26 minutes ago, lwt1971 said:

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?)
 

Hey Len!

I've never flown a SLG as a PIC IRL, although I did fly in friends TMGs... Last year I visitied Innsbruck in May and was about to book a Stemme S12 flight from LOWI, but unfortunately my return to Salzbourg was too early for me to get to really fly in such a remarkable turbo-charged SLG 😕 ... Maybe next year !

Regarding comparison between FS 2020 and FS 2024, I honestly don't recall my experience with FS 2020 that well, because when I purchased FS 2024 as it became available, I had already uninstalled FS 2020 long before.

But, there are mainly two/three differences, for the better IMO:

1) The most detailled gliders I downloaded from Flightsim.to, including the freeware JS3-15 and JS3-18, and purchased Discus-2C Premium and the recently updated AS 33 Me from GotFriends, also to support all of the goodies they've been adding to make Soaring in FS 2024 feel more realistic, include a very nice rendition of the Lx9070 navigation computer, as well as simplified but rather nice renditions of the Hawk variometer, and together with tools such as the NB21 Logger and the B21 Task Planner, I can prepare, and fly my own tasks or actually any tasks available from public IGC files. 

Their performances are pretty accurate and allow for really enjoyable soaring sessions in FS 2024;

2) The Scenery detail is 2nd to no other sim I have used before for Soaring, including Condorsoaring up to v3, and this by itself makes a whole lot of a difference too, specially when I fly RL flights I logged using my own IGC logger. It's great for "debrief" and preparation of RW tasks!

3) Weather I use presently in FS 2024 (actually most of what I use these days with the sim, other than payware airliners) is Default, well with a little help from Real Turb CAT Areas, and what I have found is that the present modelling of thermals / up and down drafts / ridge lift is better for sure than what I had experienced in FS 2020. I can actually find the same thrill I find at times IRL, centering thermals, and this using Real World Weather - default RWW from FS 2024 !  

But I can further tune the conditions for a soaring day by downloading the extensive Custom Presets available from the "Sim Soaring Club" site. These further enhance the flight scenarios for competitions, that can be run offline or online with other FS 2024 players (an experience I've been following in several youtubes but haven't yet had the chance to try myself...). You can actually have another sim pilot flying the towplane !!!

With the above mentioned features and qualities I honestly prefer FS 2024 even ahead of Condorsoaring for simulated soaring in my desktop, and I am trying to convince my fellow glider pilots who still use Condor 2 or Condor 3 to try it too.

 

Edited July 7, 2025Jul 7 by jcomm

6 minutes ago, jcomm said:

3) Weather I use presently in FS 2024 (actually most of what I use these days with the sim, other than payware airliners) is Default, well with a little help from Real Turb CAT Areas, and what I have found is that the present modelling of thermals / up and down drafts / ridge lift is better for sure than what I had experienced in FS 2020. I can actually find the same thrill I find at times IRL, centering thermals, and this using Real World Weather - default RWW from FS 2024 !  

Cool thanks for the detailed debrief! And good to hear about thermals modelling improvements over 2020. If you are being positive about soaring/gliding in 2024, then it must have taken a non-trivial step or two forward from 2020 then 🙂 
 

Sim Soaring Club's latest video: "HOW TO FIND LIFT in MSFS"

HOW TO FIND LIFT in MSFS // Soaring Weather explained - YouTube

In MSFS's "defense" of a mentioned "limitation" of MSFS regarding what they call "ground thermal" I would say that IRL all thermals are related to heated surfaces, being it ground of mountain slopes, and some of them don't actually give rise to Cumulus. "Blue days" are days that have the "Norman point" above the "Inversion" or "Limit Layer" altitude. That point corresponds to the saturation point, amd cumulus clouds usually start forming from there up, but if there's an inversion layer bellow, then thermals will still form but glider pilots lose the reference provided by nice "good weather cumulus", so, while it's not probably meant to be a feature, it can actually be considered as such.

Now, for sure flying with Preset Weather scenarios will give the virtual glider pilots much more chances of getting lift ...

Edited July 7, 2025Jul 7 by jcomm