MSFS2020 Soaring Thread

[thealx]

New KineticAssistant v0.14 with many features!

1. New installation method
   Opposite to past instructions, KineticAssistant folder should be extracted into Community. To save your settings, towplane records etc. first copy old version KineticAssistant folder into Community, rename it to touchingcloud-tools-kineticassistant, then extract installer archive content into Community with rewriting existing files. You can use addons linker or similar tool for semi-automatic installation. Built-in SimMarket launcher automatic update not supported yet (as KA is not really MSFS add-on), but possibility is under investigation.
   After launch, program check existence and version of KineticPanel. If it not installed, or outdated, you will see notification about automatic update – press Yes to install latest KineticPanel version.

2. Pilot and winch operator communication speech
   After winch launch initiated, pilot will request launch by spelling selected airspeed. Operator will confirm launch and rope slack. After release (or rope failure), pilot will name gained altitude in feet. Voice can be disabled or speech pack changed from settings, volume – with sounds slider.

3. Winch & towplane rope (KineticAssistant+ only)
   After winch launch started, winch vehicle will be inserted in selected range, rope will be connected to the glider CG point (DG808S, Discus2C, AS-33, LS4 has accurate coordinates), another end of the rope will be connected to the winch. Rope will bend when it lose tension, and straight when it pulling glider in full strength.

We are looking for volunteers for the voice command recording!
Preferably non-English speakers – you can use your own common phrases instead of default one to make MSFS gliding much more immersive. Voice commands available both for freeware and payware versions, so your time will help all of KineticAssistant users. Contact us if you are willing to help.

MSFS DG-808S glider & KineticAssistant+

[Aginor]

I just did a few short flights.

The voices and visible rope make this so much better, thanks @thealx !

Sadly I cannot see the birds anymore, not sure what I did wrong. I could see them in 0.13.x

[thealx]

yes, some visibility problems exists, mostly likely because birds are far away from the SimObject center (200-300m). issue under investigation.

[Aginor]

I flew from Füssen to the Zugspitze (highest mountain of Germany at almost 3000m) and back this week. That was a nice trip.

[Aginor]

It seems I forgot to post this flight as well.
I flew from Füssen to Friedrichshafen last week.

The Großer Alpsee near Immenstadt.

The birds from Kinetic Assistant.

More birds. Those are so cool.

The Bodensee. To the left is Austria, Germany is on the right.

Lindau. It is generally not recommended to fly over water in a glider but I still got my feet wet. I had plenty of altitude.

Friedrichshafen in sight.

Landing.

And down. The trip only took a bit more than an hour because the lift was so great.

[Aginor]

Today I did a nice little soaring flight in the USA.
My ride was the Discus 2c, loaded with 420lbs of water and a pilot that is just 20lbs lighter than the maximum pilot weight.

I took off (by winch) in Lodi Airpark, California (L53) and ended my flight in Spanish Springs, Nevada (N86). A total of 154 nautical miles. 2 hours and 36 minutes of flight time.
My chair is a bit old for such long flights.

Lodi is of course known for this great song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7iGxV6rt4

I was doing my best not to be stuck in Lodi again.

Since the API generated thermals of Kinetic Assistant don’t work here I used a weather preset that creates a lot of lift.

Quite some thick clouds though. In real life I’d feel uneasy to fly like this.

Headed north, past Sacramento.

My first waypoint. Folsom Prison. Next to it is the lake of the same name.

Good old Johnny Cash wrote a song about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeZRYhLDLeU

Of course I thought about the line “I’m stuck in Folson Prison and time keeps dragging on” so I checked my altimeter and made sure to get out of there with enough altitude.
The clouds were a bit worrying but I pushed on east.

The weather got worse. Great lift but dangerous.

Sadly at this point the game determined that I had crashed (not sure why, I didn’t have any noticable Gs on the plane and I was far from Vne).
I reloaded in the same position but used a slightly less aggressive weather setting, just enough to get some ridge lift going in the mountains.

Georgetown (E36), my last chance to divert before flying into the mountains.

From there I caught ridge lift where I could, and made my way east through the valleys.

Oxbow Reservoir.

Here I maneuvered myself into a dangerous situation. I was sure that I had enough altitude to cross that ridge. I was right, but barely.

Flying over Bunker Hill. The large lake down there is called Hell Hole Reservoir.

Further east and further up. Good lift but hardly a chance to land if anything goes wrong.

From 9000ft I can take my first look at Lake Tahoe.

I circled the Twin Peaks and then headed north.
For am moment I considered flying the 20nm over Lake Tahoe and make my way north on the other side, but I decided against it. That probably was a smart idea.

Near Tinker Knob I hopped the ridge and flew toward Truckee (KTRK). That cost me 600ft of altitude because of the down drafts.

A good look at Lake Tahoe as seen from the north.

I crossed the state border into Nevada, and again I climbed, as that next ridge near Mt. Rose is over 8000ft high again.

Incline Lake and the Mt.Rose Highway.

I got a bit stuck in those mountains, with too litlle altitude to fly back west and try another ridge, or push north and follow the Interstate 80 to Reno (which I had originally planned).
So I instead dumped my ballast, pushed east, and hoped that the mountains to the east of the city would provide enough lift to fly to my destination. Here is Washoe Lake.

Reno in sight. Of course I was thinking of Johnny Cash again: “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.”
I really didn’t want to divert to KRNO in a glider. No problem in the sim but imagine doing that in real life.

I caught some lift near Hidden Valley, but not nearly as much as I had hoped.

I did the math in my head and decided that I would make it to my destination even without lift, despite the wind. I was however not happy that I could not see that field I wanted to land on…

I eventually found it tough. Here I am on final, I arrived with a few hundred feet to spare.

