FSX-MS Best simulator for Glider pilots?

[jcomm 5,939]

That's a beautifully done video and so captures the wonderful freedom and joy of gliding. A stark contrast to a couple of clubs I've flown with in the UK, full of bossy men all trying to dominate the club in their own way and turning off younger members, and particularly turning off women.

 

I know that so well from my experience here in Portugal :-(  I would love it to be just like in that video, although after all this years I believe I have found a really nice group of soaring freaks :-)

 

Last weekend was talking to a British pilot who came to Portugal, and brought his Astir with him, and commenting on how admire the way you have such great flights logged in that UK weather we wrongly think is not good for soaring... Here we fly when we have thermals... There you fly using a worth of sources, and it must really be a lot more challenging and rewarding :-)

 

P.S.: Could Real Air make a glider ;-)  We could finally have proper sideslips/fwd slips .... stalls and spins !   A classic would be great, or even better, a collection - I'm daydreaming

[cencored 0]

Thanks for all the comments. I have finally took the plunge and bought Condor. There is a plethora of tasks to fly and then start flying online with others or even do competitions.

So far I am impressed with the flight model (with my limited experience) and some of the scenery is pretty good esp once you are away from the ground lol.

 

Although I was hesitant to spend money on a product that gets barely developed anymore, I am impressed at how active the condor community is and how many RL pilots use it as their go-to sim platform.

[jcomm 5,939]

I think your choice was the best one.

 

If you have PNAs, or even an LK8000, be sure to plug them to Condor - great for training without trying to learn while you fly IRL :-/

 

Online, Condor is very good!

 

Download a worth of good sceneries and other great stuff from - www.condor-club.eu

[computerflyer 6]

I haven't yet found a support forum where to address some of the issues.

 

For an FSX model, it's undoubtedly very good, but even a simple stall where you keep pulling the stick back results in a series of wild oscillations through which you can recover altitude, than go down again, then recover... ad nauseum....  The spins are also strange, and show that scripted nature of when authors try to do in FSX what FSX simply can't give them ... 

 

The ASI error with sideslip is mild. I expected a better effect since it was announced as one of the modeling features... BTW: sideslips are also very strange, compared to what we use almost everyday IRL, and the K21 can perform some really nice ones, specially when the rudder pegs at one of the stops....

 

It is still one of the best glider models for FSX though! just like the DiscusX!.  I haven't yet tried the motorized version ( maybe next weekend ).

 

I use FSX and X-Plane and both fall short of what gliders really feel when flown IRL :-(

 

Again, of all the glider sims I ever used, the closest match was Silent Wings. I regret the project having been abandoned :-/

 

I've had real-world experience stalling GA aircraft, and I've taken the controls of a Grob glider, but I've never stalled a high-performance glider in real life.  I just realized that I have absolutely no idea how such a glider would typically behave.  If the ball - I mean the yarn - were kept centered using rudder and the stick held full back, would the glider mush with a high sink rate, oscillate with climbs and descents, or drop a wing and go into a spin or spiral dive?

[jcomm 5,939]

Mostly mush, some tend to drop a wing and some are even difficult to control after that, thus forcing the pilot to promptly ease on the stick.

 

The Astir Club can mush at such a shallow angle that you practically couldn't tell it was stalled, unless through the completely loose stick...

[cencored 0]

I think your choice was the best one.

 

If you have PNAs, or even an LK8000, be sure to plug them to Condor - great for training without trying to learn while you fly IRL :-/

 

Online, Condor is very good!

 

Download a worth of good sceneries and other great stuff from - www.condor-club.eu

 

I don't have a pna or lk8000 although I may try to get the lk8000 going on an old GPS or something...maybe even an old windows xp laptop? What do you use?

Still only flying the tasks at the moment to get more experienced before starting online. I'm keen to connect to an online server just for fun (not competitions) as it gets a bit lonely flying around in Free Flight mode...