Dave, Pete, and JD have been flying online Condor Multiplayer contests.  Pete has been active in this for some time, JD and Dave are just getting started.  If you aren't familiar with Condor, it is a downloadable glider simulator with a very active and dedicated world wide following.  You can find scenery landscapes, tasks, virtual badge challenges, and online multi-player contests - complete with glider crashes in thermals, gliders falling apart due to far exceeding the never-exceed speed (Vne), and the occasional meet up between glider and tree, and land-outs when you just can't get that next lift.  

Condor is fast becoming an established part of the glider training regimen.  It provides accurate input response and helps the student pilot perform tasks similar to real life flight helping develop and refine the skills required to fly safely and well.  

The SSA's monthly magazine Soaring has a column written in alternating months by Scott Manly and Frank Paynter.  There are plenty of good tips for how to use Condor in a variety of training situations - not only student training, but also annual safety refreshers, working on skills that may have atrophied over the winter, etc.  If you are considering glider training, getting a copy of Condor may be a good way to get some 'flight experience' before you take that first lesson or FAST flight.  Knowing the basics of aircraft control means you can focus more time on your control of the aircraft, instead of how the aircraft is controlled.  

Here are some resource sites for Condor.  Feel free to ask questions in the comments section or use one of the contact forms on our web site if you want more information about Condor, system setup, etc.

Condor site (purchase and download program, patches, plane packs, etc.) - www.condorsoaring.com/
Great resource site for scenery files, virtual badge flights, etc. - www.condor-club.eu
One of many good sites for online multi-player contests - they have some kind of race every night of the week.  www.gliderracing.com

-JD

Eric, Dave, Pete, and JD went to visit Tidewater Soaring Society.  They are a larger gliding club flying out of Garner.  Great day with a lot of lift, good people and a nice dinner with some of the TSS folks to close out the day.  

As usual, Eric was busy making sure Pete and I got flights in and got a late start to the day.  That said, he recorded a couple of 8kt rides and got up to 8,000'!  His OLC map is shown to the left.  150km over about 90 minutes of flight time.  Not too shabby!

JD and Eric had a short and largely uneventful flight, which is good in and of itself.  Pete and Eric took the TSS 2-33 up and were soon calling out '2-33 at 7,500'' on the radio with a quick response from one of the other pilots of 'Liar, that plane doesn't fly that high!'.  

JD had a second flight with Mike Hess in the TSS PW-6.  Mike worked the lower thermals for all they were worth, ending up getting into the good lift over about 4,000' and working that consistently between there and 6,000' taking in the sites from Windsor to Ivor and across the Western Branch Reservoir.   They clocked in a little over 70km.  

Dave also got a late start to the day, but ended up having a good time dragging 19LK across the Tidewater stomping grounds.  Up a bit east of Smithfield, then west almost to Ivor, and then to points south, Dave traveled almost 60km with speeds over 130km/h on final glide back to Garner.  

Thank you, TSS, for providing us with a great day of soaring and friendship!