Soaring Simulator Training and Competiton

Excellent use of technology.
There was an article a year or so ago in S+G about soloing a student
in an AS-K21 with something unbelievable, perhaps four flights. This
was a after he had trained in a simulator, built around the front
fuselage of a two seat glider procured from a wreck. I believe Condor
was the software.
The student can be allowed to see what happens in bad situations
such as getting on the back side of the ridge or low on final.
The "animated white board" as Bill put it.
Jim

On Feb 2, 8:50*pm, JS wrote:
Excellent use of technology.
* There was an article a year or so ago in S+G about soloing a student
in an AS-K21 with something unbelievable, perhaps four flights. This
was a after he had trained in a simulator, built around the front
fuselage of a two seat glider procured from a wreck. I believe Condor
was the software.
* The student can be allowed to see what happens in bad situations
such as getting on the back side of the ridge or low on final.
The "animated white board" as Bill put it.
Jim

I'll have to dig out the article. The approach was to do all the
primary
instruction in the simulator. This was a full-up cockpit surrounded
by
large projection screens, so it resembled the large trainers used by
the military and airlines (without the moving platform though). The
student
was taken all the way through solo on the simulator. Then, teaching
the student to fly a real glider was more like transition training.
However,
there is a minimum of 20 flights required to solo in the UK, so that
was
mostly burned off doing pattern flights in a motorglider. Only about
4
flights were required in an actual G103 to solo the student -- a high
flight
to review tow and airwork, a couple of pattern flights to nail the
landing,
and a rope break I think. As a comparison I've soloed someone in as
few
as 6 flights (they were an experienced airline pilot (and fairly
young))
and almost soloed someone in 4 flights (who had a career instructing
on carrier decks), and know someone who soloed in 3 flights (an
astronaut).

The simulator that the BGA built cost something around $10K, which
is approaching what a basic trainer can cost (L13, K7, 2-33).
However,
you skip all that annual cost for insurance, tie downs, maintenance,
etc.
I think it would be great for our club, except that we don't really
have a place
to keep it (we live at a public airport and only have a storage shed
to ourselves).

I have seen several students come from a self-taught simulator
background
over the years. They often make excellent pilots in the end, but we
have to
spend a fair amount of time building in the scan habit and getting
them to
coordinate their turns, compared with other students. The casual
simulator
user at home often doesn't spring for rudder pedals, since they're
quite
expensive. They use "auto-coordinate" or else use a twist grip, which
doesn't help when they get in the real plane. RC pilots often have
the
same trouble with coordination, but can wind up as superior pilots in
the end.

However, even with those limits Condor can seriously improve cross
country (especially contest) flying. I spent half a winter flying it
before
my second RL contest and improved from almost last place to 5th (in
a field of 25). It's a great way to practice what you have to do to
fly
fast -- thermal well, read the conditions to come, plan for them,
select the best lift, extend your glides, and fly a successful final
glide.
You also get to fly with some great pilots from around the world in
the
online contests -- the Hungarian national team spends the whole winter
flying them to keep their skills sharp.

I've also used the online contests to help our budding cross country
pilots
learn some of those skills. Normally they just get our bronze badge
class
plus some fox&hound coaching to learn, since we don't have a cross
country
capable two-place glider. Condor isn't quite a two-place setup
(unless you
build one of those simulators out of a wreck) but you can readily do
fox&hound from the comfort of your own home.

-- Matt