Soaring Schools

Well, to get the best out of the practice, I believe Condor has a recommended equipment list for controls. A decent joystick and rudder peddles is recommended.
Yes, you can use the "twist" function on a lot of joysticks for rudder, but you lose a bit.
I will say (as a gamer as well as ex CFIG), you still lose a lot of "butt feel" on any PC based simulator. I have flown Condor, not a bad way to go, good controls to the PC make it better, but actually flying is best. But I will NOT discount using Condor as a tool.
Same goes for RC Soaring, you lose a lot of butt input, but the basics are the same.

On Friday, December 22, 2017 at 2:01:07 PM UTC-7, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
Well, to get the best out of the practice, I believe Condor has a recommended equipment list for controls. A decent joystick and rudder peddles is recommended.
Yes, you can use the "twist" function on a lot of joysticks for rudder, but you lose a bit.
I will say (as a gamer as well as ex CFIG), you still lose a lot of "butt feel" on any PC based simulator. I have flown Condor, not a bad way to go, good controls to the PC make it better, but actually flying is best. But I will NOT discount using Condor as a tool.
Same goes for RC Soaring, you lose a lot of butt input, but the basics are the same.

I've done quite a bit of RC soaring, particularly slope soaring. But I wouldn't expect that to substitute for any real flying. It may give experience in how lift works on a hillside, and how the basic controls work, but I expect them still to be quite different in many ways.

Do the Condor software and the Mach 0.1 simmulator work on a Mac, or just a PC?

On Friday, December 22, 2017 at 9:59:23 PM UTC-8, John Foster wrote:
On Friday, December 22, 2017 at 2:01:07 PM UTC-7, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
Well, to get the best out of the practice, I believe Condor has a recommended equipment list for controls. A decent joystick and rudder peddles is recommended.
Yes, you can use the "twist" function on a lot of joysticks for rudder, but you lose a bit.
I will say (as a gamer as well as ex CFIG), you still lose a lot of "butt feel" on any PC based simulator. I have flown Condor, not a bad way to go, good controls to the PC make it better, but actually flying is best. But I will NOT discount using Condor as a tool.
Same goes for RC Soaring, you lose a lot of butt input, but the basics are the same.

I've done quite a bit of RC soaring, particularly slope soaring. But I wouldn't expect that to substitute for any real flying. It may give experience in how lift works on a hillside, and how the basic controls work, but I expect them still to be quite different in many ways.

Do the Condor software and the Mach 0.1 simmulator work on a Mac, or just a PC?

Condor only runs on a PC. You can get a refurbished computer from Staples for around $200, to which you will need to add a $30 graphics card. A 24" monitor with speakers will run you another $125 or so.

The Mach 0.1 is just a USB input device. It has two USB cords that plug into the computer and is configured using Condor.

-Russell

On Saturday, December 23, 2017 at 10:13:09 AM UTC+3, wrote:
On Friday, December 22, 2017 at 9:59:23 PM UTC-8, John Foster wrote:
On Friday, December 22, 2017 at 2:01:07 PM UTC-7, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
Well, to get the best out of the practice, I believe Condor has a recommended equipment list for controls. A decent joystick and rudder peddles is recommended.
Yes, you can use the "twist" function on a lot of joysticks for rudder, but you lose a bit.
I will say (as a gamer as well as ex CFIG), you still lose a lot of "butt feel" on any PC based simulator. I have flown Condor, not a bad way to go, good controls to the PC make it better, but actually flying is best. But I will NOT discount using Condor as a tool.
Same goes for RC Soaring, you lose a lot of butt input, but the basics are the same.

I've done quite a bit of RC soaring, particularly slope soaring. But I wouldn't expect that to substitute for any real flying. It may give experience in how lift works on a hillside, and how the basic controls work, but I expect them still to be quite different in many ways.

Do the Condor software and the Mach 0.1 simmulator work on a Mac, or just a PC?

Condor only runs on a PC. You can get a refurbished computer from Staples for around $200, to which you will need to add a $30 graphics card. A 24" monitor with speakers will run you another $125 or so.

The Mach 0.1 is just a USB input device. It has two USB cords that plug into the computer and is configured using Condor.

-Russell

Condor says it needs 1+ GHz CPU. Anything from a Core2 Duo and up is more than enough. The graphics card is more important, and the cheapest one you can buy new today (or five years ago, if not 10) is fine.

It also runs very well in VMWare Player on an Intel Mac. For some reason the graphics were corrupted on Parallels last time I tried it (5 years ago maybe) though it otherwise ran great.

Rudder pedals would be good for those who are not already a pilot, to get used to using them, but I find a twist joystick to be fine.

On Saturday, December 23, 2017 at 1:13:09 AM UTC-6, wrote:
Condor only runs on a PC. You can get a refurbished computer from Staples for around $200, to which you will need to add a $30 graphics card. A 24" monitor with speakers will run you another $125 or so.

Since I prefer Linux/Mac, I've been practice-flying with the Silent Wings Soaring Simulator this winter:
http://www.silentwings.no/

It runs on Windows/Linux/MacOSX. It supports network play.

Silent Wings dedicated to soaring in a way that X-Plane 11 (which has towplane and thermalling as add-on features) do not. The towplane simulation is good enough that you can practice boxing the wake and slackline recoveries.

I have mostly good things to say about Silent Wings.

-Luke