It's not in CVS yet, but here's a screenshot of the Schweizer 1-26 riding a
thermal. The thermal itself is an AIThermal object which I've placed over
the tower at KSFO. It's created, like the other AI objects, with an entry in
preferences.xml:
<ai>
...
<!-- puts a thermal over the control tower at KSFO -->
<entry>
<type>thermal</type>
<latitude type="double">37.61633</latitude>
<longitude type="double">-122.38334</longitude>
<strength-fps type="double">8.33</strength-fps>
<diameter-ft type="double">4000.0</diameter-ft>
</entry>
...
</ai>
http://home.comcast.net/~davidculp2/thermaling_sgs126.jpg
The sgs126 Panel is using a NETTO variometer to indicate airmass vertical
speed in knots. You can create a "sink" by giving a thermal a negative value
for "strength-fps". You can simulate a ridge wave by placing several of
these thermals in a line along a ridge.
Since these AI objects don't have 3D models, and a minimal "fdm", they have a
pretty small footprint, so you could probably place a lot of them without
slowing the sim too much. Enough to soar a long distance? I'm guessing yes.
I'll give more specifics once the files are in CVS.
Dave
--
****************************
David Culp
davidculp2[at]comcast.net
****************************
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