Virtual Gold Badge Congrats

It was asked in a comment in the google photo, the link to which I posted previously, “Now that is really cool! How does one get into the Condor stuff?”

Here’s my rather long reply:
Here’s how I did it: bought the cheapest gaming laptop I could find with a decent graphics card (In Dec 2020 I got one from Bestbuy for about $465) Then since I wanted to practice to get current again after 18 years off I got rudder pedals (a little over $200) and a joystick. The basic condor software is around $60. Steve flys using a screen, but a few weeks ago I bought Virtual Reality Oculus goggles for $300 which for me improve my experience x10. So my whole rig is just under $1200. I can fly pattern practices landings starting at 1000′ at the IP including turning my head and seeing the aim point as often as I can reload the flight. You can set the wind so you can practice crosswind landings. You can pull the release and practice rope breaks. You can do all this at 55LL with trees on final for 09. There are youtube videos where people show their flights. a couple weeks ago I flew in a virtual competition for beginners and it was really cool. The week before I “followed along” as a spectator from Steve’s cockpit point of view while he did that previous weeks beginner’s competition.

the key for me though was getting the VR goggles because I just was not that into it if I had to change the view on the screen with arrow keys to look back at the aim point to judge the turn to base. But with the VR goggles, it’s just very natural and I think that now it carries over to effective practice.

The short answer would be: get a computer with a sufficient graphics card (google for that or ask here), go to https://www.cumulus-soaring.com/ and buy a condor2 license and download the software. Follow the tutorials, do some of the built in “ground school lessons.” Then sign up with condor.club, do some easy tasks, join a beginner’s competition. Key is don’t try to figure it out yourself, ask questions here for help.

I’m not saying it’s equivalent to real flying. But I feel like for a beginner it can help practice so the work load becomes routine and you don’t get behind the plane. I’m not a CFI-G so probably take my claims about effective practice with a grain of salt.