July 4, 2025Jul 4 Gliding in MSFS 2024 - Learning new things! I am more & more into it, actually stopped using Condor 3 which I woudn't have purchased if I could have been able to test FS 2024 with some really nice soaring weather presets... Why? Because even not being as detailled in various aspects of soaring, FS 2024 is good enough, actually even better for instance in reproducing some details of takeoff and landing physics AND above all it offer an admirable experience of feeling like being over the actual soaring areas IRL... Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
July 4, 2025Jul 4 Definitely on my bucket list of things to do once I have time! i910900k, RTX 3090, 32GB DDR4 RAM, AW3423DW, Ruddy girt big mug of Yorkshire Tea
July 4, 2025Jul 4 Author After a recent accident due to a landout from my base of operations IRL, not with me but that's just because these days I'm just too chicken to fly away from the safety cone.., I have started to motivate fellow pilots to use FS 2024 for planning their tasks, specially when they're starting their "xcountry career", get sed to terrain and main land features and details that can really beof some help should they need to find places to land outside... FS 2024 with it's streamed scenery is just unique for that. The glider flight dynamics are acceptable, even if not perfect, but there is yet for me to find the "perfect" soaring flightsim ... Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
July 4, 2025Jul 4 I just started trying gliding in 2024 as well, although I'm pretty much a noob at this point. Has anyone tried Got Friends AS 33 yet? I think it just came out. It is 2024 compatible, but there's an upgrade coming later this month. https://www.got-friends.com/collections/payware/products/as-33-me ------------------------- Craig from KBUF
July 4, 2025Jul 4 55 minutes ago, kerosene31 said: I just started trying gliding in 2024 as well, although I'm pretty much a noob at this point. Has anyone tried Got Friends AS 33 yet? I think it just came out. It is 2024 compatible, but there's an upgrade coming later this month. https://www.got-friends.com/collections/payware/products/as-33-me Here is a recent vid: dd Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by Sky_Pilot071
July 4, 2025Jul 4 MSFS 2024 has me hooked ... trying out all kinds of new features and gliding is one of them. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. - Carl Sagan
July 4, 2025Jul 4 Author 2 hours ago, kerosene31 said: I just started trying gliding in 2024 as well, although I'm pretty much a noob at this point. Has anyone tried Got Friends AS 33 yet? I think it just came out. It is 2024 compatible, but there's an upgrade coming later this month. https://www.got-friends.com/collections/payware/products/as-33-me Yep, purchased it a couple of days ago, and today I finally purchased the paid version of the Discus-2c. I had their free (from flightsim.to) version since my MSFS 2020 days. Looking fwd to test the Discus-2c too! Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by jcomm Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
July 4, 2025Jul 4 What are people using for tow planes in 2024? I can't seem to get in the air. The tow plane pulls me off the runway and I barely get any speed. Right now I'm trying the freeware version of the Discus from Got Friends and their towplane. None of the tow planes seem to be working right (although I certainly could be doing something wrong). ------------------------- Craig from KBUF
July 4, 2025Jul 4 Author 1st a note, just in case it wasn't evident 🙂 I don't do youtubes, since maybe 2007, so the youtube in the OP is not mine OFC.... Then regarding the tugs, the Wilga is now offered as a possible tug, and it does takeoff, but you have yet another great alternative, a modified Robin available from here: SSC Robin DR400 Towplane mod v0.0.3 for MSFS2024 for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS And, due to a bug in FS 2024, make sure you enable the option "ATC follows flightplan" in FS 2024 options under "Assistances" because otherwise weird stuff may happen with winch or tug launches... as well as with tasks. From "gotfriends": [To add to this comment, this setting is critical for enjoying a proper tow/winch. MSFS is currently bugged, so if you don't enable this, sometimes your tow won't take off or even you winch might spawn behind you. Best to leave this enabled to ensure your glider and tow partner have the same ATC Flight Plan filed.] Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by jcomm Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
July 4, 2025Jul 4 1 hour ago, kerosene31 said: What are people using for tow planes in 2024? I can't seem to get in the air. The tow plane pulls me off the runway and I barely get any speed. Right now I'm trying the freeware version of the Discus from Got Friends and their towplane. None of the tow planes seem to be working right (although I certainly could be doing something wrong). I've had the same issue trying today for the first time and banged my head on the joystick for several tries before getting it : You need to stay right behind the tow plane, your wings must not hit the ground and you need to pull up to get airborne as soon as possible (maybe less than five seconds after the Wilga starts moving). Then it'll work fine, you can use the built-in assistance to get the correct attitude behind the tow plane while climbing. I've done a couple of soaring with the free Discus today thanks to this thread and I've enjoyed it greatly. Climbing above a mountain using only updrafts really is satisfying.
