The Most BEAUTIFUL Flight I’ve EVER Done in MSFS 2024

Even for soaring and with it's limitations, FS 2024 turned into my preferred sim! It's LOVELY !!!

Edited October 28, 2025Oct 28 by jcomm

Nice indeed !

Quick question though: he said in the video that they are using a weather preset... does that mean that the thermals and ridge lifts that they use during the flight have all been placed there manually ?

Doesn't this kill the thrill a bit ? I mean, to know in advance where the thermals and ridge lifts are going to be and how strong they are going to be, surely removes a bit of the excitement, right ? Or am I misunderstanding it ? 

11 minutes ago, Daube said:

Nice indeed !

Quick question though: he said in the video that they are using a weather preset... does that mean that the thermals and ridge lifts that they use during the flight have all been placed there manually ?

Doesn't this kill the thrill a bit ? I mean, to know in advance where the thermals and ridge lifts are going to be and how strong they are going to be, surely removes a bit of the excitement, right ? Or am I misunderstanding it ? 

You are misunderstanding it. This is not how presets work. It's simply favourable weather conditions for thermals and ridge lift in the area they fly in.

@Daube @Farlis weather presets in the FS 2024 soaring community also introduce a correction for mountain winds which have a bug in the MSFS implementation and extend all the way up to the stratosphere their ridge effects.

Those presets modulate the wind speed by reducing it above the ridge so that it doesn't always behave like a totaly unrealistic gravitic effect...

Thermals in MSFS are modelled based on convection, and are dinamically generated under cumulus clouds or over portions of terrain with good albedo during daylight, specially when there are no clouds (blue day thermals), which not being perfect in the way it is implemented is still nicely set.

Clouds in online multiplayer sessions can differ from player to player because they are dinamically created, unlike in Condorsoaring where they are synced between all players in a soaring session.

For realistic ridge lift and high-altitude soaring in FS 2024, the Sim Soaring Club’s “Soaring Weather” presets are your best bet. They offer optimized wind conditions for various terrains and directions.

Here’s how to get started and make the most of ridge lift in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024:

Recommended Weather Presets for Soaring

Sim Soaring Club’s “Soaring Weather” Pack

• Includes 122 presets tailored for thermal and ridge soaring worldwide

• Features 8 wind direction variations to match terrain and optimize lift

• Designed to simulate realistic gliding conditions over mountains and flatlands

• Available for download atflightsim.to

Soaring Weather for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

Nonetheless I often use FS 2024 soaring with Real World Weather and most of the time it is good enough for my experience, and actually sometimes even interesting because it turns thermal centring trickier than in other simulators, Condorsoaring included 🙂

Aerodynamically the gliders, specially GotFriends and some free available from Flightsim.to are nicelly modelled and provide a very acceptable soaring experience provided you don't enter stalled / accelerated stall flight conditions, where the flight dynamics model fails to reproduce close to reality bahaviour, just like the X-Plane gliders which are not better in this area.

I haven't got the time to check if negative flap settings, used in flapped gliders of the "plastic age" are acceptably modelled and produce teh expected aerodynamic / performance effects, They weren't in FS 2020 and they aren't either in X-Plane ( I mention X-Plane because it's my other flightsim, and I try all types of aircraft in both sims, and focus my attention mostrly in the "feel of flight").

Edited October 29, 2025Oct 29 by jcomm