Navigation

Fly around the course as quickly as possible. Altitude is at your discretion but note:

  • the START HEIGHT limit of 6000 feet MSL.
  • the TASK AREA height limit of 9000 feet MSL. If you exceed this you will FAIL the mission.

There are 3 turnpoints you must fly to in sequence between the start and finish lines. The turnpoint zone is radius 500 meters i.e. you must be within 500 meters to register as reaching the turnpoint.

Start

The start line extends a kilometer either side of the runway centerpoint, up to 6000 feet MSL. Passing over the start line higher than this will not record a start.

TP 1

Spruce Creek Tunnel is into wind to the west of Mifflin, over the high ground, so use you full start height to get over the high ground into wind and pick up the ridge running to Spruce Creek.

TP 2

Blair County Airport is to the South of Spruce Creek, and you should be able to use the ridge for most of the way.

TP 3

To reach Penns Cave Airport from Blair County you can use the ridge most of the way but some patches will be tricky and there are a couple of jumps to be made.

Finish

From Penns Cave Airport you can use some ridge to the west so the final glide has less of a cross-wind, but you must ensure you have enough height to get home as you cross the high ground one the way.

After crossing the finish line, you can land at Mifflin Airport, although this does not count as part of the mission.

You can navigate in this mission by following the Mission Compass and Mission Pointer. However, for a more challenging experience try removing the compass and pointer and flying by the glider instruments, map and gps (press "U" to toggle mission compass and "Shift +3 to activate GPS).

Task Advisory

Cloudbase is 6000 feet, Wind is 17 knots from the North-West, heading 310. You should avoid the sink expected in the lee of the hills on the North side of the valley. The good news is the ridges on the South sides of the valleys are expected to be working. Reasonable thermals are expected.

Communications

Your ground crew will communicate with you via radio. Your callsign is "Yankee November."

FSX Hints

The mission will start a short distance to the South of Mifflin airfield with you pointing at the airfield. From there you can fly directly to the start line. Remember that your objective for soaring starts is to have as much energy as possible, i.e. to be flying as fast as possible but still below the start gate altitude. Remember to lower the flaps as you slow down in thermals to maintain maximum lift to drag ratio and gradually raise them into negative as you exceed 80 knots. The on-screen task timer will start as you pass through the start gate.

For the first leg to TP 1, initially you might want to fly more to the North-West, to take advantage of the start height to get you onto the first part of the working ridge taking you to Spruce Creek.

One of the essential points in soaring is not to fly around the lee side of any high ground because there will be sink there. It is worthwhile studying all the briefing, maps and details carefully just as with a real soaring mission to recognize where curlover and sink is likely to occur and plan your route before you start the mission.

If you can beat 1 hour 40 minutes you have done very well indeed.

Suggested Reading

To learn more about the skills you'll use in this mission, see the following articles in the Learning Center:

  • "DG-808S Competition Sailplane Aircraft Information"
  • "Soaring"