And down. Whew. I am pretty sure that was my longest flight in a glider so far.

[Aginor]

Hey @thealx I have a question:

Is there something wrong with the API thermals in the USA or was I maybe just terribly unlucky so I found none during my flight? I checked https://thermal.kk7.ch/ and there should have been at least a few.

For such a flight it would be cool to add some random thermals to the sim after all. I seem to recall that we talked about that some time ago, is that still a possible feature?
(I understand of course that it might not be worth it if native thermals will be in MSFS soon)

[Lennyman]

wow love this! MSFS and gliding seem to be the perfect pair

[Aginor]

Yep.

Right now we are only scratching the surface, thanks to Kinetic Assistant and the handful usable freeware gliders.

As soon as they support lift natively in the weather system this will be magnificent, and since gliders are not too complex to model (systems wise) I expect quite a few nicely modeled payware ones to appear.

[thealx]

actually native thermals improved in SU9 - they still not very complex but at least lift appear during normal temperature (not only for +50 Celsius)

[Aginor]

Ooohh nice!

I have to try that next week.

[Leader98]

Do you guys fly your gliders with a stick (that seems to be the most authentic way) or with a yoke?
I have both controllers available and hope to get some free time to start flying gliders in MSFS2020.

[Aginor]

I fly with a stick. Side mounted though, F-16 style. I know only one real life glider that has that.

[Elby]

Sailplane pilots I’ve seen on YouTube use the usual, between the legs, little stick with the comms button on top and from what I’ve seen they’re a very sensitive thumb + index + ring finger affair. When I was flying Condor 2 I’d use my X52 with a light spring.

[Aginor]

Wooohooo!

I tried soaring with Sim Update 9 today, and it works! I made sure to set the weather to temperatures that are normal for summer (22°C), few clouds, no wind, disabled Kinetic Assistant’s thermals, and launched from Füssen.
Unlike when I usually fly there I avoided the mountains.

I headed for the next cumulus cloud, and right before I reached it I noticed a slight downdraft and a little bit of turbulence. But then immediately after that I got a positive indication on the vario, and I climbed the thermal until I reached the cloud base. The climb rate kept slowly increasing, I experienced up to around 2.5 m/s (480 fpm).

I tried a few other clouds and got roughly the same results. There are also smaller thermals, some below smaller clouds, some without any cloud near but those are weaker and smaller so they are hard to use in a Discus (and I am a terrible glider pilot).

I also tried ramping up the temperature a bit (30°C), and that did increase the strength of both the thermals below the clouds and the other ones. I now reached climb rates of up to 4.1 m/s (800 fpm).

I then tried Australia, near Ayers Rock, clear skies, and 40°C. I really didn’t need clouds there. It did vary a bit, but I had lift almost everywhere. I think it depends a bit on the ground, but I was too stoked to make a proper test flight. Maybe the dark ground rule already works? I have to test that.

The only thing I was a bit sad about is that the clouds don’t tug at you quite as strongly as I’d expect, especially when you fly very close or even inside them.

Anyway, that was fun! This soaring thing is coming together.

[NEVO]

@Aginor

normal for summer (22°C)

thought for a while that its writen by @Troll

sounds promising, need to try it myself. from time to time I made some soaring flight in XP11 and it was nice change of pace.

[Aginor]

@thealx btw is there are problem with the DG808 with the newest SimUpdate and/or Kinetic Assistant?
Every time I try to winch launch the sim says I crashed.

EDIT: seems to be an issue with the CG hook, when I use the nose hook it works. Might be coincidence though.

EDIT2: Ok there seems to be a bit more that is broken, the plane flies really weird.

[thealx]

weird, will check it out.

[thealx]

yep crash triggered with default KA settings, looks like they changed G force value calculation somehow. temporarily you can increase Winch initial acceleration value so launch will be smoother

[Aginor]

Ok, here we go. Sim Update 11 is released, and glider stuff is now in officially. So let’s take a look.

I flew for a few hours and tested a few things, and so far I really like it. Here’s a list of random thoughts for now:

• I love that there are different winch models, that the winch stays on the ground for a while after launch, and that there is really someone holding the wing. So immersive!

• I managed to take off only once with the tow plane, it keeps stopping on the runway. Not sure why.

• the winch auto release comes a tad early I think. But it is OK.

• I’d like to see adjustable cable lengths, but the default is fine I guess.

• I haven’t figured out how to control the tow plane yet

• I like the official thermals visualization. I flew parts of my flight using it to see where the sim spawns thermals, and it really is a great tool.

• maybe I am too good… (jk, I am a terrible glider pilot ) The thermals generated by some terrain features seem to be pretty strong.

• I haven’t really tried the thermals below cumulus clouds yet, my test flights were in the alps where you have plenty of ridge lift all the time.

• my old mod gliders (LS4, DG808 and Discus2b) don’t work with SU11 yet, as they are apparently missing a ‘glider’ flag that would allow the winch launch.

• I prefer the LS8. I am sure that the DG1001 is great as well, it just has a kinda ugly cockpit IMO.

• I cannot complain about how the gliders fly. They behave like gliders should as far as I can tell from the flying I did in them so far.
  Edit: Minor nitpick: I think the yaw should be a tad more sluggish, and the adverse yaw effect should be a bit more pronounced, but I haven’t flown those planes in real life so I cannot really tell.

• the modeling, textures, and sounds on the gliders are well done. The systems modeling is nothing to write home about, but decent.

• EDIT: the yaw string could move a bit more realistically. But that’s a minor thing.

• I think I have seen waves over the Alps, which would be AWESOME. Cannot confirm yet though.
  With a bit of a wind in the settings I reached 4000m though, might have to go a bit higher to really see if waves exist or not.

• next up: try flying near and into clouds.