Discus-2c Glider is available HU

[grunau_baby]

The Discus Glider is out on flightsim.to

It comes with an integrated winch-system and soaring weather presets. Amazing piece of work and finally an adequate glider experience within MSFS.

Regards
Alex

[Mario Donadon]

Wanted to know how to use the winch on it?

[grunau_baby]

Hi,

using the winch is a piece of cake: there´s a winch gauge in the center of the cockpit.

1. Press connect to get ready

2. Now you can chose the winch length (related to the airfield and runway) and the launch speed. Then you can simply press launch.

3. Now the glider is slewed forward and takes off. Don´t forget to get your gear up immediately, it produces quite some drag!!!

4. Now keep the glider in line with the "gyro" on the winch gauge to reach max release altitude. Then release. If you drift too far off, the winchline will snap/release beforehand.

And after some scenic mid range flights I can share some first experiences about the simulated soaring.

Since MSFS does not yet offer any proper thermal soaring - like e.g. FSX did - the provided weather presets do the trick. When in the air one should look for some larger towering cumulus clouds and fly beneath them. There´s thermal lift under there that will make you gain altitude easily. The "Cross County" settings are good for a first glimpse into the thermal effects.

However the MSFS flightmodel provides some limitations. When you want to leave the reach of the thermal lift to start a nice descent it feels like the lift won´t wear off. It keeps lifting you like an elevator and only suddenly and rather abruptly lets you go. But this addon is the closest what we´ve come to a simulated soaring experience within MSFS at the moment. Really great work from the developer and it´s freeware with absolute payware quallity.

Regards
Alex

[ftl818]

Just a remark on point three: 3. Now the glider is slewed forward and takes off. Don´t forget to get your gear up immediately, it produces quite some drag!!!

Taken from the real world gliding I have done many years: the checklist is (BOKS in Dutch)

1. Nose down after the cable release (manually or automatic) to pick up speed (Bijdrukken)
2. Detach cable (pull TWICE) to check that the cable is properly released. In case of a winch cable break or a a break of the metal strip at the parachute the parachute and the remainder of the cable is released (Ontkoppelen)
3. Check speedbrakes are closed (Kleppen)
4. Check speed (Snelheid)

Only now you should pull the gear up. In fact you cannot pull the gear up during the winch phase as the cg hook is mounted to the main wheel struts and folds away with the gear. Another risk is that after a cable break during the stress of the low altitude landing procedure you will forget to put the wheel down.

Also during a tow you should not pull the gear up. In case of an emergency you will forget to put the wheel down!

[grunau_baby]

Thanks for the real world hint! Simply noticed the heavy drag of the extended wheel within the simulated winch start. Just got smoother with the gear up.

But the checklist pocedure is plausible off course. Number 1 and 4 is cucial in the sim. I tried it out as described and it works

Alex

[Javis]

ftl818 said : "Taken from the real world gliding I have done many years: the checklist is (BOKS in Dutch)" ("quote message" doesn't seem to work ?....)

Thanks for the BOKS !

Where did you 'BOKS', ftl818 ?.. Here in the Netherlands maybe ?... Heemskerk maybe ? (loooong time ago) Do you know about the EZZC perhaps ?

@ All : does the tow plane option actually work ? If affirm how ?... We don't get to actually see it, do we ?...

And thanks for the tip, Alex ! Surely a wonderful rendition of the Discus, hopefully the first of the many ! (i'd love a virtual Schleicher ASK13 so i can relive my sailing days at Heemskerk ;-)

Thanks !

[grunau_baby]

Well the tow-button only activates the GPS-system within the winch-display (my third screenshot) for me. No towplane in sight nor functional as far as I see. But using a winch and thermalls to get going I personally find way more entertaining:-)

Hopefully we see many more gliders with this function, especially classic ones like the Rhönlerche (had an unfortunately short flight in a dutch one years ago) or (off course) a grunau-baby, etc.

Alex

[ftl818]

ftl818 said : "Taken from the real world gliding I have done many years: the checklist is (BOKS in Dutch)" ("quote message" doesn't seem to work ?....)

Thanks for the BOKS !

Where did you 'BOKS', ftl818 ?.. Here in the Netherlands maybe ?... Heemskerk maybe ? (loooong time ago) Do you know about the EZZC perhaps ?

@ All : does the tow plane option actually work ? If affirm how ?... We don't get to actually see it, do we ?...

And thanks for the tip, Alex ! Surely a wonderful rendition of the Discus, hopefully the first of the many ! (i'd love a virtual Schleicher ASK13 so i can relive my sailing days at Heemskerk ;-)

Thanks !

I was a member of the NIJAC, Malden, the Netherlands. After that the SF25 touring motorglider at EHHV

[Daube]

Thanks for creating a topic about that plane, I didn't notice that plane got released.
It looks so good it forced me to reinstall the freeware version of Kinetic Assistant, in order to get some thermals in the sim, in addition to the native ridge lifts.
I couldn't test that glider yet, though.

To those who use Kinetic Assistant: when you trigger the appearance of a tow plane, does it also turn (maybe into the wind?) instead of going straight on the runway when attempting to take off ?

[grunau_baby]

Just installed Kinetic Assistand to get rid of the lacking thermals and now the thermals seem more like they should. Butt will have to dig deeper into this tool however to get the most out of this.

