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the number 1 reason all pilots should have glider experience is, it will make you a better pilot. a safer pilot. just about every 'miracle landing' (like the miracle on the hudson) were only possible due to the pilots having glider training. Skully would have splattered his plane into a densely populated neighborhood killing everyone if he trusted the towers directions over his glider pilots training. but furthermore, soaring will quickly become your favorite way to fly! case in point, I fly with freedoms wings international our founder seen in the vid, irv stobel holds 3 world records (747 transatlantic speed records) was the 2nd person to fly 'the worlds fastest plane' (f106 i think it is) he was the 1st to put on a space suite, and has flown everything from military to commercial, but nothing ever excited him like gliders did. soaring, is also the only kind of flying that will often have the pilot giggling and exclaiming 'this is awesome' again and again, even if they have flown gliders for 4 decades. soaring and gliding are pure flight, powered by the atmosphere itself. lets start off with a little bit of history. in the beginning, a man strapped some wings onto his back, and jumped off a hill, gliding only a few seconds, and landing just a short distance away. the next step in gliding begins the earliest history of flight, the wright brothers flyer was originaly designed to be just a glider, adding an engine to a plane was 1st thought of as nothing more then a gimmick. this led to the age of the primary glider, still used today in some flight training schools to teach the very basics of flight. launchesd off a mountain, and landing in a valley below, flight records were set, with flight times recorded in seconds. [ATTACH=CONFIG]214504[/ATTACH] these had a best glide slope less then that of a cessna with a failed engine. performance improved alot over the years with glide slopes improving from 4-1 to now 70-1 (best l/d or lift over drag with a 70 miles for every mile of altitude lost) but whats more important is sources of lift were discovered. [ATTACH=CONFIG]214505[/ATTACH] this marvel of modern engineering is the perlan 2 space glider built to explore the upper atmosphere (and test climate change effects without contaminating samples with exhausts) it has nearly reached 80,000 feet and is attempting to reach 90,000 ft, without using any fuel. So how do you turn gliding into soaring? by mastering the atmosphere, thats how. the atmosphere is fluidic, dynamic, in motion, and full of energy. solar: the sun heating the earth creates differential heating. when you fly beneath cumulus clouds you may feel a strong bump. these are thermals, gliders can circle in these rising columns of air and climb. diving faster through the sinking air, to fly long distances at fairly high speeds. wind: wind energy is used in 2 main ways. Ridge soaring when wind hits an object, like a mountain ridge, it has nowhere to go, but up. Ridge running is some of the most exciting, and beautiful ways to fly. ridge running uses the strong winds flowing over the mountains to race along at high speeds for great distances. There is no way to get the pure epic beauty from any other type of plane, not only do gliders give you the best unobstructed views of your surroundings, but the strongest lift, the blazing fast speeds, are found close up and personal with the most remote and beautiful mountainsw in the world. wave soaring when the winds striking a ridge, and the airmass is stable, and the wind speed increases with altitude, mountain waves form downwind, often several waves many miles apart, and far away from the source will form, these standing waves are theorized to go clear to the stratosphere. these are how gliders are able to fly higher then jets, without using fuel. these mountain waves are what the perlan 2 space glider uses to get above 78,000 feet. Competition gliding as a competitive sport has been around since flight has existed. Competition has been the primary driving force when it comes to advancements in aerodynamics and performance. Glider, or sailplane racing takes skill and courage. Even before the race starts, 40 or more gliders maybe circling together in a single thermal at close range in the pre race gaggle, each 1 trying to outclimb the rest to be in the best position for a fast start. then the race begins but thats not the only way to compete. Glider aerobatics raw powerless power and grace under g forces with g force limits up to 12 g's and extreme maneuverability glider aerobatics are not only graceful and beautiful, but a highly competitive sport all its own Soaring glider simulators the good the bad and the soso fsx yes fsx has soaring, if you add cumulusx for thermals and ridge lift. advantages: very few, except being able to soar the entire world (like everest) and sightseeing (like the taj mahal and pyramids) or if you want to blow off some steam cause a certain golfers always golfing where you fly, shutting down your airspace every single weekend disadvantages: tow characteristics are practically comical, 'real world weather' even with the expensive rex weather engine changes too drasticly too suddenly without any real reasons for it. (but you can try soaring hurricanes, which i have multiple times) flight charachteristics are barely realistic, never once was able to spin it. biggest disadvantage is even if you create a glider specific multiplayer channel, jets, are fascinated by gliders and wil keep buzzing you or trying to fly the ridges your flying and crash over and over...often crashing into you and that brings me to crashing, no matter what you do wrong you just get a message 'you have crashed' unlike the others where you might spin from 60,000 feet with 1 wing ripped off and still have realistic control over the crashing. condor 1 and condor 2 I will discuss both, but would recommend condor 2. condor 1 has thousands of user submitted sceneries with more added all the time so you can soar a big chunk of the world. condor 1 only has thermal and ridge lift, but is vastly superior to fsx in soaring weather generation. however the graphics and terrain detail level left room for improvement. flight and tow and winch launch characteristics are all very accurate, including tow plane prop wake, glider handling and performance. and realistic results from overspeeding (high speed flutter followed by loss of a wing) and excessive g forces enter condor 2, and the long awaited dream of realistic wave flights. condor 2 drasticly increases the terrain detail, ridge lift is even more accurately generated, and now, even mountain waves complete with lenticular clouds alow for altitude record attempts (many sceneries have records over 55,000 even 60,000 feet) advantages: highly accurate soaring, large community of competitive pilots, most real world glider pilots, from students using it as a training tool, to serious well known competition pilots using it to keep up proficiency during the off season, or just to compete in a virtual environment where taking risks has less catastrophic consequences. also includes a primary glider, and, an aerobatic 'swift' challenge yourself to intense competition against hundreds of pilots disadvantages: only runs on pc has fairly high vid card requirements (as you saw from the glitch in the 1 vid, solved by makings ome vid setting tweaks) silent wings silent wings alows competition against either real life pilots or ai pilots flight characteristics are pretty good, tow characteristics are excellent weather can be set to crazy unrealistic (like thermals to over 100,000 feet) it runs on pc linux and i think even mac advantages: cross platform - compete against ai disadvantages: extremely limited number of sceneries while condor has many hundreds maybe thousands (condor1 several hundred condor 2 more added all the time) silent wings might have 6-12 for simulators I highly recommend condor 2 especially if you fly gliders for real. its the most accurate and has the largest most active community with daily records altitude records, multiple concurrent competitions, from beginner to world class. As I implied in the beginning, EVERY PILOT SHOULD HAVE SOME GLIDER EXPERIENCE. If you think like a glider pilot you are a safer pilot at all times. soaring is also the ultimate green sport, as well as making you even more aware of what the airs doing around you. I hope i have managed to make you take a 2nd look at soaring as 1 of the most intense, exciting, (or peaceful) ways to fly.

I recorded this video long ago, mid 80's, to celebrate the Calistoga Glider Port in the Napa Valley. Me and my friends would either ride our bicycles the 25 miles from Napa to where Highway 29 turns east before the ascent of Mt. St. Helena. Although an extinct volcano, flight simmers or pilots know that deep in the earth, the heat from that volcanic area created the Geysers Power Plant, not very well known among alternative energy solutions. Enjoy the Video - if it gets boring, go forward, it gets pretty interesting towards the middle and the end, no spoilers though... :pilot: