eightmileshigh Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 In posting my last cross country flight here, I suggested I could have gone on to Australia's tallest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko. Turns out I might have been a little optimistic! After resolving to make a return flight to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko from Khancoban I tried several times in the Discus B. But every time I got up close to the mountain I ran into unstable conditions and had to turn back: Then last night I thought I'd give it a go in the Soar DG808s, which is a mod of the stock FSX glider: Close to the plateau beneath the summit I found a strong thermal. When I emerged, just a couple hundred feet above the summit's 7310ft height, I was so wary of sinking that I dumped all my ballast right there: This paid off! I drifted over the plateau and not only got over the summit but hit a strong thermal directly above it which shot me up to 9000 ft : It was an easy downhill run from there: Here's a visualisation in Google Earth of my flight track, using a couple of freeware utilities - gives you a good idea of the amount of time spent thermalling: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Nicely done mate, great soaring. Do you fly in Condor at all? Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaydor Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Fantastic and something totally different.. By the way Picture number 9; (down hill run) the cloud formations have produced many faces of Meerkats watching you.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightmileshigh Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 Nicely done mate, great soaring. Do you fly in Condor at all? Thanks! I haven't tried Condor yet; coming from FSX I'm a bit put off by the graphics! But I intend to do real-world glider training at the end of the year so I figure I'll try it, just because it seems more glider pilots are conversant with Condor than the arcane lengths required to get soaring in FSX working. Then I'll be able to better relate the relative merits of FSX to them (which seem largely misunderstood by the Condor Community). Condor, with its niche community base, will likely always have the edge on multi-player competition, but for non-competitive flying I reckon the sim with the better graphics wins. By the way Picture number 9; (down hill run) the cloud formations have produced many faces of Meerkats watching you.. That's hilarious! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Emms Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Nicely done indeed and what a grand set these are. cheers Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boetie Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 These truly give another perspective on gliding, love your use of the other available resources, thanks for these! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan2 Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Don't know much about soaring but this post is a bit of an inspiration . Nicely done , enjoyed it . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
member111333 Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Nice trip you had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dvj Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Shot #1 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Goff Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Thanks! I haven't tried Condor yet; coming from FSX I'm a bit put off by the graphics! But I intend to do real-world glider training at the end of the year so I figure I'll try it, just because it seems more glider pilots are conversant with Condor than the arcane lengths required to get soaring in FSX working. Then I'll be able to better relate the relative merits of FSX to them (which seem largely misunderstood by the Condor Community). Condor, with its niche community base, will likely always have the edge on multi-player competition, but for non-competitive flying I reckon the sim with the better graphics wins. A few years back when my aging system was choking under the strain of... FS9... I switched to Condor for a bit and it's a blast! It has much more of a gliding 'feel' than FSX does, although I've never used CumulusX or anything like that. They also have scenery addons I believe, but either way it's great fun. Catching the ridge lift is amazing!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Fly Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Lovely shots! What are those freeware utilities you refer to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightmileshigh Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 Thanks for all the replies! Lovely shots! What are those freeware utilities you refer to? Here's a run down of my set up The freeware utilities I mentioned for that flight visualisation are Sim Logger and IGC flight replay. Sim logger will record your flight in the background with (as far as I can tell) no impact on FSX performance. It saves the flight in the IGC format that real world gliders use. IGC flight replay will then let you replay the flight in Google Earth. The key to soaring in FSX is CumulusX which creates thermals and ridge lift, taking into account terrain mesh, landclass, prevailing winds, cloud layers etc. It depicts the location of thermals with those cumulus clouds in the screenshots - fly under one, then upwind, and you should hit lift. It's a bit more nuanced than that, but that's the gist. There's a pro version of CumulusX which adds some subtle improvements, smoothing for win7 and a smart-tow feature, but the core of what it does is provided in the free version I also use the freeware Aerotow utility which, like the smart-tow feature in the licensed version of CumulusX, allows you to use any aircraft in your sim objects folder as the tug and lets you set up circuits rather than the default straight-out tow in FSX. I think this is at one of the usual FS file libraries. The author of Cumulus X also has a free utility called WinchX (at the same page) adding winch launching to FSX which can be quite exciting. The SOAR DG808S is an improved version of the stock glider with flight dynamics by a team which includes the makers of both simlogger and CumulusX. You can get it here. When I first got FSX I was turned off soaring by the introductory gliding mission which I found difficult and boring. I bet this is the case for a lot of people. But with all of the above set up, soaring in FSX can be a most inspiring way to enjoy both the pure sensation of flight and Orbx scenery! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Fly Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 WOW, thanks a lot for your answer! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davepdx Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 nice shots... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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