, makes great company, adds a lot of visual appeal and challenges yourself to beat your prior flights or find new routes to the same destination.

Install the Altiports in the Alps for some high altitude airfields to rise to and land at.

I fly multiplayer with a friend, we record our flights and swap the files so we can 10 or so gliders 'racing' to our destination.

Try it, its very involving.

I really appreciated your post, it's the most informative one I've seen in a while. Thanks!

What exactly are cumulusX and simprobe? Are they free? Where can I find them? I got no ridge lift outside of missions setting the winds perpendicular.


Where can I find the altiports?

 

[anatolpopov]

Where do you soar in FSX?

 

[kilo delta]

I really appreciated your post, it's the most informative one I've seen in a while. Thanks!

What exactly are cumulusX and simprobe? Are they free? Where can I find them? I got no ridge lift outside of missions setting the winds perpendicular.


Where can I find the altiports?

Try here Tigisfat.... http://carrier.csi.cam.ac.uk/forsterlewis/soaring/sim/fsx/dev/sim_probe/

 

[anatolpopov]

Some screenshots. I started from KTVL and landed to Minden-Tahoe :ernae:

I know that aerobatics aren't allowed in this plane anymore but I'm glad this is only simulator so I can try them. It was fun, try to do stallturn with that plane (Pirat)

 

[Daube]

I really appreciated your post, it's the most informative one I've seen in a while. Thanks!

What exactly are cumulusX and simprobe? Are they free? Where can I find them? I got no ridge lift outside of missions setting the winds perpendicular.


Where can I find the altiports?

Yes they are two free modules for FSX.
Basically, they analyze the direction of the wind and shape of the hills and mountains around you to determine where there should be "thermals". In fact, they create ridge lift (I'm not sure of the real name in english), the fact that the wind will go up a hill, and that you can go up with it.

Also, there's another freeware module nammed AeroTow. It's a kind of AICarriers for the towing plane: it lets you choose which plane in your FSX hangar you want to use as a tow plane, and it lets you choose what kind of circuit you want this plane to follow (circles, or follwing the active flight plan). Very nice to get towed across the mountains

For gliding in FSX using those tools, I definitely recommend the Interlaken airfield. The area is beautifull with a nice mesh and lanclass (use ebch3tot.zip, FS9 landclass but works nicely in FSX), there's a nice valley to explore with two big lakes, big mountains around to use the ridge lift with CumulusX, and if you fly past the mountains you'll find Alpnach Mill and Buochs airports with very cool surrounding area too.

 

[CBris]

What FSX needs to simulate is the fact that a small rock outcropping can have a glider climbing faster than 1,000 feet per minute. Overall, FSX has some cool features for soaring, but there just isn't enough lift.

Get CumulusX and Simprobe - then you will have much better thermals AND ridge lift. And yes, this is pretty good at giving 'tricky ridges' (see quote) - even small ones, but try soaring along the Alps... phew!

Add WinchX and you'll have a 'programmable' winch

Add Aerotow and you can program which plane will give you a hitch and you can even "steer" it a bit.

A bit of Googling will find them all.

And then... I have been on the Beta for the Aerosoft Discus glider (due release any time now) and you'll have a power assist glider that can get you home in zero lift or even self start you from the ground.

What more can a guy want?

 

[jetstreamsky]

OK here`s a few links

Sim Probe http://carrier.csi.cam.ac.uk/forsterlewis/soaring/sim/fsx/dev/sim_probe/

CumulsX and WinchX http://luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/

More Gliders, many FSX versions of varying quality, recommend Blanik and DG-202 http://www.fsglider.de/

Altiports http://www.fs2000.org/index.php/downloads/doc_details/13149--fsx-scenery-french-alps-altiports-

Improvements to the FDE and instruments of the default DG-808S http://www.virtualsoaring.org/

various help for soaring http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showforum=216

 

[jetstreamsky]

Another thing that helps is if you have the hardware, use one of your rotary controls assigned to the spolier axis inside FSX, this makes descent and landing a lot more controllable.

Also note that some gliders have negative flaps (type F5 then F6 key once or twice), very useful for picking up speed and punching through a downdraft situation.

Also some have water ballast which you can release before landing.

Other than that get good meshes for the area you fly and have a bundle of fun skimming over cliffs and mountain ridges, remember the wind direction though as it`s all too easy to get into big sink and then you`re going to have to work hard.

 

[djscoo]

OK here`s a few links

Sim Probe http://carrier.csi.cam.ac.uk/forsterlewis/soaring/sim/fsx/dev/sim_probe/

CumulsX and WinchX http://luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/

More Gliders, many FSX versions of varying quality, recommend Blanik and DG-202 http://www.fsglider.de/

Altiports http://www.fs2000.org/index.php/downloads/doc_details/13149--fsx-scenery-french-alps-altiports-

Improvements to the FDE and instruments of the default DG-808S http://www.virtualsoaring.org/

various help for soaring http://www.forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?showforum=216

Thanks for the links! I'm a sporadic glider, but I think the addition of ridge lift will make me try it more often. Sim probe was a beast to install, I had to learn the basics of XML to finally get it working with AICarriers. lol