A hang gliding VR flight simulator: to learn, to practice, or just to have fun

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Latest News

A new release (Beta 1.37) of the Freeflight Experience is available. Please review the release notes for a summary of changes. If you are getting started with the program, be sure to check out the Quick Start Guide for step by step instructions and tips.

What's new

November 17, 2023 Release Beta 1.37
• Reenabled weak link on towing sites
• Fixed issue that caused environment sounding to be loaded from incorrect world regions.
• T3 is way more realistic in roll yaw coupling. Much lighter in pitch…. Can hit 90+ mph and can do beat-ups and can easily loop. Can be tumbled if stalled inverted, and too rapid a pullup will trigger “crash detection” if that feature is enabled in options.
• Added ability to relocate glider using site tour pawn. Move the Pawn to where you want to be, then move glider to that location. Clicking fly the glider will put you back in the glider, where you can up-pause flight
• Enabled cell phone on the flight deck displaying XCSoar. XCTrack will follow in subsequent release. Requires your Android phone to be connected to your PC (Wi-Fi) using Microsoft Phone-Link integration application. Start XC-Soar from the phone app menu on your PC. Navigate to Config->Devices, select “OpenVario on TCP client”, enter the local IP of the computer running Freeflight experience, and port 4353. Create an XC Task on the phone if you wish. You might need to disable the firewall on you LAN. Enable “Cellphone vario on basetube” in options menu, and go to any site where you have loaded terrain and airspace data into XCSoar. If the telemetry is not immediately received by the phone, try clicking reconnect in XC-Soar, or pressing “G” on the keyboard when in Freeflight Experience to attempt to reconnect.
• Corrected accidental release from tow if you didn’t un-pause before the timer ran out.
• Reduced the body yaw angle when using “Joystick” input and “View tracks HMD 1:1” Options
• Turn GPS telemetry on automatically if base-bar vario is present. G will attempt to reconnect

September 21, 2023 Release Beta 1.36

Smoothed autopilot trigger. When the autopilot trigger was rapidly depressed or released, it could cause the sim to enter paused mode when crash detect was enabled. The trigger value is now filtered to avoid this issue.

Fixed chase view legend on controller button. The legend text on the hand controller buttons had a typo that has been corrected

Removed write .igc file from menu. Now that we can write .igc files using XCTrack, it is no longer needed in game

Fixed LZ spot cone sometimes jumping up and hitting the glider. When flying the sites selected using the “more” pulldown menu, if you flew directly over the spot, the traffic cone would jump up and hit you. This has been fixed.

Added flat LZ field and shade structure to AJX site. The streamed data for crestline did not represent the LZ correctly. A flat landing pad was added, and the new shade structure included

Changed thermal behavior of terrain attached thermals. The circulation strength inside thermals was previously based on the rate of climb of the thermal bubble. The algorithm that repositions thermals from their formation location to an appropriate release location sometimes causes higher than natural climb rates, and thus unrealistically strong lift and sink near terrain. Now, thermals that have not broken free from the ground have a fixed, moderate level of circulation. Lift and sink in the vicinity of these terrain-attached thermals is more realistic and allows you to hang out over a trigger point while waiting for a thermal to release.

Added Blackgang Run, UK site. This site offers a 35-kilometer trip in ridge lift over beautiful Isle of Wight countryside.

Fixed ridge lift at Telluride and Sugar Ridge Lift was missing from these sites due to an error on my part. This has been corrected. You will find lift on the windward side of ridges, and sink on the lee.

Added launch ramp at Dunlap, CA site Just a small detail. Readjusted the location of the ramp launch slightly.

Corrected reversed offset in joystick settings menu When setting scale and offset in the joystick menu, the sense of the offset was reversed, so moving the slider to move the pilot rearward in this screen actually would speed up trim. Now, the movement of the pilot rearward will cause the glider to trim slower.

Enabled Pitch Offset and Roll Offsets when using VR controllers or head position inputs. Previously, the pitch offset (set in the Joystick or Cell Phone Options Menu) had no effect on trim speed when using theVR controllers as input. You can now adjust the trim speed for all input options by setting pitch offset in the joystick menu. If using the VR controllers or head position as input, if you enter the Joystick menu to change gains or offsets, be certain to reselect the VR+Desk options before you fly.

Enabling soaring aids, like showing thermal spheres and particles now correctly reflects the options setting, and can be controlled using the A and B buttons on the left controller. Individual element visibility (sphere or particle) can be toggled at runtime with p,P and s,S.

Improvement in T3 flight model to better represent roll/yaw coupling and adverse yaw of this class wing. Known Issue The autopilot for the T3 will now severely PIO at VG settings below 90%. If you wish to use the autopilot to help control the glider, do so with a higher VG setting.

August 29, 2023 Release Beta 1.35

The Freeflight Experience continues to be advanced and refined, largely based on your excellent feedback. After releasing 1.34 with ten new flying sites, I went on to add dynamic dust devil models that can be enabled for sites where these are a common and noteworthy characteristic. Now thermals can be found as you go XC, releasing from terrain features as you might expect. Get near cloud base, and you will find areas of generalized “cloud suck” lift, so you can jump from cloud to cloud for long XC adventures.

In release 1.33, I enabled the import of competition race tasks, and display of cylinders, labels and turn points in the game, along with basic race timing functions to the base tube vario. This simply starts a clock when you exit the start cylinder, and stops the clock when you enter the goal cylinder.

The latest release (1.35) sets up a TCP server that streams your virtual flight data to your real wifi enabled flight instruments or smartphone app like XCTrack or XCSoar. You can use Freeflight Experience to learn and practice using your flight instruments. Now you can make the mistakes (we all have made while in flight) when learning to use our advanced varios in the comfort of your home! I hope to soon allow the display of your smartphone app to be represented on the face of your virtual vario, or as a 2D floating window in VR.

1.34 introduced a new weather file naming convention. This means that the default and custom weather presets you have made no longer work. The new version will use reasonable default weather for each of the sites. As a bonus, I’m including some XC Race tasks to get you started as well.

The race task files can be found in “C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Programs\The Freeflight Experience Open Beta\TFFE2\Tasks”, but tasks can be placed anywhere on your PC. If you wish to fly competition tasks, you can read these files into TFFE from the Environment menu, and the cylinders will appear when aids are turned on. A file chooser will appear on your desktop display (not in VR) to allow you to navigate to and pick the desired task file.

Installation of this new version files should correct the issue with the “Practice Control” level, where it was being initialized without the necessary 20+ knot wind needed to hover in place.

Once again, your support and feedback is really important to me.

I encourage you to try using your head position alone as the control input. It’s quite comfortable, but it’s tough to flare. When using this option, you should have the view track your HMD 1:1.

Thank you all for your patience while waiting for the Open Beta release of the "Freeflight Experience". If you would like to joint the Open Beta test team, you can buy a license and download the software today!

Just go to the the menu at the top left corner of the start page, and select "Shop".

SHOP

The game is continuously being improved with more flying sites, hang glider models, and launch methods.