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Task 1


Peter Lürkens

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Hey folks,

this is not yet the competition announced but a first attempt to find out how an offline competition may work. Please try out the attached files and have fun, and tell about your experience.

best regards,

Peter

Results:

========

Pilot                           Try   Time      Speed      Glider               Class     DMSt-Index   Indexed Speed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter (FY,magenta)	        2    2:33:38   91.7 km/h  Discus B/Aerosoft   Standard      108          84.9 km/h

Bert  (VSORG, dark green)	2    2:38:14   89.3 km/h  DG808S-18/MS-SOAR     18m         120          74.4 km/h

Peter (FY,dark blue)	        1    2:43:04   86.6 km/h  Discus B/Aerosoft   Standard      108          80.2 km/h

Bert  (VSORG, light blue)	1    2:46:40   84.7 km/h  DG808S-18/MS-SOAR     18m         120          70.6 km/h


Task 1.jpg

Task 1.zip

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Hi Peter,

Maybe it is me, but after loading the task1-flight, the C4 in the Discus and the nav-screen (the instrument in the top- middle of the panel) in the SOAR DG are off and cannot be activated.

In the PDA (Discus) and GPS (SOAR DG) the flightplan is shown as loaded.

Also the view mode doesn't open in virtual mode, but in 2D-mode (the one in which you can only pan to fixed positions).

BTW: Is it allowed to use pause/unpause during the flight or must the ride be a non/stop flight to count in the "contest"?

Bert

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Hi Peter,

Well, here is the first score: 2:55:28 (aerotow-start and landing included). With default FSX-scenery, pretty nice though.

Navigated on the GPS (see my post before), so I didn't bother to round the turnpoints as tight as possible, I just flew around them with a wide arc.

Pretty though to pick the right thermals and maintain altitude.

Bert

VSORG_2009-09-15_0042 bruin.zip

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Maybe it is me, but after loading the task1-flight, the C4 in the Discus and the nav-screen (the instrument in the top- middle of the panel) in the SOAR DG are off and cannot be activated.

In the PDA (Discus) and GPS (SOAR DG) the flightplan is shown as loaded.

Also the view mode doesn't open in virtual mode, but in 2D-mode (the one in which you can only pan to fixed positions).

BTW: Is it allowed to use pause/unpause during the flight or must the ride be a non/stop flight to count in the "contest"?

hi Bert,

it´s probably the battery/avionics switch, what is wrong.

Pausing should be allowed this time. 3 hrs is quite something.

best regards,

Peter

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Yep, I checked the task1.flt file and in the section [system.0] the first line is batteryswitch=FALSE.

When I change that line to batteryswitch=TRUE, the nav instuments are working. Thanks for the hint.

Bert

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Congrats Peter,

You beated me on speed as well as on effective thermalling. I need more practicing.

Analyzing both tracks tells me a recordtime of 2:30:00 should be possible, don't you think?

Have a beer on my account,

Bert

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Hi Bert,

I was surprised about the difference in average climb, indeed. Then I flew consequently MC 2.0 and 3.0 in final glide, full of water. Well, knowing that outlanding wouldn't be an issue helps a lot B) . In reality the actual distance between thermals would have been to long to do this. The mistake at Hinterweiler has cost me 15 minutes at least.

I got the idea, that, currently, appearance of clouds does not reflect the strength, suppose I'm going to put this on my AP list.

This was my third attempt, first landed out, second finished at EDRK because too low for reaching thermals beyond Rhine.

As in reality, pilots coming after can learn from the results of those who are starting first because thermal situation remains the same for all. Maybe one should keep results confidential, or allow a limited number of "upgrades".

Looking forward to more competitors.

Cheers,

Peter

PS: Thanks for the beer. :)

PS2: I calculated from the published Discus polar @50kg/m^2 a minimum time of 1:58 at MC 2.0. DG should be even faster but MC 2.0 does no longer fit within 200 km/h.

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Hi Peter,

I hope to fly this race next week. I Have been bombed for the last three weeks trying to get everything outside buttoned up for winter. we live in the sub arctic and winter comes early and hard here. There is already snow on the hills around us and we will get snow here any day now. -40 degree F. weather can hit us in October.

Don

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Hi Peter,

I did a refly with an about 6 minutes better time. Does that count?

Bert

Hi Bert,

we're trying out, so don't bother. It's on purpose that we hit on all questionable conditions, to find out how to handle them once we're going for a serious contest.

After all it challenges me to make another try, too.

best regards,

Peter

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I've made a mission out of these FLT/WX/PLN files which is working like a charm *but* I am really struggling to even get around the first turnpoint to test it completely :blush:.

I get a few Cu's near the start, and on the most recent attempt I climbed into the Cu to 6600 feet (2200 meters) but from 30km before TP1 the sky is blue (no Cu's) so the flight becomes guesswork. Cx Debug window is saying 11:40 solar time, 2.89 thermal energy, 65 thermals active, and if I 'UnBlue' quite a few new Cu's appear although they're still sufficiently sparse that you would fly to *every* Cu to stand a chance of staying in the air.

The Task1.cmx file is in the same folder as the .FLT file (i.e. the mission folder) and Cx hides the UI window until I click the only FSX Cx menu item 'Unlock Cx, so does that seem correct?'

Am I missing anything, or are you guys flying on 'UnBlue' or with spiral thermals... ??

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I get a few Cu's near the start, and on the most recent attempt I climbed into the Cu to 6600 feet (2200 meters) but from 30km before TP1 the sky is blue (no Cu's) so the flight becomes guesswork. Cx Debug window is saying 11:40 solar time, 2.89 thermal energy, 65 thermals active, and if I 'UnBlue' quite a few new Cu's appear although they're still sufficiently sparse that you would fly to *every* Cu to stand a chance of staying in the air.

