Classic British Flight Sim

Looked up out of the kitchen window this morning and saw a glider high over Cambridge, and it got me wondering who does it the two flight sims. There doesn't seem to be much mention of it, but I daresay everyone's had a go at some point.

So, what are your favourite gliders and places to glide, what are the essential gliding add-ons and whatnot, does real world weather affect thermals...and so on.

Paul

The SOAR site has a lot good stuff -- I fly Ricks Zedbarge quite frequently using the thermal builder in ASv6.5
My personal favorites to fly are the Grob Astir (for the glass devotees amongst us) but for pure beauty I love the Ka6e
Both in Sim and IRL

Leif

Somewhere on this HD I have a half finished Cadet as well

I used to do a lot of gliding in both FS9 and FSX but must admit I have not done any for a while! I even have a saved flight I was working on where I started at Leicester (I was after somewhere close to the middle of the UK for a start point) and got into some amazing thermals that took me up to 16,000 ft and once up there I needed something to use up all the altitude so I decided to see how far I could get before I had to land! Obviously forward speed is fairly slow when you have to keep circling to grab the next thermal but I would fly for an hour or so until I got bored and then save the flight at that point (under a different name to keep the original flight safe for future use) and then come back at some point and continue the trip. I eventually made it to Edinburgh of all places before I had to land for the first time and that was only because the sun was setting and thermals were disappearing.

FSX is better than FS9 for gliding IMHO as it does try to simulate thermals (it also has a rather funky graphical aid to help locate them) and also attempts to model ridge lift and 'wave effect' on the back of the slopes but it is far from perfect. Glider enthusiasts seem to go more for a dedicated gliding/soaring sim called 'Condor' ( http://www.condorsoaring.com/ ) which does model all aspects of gliding very accurately indeed from what I have been able to read about it.

Regarding add-ons for FS9/X without doubt the very best place to get add-on gliders is http://www.fsglider.de/frset_e.htm . Wolfgang Piper makes some incredible models from the pre-WWII wood and canvas open cockpit beauties right up to the state of the art, 21st century, super sleek, racing machines.

This page.... http://www.luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/ ...has a number of add-ons to enhance your FS gliding experience and here is a video of someone having a lot of fun flying gliders in FSX http://www.vimeo.com/1034755 . NOTE: He flew all the aircraft himself using a flight recorder app before assembling them into one video.

Paul K wrote: So, what are your favourite gliders and places to glide, what are the essential gliding add-ons and whatnot, does real world weather affect thermals...and so on.

In FS9, Wolfgang Piper's LS8-18 and Francisco Vargas' thermal scenery. A must is to set the weather for rain, not a logical thing to do but I find the sound of it and the wind noise is very relaxing! |-) |-)

Hi Folks

You may wish to have a peep at Ian Forster-Lewis's, (aka B21), site - Soaring with Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX

Particularly at the on-the-fly thermal & ridge-lift generators, sim_probe (by Ian), and CumulusX (by Peter Lurkens).

Theres also some excellent gliding missions hosted there.

HTH
ATB
Paul

You might also like to look at a freebie called Cross-country soaring 2004 at http://x-c.home.att.net I often use it to launch from Kingsfield, near Larnaca, thermal my way up to the Kyrenia Range in Northern Cyprus and ridge soar there for a while before making my way back home again.

Emma Field is easily the best gliding site I've seen in FS...Lots of animations of vehicles arriving towing their glider trailers and then the driver and his girl friend getting out and rigging the glider. They then take it down to the launch end of the field (changed with the wind) and get hooked up and winch launched. As a user, you can place your glider in position for a launch and you get a proper simulated winch launch to a good height...There are some thermals in the area and I used them to good effect years ago to break the FS glider height and distance records. Naturally I'm talking about FS9...The gliding game in FSX is different and one of the few things I liked about FSX while I had it in my machine. :flying:

Here is an old slide of me as a gliding instructor for the Air Training Corps (I'm the one with the beard!):-

Boy that photo brings back memories! I had a few flights in the T.21 and a lot more in the T.8 when I started on the gliding course as a spotty Air Cadet in the very early 70's. Funnily enough the first two add-on aircraft I added to FS9 were Rick's Chippie and the T.21. I just had to get the planes I once flew in the ATC.

I wrote a lengthy account of my scariest ever flight on another forum but it looks like it has been lost during a forum update :-( . That took place in a T.8 on a cold and snowy January day.

Quick side question for Peter if you don't mind - I've got my birthday coming up next week and I'm looking for something for the Missus to 'surprise' me with. I've always toyed with the idea of Emma Field and maybe this is my excuse to get it. On the Just Flight web site it only refers to it being for FS2002, but I assume from your post there are no problems running it in FS2004?

Thanks

Swanoir --- Emma runs wonderfully on 2004

and as Peter says its a wonderful piece of kit -- DaveB turned me onto it about 4 years ago now I think

Its great fun not only for gliding but for playing "limbo" with (As in what can you land there) Ive managed an Andover
in and out - But I think Dave actually managed a VC10 once :o

Leif