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?

The vid in this thread by Major Dad is amazing.  It takes place in Norway.

dd

Edited July 5, 2025Jul 5 by Sky_Pilot071

The "Sim Soaring Club", which has a Discord channel, was created in 2021:

[GLIDERS] Sim Soaring Club - Weekly Group Flights - Community Content Hangar / Friends, Clubs & Groups - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

Flying in group, including the chance to be towed by another sim pilot, must be a great experience, which I am yet to try...

THIS IS SIM SOARING - Epic Glider Flight in MSFS 2024 - YouTube

They also made available a Taks planner & export tool.

Edited July 5, 2025Jul 5 by jcomm

I was really enjoying gliding in the sim with my motion rig, feeling the ridge lift kick the aircraft. I hardly flew any powered aircraft for a few weeks as I was enjoying the gliding so much.

In fact I enjoyed it so much in May I booked a trail flight with the local gliding club … it scared the **** out of me. Winch launches and being blown around like a leaf weren’t for me I decided.

Sadly that experience tempered my enthusiasm for simulator gliding, but I should get back into it once the new gliders get released for 2024.

2 hours ago, jon b said:

I was really enjoying gliding in the sim with my motion rig, feeling the ridge lift kick the aircraft. I hardly flew any powered aircraft for a few weeks as I was enjoying the gliding so much.

In fact I enjoyed it so much in May I booked a trail flight with the local gliding club … it scared the **** out of me. Winch launches and being blown around like a leaf weren’t for me I decided.

Sadly that experience tempered my enthusiasm for simulator gliding, but I should get back into it once the new gliders get released for 2024.

jon, you should opt for a "normal" towplane procedure... It's not as "dramatic" as the winch, which I only experienced in the eraly eighties of the last Century during my training and afterwards for 2 years until an accident put an end to the use of winches here in Portugal 😞

Is it possible for the A33 to use its onboard motor to launch?

dd

3 hours ago, jon b said:

I was really enjoying gliding in the sim with my motion rig, feeling the ridge lift kick the aircraft. I hardly flew any powered aircraft for a few weeks as I was enjoying the gliding so much.

In fact I enjoyed it so much in May I booked a trail flight with the local gliding club … it scared the **** out of me. Winch launches and being blown around like a leaf weren’t for me I decided.

I'd encourage you to give it another go.

I found winch launches pretty scary too at first. Everything seemed to go soooo fast, and it felt as if the glider was almost vertical in the climb. Where's the ground???! It takes a few winch launches to adjust to the sensations and to be able to actually process what's going on.

Regarding "being blown around like a leaf" - it sounds as if your flight was either in pretty extreme conditions or you didn't get a chance to really try out the full effects of the controls. In normal conditions, a glider has a lot of control authority. If it's a day with strong thermals, yes, you need to be constantly working to keep the glider in the attitude you want, but you have more than enough control authority to do this. Maybe next time consciously go up in the morning or evening when the air is "dead" and it's easier to get a feel for the glider without having to constantly counteract external influences.

gotfriends overview of their AS33.

2nd half of vid.  Tons of info and super cool.

dd

Edited July 6, 2025Jul 6 by Sky_Pilot071

i always lose track of time when gliding.

 

The F7 simulations ASK21 can be flow in 2024, but is not yet officially updated, and as per discord there is some weirdness in the CFD near the ground. 

Edited July 6, 2025Jul 6 by bigifooti

9 hours ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

Is it possible for the A33 to use its onboard motor to launch?

dd

Yep! depending on the model. There are Self Launching (SLG) and Sustainer (SSG) versions, named "Me" and "Se":

AS 33 AS 33 Es AS 33 Me | ASSegelflug

1 hour ago, bigifooti said:

i always lose track of time when gliding.

 

The F7 simulations ASK21 can be flow in 2024, but is not yet officially updated, and as per discord there is some weirdness in the CFD near the ground. 

Ah! Thanks for the additional info. I was thinking about purchasing it, specially because there's a livery of the model I have flown extensively in the early 2000s at the Portuguese Air Force Academy, which had an agreement with AeCP (Portugal Air Club) for soaring.

I flew two of their AS K-21s with "CS-" registration that made them accessible to civillian pilots, mostly from Sintra Airbase nearby Lisboa, but also in Évora (LPEV). 

One of my preferred gliders ever, not that much for the finess, which was great but not super!, but rather for their aerobatics ability 🙂

 

Edited July 6, 2025Jul 6 by jcomm

Back in 2024 I made this post about towing in MFS 2020 being possible with other player, in Muyltiplayer environment.

I haven't tested it in FS 2024.

 

11 hours ago, jcomm said:

jon, you should opt for a "normal" towplane procedure... It's not as "dramatic" as the winch

 

10 hours ago, martinboehme said:

encourage you to give it another go.

I found winch launches pretty scary too at first. Everything seemed to go soooo fast, and it felt as if the glider was almost vertical in the climb. Where's the ground???! It takes a few winch launches to adjust to the sensations and to be able to actually process what's going on.

Thanks guys, I tried 3 launches to try and settle into it but the whole thing including the flying just felt alien and uncomfortable to me.

After years of sat reading the paper, drinking tea and having 3 course meal served to me by cabin crew I really think I’ve just lost my nerve for this sort of flying.
 

I’ll stick to simulator flying, and motorcycling.

1 hour ago, jon b said:

 

Thanks guys, I tried 3 launches to try and settle into it but the whole thing including the flying just felt alien and uncomfortable to me.

After years of sat reading the paper, drinking tea and having 3 course meal served to me by cabin crew I really think I’ve just lost my nerve for this sort of flying.
 

I’ll stick to simulator flying, and motorcycling.

😁

At our club we had / still have a few airline pilots. The oldest in 80 y.o. retired long time ago and has been active as an instructor.

Flying gliders is the only thing I ever did as a RL pilot. My dream was to become an airline pilot though, and that's why I started using flight simulators, long ago when they weren't as sophisticated as they are today, and there weren't many choices. 

With age my activity is slowing down considerably. Also here in Portugal various bureaucratic and €€€ interests killed soaring 😕  

There are at present only two aerodromes where "pure gliders" operate from "Amendoeira/Montemor-o-Novo" - LPMN ( my soaring airfield, very nicely modelled in FS 2024 !!! )  and Mogadouro, far from where I live - LPMU, in the northeastern highlands. We were invited to get away from other aerodromes because they have air academies / flightschools ATPL oriented, and they didn't want to share their airspace with glider pilots 😕

In the early Eighties, Nineties of the last Century, and also during the early 2000s... there were a few more soaring spots in Porta Land. Maybe one day we can recover from the present state of "misery"... 

Most of my fellow glider pilots / glider owners go to Spain. Last week there was a National Championship competition in Lillo (LELT) where some of them participated. Spain is great for soaring, in all aspects, and, again, FS 2024 does a remarkable job in reproducing the soaring weather and the scenery around there 🙂

Edited July 6, 2025Jul 6 by jcomm

That’s the magic of simulation, fly what you want where you want without restrictions,cost… or in my case fear !

Make sure you visit:

Sim Soaring Club

I really need to get back to experiencing some gliding in 2024!

@jcomm I know you weren't happy with thermals modelling in 2020, what differences (for better or worse) are you seeing in 2024 compared to 2020 when it comes to thermals modelling and other aspects of gliding dynamics? And you have the standard edition of the sim right, any thoughts on the default Stemme S12G by GotFriends? The premium edition also has the Pipistrel Taurus M I believe (motorized launching?)