Small experience:
Yesterday it was actually too windy on Maui for a relaxed glider flight. But the wind was favourable to take off from Hana Airport’s 8, in the aerotow. A quick thank you to the tow pilot for the successful launch and off I went. After a good 45 minutes, I decided to fly back to the airport. Some gusts and the crosswind demanded high concentration. But I was rewarded with a somewhat bumpy but successful landing. With the rest of the speed I aimed for a parking spot on the meadow and put the wing down in the grass before the asphalt.
A questionable view then opened up when I looked to the right. This was definitely not a college from the multiplayer mode.
Sometimes the AI pilots simply leave the field and the man in the tower gives up in frustration because nothing more comes after the request for permission to land. That makes me smile, but I’ve never seen one of the AI pilots put his crate on its head.
It must not have been a perfect landing. I just hope he wasn’t harmed, then at least it was a good landing.
I hope the Ai pilots take a few more flying lessons with Asobo.
Seriously, then: I think the AI planes for the aerotow
should take off and land correctly and everything that is necessary for radio communication is also part of it. Requesting a landing clearance and then disappearing into thin air is not the cleanest thing to do.
in addition, the AIs should know when a runway is too short, so that it cannot be selected for an A-tow. I also think that an aborted take-off with a sudden stop needs improvement.
After take-off there is always a short but hard descent, which has nothing to do with downwinds, because the glider reacts differently at the same point.
I think it’s great that you can take off at all, but I think it would be good if, after selecting the runway from which you want to take off, you could also specify an approximate destination to which you want to be pulled. It is often the case that the last few good metres are spent being pulled in the opposite direction, whereby you lose altitude again when you fly back.
So I been learning the glider first time in MSFS and to me the Aerotow is the stupidest thing imagineable and I was thinking this exact thing. That the f–ing pilot needs some lessons. ESPECIALLY #3.
The Aerotow has been remarkably consistent in the path it takes but it took me a while to discover that path or even realize it was a path. And it’s not just once but multiple times that the Aerotow decides to do a Torpedo Dive bomber maneuver and then pull out of it. I have NO F—ing clue why this is even necessary. It’s hard as hell as a 48x glide ratio aircraft to bob and weave through city streets and every time the Aerotow dives it makes my glider less stable and spend more time correcting all the instability than just following the freaking Aerotow.
I’ve never been so disappointed in MSFS before than when trying to fly the glider.
I don’t know how you stayed up for 45 minutes; I can’t find a single thermal most the time. I also take off out of Hawai’i for practice.
#4 is a brilliant point.
Set the flight path for the AI the same way you map waypoints for your initial setup in the world map.
Something very annoying is non-live weather patterns in game all operate the same in a single instance. So you can expect how they will move over time. When you’re practicing something that takes 30 minutes or an hour of take offs the weather pattern has moved.
But if you exit the instance to reset your departure runway…the weather pattern moves back to the start location.
Hello IDNEON,
In fact, you see very few gliders in multiplayer. In order to fly an unpowered glider for a longer period of time, you need knowledge of air movement and must be able to imagine it well in a given weather situation. If you fly in FS with live weather, it is just like in reality: not every weather is suitable for a good day of gliding. But you can change the weather in the FS. Therefore, a tip, even if this is not meant to be a lesson. For beginners, I recommend switching off the weather and setting the clear sky preset. Then you can optimally practise a winch launch or aerotow. You learn to steer the glider and to steer behind the aircraft on the aerotow. The FS also offers glider training at the flight school. I would practise that first until you get the hang of it. It has to fit really well.
Once you have successfully completed take-offs and landings during flights in the aerodrome traffic pattern, try to stay up with slope winds. To do this, set up some wind across a mountain slope at a desired location and try to stay up there. If you are successful there, which should not be difficult, the most difficult part comes: circling in the thermals. It is best to practise circling in artificial thermals without wind. So clear sky and then create thermal points with the help of the Kinetic Assistant and the thermal generator. Then you know where the thermals are and when you can circle well, it’s time for the real weather. When the weather is good in FS, I often fly for several hours and with a little practice you can get where you want to go without the engine, even if you can’t always plan the route in advance.
So have fun practising.
Regards Ralf
PS We have a common saying: No master has yet fallen from the sky. That means practise, practise and practise again.
Roter - I agree with most of your post. However a large part of the issue seems to be that areas that should have great thermals have none and then the tow is a crazy crap pilot so isn’t of much use in those more difficult areas where the great thermals are “just at the ridge”. And then the thermals disappear when you do manage to get to the ridge.
There could be a number of reasons for this - except I’ve definitely experienced the vanishing thermals in conditions I preset to generate decent thermals. (Tunder storms with different tested wind conditions etc).
The take-off/landings are fairly easy under the most ideal conditions. It’s when you change the location, particularly the elevation, that they become bat ■■■■ crazy. I just don’t think the tow is designed well enough? Again I’ll be testing more and seeing what I come up with.
I’m thinking of just getting a powered glider which is supposedly a better flight model anyway and that way I don’t have to rely on the tow which is “wonky”. An example of wonky is the tow literally flies through trees and buildings and other stuff because it doesn’t know they are there. All it knows is it’s over a flat surface with given wind conditions at sea level and then it overlays its flight path to avoid the localities AGL. I guarantee it.
I didn’t know that existed…perhaps I’ll get it to create some more realistic scenarios for myself to work with.
Where do you fly out of for soaring and what conditions so I can duplicate them for a reference point? That way I know how much of this is my own incompetence. Although disappearing thermals EVERY time…is a little hard to explain away as “incompetent”.
Even when I have great glide and can go some miles…I’ll get to a thermal and poof - gone.
You can search for both tools here in the forum, or
I created it online with my son back then. But please take some time for the manual.
I doubt if it’s more realistic. It was an emergency solution when the FS didn’t give anything in this direction. But you can learn quite well with it.
Unfortunately, you can totally forget about the graphic thermal display. it only works in extreme situations. It is normal for the display in your area to disappear, this does not change the situation. But it is inconvenient to ‘read’ for beginners. You also have to understand that thermals move with the wind, which also complicates things in live weather. So if you’ve climbed a bit, it’s possible that there’s nothing more to do at that point. You can’t describe it so easily in terms of complexity.
The where and when is not always easy. If you’re really serious about gliding, I’d be up for a few flying lessons. We could fly together with ‘yourcontrols’, or with 2 gliders side by side but which is not easy.
If you have Skype, look for RoterBaron63 there, like my name here in the forum. That’s exactly what I’m called in FS when I’m online. Unfortunately there is no chat there. Otherwise try as I suggested above.
See you in the Sky!
Ralf
I want to mention one more thing. When you have selected a glider in FS, some airfields will be marked with a turquoise colored star. These are designed for the glider start especially in Fs. Give it a try there.
But thanks for the insight. To be fair - I assumed the graphic thermal display was “concrete” and so when trying to confirm some things would rely upon that. I generally don’t like them and want to fly without them. It’s nice to know that they are utterly useless.
