NZFF

On a trip through Otago last week, we stopped in at Omarama.
A visit to the Gliding Mecca of the World was a long-held dream for me, well-experienced in the flight simulator.

Three months of drought, and then we arrived! The weather looked decidedly iffy: rain the night before, and another front rolling in from the southwest.
We had only the Saturday, and so waited through the afternoon for the tiniest sign of a thermal or breeze.
Finally at 3 o’clock the tow plane took us up to 5,500 ft and we cruised the ridges on puffs of air that you might not feel on your cheek, if you were walking it.



With a 42:1 glide ratio the Duo Discus had a lot to do with the experience which was totally thrilling.
Sometimes you felt you could reach out and touch the rock wall as the aircraft sniffed the updraft.

I’m used to a much older and noisier glider, this machine is in a class of its own.
Very quiet, fully instrumented, and twitchy as hell.
My hamhanded stick inputs initially produced a series of spiral yo-yo’s as I tried to fly the course.
I finally settled down, flying with thumb and forefinger delicately on stick, and minute rudder input.
A real thoroughbred.

Much too soon, we had to return to base.



I will return there in the spring one day, they fly 500km legs as a matter of course when the weather is right.
Highly recommended.

Aerosoft make a neat model of the Discus glider, an interesting challenge even in FSX.

Seeing the photos and reading the description, I must try the gliders at Omarama, driven past them so many times so will add it onto the list now.

smooth landings.

That looks like great fun.... Are you heading to Classic Fighters or are you back up North? I thought that top right hand picture was from Flight Sim!

Very nice, thanks for the trip report Charl. Sounds like a bucket list entry to me!

Very Jealous Charl... looks awesome... as per Alister going for a glider flight is on my bucket list too.

Sitting around waiting for the weather to clear enough to fly? Welcome to my world, and guess what I'm doing right now!

Cool montage though, love seeing shots from the Makenzie Basin, especially from the sky. Just a tiny bit more scenic than Durey.

Great set Charl .

Certainly on my bucket-list, but whenever I visit Omarama I'm always tearing off somewhere, or coming back from somewhere and just wanting to get home. Maybe time to slow down a bit.
That's a magic line -- 'and we cruised the ridges on puffs of air that you might not feel on your cheek, if you were walking it.' Pure poetry.

It was a magic day… I’d looked forward to it for so long there was no way we were not going up.
I’ve done a fair bit of gliding, mostly Drury, where you are boxed to 3,000 ft by NZAA, and Ardmore next door.
No such limitations at Omarama: it’s the biggest playground, totally unfettered. One of the pilots mentioned, in 10 years he’d only once had use of his transponder. And they routinely cruise off to Milford Sound and other distant places, just for an outing.

Bucket list: yes Classic Fighters was meant to be part of the trip but it didn’t work out this year unfortunately. Definitely to-do, along with Flying Legends.

Paul: the montage is just a clutch of video screen grabs so agree it does have the look of a screenshot! I shot really poor footage too, because for once I decided to experience it in the moment, rather than in the edit back home…

Thanks for sharing these Charl. I spent many happy days down there over a number of years in my twenties before children and education got in the way. You've brought back some fond memories for me - maybe I should install a glider into FSX and do some virtual ridge and thermal soaring back there again.

Well I was driven to the sim - my FS9 doesn't have photoreal coverage here, although I do have a superb Duo Discus with a built-in winch launch.
Vaguely remembering FSX did better, I scratched around and popped a screen:



Greg, you have NZSI? I'd like to see if it convinces more, maybe a screen please?
Perhaps I'll show Aerosoft some plastic money if it's good, and load that Discus HT talks about...

Great Pics Charl look's like a great experience .

Charl wrote:

QUOTE (Charl @ Mar 30 2013,3:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Greg, you have NZSI? I'd like to see if it convinces more, maybe a screen please?
Perhaps I'll show Aerosoft some plastic money if it's good, and load that Discus HT talks about...

Ok Charl, glad to help. The trouble is I can't stop at one screen shot . . . .

The last one is so you can set yours to the same settings for a more accurate comparison...

And to show how good the Aerosoft Discus is.....a few screenshots from me too.....





Hard though to get used to the very flat approach if you are used to powered aircraft, and also to remember to lead with a little rudder for the turns.

smooth landings.

happytraveller wrote:

QUOTE (happytraveller @ Mar 30 2013,9:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And to show how good the Aerosoft Discus is.....a few screenshots from me too.....

Hard though to get used to the very flat approach if you are used to powered aircraft, and also to remember to lead with a little rudder for the turns.

smooth landings.

Wow, at first I thought that this was real world. Must look into that a bit more closely. I relived some nice memories in today's virtual flight. I was most impressed how efficient the new machines are compared with what I was flying many years ago - I could stooge around for ages and not have to worry too much about getting back to the field. Lovely stuff!

And if anybody is thinking of really trying out gliding in FSX then have a look at this add-on :

http://www.luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/

so that you can enhance the ridge lift and thermals and get a more true to life FSX gliding experience.

smooth landings.

happytraveller wrote:

QUOTE (happytraveller @ Mar 31 2013,12:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And if anybody is thinking of really trying out gliding in FSX then have a look at this add-on :

http://www.luerkens.homepage.t-online.de/peter/

so that you can enhance the ridge lift and thermals and get a more true to life FSX gliding experience.

smooth landings.

Thanks for sharing, I had this years ago but had lost it. Downloading now.

Thanks for the pics guys, amazing you could replicate that shot, Greg!