sim_probe: Simulation of ridge lift in Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX)

News

Mid 2009: dynamically created ridgelift is now a built-in feature of CumulusX! from Peter Luerkens, and my sim_probe module is now redundant.
If you have sim_probe installed, you should upgrade to the latest version of CumulusX! and uninstall sim_probe. The logging capability of sim_probe is now available in a new freeware module called son-of-sim_probe... ok it's really called sim_logger.
June 2008: sim-probe 3.00 announced. Now automatically saves IGC log files
sim_probe has been extended to have an automatic IGC file logging capability. This creates a lat/long/time trace of every flight in the standard IGC format, that can be viewed by a variety of freeware and commercial IGC file analysis programs. See the README for sim-probe version 3.00 for more details.

Ridge lift in FSX - The basic idea

Using the FSX programmable API called simconnect, sim_probe can sample the terrain around the users aircraft and with the prevailing wind calculate the appropriate lift factor to apply to the user aircraft.

The end result is continuously variable highly detailed lift and sink affecting the user aircraft increasing the reality of the user experience. For ridge-soaring flights in gliders the sense of the lift within the flight simulator is almost tactile.

Technical paper

Link to paper	Abstract
	By sampling the ground elevation of the terrain in a windward direction relative to the current position of the user aircraft, an appropriate value of applicable topographic lift can be calculated. The technique is highly efficient for flight simulator use as only the lift at the current location of the user aircraft needs to be calculated. With a small number of ground elevation sample points, highly detailed topographic lift can be simulated.

Link to paper

Abstract

By sampling the ground elevation of the terrain in a windward direction relative to the current position of the user aircraft, an appropriate value of applicable topographic lift can be calculated. The technique is highly efficient for flight simulator use as only the lift at the current location of the user aircraft needs to be calculated. With a small number of ground elevation sample points, highly detailed topographic lift can be simulated.

Downloads

Sim_probe This is an add-on for CumulusX! that calculates ridge lift and feeds it into FSX	download sim_probe 3.00 here.
CumulusX! For use in producing ridge lift in FSX, sim_probe is designed to be used in conjunction with CumulusX!	download CumulusX! from Peter Lürkens.