DG Aviation LS8-18

All assists off and I still stick like glue until the towplane actually takes off. Until it’s fixed I’m sticking to the much better in almost all respects discus-2C. I can’t wait till the Wilga gets released, then I’m in glider heaven.

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The test is broken. Try trimming for 95kts. That’s where it works for me. smh

Read elswhere that the dial is a ground speed indicator

I filed as a bug report the low readability of speed indicator needle here:

And also for removal of this highly unconventional (probably mounted by the owner only in the single glider and nowhere else) horizontal flarm antenna obscuring the view: Remove Ls8-18 oversized unconventional flarm antenna

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volume button is top left of vario. turn anti-clockwise to reduce sound

The left wingtip, the stripes on the underside disappear at closer distances.
The right wingtip does not have stripes on the underside of the wing at any distance.

I never have any assists on let alone a glider launch assist. There is simply an error in the LS8. The DG1000 works as expected.

Which dial shows GS in a glider ?

It’s just what someone else said on here, I didn’t actually check but it did seem to be off in the basic handling trial so I took them at their word … anyhow having just gone back there now I can confirm it’s just a standard ASI.

Got it. The analogue dial is definitely a pneumatic ASI showing IAS. The digital vario also shows speed. The four values it shows, one of which is speed, can be individually configured. So in theory (although I would have to cross check the lx-nav V80 manual) it could be configured as GS, but then it would show GS next to it as it otherwise would be dangerous to get confused. I have mine V80 configured with IAS as I once had my analogue ASI failing and was happy to have an alternative. GS I have in the moving map display, mainly to see the wind effect.

Asobo simply made a mistake. Both the analogue and the digital should show exactly the same speeds, but they don’t.

Edit. Correction. Forget about what I wrote above. I just had a closer look. The V80 is indeed configured in the DG to not show IAS but TAS. So yes a difference in the values is expected. Personally I never used TAS for anything in gliding and my V80 is configured to IAS, but that might be a personal preference.

See here for IAS vs TAS

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As thermals are any gliders fuel and after long testing I can say with confidence that in SU11 glider pilot cannot use the most important visual cues - that is Cu clouds to find thermals (both in presets and live weather) I filed a bug report about it Incorrect spatial relations between thermals and Cu clouds makes realisic glider flights impossible

No matter how realistically modelled after fixes will official gliders be if the element in which they move behaves fundamentally incorrectly, so please support fixing thermals.

Just want to endorse this feedback.

Also why is there no option for ASI and mechanical vario to dispay in knots rather than Kph and m/s? We are not all flying in Europe!!

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Same here. As a RL glider pilot this characteristic is totally unrealistic. Needs to be fixed please.

I 100% agree the visual cues / streamlines are more misleading and wrong than useful. Actually I do better having them off. And yes I support / already voted to fix the thermals.

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The freeware Discus 2 let’s you switch between units. It’s currently the much better modeled glider anyway with regard to flight characteristics and other aspects eg realistically working spoilers. I only use this for gliding atm (actually it’s premium version as I think 15 bucks are more than worthwhile to support the devs)

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While there’s a bunch of great MSFS freeware/3rd-party gliders (disclaimer: I’ve worked on all of them) I do think this thread should be kept focussed on the LS8-18.

Asobo, FlightSim Studios and 3rd-party devs like me will see the genuinely useful feedback and you can be guaranteed one way or another the LS8-18 will be updated to improve just about everything that is reported. The great news is MSFS really does have a fantastic programming/modding capability and there’s nothing I’ve seen so far (like switchable units on instruments, tuning the varios, better nav, tweaking the flight model) that can’t be improved via mods. The only detail I’ve seen so far that would be tricky to fix unless Asobo update the model is the yawstring.

edit: by the way, the current stock gliders might have their flaws, but for a first release by the flightsim developer they really kick ■■■ compared to previous generations of flightsims and I really think we’re in good shape with the gliders. (Weather - not so much - but there I am breaking my own rule :slight_smile: )

B21

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Here’s another

I would also like to see a wind vane similar to the Discus.

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Cool. Thanks for your work.

Could you please also have a look into the DG1000 thread, a few of us gave quite detailed feedback and some of it applies to the LS8 too.

Thx

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Overall, I like the LS8 a lot, especially the launch options and the flight dynamics using the CFD, but I do think the map MFD in this new glider is a bit disappointing, especially compared to the Discus and the AS 33 me, both of which have very nice MFDs with a ton of options and data, including thermal history paths being drawn in along your previous flight path.

In the LS8, it seems like hardly any of the options are functional in the menu, such as the wind speed/direction reading, with most of them greyed out, and it doesn’t even show the multi-point routes I set up on the world-map before my flight, versus most other planes I’ve tried with a map display.

Hopefully, the map MFD can be brought up to par in future updates. In any case, though, thanks for a really fun pair of gliders. I’m definitely going to have a lot of fun flying them.

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The functionality is consistent with other default aircraft from Asobo. Not surprising.