Sailplane Flight in Microsoft Flight Simulator

Video Transcript

DIXON GILLETTE: Welcome back to Expert Village, my name is Dixon Gillette and let's continue our tutorial on Microsoft Flight Simulator X. A sailplane pilot's best friend is the barometer. Here in this sailplane, we have an audio indicator that tells us whether we're flying and sinking or rising air. Essentially, you're going to hear a very low tone when you hear that your sailplane is actually sinking. Consequently, when you hear the beeps beeping in successive higher pitches, you know you flown into a rising air current. Your vertical speed indicator will also help you establish whether or not you are flying in sinking or rising air. Now, sailplanes stay aloft in one or two ways, they will search for thermals, which are essentially rising air currents which are typically found on very dark surfaces of the earth which the sun causes the air to warm itself and essentially a column of air will rise. A good way to spot this is actually right underneath a cumulus cloud that has the flat bottoms and they kinda have a puffy top. It's a pretty safe bet that there might be a thermo layer directly underneath these clouds. Another way to gain lift is by ridge soaring. When wind pushes up against a mountain face, it sends a column of air directly up, and you can essentially ride this air similar to how a surfer rides a wave. You can also have Microsoft Flight Simulator generate thermals for you by selecting the Settings tab and then selecting the Weather tab and then click Disable Weather Turbulence Effect. Here, you'll also be able to give yourself some helpful tips on how to spot your thermals either by finding a natural way to spot them or a schematic way in the sense where the thermals are indicated by giant green arrows rising out the sky. The natural way is it will assign birds or some other natural phenomenon that's much harder to spot but much more realistic.

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