I do not have much experience of this plane, so maybe more experienced glider pilots can enlighten me as to the special features/gauges/flight characteristics of the Stemme when compared to a standard prop plane ? Does it include any unique gauges that are not found on a normal plane ? How realistic is it to fly ? What makes gliding so special in FU3 ?Thanks,Chris Low.

1. The first prominent feature is that the prop can retrack into its housing and the nose cone as well increasing the aerodynamics of the fuselage. For this the correct procedures must be followed to bring the engine to complete standstill by a brake system before pulling it back to prevent expensive damage.2. Then there is the variometer, which does not measure the pure climb or sink rate as the VSI, but changes dramatically when the plane's speed changes because of kinetic to potential energy conversion that takes place. It thus measures the glider's true energy gain and loss because of vertical airflow. This gauge is usually electronically connected to an audio output as not to keep an eye on the gauge all the time but to listen to the pitch, which goes higher or lower in sound, helping to "hear" a thermal connecting to the airflow over the aircraft for lift or sink.3. It also has a highly sensitive airspeed indicator.4. Gliding with FU is great due to accurate hills and valleys making ridge soaring quite realistic. The only drawback I found was to bring the wind up to much too high speeds to make ridge soaring possible. One can set the weather to have clouds creating excellent thermals. Hmm, where's Glidernut? He will have more info perhaps.Pieter

Thanks, Pieter. I am asking for all of this information because I am attempting to write an article that I would like to pitch to a games magazine in the UK :-)Chris Low.

Chris,The Stemme is a very unique plane in FU3 ;) It really has NO parallel (except maybe the Blanik/ASW, except they are 'unpowered'). You can (and should, for the first time anyway) follow the excellent description in the manual. Personally, I loved the Stemme at first then started wondering what it would be like a bit lighter and more responsive (i.e. unpowered), so I did the Blanik. Since then, I fly them both however, I never really flew the Stemme as a 'dedicated' glider, until I'd played with the Blanik.Nowadays, I still use the Stemme for exploring a lot as it can fly real slow and land on a dime/5c/5p. I also find I'm better at gliding it and resist the temptation to start the engine prior to landing. It's amazing how much better one becomes at landing when no go-around is possible ;)John will fill your mind with much more useful info, I'm sure.Suffice to say, gliders are still under-represented in FU3 IMO, as it's just the BEST sim base for gliders :-wave If you haven't tried the Lewis Valley package, try it ;)Regards,**************Jonathan Point**************"I'd rather be down here wishing I was up there than up there wishing I was down here"

I agree with that, Jon. I have the Lewis Valley package installed and its the main one I use when I glide around Seattle. Although I also like gliding around Olympia with glidernut's packages. Mind you, that was an easy package - all you had to do was developed the scenery models, plant trees over a few mountains, and make a Blanik glider. Coffee break stuff for sure. ;-) RobD.