Condor is the best gliding simulator available. Besides being a fun
alternative on rainy winter days condor may have real training
potential. The feel of competition and XC soaring is conveyed very
well in many aspects. The direct comparison to the people you are
flying against quickly show the high kost of useless circles or flying
poor lift. Beginners with condor competition experience will probably
be more aware of their real life mistakes and learn more quickly. The
MacReady theorie plays an important role in condor and therefore
offers an alternative training method to real life flying (It should
be kept in mind that the MacReady theorie plays a more important role
in condor than in real life).

To me the NMEA output of condor offers the highest training potential.
I use GPS_Log on my PDA and find it very helpful to be able to test
different settings with realistic input data. If you come across a
problem you can easily press pause and read up on it in the manual.
This has greatly raised my confidence in the data made available in
the PDA because I now now what the effect of different settings have
and do not get unexpected readings anymore.

Condor also has its limits. The pure feel and joy of flying will never
be simulated. The weather models are missing all the little subtleties
which make real life flying so interesting. One of the most beautiful
things in real life soaring is that you always see something new, no
two flights are ever the same. This is something condor is far from
being able to simulate.