Using Condor simulator to improve decision making

I am wondering what people think about using the Condor simulator to improve gliding and soaring decision making -- things like when to turn back given lift, weather, continuing to exploit lift along a ridge, and so on.

Does the simulator present enough varied challenges to help with this sort of thing which will transfer to real soaring.

I will need to purchase and set up a Windoz box to run this and isolate it on a subnet, so want to decide if it is likely worth the effort.

thanks.

On Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 11:48:32 AM UTC-7, wrote:
I am wondering what people think about using the Condor simulator to improve gliding and soaring decision making --

Our Club has the Mach 0.1 Condor Simulator. Directly to your question, here are a very few of the many many examples of how we use it for decision-making training:

Direction of wind sock before takeoff, excessive slack line during tow, releasing from tow when finding good thermals, using a parent in a simulated backseat to create distractions, situational awareness, calculating bingo altitudes, staying within glide distance of runways, cross-country advance or retreat decisions, etc..

Too many more to mention. The Mach 0.1 has been a good trainer for our Club.. It has especially been helpful for evaluating pre-solo students.

Raul Boerner

Hey Peter,

Short answer is yes with a couple caveats. You can fly the sim with the same mindset as in real life and train accordingly.

The main caveat is that the Condor weather model is more predictable than reality. This is especially the case when it comes to ridge soaring. While the Condor ridge model is very good, you can't take it too literally when it comes to local wind-flows, suppression and things like that.

So when it comes to things like final glides and ridge flying in real life, you have to give considerably more margin to account for the less predictable nature of the air.

But, using Condor to look at the terrain, think through the landing options, practice transitions, etc. is a very good way to train. It is an excellent tool to build your situational awareness. And for the most part, the weather model does a good job.

And it's fun!

All the best,
Daniel

Hi Peter,

a little while ago I tried to summarize the benefits and limitations of Condor as preparation for real life soaring. You might find it useful.

https://chessintheair.com/why-practice-with-condor/

It's fun. Go for it! I don't think you'll regret it.

Clemens

I have been a club instructor for about 45 years. I began using
Condor with club students and also for distance training for at least
15 years.

It is an efficient and economical way to teach the concepts needed
for safe soaring. There have been contest pilots over the last 20 or
so years here in the US who have used it during the winter to
prevent becoming rusty, and also to compete in online races for fun
and skill improvement. Frank Paynter was one such and he has
written a book about the subject. It is also a lot of fun, does not
require rigging and retrieving.

Comments here have been about Version 1; Version 2 is much
different and I still use both. but V 1 is slowly being phased out. The
second version is much better in many respects -- but not all.
The scenery is much better and covers larger space. There are not
yet nearly so many sceneries, but they are being posted weekly.
There are not nearly so many airports in the new sceneries and that
is unfortunate. The gliders are different - some better, some not so
good - especially the Blanik and I would have much preferred the
Super Blanik.

Tow rope length can be adjusted and some of the gliders have nose
hitches as well as cg hooks; no nose hooks in version 1.




At 18:48 23 November 2019, wrote:
I am wondering what people think about using the Condor
simulator to
improve gliding and soaring decision making -- things like when to
turn
back given lift, weather, continuing to exploit lift along a ridge, and
so
on.

Does the simulator present enough varied challenges to help with
this sort
of thing which will transfer to real soaring.

I will need to purchase and set up a Windoz box to run this and
isolate it
on a subnet, so want to decide if it is likely worth the effort.

thanks.

On Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 10:48:32 AM UTC-8, wrote:
I am wondering what people think about using the Condor simulator to improve gliding and soaring decision making -- things like when to turn back given lift, weather, continuing to exploit lift along a ridge, and so on.

Does the simulator present enough varied challenges to help with this sort of thing which will transfer to real soaring.

I will need to purchase and set up a Windoz box to run this and isolate it on a subnet, so want to decide if it is likely worth the effort.

thanks.

By decision making, I assume you are talking about reading the weather and selecting suitable landing fields. No simulator to date does an adequate job of either. There is no substitute for actually over-flying prospective fields and, then, inspecting the same fields from the ground. And cloud simulation is crude, at best.

Tom

On Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 1:48:32 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I am wondering what people think about using the Condor simulator to improve gliding and soaring decision making -- things like when to turn back given lift, weather, continuing to exploit lift along a ridge, and so on.

Does the simulator present enough varied challenges to help with this sort of thing which will transfer to real soaring.

I will need to purchase and set up a Windoz box to run this and isolate it on a subnet, so want to decide if it is likely worth the effort.

thanks.

Yes, except for certain aspects of landout. Here, I'm assuming you are talking about Condor2.

The negative is that the sceneries aren't fine-grained enough to show potholes, fences, telephone and powerline wires and such when doing landouts.

The positive is that, especially with Oculus Rift, it's amazingly realistic.

Ben