Which sims have audio vario?

[nixy]

Just tried FMS, which is good for basic orientation etc, but noticed it gives climb & sink rates. For gliding, an audio vario would be great. Do any of the rc sims have this feature in addition to gliders? Aerofly G3 Relex?

Cheers

[flieslikeabeagle]

The free (and Free) CRRCSIM simulator has vario audio. It also has excellent flight physics, not surprising since no less an authority on model aerodynamics than Dr. Mark Drela (he of hand launch glider design fame, MIT professor by day, contest winning RC glider pilot by weekend) provided the math for it.

This simulator was originally geared entirely towards gliders and sailplanes, and most of the models that come with the sim are gliders, though lately a few powered models are included.

I use Linux, not Windows or Mac OSX, and CRRCSIM is the one simulator I've been able to get running on Linux. At the moment I'm using a Logitech dual-action USB gamepad as the controller, though CRRCSIM also accepts audio input from your soundcard - you just plug the buddy-box signal from your transmitter into the sound card input on your PC, and tell CRRCSIM to get input from there!

Links to Charles River Radio Control Simulator (CRRCSIM): http://crrcsim.sourceforge.net/wiki/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/crrcsim/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crrcsim/

One other possibility is the free (and Free) Slope Soaring Simulator (SSS): http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/sss (http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/sss/)
(I've never used SSS, so I cannot speak from personal experience).

Here are a few screenshots of a Pilatus B4 in CRRCSIM, running on Gentoo Linux on my PC. Its tough to fly and take screenshots at the same time!

-Flieslikeabeagle