Soaring simulation software for training

I've written before about programs such as Sailors of the Sky and Condor, which are glider-specific PC-based flight simulators. Recently some instructors have described their experiences with students who have used Condor before or during their flight training. These students have required fewer flights before solo or testing for their PPG - sometimes quite significantly. PC-based simulation like Condor does not qualify as a "simulator" under the FAR's, and time on it cannot be logged, but it can be very helpful.

Our club Board decided to offer a Condor training environment to our student pilots. I donated a used PC of adequate power, another member donated a 21-inch monitor, and the Board funded the rest of the equipment and software. I did the purchasing, configuration, and installation. From concept to completion took about two months. Total cost to the club was about $450, since most of the hardware was donated.

We cleared out some dedicated space in our clubhouse, and bought a computer desk. The PC includes a force-feedback joystick, rudder pedals, and speakers. The force-feedback joystick allows some realistic aileron resistance, and provides a shaking warning to simulate pre-stall buffet. The rudder pedals are important to enable students to properly learn coordinated turns.

In addition to the basic Condor program, we got an add-on pack of gliders that includes a PW5. The basic Condor comes with scenery for Germany. I also found a scenery file for Colorado, but none for California. One of our club members is working on building one.

I made up a notebook with simple instructions for getting started with Condor, some next steps for more advanced students, and the Condor manual. Soon we'll demonstrate it to all student pilots.

We believe we are one of the first clubs in the U.S. to provide a dedicated soaring simulation station on site at our gliderport. We think it'll be a great benefit for students who may not want to invest in the hardware and software on their own. We're hoping our instructors will work simulation practice into the training curriculum.

I'd be interested in comments from other clubs who may have experience with the use of simulation in their flight training.

Steep turns

One of the requirements on the Practical Test Standard for the Commercial certificate is demonstration of steep turns. That means turns at a bank angle of up to 60 degrees. One trick that has been suggested to help gauge the angle of bank is to pick two screws on an instrument, diagonally opposite each other, and make them line up on the horizon. Using that measure, I realized some time ago that I usually don't bank very steeply, usually only up to 35-40 degrees even when thermalling. It just does not feel comfortable to bank more steeply.

So today that's what I planned to work on. Shortly after release I found a suitable thermal and intentionally banked steeper and steeper. I thought I remembered feeling that I would fall sideways toward the low wing, but that was not an issue today. This time I found two things that I needed to work on:

* The G force gets really noticeable beyond 45 degrees or so. If I recall correctly, it's 1.4 G at 45 deg, and 2.0 at 60 deg. When thermalling, we keep on circling for many turns, unlike when we turn just to change heading. So the G force is with us for a long time. Not a problem, but it takes some getting used to.

* I initially had some problems with speed control. In the PW5, at 60 deg, the optimal speed is 56 knots. It kept wanting to creep up to 62 kt or so, and it took a lot of effort to bring it back down. After some practice, I seemed to be more consistent.

After working a couple of thermals up to about 6800' MSL, I headed over to the hills to see if I could find some to take me higher. No luck - a lot of sink - and I ended up with just a 40-minute flight.


Earlier in the day, I spent some time briefing another pilot who's hoping to fly the PW5 soon. He's flown a single-seat glider a few times before, but it was quite a while ago. I recommended he work through Bob Wander's book "Transition to Single Seat Gliders", a terrific little book that really helps you get prepared in advance and suggests some maneuvers to practice in the air before your first landing.

Cloud streets and TVs

We've been getting some heat and tropical moisture influx for a few days, so I figured we might get some cumulus clouds to mark the lift... normally Hemet is so dry that all we get are "blue" thermals. There were big CU over the mountains, and the cloudbase there was maybe 9,000' MSL. There were CU and some lenticular-looking clouds all around the valley. My thermal forecast at trigger temperature (88F) was for lift to 6300' MSL. When I took off, the temp was 99F.

I came off tow at 4300' MSL and joined a thermal about 1000' under a 2-33. I worked that one up to 6000', and the 2-33 headed away, so I figured that was probably the top. Just a short distance away was a dark little cloud leading to a "cloud street" along the ridge north of the valley. I easily followed that over to the "S" ridge, which was pretty good because that ridge often has no lift working. I spotted a turkey vulture (TV)... and then a big flock of them, probably 15 to 20, all circling in lift. Sure enough, right under them, I found lift again. I worked that one up to 6300' MSL (and the TV's scattered).