July 4, 2025Jul 4 Not sure which MSFS 2024 version includes the glider stuff. In the vid he had several options for towing. dd Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by Sky_Pilot071
July 5, 2025Jul 5 Author @Sky_Pilot071, I have the Standard version and it comes with two default gliders. From Flightsim.to you can then get some freebies: Gliders for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS | Flightsim.to Some were developed for MFS 2020 but are upward compatible with FS 2024. Also make sure you get either the Wilga or the Robin DR-400 from there because the default aircraft in FS 2024 weren't correctly upgraded in terms of ground physics to cope with tugging 😕: SSC Robin DR400 Towplane mod v0.0.3 for MSFS2024 for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS And don't forget top enable "ATC follows flightplan" under "Assistances"... Then there's a worth of nice vids and tutorials you can watch from various youtube channels including this one I have long bookmarked: THIS IS SIM SOARING - Epic Glider Flight in MSFS 2024 After having been critic about various aspects of soaring in MSFS, ranging from the limitations imposed by the flight dynamics model in as far as modelling of aspects like negative flap settings (also incorrectly modelled in my other general purpose flightsim - Xp12), or the way the ASOBO team modelled thermals, I slowly started changing my evaluation because I found flying the model gliders in FS 2024 as a closer to RL experience compared to all my other sims! It's in good part due to FS 2024's unique scenery detail, very important for finding your way around specially if you know the area from RL, or if you plan to go flying IRL in an area you're not familiar with. But surprisingly, and even with it's quirks, the way thermals are presently modelled even if not as sophisticated in terms of thermal life cycles as in Condorsoaring, is actually very nice compared to RL, specially in terms of being not as well defined / obvious as in Condor, which makes one struggle to find and keep within them closer to my RL experience 🙂 Edited July 5, 2025Jul 5 by jcomm Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
July 5, 2025Jul 5 Author IRL the technique for towing is more or less straightforward, with some nuances depending on the glider, tug, runway type and lateral limits including any grown grass, where the towing cable is attached to the glider ( near the CoG can be trickier when you're not familiarized with the glider/ tow plane and pilot... )... and OFC, the glider itself. In the real LS1c we start the takeoff run with spoilers deflected and then retract them as speed builds up, which might appear counter Intuitive but helps creating a "swirl" of tug propwash from the towplane that helps making the tail surfaces become effective... Following the towplane is more or less like flying in formation. You should still use the rudder to coordinate, although when the cable is attached to the nose of the glider it helps maintaining it aligned 😁 During turns you should point the glider towards the tip of the outside wing of the tug... I find that overall the gliders in FS 2024 does a nice job reproducing soaring flight 👍 Edited July 5, 2025Jul 5 by jcomm Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
July 5, 2025Jul 5 I use MSFS to practice RL cross-countrys and field landings, but never found the soaring particularly lifelike...what weather do you use? ...
July 5, 2025Jul 5 Author 3 hours ago, keithb77 said: I use MSFS to practice RL cross-countrys and field landings, but never found the soaring particularly lifelike...what weather do you use? I've been using a collection of weather presets downloaded from Flightsim.to They're made by the "Sim Soaring Club". But even flying in default weather, real world, around spots that have good soaring conditions, not only for ridge soaring but also for thermalling, truth is that FS 2024 now creates acceptable thermals, probably even "blue thermals"! (*) (*) Still needs checking... (**) And I am also using Real Turb CAT Areas, which I really don't know if has some sort of positive influence in the simulation of thermals... Edited July 5, 2025Jul 5 by jcomm Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
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