Welcome fellow glider pilots!
At last we have official place for MSFS gliding community to share their passion and grow!
I’ll update this post with up to date information about state of gliding in MSFS.
I’d like to present in this post most important information for new people interested in gliding in MSFS.
1. Pointers to current MSFS gliding communities:
-
Facebook group “MS Flight Simulator Gliders” - Redirecting... - over 1600 members, lots of useful information.
-
Discord groups:
- Sim Soaring Club - Sim Soaring Club - organizer of periodic online flights
- Got Gravel - Sim Soaring Club - makers of Discus 2c freeware/payware glider and Wilga tow plane
- ALBATROSS racing - ALBATROSS Racing add on for glider racing and makers of DG808 glider
2. Websites:
- https://msfs.touching.cloud/ - home of useful tools like Kinectic Assistant
3. Periodic community glider flights:
- Announcements of Sim Soaring group flights are posted here: [GLIDERS] Sim Soaring Club - Weekly Group Flights and directly at discord: Sim Soaring Club - more then 20 people regularly perform online flights
- [more to be documented…]
4. Learning materials
- Ian Lewis’ YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@b21-soaring - introductory videos on learning to fly gliders in MSFS
- Discord Sim Soaring Club knowledge-base channel: Discord
- Twitch - Official MSFS gliders introduction video on Twitch
- Official flight manual of gliders
5. Unofficial gliders
Please note that both official gliders (Ls8-18 and DG-1001) have still unfixed bug that results in incorrect vario readings (fake lift/ fake sink) when flying in windy weather - described at DG-1001/Ls8-18 very incorrect vario readings when circling in wind
so as of SU12 most people fly unofficial gliders that have correct instruments and also have better flight model (for example correct behaviour during take off) then the official ones, they are developed by dedicated, passionate people.
- Premium version of Discus 2c - available in official Marketplace and also at https://flightsim.to/product/discus-2c-premium
- Freeware Discus 2c - https://flightsim.to/file/25518/discus-2c-glider
- DG 808 - https://flightsim.to/file/30384/dg-flugzeugbau-dg-808s
- As 33 me - https://flightsim.to/file/15090/as-33-me
- Ls4 - https://flightsim.to/file/27986/rolladen-schneider-ls4
- K7 - https://flightsim.to/file/34815/schleicher-k7-glider
- [New! 2023-05-07] Slingsby T31 - https://flightsim.to/file/54649/slingsby-t-31-tandem-tutor
- [New! 2023-06-03] Jonker JS3 Rapture - https://flightsim.to/file/56083/jonker-js3-rapture
- [New! 2023-12-24] SZD-30 Pirat - https://flightsim.to/file/64509/szd-30-pirat - freeware, but please consider donating to this young author, as he tries to collect money for ATPL license.
- SG38 - Cockspur SG38 Schulgleiter – Cockspur (payware)
- [New! 2024-09-05] ASK 21 - f7 Simulations ASK 21 for MSFS – iniBuilds Store (payware)
- More are in production: “Schleicher K8b”, “Schweizer SGS 2-33A” …
6. Additional tow planes
- PZL-104 Wilga - https://www.got-friends.com/products/wilga-35-80-series (payware)
- Please note that SU12 changes seem to made Wilga more often to fail to successfully tow glider - esp. with windy weather.
- Robin DR-400 Remo - https://flightsim.to/file/44834/robin-dr400-remo-i-itbb (freeware)
7. Useful addons/tools
- B21 Task Planner - site for preparing and replaying gliding flight task
- LXN online https://lxn2.web.app/ and LXN nav computer mods for gliders - JackBilbo · GitHub
- Kinectic Assistant - Kinetic Assistant - TouchingCloud - Microsoft Flight Simulator! [OFFICIAL MOD PAGE] (freeware/payware)
- Thermal Generator for Kinectic Assistant - Thermal Generator for Kinetic Assistant
- Note that thermals injected by KA are not native MSFS thermals so should be treated as legacy
8. State of weather model suitable for gliding
- Soaring Weather Presets - https://flightsim.to/file/56827/soaring-weather - good weather preset for thermal/ridge soaring - can be used as a starting point for your own more difficult or easier gliding presets.
As of SU12 the biggest obstacle in wide adoption of MSFS for gliding are fundamentaly wrong properties of current thermal model - making cross-country soaring far from typical real life experience.
Please see https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/incoming-soaring-feedback-on-the-su12-weather-update/576965/1
Marten, Project Manager of FlightSim Studio AG that worked on official gliders, in official Ms/Asobo SU11 glider introduction stream Twitch at 1:31:00 explained that a more realistic model is possible, but also asked for more feedback and support, so currently there are some bug reports and wishlist items to help improve thermal model you can read to understand current weather model limitations and discrepancies:
- Thermals, Up & Downdrafts - More Realism Updates
- Incorrect spatial relations between thermals and Cu clouds makes realistic glider flights impossible
- Errors of AMBIENT WIND Y dependencies on the values of flight conditions and terrain settings in SU11
- Too small distances between thermals suitable for gliding
- https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/will-ridge-lift-be-realistic-in-relation-to-height-of-the-ridge/552214
