soaring mission--how the heck?

[cgfx]

:-? IS there some odd trick I'm missing in trying ot complete the "Introduction to soaring" mission in FSX?  The voice-over says to trim to fly at 80, but the only way I can stay at 80 is when I'm losing altitude fairly quickly. Then, when I get to the thermal, and try to circle, either airspeed drops or I "pop out..."
Can anyone share any advice? Thanks!

[an-225]

When in the thermal don't fly PERFECTLY level. This way you keep your airspeed and gain alt.

[cgfx]

I'm typically circling hard, far from level..maybe banked too far? I must have to stay closer to level than I do...Seems like if I don't turn hard, I fly out of the thermal?

[an-225]

Only turn when you need to. Which should be when you're just about to fly outside the thermal.

[BAW0343]

takes practice and a good thermal  ;D  I found one that I was at about a 75 degre bank angle and climbing furiously  :D    was not the mission though  8-)

[Gixer]

You cannot do anything about the glide ratio once you trim it for 80kts, it just will have a higher sink rate.

With regards to the thermals use the vario (the beeping thing) to attain where the highest lift point is within the thermal. Sometimes you need a tight turn, other times a wider turn. I tend to fly just above stalling speed when thermaling to give me the highest climb rate.

[RAF_OldBuzzard]

I have't flown this mission, but I have played around with DG 808 a bit in free flight. If they are telling you to "trim for 80" they must be talking about km/h and not knots.  80 km/h would be very close to 46 knots which is the listed MINIMUM SINK speed for the 808.  Now that IS the speed that you would want to fly at while a thermal.  Once you leave the thermal and start the search for another one, you would want to trim for appx 57 knots/105 km/h, which is the MAX L/D speed.  Max L/D will give you a bit higher sink rate, but you will cover a LOT more ground, which is what you want to do in between thermals.

Another thing to check for is your flap setting.  I know that if I use an aero tow, the flaps are set NEGATIVE, and that will definately give you a high rate of sink.  Make sure that they are at 0 for normal flying.

It's interesting that these airspeeds are very close to what I used in a RL Grob G-103 that I flew some years back.  It's also interesting that the same numbers in MPH work for the Schweitzer 1-26, 2-22, and 2-33.

Another thing to know is that once you are in the pattern, you want to fly somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 knots.  This gives you a bit of a 'cushion', and you should always have to use the spoilers to get you on the ground once you are over the threshold.  You have to remember that you don't have the 'noisemaker' in front, and go arounds are definately a no no in a saiplane.

[RitterKreuz]

i mis-read the airspeed indicator and had her trimmed for 60 KIAS thinking i was holding 80 KIAS

 ;D  ;D

it seemed to work better than 80.