5. Quick Start
If you're eager to fly, this section will get you soaring. After putting the Cross-Country Soaring 98 files in the appropriate directories (see 4. Setup), start Flight Simulator. Start the "X-C Soaring, San Francisco" flight (see Starting a Flight below). If you're using a joystick, then trim it such that the plane isn't moving - the flight starts in slew mode. Leave slew mode on, and start the "X-C Soaring, San Francisco" adventure (see Starting an Adventure below). Wait until you see the message "Initialization complete. Ready to begin," and press "Y" to turn off slew mode.
The COM radio is initially set to the flight service station frequency
of 128.95 MHz. While set to this frequency,
you can press "CTRL-w" to hear a report of current weather conditions.
If you have no sound enabled or you prefer text messages, then press
"CTRL-x" at any time during the adventure to toggle between audio and text
messages.
Press "b" to recalibrate the altimeter (the adventure may have changed
the barometric pressure during initialization). Press "CTRL-c" to
get the bearings and distances to two nearby signs of thermals (either
obvious "thermal triggers" on the ground or building "clouds" atop the
thermals), and fly toward either thermal. Knowing the wind speed
and direction, search for the thermal slightly downwind of a "thermal trigger"
or slightly upwind of a "cloud", as wind causes thermals to lean downwind.
You can press "CTRL-c" as often as you like, and pressing it often as you
fly towards a thermal can help you find it more quickly by helping you
fly a straighter course to it.
Once in a thermal (the glider will begin to climb), slow down to near minimum sink speed, and maneuver the glider to stay in the thermal's core (the area of strongest lift). Climb as quickly as possible, because every thermal has a limited duration that diminished some even while you were searching for it.
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