Some newbie comments about Condor.

[arneh]

One day in April of this year, I climbed to 9500 feet MSL on low land terrain while one of our pilots managed to climb to 11500 feet above high plateaus. I noticed nothing similar with the Fayence model.

I don't think we disagree that much really. Cloud bases should be higher over higher terrain, and they will be too. Seeing it rise from 9500 to 11500 feet is certainly something you will see in Condor.
But it has to be real highlands of some size, where the base level is high to notice it. It's not enough to have a few high mountains in otherwise low terrain.

Just to test in a terrain where there are significant altitude differences, I tested just now in Peru. I set the weather for dew point 0°C and temperature 10°C. At sea level I got as expected a cloud base of 1200 meters. And with the same weather settings, inland in a valley, where the floor was at nearly 2000 meters, the cloud base was at 2900 meters.

[Moke]

2) On tow, I tend to overrun the tug (what is unrealistic) and I do have to open the airbrakes to keep control.

That's very strange. As far as i remember this is the first report of this "bug". Personally i never faced such behavior of the glider on tow.

3) I cannot control the glider with the rudder when on the ground. This is incorrect.

This behavior i also never observed.

Hi,

I purchased Condor version 1.14 about 3 weeks ago and definetely experience the problems described above. I'm running Windows XP SP2 and a Logitech G940 hardware system. I've tried every configuration so far I can think of both inside Condor 'Inputs' and inside Logitech's control panel. Often on tow the glider will veer off to the left and loop without any control inputs (all centered) and no wind factor. When I can leave the ground the rudders are extremely erratic. And yes, airbrakes need to be deployed during tow to not overrun the tow plane.

I bought Condor hoping to also use it's Flight Lesson modules but alas (and shame on me) the lessons have a bug (I understand due to the 1.14 update) and are erratic at best.

I'm a recently minted private pilot glider (RL) and have been so far dissappointed with Condor. Hoping for a better future.

Best Regards,
Mike

[Tima (TSD)]

Have you tried to assign controls to the mouse instead of joystick? If yes then do you have the same problems when flying on mouse or not?

[Moke]

Tima, Thanks for your interest.

I disconnected the Logitech G940 hardware system this morning and reverted to the defaul keyboard commands inside Condor for controlling the glider.

Sorry to say I experienced the same two problems previously mentioned . Erratic/uncontrollable rudder on ground and air, overrunning the tow plane and of course the Flight Lessons are still buggy.

Mike

[OXO]

Ok.

Rudder on ground - This only works if you lift the tail off the ground by pushing the stick forward. Be careful, because if there is a crosswind, the glider will then turn into wind.

It's never needed to use airbrakes to prevent overrunning the towplane. You can get into this situation, as in real life by getting too high on tow, then diving to get to the correct position. Even then it's almost impossible to catch the towplane, and all that will happen is the rope will break.

[Freebird]

Erratic/uncontrollable rudder on ground and air

Check that the joystick axis are the only ones assigned to flying controls, also its worth testing your joystick in Windows to make sure all inputs are smooth & not erratic.

What do you actually mean by overrunning the towplane? I don't think I could even intentionally do it.

Auto rudder on or off?

Also is it anything to do with the 'g940 reversal bug' (just found that one)

[Moke]

Erratic/uncontrollable rudder on ground and air

Check that the joystick axis are the only ones assigned to flying controls, also its worth testing your joystick in Windows to make sure all inputs are smooth & not erratic.

What do you actually mean by overrunning the towplane? I don't think I could even intentionally do it.

Auto rudder on or off?

Also is it anything to do with the 'g940 reversal bug' (just found that one)

Thanks everyone for your concern and helpful input.

I have checked that the Joystick axis are properly assigned, auto rudder off and I have the latest firmware installed for the G940 which was supposed to alleviate the reversal bug.

Regarding over running the tow plane: of course in RL there is considerable tension on the rope between tow plane and glider and it's quite difficult to over run the tow plane. (I never have) But not the case with the simulation. But in all fairness even SW performs better during aerotow with a bit of airbrake out to simulate tension and a real life feel.

The erratic, overly responsive rudder on the other hand is still my nemesis and am hoping to find the magic bullet.

I will continue to work with my system and the program and see if I can tweek/improve things further.

