I'd also have a look at the Silent Wings simulator. It's got all the
features you mention (TrackIR, nmea output for PDAs, etc etc), and there's
a 2 week demo you can try out. Really brilliant, I bought it a couple of
months back.

There is already a huge Minden-based scenery included (also in the demo
version), and I've heard there is a Appalachian ridge scenery in the
works.. Maybe you can ask on the forum on the website! (www.silentwings.no)

Cheers,
pg


Doug Hoffman wrote:


TTaylor at cc.usu.edu wrote:
I wish one of the computer experts on the list would come up with a way
to replay IGC files in 3D on Google Earth similar to the 3d replay in
SeeYou or allow my to sit in a virtual cockpit and look around while
following the trace, and also build a flight simulation interface so I
can fly a plane or glider through it with three axis control. So far
for flight planning Google Earth is the best I have found for really
looking at terrain and evaluating the potential of ridge flights.

It looks like the pieces of what you want are falling into place.

Condor, the competition soaring simulator, already has your virtual
cockpit, 3-axis control, and is programmed to work very nicely with a
small head tracking device (TrackIR) that enables a surprisingly
natural-feeling way to "look around", side-to-side and up/down. The
Condor developers are working now on a scenery toolkit that should
allow you to re-create the virtual 3-D soaring location of anywhere you
wish. Release date of the latter TBD. The former is available now and
is a real kick.

Regards,

-Doug