Basically it seems ok, however you should have clouds more to the West rather than on the straight line between start and TP1. South of EDKA there's a lot of forest which have less thermals in the beginning. Indeed, it's actually a bit more sparse than I intended initially, but that's also one of the ideas behind it, that you simply set up a coarse weather condition and let CumulusX! decide the rest. That keeps the course also interesting for its designer himself. Initially I had even set up an area with no thermals at all, by defining a stratus layer at WX station Mendig, and so obligating the pilot to circumvent it. This didn't work at all, because FSX' contiguous weather areas are too large.

The Task1.cmx file is in the same folder as the .FLT file (i.e. the mission folder) and Cx hides the UI window until I click the only FSX Cx menu item 'Unlock Cx, so does that seem correct?'

That's correct, although it's currently not verified, that the UI stays locked. This will change when your logger tracks the session code.

Am I missing anything, or are you guys flying on 'UnBlue' or with spiral thermals... ??

Of course not!!! :rolleyes: At least I didn't and I suppose Bert didn't either.

My learnings so far: course is too long for simming (better ~1:30), and thermals should be a bit more dense. In addition FSX cumulus clouds coverage should be somewhat higher, which would reduce blue areas in between. Then starting window is too early, in view of the length of the course.

Anyway it's doable, but you have to be careful. I landed out three times meanwhile, because of pushing too hard. I'll give it another one this evening or tomorrow.

Cheers, Peter

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ok thanks Peter...

I've found with my missions most pilots prefer a good race round (as in real life...) the Task1 thermals are currently so sparse I glid for 30 km (to TP1) in the blue without a sniff of lift. If you tweak the Wx / cmx I can incorporate it into the mission, or leave it to me and you can think about the next one...

I dug out my 'mission template system' and it was quite quick to translate your FLT/WX/PLN into a mission. I changed the start to in-the-air at 12:50pm, rather than on the ground at noon but left the Wx the same.

** edit ** my suggestion is to leave me to mess around with the Wx/cmx values and post up a mission for Task 1, and you can more usefully think about another task while we see what we like/don't like about the mission translation.

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Am I missing anything, or are you guys flying on 'UnBlue' or with spiral thermals... ??

Are you accusing me of cheating now that my conservative way of soaring finally pays off? :D

The course to waypont one is indeed rather thermal-less. In fact the whole course is, if you just fly straight forward from waypoint to waypoint. A little looking to the right and the left for thermals makes it doable though, and I really enjoyed the parts of the track where it came down to finding the right path to keep on going rather than just racing straight forward.

Bert

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Looks cool, indeed. However, I hope that it will be not mistaken as a RL glider flight. The German glider people have become quite critical on that since the days of Ernst Gernot Peter.

When I made the old FS9 Cumulus! I was easily able to distinguish it from an RL baro, but it's no longer the case with FSX and Cx!. Maybe RL gliding hast to get back to photographs for the Doc's?

best regards,

Peter

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Maybe RL gliding hast to get back to photographs for the Doc's?

LOL maybe - you could pump the NMEA output from the PC while flying FSX into a RL glider logger. My update of the FSX igc logger (current planned name: igc_logger) will have a checksum so you won't be able to mess with it, and I'll checksum the cx settings file if it exists too.

Re Task 1, I'm experimenting with the Cx settings but I can't see how to stop the sky going blue after a few minutes flying from the start at 12:50pm.

Here's my view (in triplehead2go widescreen goodness):

post-17895-125404907736_thumb.jpg

And here's what I see with 'UnBlue' checked:

post-17895-12540494018_thumb.jpg

If I want a mission without blue thermals, is there a way I can stop it happening. I've already reduced 'probability of an inversion' to zero...

B21

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Re Task 1, I'm experimenting with the Cx settings but I can't see how to stop the sky going blue after a few minutes flying from the start at 12:50pm.

If I want a mission without blue thermals, is there a way I can stop it happening. I've already reduced 'probability of an inversion' to zero...

Hi Ian,

inversion layer doesn't matter. You can raise the cumulus cloud coverage in weather settings to 5/8 at least, which will work, though being a bit too cloudy.

best regards,

Peter

PS: Gorgeous view!

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my problem solved... I'd previously (months ago) been scaling back the FSX weather graphics settings (e.g. cloud detail -> simple) to the extent that *no* Cu's were drawing regardless of the Cu density in the current weather.... E.g. I changed the weather to "7/8 Broken" and still got a blue sky. But clicking 'defaults' on the weather graphics settings page flipped everything back to something sensible and lo, the clouds appear.

I see on Task 1 Wx the weather at the station near TP2 is set to 'stratus' which I guess stops the Cx thermals.

B21

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I'd previously (months ago) been scaling back the FSX weather graphics settings (e.g. cloud detail -> simple) to the extent that *no* Cu's were drawing regardless of the Cu density in the current weather.... E.g. I changed the weather to "7/8 Broken" and still got a blue sky. But clicking 'defaults' on the weather graphics settings page flipped everything back to something sensible and lo, the clouds appear.

That affects the FSX clouds but not those of CumulusX!, which are only depending on the retrieved METAR, but not on FSX visuals.

I see on Task 1 Wx the weather at the station near TP2 is set to 'stratus' which I guess stops the Cx thermals.

Indeed, but this is a bug. I was playing with that to get a poor thermal area (Mendig and around is notorious in RL), but was sure to have it reset, before packing the task. Now I found out that you must leave the WX dialog entirely each time you make a change, to apply it safely. If you do several in sequence, some of them might get lost.

OK, now the task has become somewhat more difficult then expected, but that's as in RL, isn't it?

regards,

Peter

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