I would like to train on a simulator before flying the Gentle Lady I am building now.

Does Real Flight have a similar pland (rudder and elevator only, 2 meter dihedral...

...and a hi-start launch?

...slope soaring?

See your other post. I don't double post.

Thank you Jeff. The question was moved from the simulator evaluation article to here as it best belongs as a separate post.

I really want to learn to fly the GL correctly, patiently, and am now building it slowly to get it right. Reading Buzzard's book, looking for someone to help me on the first several flights.

Meanwhile,

The Tower website lists these sailplanes as being supplied with the simulator:
Dynaflite Bird of Time
Great Planes Spirit 100
Mistral 3M
RF-97
Shuriken 60" Sloper
Great Planes Fling 2-Meter
Hawk

Would any of these be good to train on for flying the Gentle Lady? Are any of them non-powered? What methods can be used with the simulator to launch them?

No need to guess it's stolen software. It is.

Does Real Flight have a plane similar to the Gentle Lady (rudder and elevator only, 2 meter dihedral)...

...and a hi-start launch?

Looking at pictures and reading about the sailplanes offered, but from my limited knowledge, it looks like the Fling 2 meter is the only plane that might be close to the flying characteristics of the Gentle Lady.

Would the Fling 2 meter be a good plane to practice on? Does Real Flight offer a hi-start launch? How do the sailplanes get launched? Are there thermalling and soaring simulations?

The best R/C glider and soaring simulators are:

Commercial: Aerofly 5.7: http://www.aerofly.com/
Aerofly has slope soaring, dynamic soaring, winch launch soaring, and alpine soaring. Excellent graphics and many sceneries. Well worth the investment.

Free: PicaSim: http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/PicaSim/
PicaSim is mostly slope soaring and the flight dynamics are excellent - maybe the best out there, to be totally honest. Graphics are not as sexy but hey, IT'S FREE (as in beer). Very very good overall by any measure, and especially so considering its total cost of $0.00.

RealFlight has so-so slope soaring simulation but a very limited selection of gliders. Phoenix's so-called slope soaring simulation is basically unflyable. Don't bother. Reflex looks just "OK", very simmy flight model but pretty graphics. Clearview does not simulate any form of soaring as far as I know (and I own it). Long story short, the two above are the go-tos.

Video backing my claims:

Aerofly 5.7 - the best R/C glider simulator (0 min 0 sec)

Aerotowing to thermals in Aerofly 5.7 (0 min 0 sec)

Testing Le Fish in PicaSim R/C simulator (1 min 35 sec)

Intro to R/C Slope Aerobatics with PicaSim (16 min 41 sec)

Steve

Can't argue with videos. Obviously your statements go beyond opinion.

The Aerofly slopes scenes are beautiful, and it seems to be of highest quality design. I can see why it woud be the first choice for slope flying gliders. Looking at the mimimum system requirements, it seems to be more than a laptop can handle:

Minimum

- Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon64 compatible CPU with 2,4 GHz
- 1 GB of RAM
- DVD-ROM drive
- OpenGL Version 2.1 compatible 3D-graphics card from NVIDIA
or ATI with 256MB (at least as fast as NVIDIA 7600GT or ATI HD
3650)
- Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7

Does the disk need to be always inserted? Then netbooks with only external drives will require the drive to always be attached.

The gliders in the Aerofly demos at times were so far away I couldnt see them, so I wonder how you can fly them if you dont have any orientation?

Aerofly has an extended selection fo gliders but nothing with a polyhedral for beginners like a Gentle Lady.

I dont think they have a histart launch.

The Spirit 100 is not too far off from the Gentle Lady, if you leave the flaps and ailerons alone. Yes a hi-start launch is also available.

With RealFlight's ability to control turbulence, wind direction, speed and the specialized thermal sites; it makes for a very nice soaring simulator. It will also do slope and dynamic soaring.

Here are a couple of screen shots of a 100 on tow. One is at the Thermal Park 3D site that shows the thermal activity and one at a PhotoField.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Steve

Originally Posted by rwpeek

I would like to train on a simulator before flying the Gentle Lady I am building now.

Does Real Flight have a similar pland (rudder and elevator only, 2 meter dihedral...

...and a hi-start launch?

...slope soaring?

I was flying a bird of time and a spirit 100 today on RealFlight 6.5. Yes, it has a high start launch that you point and activate with your mouse. Point the mouse in the direction you want to launch and then click once to release. Then fly with the TX. It has 2 or 3 soaring selections in the field menu.

I just got this simulator 2 days ago, and I have not had a functioning simulator in about 5yrs. So take my opinion as a new user. I've been flying for 16yrs and have flown everything from trainers to 35% aerobatics to UAV's for private aerospace companies.

It works great! You can control wind speed with page up/page down on your keyboard. It displays on the bottom left corner as you adjust and goes away from view about 3 secs after you stop adjusting wind speed.

There are light shadows of little arrows in the sky that indicate wind direction.

I went into the bird of time settings and modified the weight of the fuselage and wings to make the glider weigh 8lbs 12oz. I was flying in a 10-20 mph wind coming up a moderate slope. I had to use quite a bit of down elevator to stop it from climbing, which would be exactly how a big flat bottom glider would fly in those kind of power conditions.

I slowed the wind speed down to 8mph and lightened the bird of time up to 4lbs. It was as gentle as one could ask for.

I also flew a hotliner that had a folding prop on the nose. Cranked the wind speed up to 25mph and ballasted the plane up to 10lbs. Launched it straight into the wind off the high start with a lot of down elevator and full throttle. It went straight out and got small in a hurry. I throttled down, turned back in, and rode the slope face for 45 minutes until the wife and kids got home.

I'm happy