Thanks,
Mike

[kristoffer]

Erratic/uncontrollable rudder on ground and air

Check that the joystick axis are the only ones assigned to flying controls, also its worth testing your joystick in Windows to make sure all inputs are smooth & not erratic.

What do you actually mean by overrunning the towplane? I don't think I could even intentionally do it.

Auto rudder on or off?

Also is it anything to do with the 'g940 reversal bug' (just found that one)

Thanks everyone for your concern and helpful input.

I have checked that the Joystick axis are properly assigned, auto rudder off and I have the latest firmware installed for the G940 which was supposed to alleviate the reversal bug.

Regarding over running the tow plane: of course in RL there is considerable tension on the rope between tow plane and glider and it's quite difficult to over run the tow plane. (I never have) But not the case with the simulation. But in all fairness even SW performs better during aerotow with a bit of airbrake out to simulate tension and a real life feel.

The erratic, overly responsive rudder on the other hand is still my nemesis and am hoping to find the magic bullet.

I will continue to work with my system and the program and see if I can tweek/improve things further.

Thanks,
Mike

You can actually decide the sensitivity of your rudder yourself in Condor setup.
If this won't work, then there must be something strange with your pedals or your software.
Work with the "Pedals Force" slider and their ratio and non-linearity. Apply too much "Pedal Force Simulation" and your pedals will react almost like in "slow-motion" kinda way.
On my setup I have both force sliders all the way down and that works the best as the force is simulated in the hardware itself..
Good luck!

Me

[Andrzej Czop]

...The thermal model in Condor was developed by RL pilots with many thousands of hours thermal experience. Two of the pilots (also beta testers) are/were world and european gliding champions. We are very happy with the thermal model.

Who was it? - I have a few comments to them - maybe Santa Claus helps
1. Thermal are not inclined enough
2. Real clouds are much more different and Condor clouds don't give signals about lift strength, no altocumulus lenticularis
http://www.wolkenatlas.de/
3. Rain...
4. Strength of thermals random but in the whole scenery scale the same - no effects atmospheric front or highs and lows presure
others notices about weather
5. Wave - only one and only with steep and high walls
6. Ridge - to strong near steep walls, to weak on small gentle hills
7. Wind unrealistic on mountains (no rotors), no inversion efects, one direction independent of height and the same in the whole scenery.

I realize that it is hard to do, but there are people who are able to program it...

Regards
Andrzej

edit 4. - small notice - sometimes I see the difference, for example, yesterday MNS task but it is probably more apparent of terrain diversity

[OXO]

I will simply reply that thermals are not significantly inclined in rl. It's only a small amount due to wind shear, and that IS modelled.

[Andrzej Czop]

I will simply reply that thermals are not significantly inclined in rl. It's only a small amount due to wind shear, and that IS modelled.

right:
http://www.rcsoaring.com/docs/thermals_2006.pdf

[cirvingjohnson]

Hi All:
I am a newbie and have struggled with the G940 system but did not have the experience to realize that the pedal system was the cause of the problem. I finally dis-assembled the pedals and removed the centering spring. The result is that I can now follow the tug, but still not as stable as I would like. This is probably related to my poor skills. I don't know if other pedal systems have this problem, but I would not purchase this system again. At this point I would not know which other pedal system to choose. What is the best pedal system available?
Thanks for your comments.
Charles Johnson

[Freebird]

This what Andrzej Czop needs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gR8TPG- ... re=related Watch from 19 minutes with the 'exciting' bit at about 22:50

[jjmaloss]

I agree with OXO that in absence of wind shear on flat terrain, thermals are vertical: the wind is pushing uniformly the rising column.

[Olympia]

I think that is rubbish.

A thermal is created by a fixed ground source of heat -dark field, building, tarmac roadway, etc - it generally lasts for about twenty minutes in the UK. Watch a cumulus cloud form from a wisp to a tower and back to a wisp if you don't believe me. If there is a wind blowing the rising air will be blown down wind and the thermal will lean in that direction. As we all know (or ought to know!) a thermal entrains air at its base and this is what feeds it. On the way up it entrains more air (hence the 'burble' you get when entering) and gets bigger and often speeds up vertically. If the source is a good one, a series of thermals will be kicked off by it and a 'street' forms, drifting down wind from the source. Hence the technique known a 'dolphin-ing' where you don't turn but just slow up in each patch of lift. This would not be possible unless thermals behaved as I have described.

There are too many myths attached to flying as it is without adding a new one.