screenshot by Scott "sf4JC" Frerking

Welcome to SOAR!!
An online community interested in virtual soaring in Microsoft Flight Sim,
real life soaring, and/or RC soaring!

For questions, suggestions, etc. about SOAR please contact
Don (general issues) or Karen (website related)

Updated 14th August 2011 - by Scott (sf4JC)

I have updated Wolfgang's aircraft, so they should be current as of today.
It must be the real life flying season, because the forums seem like they are at a
standstill.  Hope everybody is having or has had a wonderful summer.

Updated 15th July 2011 - by Scott (sf4JC)

I haven't updated the site for a couple months, so I'll try to get back on that.  Meanwhile, if
you haven't been to Wolfgang's site for a while, you may want to head on over to see all his
updates.  Seems as though he has been very busy the last 2 months.  Also, Max Roodveldt has
updated his CAISet gauges for FSX.  He reopened his site a while back at http://fszwever.nl/ ,
so please check it out for more of what he has been up to lately.

Updated 23rd February 2011 - by Scott (sf4JC)

There will be a FunFly/Contest themed around the "Qualifying GP 2010 - Switzerland"
held in August of last year.  There will be two scheduled race events for the weekend.  The first
will be on the 26th at 16:20 local (Switzerland) time, and the second will be on the 27th
at 16:20 local time.  For now, go to the Forum for more details as they are made public.

 Recent/Past Updates

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01/07/11 - Happy New Year to everyone!  If you haven't been to the forum for a while, you might want to keep
track of a few possible new developments with soaring in FSX.  Peter is hard at it with CumulusX!, in fact,
wave lift is almost within grasp it seems, so keep an eye out for that before the year is over.  And the
CAIset gauges may just get an official upgrade for FSX.  WOW! Great things to look forward to in 2011.

And now to updates.  First off, I want to let you know I haven't been as diligent as I had first hoped in
keeping you up to date with Wolfgang's aircraft.  Since October Wolfgang has updated his ASK 21 (CAIset version
in FSX) with the opening/closing of the front/back canopies separately.  The SZD Bocian has been compiled
for FSX and DirecX 10 Preview.  And the LS8-18 had a fix in the LNAV_polar.dat file.

And last, and certainly not least,
a Special THANKS goes out to Don & Karen for keeping this site going.

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10/01/10 - For those of you that still use FS98 or FS2000, the construction of Wolfgang's FS98/FS2000
aircraft section is now complete!  You can find it in the Downloads - Aircraft section of the main menu.

THANKS Again to Wolfgang for letting us host all of his aircraft!

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09/15/10 - BRING OUT THE CONFETTI!!!
The construction of Wolfgang's FS2002/FS2004/FSX aircraft section is complete!  We will keep the aircraft
downloads updated so you can have the latest improvements.  We will also try and let you know of any improvements
either through the SOAR Forum, or this news area.

If anyone notices any mistakes, PLEASE feel free to let us know.  And again, if you talk to Wolfgang in the near
future, be sure to THANK him for the many years he has been putting into the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.

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08/15/10
-/---\- Under Construction -/---\-

The Aircraft Downloads section is getting an addition added onto it...
Wolfgang Piper's  aircraft !!!
In cooperation with him, we are helping make his aircraft more publicly accessible and available for
download in the future.  So in the coming weeks, we will see most, if not all of his aircraft in the Downloads section.
This process has taken me a while to get started,since I am still basically getting a handle on web design, but with lots
of help from Karen, it is going to make a great addition to the SOAR library.
THANKS to Karen & Don for talking with Wolfgang and making the preperations for it.

If anyone notices any mistakes, PLEASE feel free to let us know.  And if you talk to Wolfgang in the near future, be
sure to THANK him for the many years he has been putting into the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.

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I am scheduling a FunFly/Contest the last full weekend of April if anyone is interested.  If you are using FSX,
you will need to download and install FSHostClient.  Everyone will need to have their Flight Sim version of the
SOAR Ranch and high resolution terrain mesh to really enjoy the event.  I will have a download available for those that
want to do some practicing before the event, or just want to enjoy flying the area in which the contest will be held.

As a treat for those of you that have been a part of SOAR since FS2002/FS2004, we are going to run the old
Lake Circuit contest.  I may have updated weather conditions for it, but unsure at this time.  More details will
come later this week or the beginning of next week.

If anyone has upcoming glider events in Microsoft Flight Simulator that they would
like to possibly get posted in this news area, PLEASE let us know at this email.

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03/25/10 - If you haven't been to Wolfgang Piper's site for a while, he's got a few new updates for February
and March.  If you enjoy his SF 25C motor gliders, then you will want to download the updates.  The Ka4 Rhönlerche
had the rear VC and yawstring worked on.  And last but not least, the "PolarCalc" program was corrected.

If you ever need to now if the aircraft you have downloaded from him have been updated, go about 3/4th of
the way down his menu to the "New Files" section, and you will see what he has been working on.
 THANKS Again Wolfgang for all the aircraft you have created to
really make Microsoft Flight Simulator more enjoyable to SOAR for so many years!

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03/20/10 - Check out what I was finally able to convert!  Hey! Is that?

Well looky there, It's the SOAR Ranch for FSX!!!

I was able to convert most of the Ranch with some very OLD & some very NEW editing tools.  I would like to
ask the SOAR community for any comments/suggestions on if there is anything we want to update or add to the airport,
like maybe a fence surrounding the airport, or maybe even placing the Tower View in a different area or height.

I am going to keep in contact with the creator of the SOAR Ranch, and former Director of SOAR, Chris Gordan,
so we can try tokeep within a reasonable view of his dream of the Ranch so as not to deface it in any way.
So if you have any suggestions, please go to the SOAR Forums to do that.  The SOAR Ranch-FSX can be downloaded here.

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11/17/09 - Check out our new header submitted by Scott!!  Thanks once again for another
creative header!!   We really appreciate your hard work!  Here is info on the header:.

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09/22/09 - Have added the great Cross Country Soaring 2004
by Eric Carden as a download in our Utilites section!
Several of us at SOAR have tried unsuccessfully to contact you Eric, so we decided to go ahead and make
the program available to the public. As you are a member of SOAR and we had permission to host your
CCS dat files, we hope you will not mind us doing this!  We have had many requests from
FS9 pilots for your wonderful program and it does not seem to be available anywhere else on the web!
 If you want us to remove it, we will be very sad at losing this creative, great addition to FS9,
but will abide by your wishes!

 FSX screenshot by Don Hamilton

Ridge Lift in FSX without using CCS files

Sim Probe is the exciting new creation of Ian Forster-Lewis which works in conjuction
with CumulusX.  It creates ridge lift "on the fly" so users no longer need to create
CCS files or place thermals along ridges in order to simulate lift.  We now have the
freedom to soar along ridges anywhere in the world!!   Great job Ian !!

You can download your beta version on Ian's site, just click on the following link:

Sim Probe
Remember you will need to have CumulusX installed first!
See below for links to CumulusX

Screenshots taken in FSX using Sim Probe ridge lift
Soaring the Ramparts in the Stemme S10

 screenshot by Don Hamilton

 
 screenshot by Don Hamilton