Practicing Thermal gliding - How??
07-01-2006 | 03:15 AM
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From: Guangzhou, CHINA
Practicing Thermal gliding - How??
Hi
I have AFPD and I am trying to practice catching thermals and circling to stay in the lift.
1. What is a good sailplane for thermals?
2. What is a good scenery and how to set the options?
3. Is it best to use "follow mode" or "zoom" from a ground pilot position?
4. How to detect thermals in the scenery and where they are moving?
I have downloaded several sailplanes and have quite a few scenes. I have set up my Futaba 9C for Glider with the various mixes. Now I just need some more help to get more out of the practice.
IS THERE A BETTER SIM FOR THERMAL / SAILPLANES?
For me it would be great if the size and number of thermals could be set and the thermals could be marked with a coloured smoke so you could see where to fly. Then when you fly into a thermal you would see what happens with the wings etc..
Thanks Jeff
I have AFPD and I am trying to practice catching thermals and circling to stay in the lift.
1. What is a good sailplane for thermals?
2. What is a good scenery and how to set the options?
3. Is it best to use "follow mode" or "zoom" from a ground pilot position?
4. How to detect thermals in the scenery and where they are moving?
I have downloaded several sailplanes and have quite a few scenes. I have set up my Futaba 9C for Glider with the various mixes. Now I just need some more help to get more out of the practice.
IS THERE A BETTER SIM FOR THERMAL / SAILPLANES?
For me it would be great if the size and number of thermals could be set and the thermals could be marked with a coloured smoke so you could see where to fly. Then when you fly into a thermal you would see what happens with the wings etc..
Thanks Jeff
07-01-2006 | 10:03 AM
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From: Northboro, MA
RE: Practicing Thermal gliding - How??
Any sail plane should work fine.
There are 2 types of sailplanes, floaters (low wing loading 10 or lower) and bullets (15 or higher).
The floaters are good for light winds and low thermals, the bullets are good for breezy thermally days.
You need a bullet to punch out of the thermal and get back home or hop to the next thermal.
A breezy day will just take a floater away. Good thermal days usually has a breeze with it.
Bullets are good for slope soaring too.
In a real sail plane you just fly around until a wing suddenly lifts and you just start doing gentle circles.
I think you can pop up a window that tells you altitude and if your altitude is not rising when circling stop circling and fly around again watching the wing to lift.
As far as position, I'm not sure, it may be hard to see a wing lift from the std ground position, follow mode might work.
I don't know if AFPD has a default thermally field but you can crank up thermals on any field.
As far as simulator goes, I had AFPD and swapped it for G3. The Slope soaring in G3 is wonderful (out of the box there is 2 fields all set up for it and it's addicting).
There is some basic narrated training sessions and you can fly with the trainer. I have not tried thermaling yet (I'm too hooked on slope soaring), but I expect it to be just as good.
G3 Has pop up binoculars so you can have the std position view up on main screen and detailed orientation up on the pop up at thre same time along with a customizable stats pop up window.
There are 2 types of sailplanes, floaters (low wing loading 10 or lower) and bullets (15 or higher).
The floaters are good for light winds and low thermals, the bullets are good for breezy thermally days.
You need a bullet to punch out of the thermal and get back home or hop to the next thermal.
A breezy day will just take a floater away. Good thermal days usually has a breeze with it.
Bullets are good for slope soaring too.
In a real sail plane you just fly around until a wing suddenly lifts and you just start doing gentle circles.
I think you can pop up a window that tells you altitude and if your altitude is not rising when circling stop circling and fly around again watching the wing to lift.
As far as position, I'm not sure, it may be hard to see a wing lift from the std ground position, follow mode might work.
I don't know if AFPD has a default thermally field but you can crank up thermals on any field.
As far as simulator goes, I had AFPD and swapped it for G3. The Slope soaring in G3 is wonderful (out of the box there is 2 fields all set up for it and it's addicting).
There is some basic narrated training sessions and you can fly with the trainer. I have not tried thermaling yet (I'm too hooked on slope soaring), but I expect it to be just as good.
G3 Has pop up binoculars so you can have the std position view up on main screen and detailed orientation up on the pop up at thre same time along with a customizable stats pop up window.