With all this good lift, I would have liked to attack Mt. San Jacinto, but the peak was quite obscured by haze and clouds. Plus, my PDA / GPS had failed due to the heat, so I did not have glide calculations available electronically. If I was seriously planning to go to the mountain, I should have studied the distances and altitudes so I would have a good idea of my range, which I had not done.

So with plenty of altitude, I headed south across the valley, over the lowest foothills. As I mentioned, there were some lenticular-looking clouds in various places, and one was just ahead of me, so I thought I'd see if there really was any mountain wave lift working. It occasionally does work in the Hemet valley, but I have not encountered it yet. I went just adjacent to what looked like the leading edge of the lennie, but I was at least 1,000' lower than it, probably 2,000'. Either I was too low, or it really wasn't a lennie, or the wind was going the opposite direction, but I did not find either lift or sink near it. Not finding any meaningful lift there, I continued to the southeast corner of the valley, where I found yet another thermal to 6,000' MSL or higher.

Heading west along the hills north of Diamond Valley Lake, I found no lift and not much sink. I played with correlating the sink rate to the airspeed. (I really found no serious sink all day.) I went nearly to the town of Winchester, thereby completing a modified version of the "cross-country practice triangle" that we use, about a 30-mile flight path. I didn't find much more useful lift in that area, so I planned to land. The wind had picked up at ground level... AWOS said 12kt gusting to 20kt, with some really bumpy, turbulent lift at about 2,000' AGL. I did a pretty darn good crosswind landing after a 1 hour and 10 minute flight.

A very good soaring day! And guess what - I topped out at 6300' MSL, exactly what my forecast indicated (though for the 88F trigger temp, not the 99F actual temp).

Two dual flights

Today for whatever reason, no club instructor was available but three pre-solo students came out to the field unaware. I was planning to fly a Blanik because the PW5 is down for partial refinishing, and the Grob is away at Tehachapi. I'm not an instructor, but I'm studying to be one, so I offered to fly with them. Not as instructional flights, but at least to get in some practice and avoid wasting their day. I made it clear that the time was not loggable, and that we would split the tow fee. (One decided not to fly after all for minor medical reasons.) I looked at their logbooks to see where they are in their learning process. As PIC (responsible for the flight) and not an instructor, I planned to fly the takeoffs and landings.

Weather was favorable for thermals. While we were sitting waiting for the day to heat up, several dust devils rolled through the field. One of them picked up a whole bunch of yellow leaves from the ground and floated them up about 50 feet and dropped them on us. Crows were thermaling easily - time to get in the air!

1. R. is a teenage boy with about 8-10 flights so far. I flew the takeoff and tow (to just above the top of the inversion), and then turned it over to him. After flying around and losing some altitude, we got into a thermal and went up 1000', back to about the release altitude. I wasn't teaching him anything new, just letting him fly and giving some pointers on centering, speed in turns, and clearing his turns. When he didn't find more sustaining lift, I took it back and did the approach and landing (not one of my best) after a 43-minute flight.
   
   
2. S. is transitioning from power and has about 30 flights or so in gliders, including takeoffs and landings. I did the takeoff and then handed it over to him to fly the tow at about 800' AGL. Shortly we spotted a glider not far away, and about 1000' higher than us, so we hopped over to join him and found nice lift, up to about 8 knots at times. S. worked on centering the thermal and I gave him some pointers. Eventually we got up near the other ship and since I was not sure if S. has done many (or any) gaggles, I pointed out how to safely join the circle and keep him in sight. We gained 1500' in the process, way above release altitude.
   
   Eventually we topped out and went off in search of other lift. There was a visible convergence, so we tried to work that, and found quite a bit of zero sink - and then a lot of regular sink. He gave it back to me at about 1000' above the IP, and I did not find enough lift to rescue the flight, so we brought it back in and I landed it after a 37-minute flight.

So I got 1:20 of PIC time, some practice in flying and observing hands-off from the back seat, and flew for half price. And two students got to fly who otherwise would not have.

