Now that I’ve spent over an hour in the air over completely flat terrain with no ridge lift in sight I’ve confirmed for myself that there are indeed thermals in MSFS. Okay … it think it’s time to go all in and ditch the freeware version for the payware version of the Discus. I’m hooked!
I recommend gliding over Springfield, Missouri (3DW). A beautiful area with excellent photogrammetry. It had perfect weather today too! Some clouds and 6-7 knot wind.
Hi all,
Downloaded this addon yesterday but totally not into gliding to be honest. If I’m right it’s no longer needed to use the weather presets? If so: how do you spot/look for thermals? And what is a normal start altitude/release altitude?
In the beta I was over LA a few hours back and hit some nice thermals under the flat bottomed cumulus clouds, generally the wetter and darker the better however and not that I’ve noticed it in MSFS in clearer weather you would also look for small clouds that are just forming especially over dark ground such as newly ploughed fields and tarmac. Sunlit rock outcrops and built up areas can also be a very good thermal source as once up to temperature they tend to store heat longer into the evening. Then there is terrain, not only updrafts on the windward side but also under certain conditions there can be wave lift with peaks and troughs rather like huge ripples on a pond. Another good sign if you are lucky enough to spot them is soaring birds which was actually modelled in FSX, whether it’s true or not I can’t say but I’ve even heard of them perching or at least landing on a glider.
By the way I’m not a real life glider pilot but I really did little else in FSX, I expect a genuine flyer can elaborate much more than I ever can.
Personally I think the ‘as real as it gets’ plan might have to have a few compromises but nontheless they will always improve weather where they can unless it drastically breaks the other stuff.
Man gliding especially in the mountains is so much fun in this sim. Just finished a 1:32h flight in the Bavarian Alps with the FSE. This amazing plane combined with the scenery of MSFS really let’s time fly…
They are lined up for me as soon as SU10 is released. Logical changes in the way content is then handled in MSFS should make for a much more stable sim (but of course there could be chaos at first until things have settled down).
I already have those installed. Definitely a lot of fun to fly around antennas on mountain tops. One thing I have to say is a little bothering is the windmills that are scattered around in the alps. That’s not very realistic. But o well…
Fly closer to the windmills. If there is a real windmill in any of these places, you should see the actual windmill or at least it’s shadow baked into the ground textures. I found that pretty much all windmill locations that I checked are correct.
The size of the windmill might be off, though. There is a giant wind turbine farm near the Edwards AFB, for example, that uses the regular sized windmills, while it should be using much smaller windmill models. You can tell by looking at the ground textures.
Actually there are some misplaced windmills in the sim. In my hometown Kalmar, Sweden, (ESMQ) there is a pretty big windmill next to the runway that is not there in real life. So yes, they do exist.
I had to read that again for it to make sense At first I thought it was a farm of giant windmills but then you wrote they should be smaller. So it’s small windmills placed over a large area — I get it now
I had a look at this today! That is madness
If you wouldn’t have said it’s real I would have said it was a bug.
There must be over 1000? I’m surprised the turbulence from each doesn’t affect the efficiency of all the neighbouring ones. Thanks for sharing - nice to see weird stuff like this in the world!
I know it has been a while, but a new Discus-2c update will “hopefully” be released this week. This will become the “interim update” between SU10 and November’s official Glider Update. In November, we will be fully revamping the Discus-2c to be compatible with the Tow, Winch, Ground Crew, Ballast, Navigation, and Yawstring features Asobo brings to the table. With the exeption being that some of our custom features aren’t more robust. In the case that some of our features are more desired, we will work out a hybrid solution.
We will all have to wait and see what November brings us…
What you can expect on this new “interim update” will be the following:
Additions/Changes:
Major FPS/Performance Improvements
LOD Optimization
Fixed Compass and Animations
Added Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Much Improved Adverse Yaw
Much Improved Spoiler Drag Model
Fine Tuned Polar Curve
Better Icing Effects
VR Improvements and Collisions
Navigation Improvements
Removal/Vault:
Wing Light Removal (Will Revisit in Novemeber) This is due to Wingflex issues with the Lighting system. We will revisit in Novemeber with the new 3D Model Overhaul which includes new Wingflex Animations. This is a major overhaul update and we would rather ensure the new 3D model changes in November have an easier transfer in the future.
This update will be for both the Freeware and Payware versions.
Cheers! Apologies for the longer than usual delay. We have been working hard to convert the entire project to Asobo’s new Blender Plugin, fine tuning the new flight model to take advantage of SU10’s new weather system and preparing it for November’s new systems.
Thats great news!
Do you have any information/update regarding the fluctuating variometer due to turbulence? I would like to use live weather, as it works quite good now with SU10, but the dancing vario is really annoying
Okay … it think it’s time to go all in and ditch the freeware version for the payware version of the Discus. I’m hooked!
At first I thought it was a farm of giant windmills but then you wrote they should be smaller. So it’s small windmills placed over a large area — I get it now 
