Cross-Country Soaring 2004
User Guide 
9. Customizing Soaring Conditions
Without any customization by you, Cross-Country Soaring (CCS) will randomly create soaring conditions within certain parameter ranges. You may, however, customize the conditions to represent your real-world soaring area or to set up specific conditions for practice or competition. The following things in CCS are customizable:
1. House Thermals – Define up to three “house” thermals, thermals with fixed positions that last throughout the “soarable” part of the day.
2. Lift Ceiling – Define the altitude to which thermals reach.
3. Weak Surface Layer Height – Define the altitude (AGL) below which thermal lift/sink strength gradually diminishes to zero.
4. Lift Strength – Make thermals stronger or weaker.
5. Thermal Diameter – Make thermals larger or smaller in diameter.
6. Thermal Duration – Make thermal "lifespans" longer or shorter.
7. Thermal Coverage – Make thermals more or less numerous.
8. Thermal Lean Amount – Make thermals lean more or less in response to wind.
9. Widespread Sink Strength – Turn widespread sink on or off, and (if on) select whether to let CCS automatically calculate the strength or to set the strength yourself.
10. Air Texture Intensity – Make the air more or less choppy (“textured”).
11. Scenery (BGL) Lift/Sink – Enable or disable the addition of scenery lift/sink to CCS lift/sink.
12. Slope Lift Strength – Increase or decrease the slope lift strength.
13. Slope Lift Height – Increase or decrease the slope lift height.
14. Thermal Edge Sink Strength – Increase or decrease the strength of the sink surrounding thermals.
15. Inversion Layer – Create, if desired, an inversion layer of random or user-defined altitude, thickness, and strength.
16. Thermal Visibility – Control how easy it is to “see” (using the “cheat” keys) thermals.
The above customizations are made using the CCS Control Panel (CP) program included with CCS. While the “Control Panel” is the simplest way to manage these settings, they can also be managed by carefully editing the ccs.ini configuration file, which is located in the CCS program folder. (In scripted mode, the above parameters are controlled by the script file, not by ccs.ini.) The CP reads and writes settings from/to ccs.ini, so changes made using a text editor will be reflected the next time you open the CP (and vice versa). Be very careful if you choose to edit ccs.ini with a text editor, as mistakes may cause the file to not be read properly, causing unpredictable behavior. Before changing anything in ccs.ini using a text editor, make a backup copy of the file (in case you accidentally mess something up while editing it). It is recommended that you do not attempt to edit ccs.ini using a text editor. These notes are included only so that you understand the risks of doing so.
If you want to share your configuration settings with another pilot, simply give him a copy of your ccs.ini file. He should then either rename his existing ccs.ini or save it to a different location. Then he should place your ccs.ini in his CCS program folder. To revert to his previous settings, he should just replace your ccs.ini with his previous ccs.ini.
Below are descriptions of many of the settings available in the CCS Control Panel. Other settings are discussed in other sections of this user guide, as appropriate.
CCS can be run in one of five distinct modes. They are…
· Unscripted – Also known as “random” mode, this mode is the simplest to use and gives the greatest randomization possibilities.
· Scripted – This mode uses a special “script” file to control conditions, including individual thermal positions and timing. For details on scripted mode, see Scripted Mode vs. Unscripted Mode.
· Create Script File – Use this mode to create a script file for use later in scripted mode.
· Perform Topo Scan – This mode conducts a scan of the topography of a designated area. The data generated during the scan will automatically enable CCS slope soaring in the scanned area. For more details, see Creating and Using Slope Lift.
· Test Glider Performance – This mode conducts an automatic flight test for the purpose of collecting glider performance data. This mode is useful to aircraft designers attempting to tweak a glider’s performance.
Thermal Parameters
See Customizing Thermals for a discussion of all the available ways to customize thermals.
See Inversion Layer Settings for a discussion of inversion layers and how to create one in CCS.
If enabled here, CCS will create sinking air everywhere to offset the net upflow of air caused by thermals. The options are...
· 0............... disabled
· 1............... automatic (total upward flow will equal total downward flow)
· 2-200........ user-defined value (fpm)
Enter only positive whole numbers. The maximum allowable value is 200. If you enter a number outside the allowable range, the program will use its default setting of 1 (automatic). See Auto-Generated Soaring Conditions for the possible ranges of values CCS may set automatically for sink strength. The following things that you can customize will influence sink strength (if you choose the “automatic” option).
· Lift Strength – The stronger the lift, the stronger the sink.
· Thermal Diameter – The larger the thermals, the stronger the sink.
· Thermal Coverage – The more numerous the thermals, the stronger the sink.
Air Texture
Intensity
(whole number)
A higher number will make the air more “textured”. The minimum and maximum values allowed are 0 and 100, respectively. If you enter a number outside the allowable range, the program will use its default setting of 0. CCS applies this “texture” any time that CCS is controlling the vertical movement of the air. This includes thermals, slope lift, and widespread sink.
In the real world, the air contains a certain amount (okay, maybe a lot) of random, chaotic motion, or “texture”. The skilled soaring pilot must mentally “average” any texture in the air, particularly in thermals, in order to determine what the air is doing on a larger scale than just the small space the glider occupies at this instant. For example, theoretically a thermal’s strength will increase steadily from its edges to its center. If you flew straight through the center of this perfect thermal, your climb rate would steadily increase until you reached the center and would then steadily decrease until you exited the thermal. If you were to fly a perfect circle around the center of this thermal, holding a constant distance from the thermal’s center, your climb rate would be exactly the same all the way around the circle. Anyone who’s done much thermal flying, however, knows that this perfect thermal exists only in our dreams. Real thermals tend to have plenty of internal chaos that keeps us guessing exactly where the core is. These chaotic bursts of lift tempt us to deviate from a steady circle that’s averaged out for a good climb over the last few turns only to have us wondering where the thermal went a few seconds later. Usually the thermal is right where we left it when we hastily altered our path to chase what turned out to be “fool’s lift”.
