The fleet grows...

All this warm weather hasn't done much for the idea of sitting in front of a computer, trawling for hours looking for pictures of local gliders both past and present... However, I have managed to knock out a quick interpretation of a Discus CS and an ASW-15.
At this point they should be considered as working drafts until I get a better grip of Photoshop. Both models are available free of charge from Wolfgang Piper's website www.fsglider.de
Unfortunately, the Aerosoft Discus models are effectively unable to be reskinned to represent local machines due to the texture mapping used. However, I know some individuals are plugging away at this through trial and error.
A DG is in the works, and another individual is attempting photoreal skins for the Glide Omarama fleet of Duo Discuses (Discii?)

It has begun...

In the time since I last flew, I've been hitting flight simulators hard - FS2004, FSX and Condor (A pure soaring simulator) - Of these, Condor is by far the best in terms of aircraft and environmental dynamics... Just let down by the visual modeling.
FS2004 has a fair few models and a few external plug-ins to get you up and away on a 500km task, but never quite hit the mark in terms of "feel"... Enter FSX - It hit the market with a pretty damn good thermal generation setup, and a DG-808. Overall much better, so much so that Aerosoft (a payware addon developer) recently released a Discus available in 3 flavours: 2B/CS, BT and M for those who like self launching. More on that Discus at a later date.
This weekend saw some progress made: ZK-GKM - TGC's LS-4 and ZK-GDS - the Pink Ka7 have made their way into FSX. Early days yet, with a lot of tidying up to do on both models which will require photos to work from.

9 long years...

Labour Weekend saw me make an appearance at the Tauranga Gliding Club, if for nothing other than to enjoy the sun and get close to my former habitat...
I did catch up with Discusman though, and through shooting the breeze with him it really hit home that it's been 9 years since I last flew - 9 years, almost a decade!
All things going well with a potential career change, I could be dusting off that logbook, getting current and putting that x-country rating to good use again in the new year.