FSX soaring around Omarama

[smithcorp]

Just few shots taken on a sunny afternoon over Omarama - the home of wave soaring.

No wave in FSX unless in missions, but you get thermals in free flight.

[ZK-Brock]

Cool shots Smithcorp, and welcome to the board

[Charl]

Cool shots Smithcorp, and welcome to the board

Ditto that - how about a few shots of the towplane/towrope?
I seem to remember that's a feature in FSX now?

[Timmo]

Is that Richie Mcaw flying

[Zöltuger]

i tried some gliding above omarama in FSX, didn't last too long tho.

[squirrel350]

LOL I tried gliding in FS9 the gliding part was alright but I turned away from the airport and lost a whole heap of altitude and ended up crashing when I tried to turn back for the airport hahahaha that was the first and last time I tried it.

[ardypilot]

Nice screenies Smithcorp- I went gliding a few years ago at Durey. It's great fun, those light sailplanes are very easy to control!

[ZK-MAT]

Nice pics mate. I quite like the serenity (ahh the serenity) of gliding

Welcome to the community !

[Jimmy]

Yeah there is a tow plane in fsx, its really neat cos if you dont flyproperly during the pull the rope can brake!

I dont like the thermal visilisation things, they really drop the fps...

Btw did you know its possible in fs9 to slew upto FL999 and then glide in the glider all the way back down with out overstressing your aircraft LOL!

[FlyingKiwi]

Awesome shots, that looks like a load of fun. Welcome to the forum too!

[smithcorp]

Thanks chaps for the welcome. I'll whack up some more shots including the tow plane (which strangely seems to keep flaps deployed during the tow).

At trolly - I'm going gliding near Sydney next week - I got the bug from FSX soaring!

[smithcorp]

Here's some more shots - different glider this time (ASK-13 I downloaded from fs-gliders).



Control-Shift-Y calls up the tow plane




Off the ground




Under tow




After a bit of inattention, I broke the tow




I'm pretty low, but can probably scratch to a thermal I can see to the south-west




Pretty plane, if old-fashioned




I'm in a strong thermal now - you can see the variometer registering 5m/s and I'm climbing nicely back up to 4,000




In this shot you can see the thermal schematic - the green spirals. They are useful to have, because you can't hunt for thermals under clouds like in real life




Back to about 6,000 feet before the thermal peters out. Time to head back to the strip while I have some altitude. Interestingly, I saw one thermal finish in the distance, and the green spiral disappeared




Downwind at Omarama, barelling along to lose height




...and touching down safely, spoilers out.

Hope you enjoyed them!

[Cbris]

What's wrong with the K13?

I did my first air tow solo in one, my first outfield landings and my first aerobatics lessons too. The 13 is a luvverly glider. VERY fond memories of the old gal.

BTW - you get wave in the alpine soaring mission. So if you can get it there, it must be programmable... I'm still considering this.

Happy Sunday!

[Charl]

Thanks for postimg those SC, been waiting 2 generations of MSFS for that, since Flight Unlimited II in fact...
Wouldn't it be cool if those green spiral jobbies could be found in RL, make it a heck of a lot less sweaty when you're boxed in at Drury by Big Apple Ardmore and dreadnought NZAA, with a 3,000ft cap and some distance to fly!

[Cbris]

Those spirals are visible in RW...

...sometimes.

Wear some good polarising sunglasses - you may see the columns of insects rising in the thermals. Over the right terrain of course. And RW birds are strangely more visible than the "natural" thermals in FSX

Yeah - I flew from Booker in UK with a 2000' cap (London TMA)... but only five miles to clear the area. Oh... and a ticking off from ATC for hitting a thermal over Booker and riding it a wee bit too long - about 200 feet too long

"Honest guv, I had my spoilers out and I wasn't spiralling...Cut me own froat if I was!"

[Charl]

In New Zealand, there are no insects.
And the birds are all flightless.

[Zöltuger]

In New Zealand, there are no insects.

we have the weta. but i suppose it's too big to be able to fly into a thermal.

i tried the gliding again, remembered to turn on the thermal visualisation. it's actually quite easy and it's a lot of fun. i travelled from omarama to land in queenstown, and i suspect if i had the patience i could have made it christchurch.

[Jimmy]

i suspect if i had the patience i could have made it christchurch.

Wouldl you have to have quite some altidude before gliding over the canturbury plains? If i'm correct in that you need hills for lift then youd have a hard time finding some over christchurch (apart from the port hills of course)......... Or can themals form on flat land too?

[towerguy]

no insects????? - get a part time job cleaning the aeroclub aircraft , you'll soon learn different.

and yes jimmy you can get thermals over flat land - thermals are created by the warming of the air above a body and it subsequently expanding, becoming less dense than the surrounding air and so rising. the heating can be created from just a slight difference ie two fields next to each other with different crops or a ploughed field or even the runway surrounded by grass - a classic example was when I controlled in NZGS - in the middle of summer you could have the whole airfield generating a thermal with the result that all thewindsocks pointed to the middle of the field and there was a tailwind on every runway!

[ardypilot]

Love your second batch Smithcorp- in fact you have really got me in the mood for gliding now. Expect some fs2004 screenies soon