Club instruction operations

A reader wrote in a comment here about a frustrating club situation, and that our club's operation sounds a lot more productive for students. Here are some thoughts about what makes it work:

1. Club's stated purpose is to train students to fly. Most people who join are either starting from scratch, or adding on to a power certificate. Few people who already have their PPG join just to have access to club gliders, though some do. (Many buy their own gliders after getting their cert, but many don't.) So if a PPG is on the field on a Saturday, they're often helping with student operations as well as flying themselves. Four of us are working on our commercial and instructor ratings.
   
   
2. Multiple club gliders.
   
   • We have two Blanik trainers. Typically one is used by the instructor and student, and one is available for solo students or other pilots. If one is grounded for some reason, everyone pretty much accepts that the students have priority to use the one good one. When one Blanik got wrecked, our Board placed a high priority on buying another one ASAP.
     
     
   • We have one single-seat fiberglass PW5, which students can progress to after solo and before getting their PPG. Many don't, choosing to focus on the certificate first, but it is available. And most of the ground instruction (orientation) for the PW5 is conducted by PPG's, not instructors, 'cuz they're the most familiar with it. A CFIG has to sign off, but typically not much instructor time is used on these students.
     
     
   • We have a two-seat fiberglass Grob 103, which is the preferred ship for experienced PPG's to take pleasure flights and give passenger rides in. So when it's available, this keeps the Blaniks mostly available for students. Instructors have to train and sign off on this ship, so it does get student use. And if both Blaniks are down (rarely), the Grob becomes the trainer.
     
     
3. Multiple towplanes (sometimes) provided by an FBO. We don't have a towplane, we pay Sailplane Enterprises for each launch. They will run two and even three towplanes when the demand is there. But sometimes they don't have enough pilots, and sometimes 3 to 4 glass private ships push out at once, and SE reserves the right to cut in line if they have paying rides (to 10,000' !) or students, and there's another club on the field, so there can be long delays sometimes. Usually it's no more than 30 minutes, but sometimes... Rarely is there a line more than 4 gliders long.
   
   
4. Single instructor on Saturdays, but flexibility. When I started with the club, there were enough instructors that training was offered every Saturday and Sunday. We lost a few, so we cut back to only Saturdays. We have picked up more instructors, but I don't think they're willing to commit to twice as much work and resume a Sunday schedule. BUT... Sometimes two will come out on a Saturday. One of them is retired and instructs a couple of days during the week by appointment. One of them is a new instructor and comes out on Fridays. One of them is a commercial instructor and is able to make special arrangements. So... with our instructors' gracious flexibility, there's more instructing occuring than meets the Saturday student's eye. And as I mentioned, there are four CFIGs in the pipeline. If we all complete it, I bet we'll get back to Sunday instruction... or two instructors most Saturdays.
   
   Having the right student:instructor and student:glider ratio helps a lot. I suppose if there are just too many students, some will not get a chance to fly. I think we have about 8 active students, but not all show up every Saturday, so probably 5 or 6 need instructing, plus maybe a PPG checkride or something. If they all get through their turns, sometimes some will want to go again. So the instructor is busy from about 10:00 until 4 or 5:00... and they don't take long lunches or long breaks, 'cuz they want everyone to fly.
   
   
5. Efficiency. Everyone who's on the field is expected to help push out, push back, run equipment around, and basically keep things moving. It's not a long push from the landing zone back to the line. Students sign up for 1-hour blocks, and if they move it along, they can get two pattern tows in an hour, three if it's early and there's no wait. Way back when, SE offered a discount for pattern tows before 11:00. That's gone, but the idea of getting started early persists. If students are needing pattern work, they plan to do it in the morning. If they're working on thermaling, they plan for the afternoon. And there's peer pressure to be ready to go when your turn is up... and to be flexible if someone needs to go next for some reason. Although they sign up for a specific time, it rarely works out that way, and people are pretty nice about it.

It sounds like the main problem at the reader's field is towplane capacity (1) and balance (20 private ships and 1 instructor). I think he meant that the towplane is owned by the club. Reading between the lines of his note, it sounds like the club does not place emphasis on instructing. If instructing is their priority, maybe they could consider letting instructional flights cut in front of private launches. But if that's not their culture, then students may very well have to find other situations to get training at a reasonable pace.