When using a towplane via Kinetic Assistant, you can now simply use the tow-plane switch on the discus´ panel. The plane appears in front of you and takes you up. It does not fly a stupid straight line, but neatly tows you up in a circle pattern around the airfield. Switch the button again or pull the tow-release handle (yellow) to release.

[Daube]

Ah, that's great news. Thanks for that explanation

[Javis]

I was a member of the NIJAC, Malden, the Netherlands. After that the SF25 touring motorglider at EHHV

Ah! Ok, great !

I bet you wouldn't mind if someday a SF25 Falke would turn up in MSFS, wouldn't you. I wouldn't mind either, remarkable little twoseater !

[Javis]

Thanks, Alex !

I bought the payware version of Kinetic Assistant (Plus) (not installed/tried yet). Nice! I do like being towed upthere and now we get to see the plane as well. Fond reminiscence of FS9/FSX/P3D !

I understand it comes in handy with Carrier Ops as well. Great!

[Dimus]

This is a fantastic addon, just tried a simple winch launch and was able to soar for quite some time using the cross country preset and then come down in a series of loops and high-g turns. MSFS scenery is also the best to enjoy soaring. A big thumbs up to the creator.

[Daube]

I gave it a try tonight.
The button to summon a tow plane is in fact directly related to Kinetic Assistant. Unfortunately I faced the same issue as with the DG-808: the tow plane makes a 90° left turn during the first phase of the acceleration, then proceeds to go way too fast, causing a crash from stress....
I proceeded with a cable tow instead, but that one didn't go very high, so I ended up using the slew mode to gain altitude...

Excepted these problems, I have to say the plane was very enjoyable. It has a very nice gliding performance too.
However, the DG-808 that can be downloaded from the Kinetic Asssitant web page is a bit more enjoyable for me, since the pilot body is visible in the cockpit (with some nice thumb up animation upon start of towing ).

[grunau_baby]

Using the Kinetic Assistant + you can chose from 4 different towplane options withing "recorded flight track":

DA40-NG Asobo LEFT 3200 ft
DA40-NG Asobo RIGHT 3200 ft
DR400 Asobo front 1500 ft
Extra 330 Asobo LEFT 4000 ft

I noticed that with the Discus it is best to get the settings in KA panel and launch the tow process with the tow-button on the VC panel. Launching from the KA panel resulted in some oddities for me. At first I also found it hard to follow the towplane around without breaking the tow, but after some pratice it works pretty good.

The DG-808 is definetely my second favourite glider for now, but compared to the discus I find the controls a bit nervous. Using the KA thermalls and more windy weather it had a tendency to bounce up an down uncontrolably at times. Will look into that deeper, cause might be an issue between weather settings and KA functions.

The main gain KA offers for me are the thermall effects which are really usefull. Yesterday I managed a neat beautifull scenic flight after a winchstart from Rüdesheim (flightsim.to) using some thermals over the rhine to get to Koblenz. There I found a bigger thermal active area to get myself to an adequate altitude for further soaring along the Mosel river to Traben-Trarbach (flightsim.to). Had to use some small thermals over the Mosel to stay high enough on the way.

Ingame thermal simulation would off course be a perfect solution, but for now the addon functionallity KA offers is a big step forward for me. Also hoping there a more gliders like the Discus and the DG-808 to follow, cause the scenery quallity MSFS offers is simly perfect for a great soaring experience.

Regards
Alex

[YoYo]

I dont want to open new topic, something new on the glider's market was released (payware but 3Eu only)

https://cockspur.eu/product/dfs-sg38-schulgleiter

[grunau_baby]

Thanks für the HU. Have seen an original one in action on a local airshow some years ago.

Flying these basic things really looks like an adventure.

Alex

[grunau_baby]

Well, it does make up for a long flight, but it sure is fun. The integrated bungee/winch function is really usefull, but strangely interferes with the KA winch function. And off course it does not really make use of thermal effects a lot. A real training glider for first short hops.

A rather rudimentary flying experience IRL.

Alex

[YoYo]

Hi, I have a question about Kinetic Assistant software. Does it create any termals with the real weather (marked in MSFS), is it possible too?

[ak416]

It's been a while since I've used KA, so things may have changed since, but if I recall correctly, it places thermals in predetermined areas around the world. You can also place custom thermals. I don't think any of it interacts with live weather though.

Not long now until we have proper glider support so I've just been waiting for that.

[YoYo]

Ok, tested, with KA and without. KA (free version even) is obligatory for soaring in MSFS, still its not perfect and its not "Condor" soaring sim but its quite nice. Still to hot for me to fly in VR too but when a little cold days incoming I will do bigger trip and check it more carefully.
Im curious what SU11 will bring to us ("support gliders") in this subject. About KA - yes, it support real weather, now we havent "thermal" option (its on all the time I think) but they are hot spots, with kind of lifts I suppose.

[YoYo]

I did 2600m (with KA of course), this software is mandatory for now. Good fun and free of charge .

[YoYo]

Todays trip too, 1:24h in the air:

[ftl818]

Todays trip too, 1:24h in the air:

Nice! But pity that the thermals in KA are still static and predictable. In P3D and FSX I used CumulusX! that generated thermals depending on the terrain and the weather and even on the time of the day. That would be the way to go.

Paul