Technically, the “Air Texture Intensity” setting is the maximum percentage of the theoretical lift or sink value that CCS may randomly add to or subtract from the theoretical lift or sink value. A setting of 0 means the air isn’t textured at all. A setting of 100 would create some fairly intense texturing of the air. Here’s an example of how this works. Consider a glider in a perfect circle around the center of a thermal. At this distance from the thermal’s core, the air is moving upwards at 500 fpm (theoretically), and at this bank angle and airspeed, the glider’s still air sink rate is 150 fpm. With an intensity setting of 0, the glider will experience a constant, steady climb rate of 350 fpm as long as this circle is maintained around the core. With an intensity setting of 50, however, the glider will encounter air varying randomly in vertical speed +/-50%, or +/-250 fpm, while flying this perfect circle. This will cause climb rates of 100-600 fpm without deviating from this perfect circle. You can imagine how much more difficult it is to figure out where the center of the thermal is with this random fluctuation in thermal strength from second to second. Beginners should leave this setting at 0 and gradually increase it as their skills increase. Real-world pilots should find a value that seems realistic for their real-world flying and use that value (or greater) in order to gain the most benefit from simulation practice.
Enable Scenery (BGL) Lift/Sink
If enabled, CCS will use any scenery (BGL) lift/sink in a cumulative fashion with CCS lift/sink. For example, a CCS widespread sink value of 20 fpm will cause a 20 fpm reduction in climb rate in a scenery (BGL) ridge or thermal lift area. If disabled, any CCS lift/sink will override scenery (BGL) lift/sink. CCS lift modeling is smoother with scenery lift disabled, so enable it only when needed. See Using Scenery Lift for more details on this option.
NOTE: Enabling this option while using a pre-3.424
version of FSUIPC will cause program errors.
Slope Lift Strength Scalar
A higher number will make slope lift stronger. The minimum and maximum values allowed are 0.5 and 3.0, respectively. CCS will ignore any digits beyond the first decimal place (tenths). If you enter a number outside the allowable range, the program will use its default setting of 1.0.
More Detail: The CCS default slope lift strength is multiplied by this value. For example, a value of 1.3 will make all CCS slope lift 30% stronger. This setting has a slight effect on how high you can climb in slope lift, too. The “ceiling” altitude of the slope lift is not changed by this setting, but strengthening the lift will allow you to climb a little closer to this “ceiling”. How much closer depends on the glider’s sink rate, but about 10% of the percent change in strength is a good rule of thumb. For example, a value of 1.3, which increases slope lift strength by 30% will allow you to climb about 3% higher. Thus, if you were able to climb to 1,000’ AGL before, you should be able to climb to about 1,030’ AGL after making this change.
Slope Lift Height Scalar
A higher number will make slope lift reach higher above a ridge. The minimum and maximum values allowed are 0.5 and 5.0, respectively. CCS will ignore any digits beyond the first decimal place (tenths). If you enter a number outside the allowable range, the program will use its default setting of 1.0.
More Detail: The CCS default slope lift height is multiplied by this value. For example, a value of 1.3 will make all CCS slope lift reach 30% higher above ridges. This setting directly affects the strength of slope lift at a given height above the ridge, too. A value that increases slope lift height will also increase the slope lift strength at a given altitude.
This controls the way the “cheat keys” function, thus giving you some control over how easy it is to “see” thermals. The options are...
· always functional
· functional except when in the lifting portion of the “cheat key” thermal. (You’ll still be able to “see” other thermals while in one. You just won’t be able to “see” the thermal you’re in.)
· disabled
Saving Custom Configurations
You may find that you want to save one or more custom configurations, rather than manually changing configurations often. For example, you may want to use a configuration set up for a competition flight, but you may also want to save the one you’ve set up to mimic your local real-world conditions. To save a configuration, simply save a copy of ccs.ini containing the configuration you want to save. One simple way to do this is to rename the copy something meaningful (e.g., “ccs my site.ini”). When you want to change configurations quickly, simply rename the active configuration file (named “ccs.ini”), and rename the saved file back to “ccs.ini”. CCS doesn’t care how many “*.ini” files are in the CCS program folder. It only uses the one named “ccs.ini”. Another method is to make a folder for each saved configuration, with each folder given a meaningful name. Then, to change configurations, just copy ccs.ini from the desired folder to the CCS program folder. (Be sure to save a copy of the existing ccs.ini in the CCS program folder first, if you haven’t done so already.)
If ccs.ini Doesn’t Exist
If you experience problems, perhaps after making setting changes, you might find it helpful to remove ccs.ini from your CCS program folder and run CCS in its default configuration. This can only be done by running ccs2004.exe directly (i.e., double-clicking it). CCS Control Panel requires that ccs.ini be present. With no ccs.ini present, CCS will default to the following settings:
· Mode - Unscripted
· House Thermals – none
·
· Weak Surface Layer Height – 1,000’
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·
·
· Thermal Coverage – 15 per 100 sq. mi.
· Thermal Lean Factor – 0.70
· Widespread Sink – 1 (automatic)
· Air Texture Intensity – 0
· Enable Scenery (BGL) Lift/Sink – 0 (no, disabled)
· Slope Lift Strength Scalar – 1.0
· Slope Lift Height Scalar – 1.0
· Inversion Layer - none
· “Cheat Keys” Option – 2 (function always)