Setup :: Takeoff :: Flying :: Landing :: Donate

MAG Basis-15 Glider

Thank you for downloading the Basis-15 Glider. This is a fictional aircraft that was designed and created by Bryan and Kevin Gibson. I (Bryan) am the flight sim fan, and wanted a nicely modeled glider to enjoy some sight seeing around the virtual world. I hope our project offers this to you as well. If you are interested in using PayPal to send us a payment as a sign of your appreciation, click the "Donate" link above for more info. To better enjoy your flying time in this aircraft, please read this guide first.

Setup:

For best results in flight controls, you'll need to set up some control hotkeys. First is your elevator trim. Trimming is essential to getting the best cruise speeds. These are bound by default to NumPad 7 for elevator trim down, and NumPad 1 for elevator trim up. It may be helpful to map these onto buttons on your joystick for faster access. Next, you'll need to have a key bind for the spoilers. By default this is the "/" key. Using spoilers is an important part of flying and landing the Basis-15, so assigning the spoilers to a joystick axis allows even greater control during your flight. To assign spoilers to a joystick axis, use the "Joystick Axis" tab of the "Control Assignments" setup page. For users with a HOTAS (like Saitek's X45 and X52) assigning the spoilers to one of the rotaries on the throttle handle is easy and works great. For basic joysticks, you can also assign the spoilers to the throttle lever while flying the glider. When flying other aircraft, you will need to re-assign the throttle axis on your joystick to "throttle" however.

Special Notes:

This model uses some advanced graphics effects that require certain settings in the Flight Simulator 2004. Be sure that aircraft reflections are enabled in the Settings Menu. This will allow for nice dynamic shines on the exterior, and also special glare and reflective effects on the virtual cockpit glass and metal parts. Setting the virtual cockpit gauge quality to "high" will give better clarity for the gauges. Also, this model does not use mip mapped texures in order ensure clean visuals.

Takeoff:

Taking off in a glider in Flight Simulator is easy, but not as straight forward as a powered aircraft. There are two methods you can use, depending on your preference.

"Towed" takeoff:

This method simulates a tow plane pulling your glider up and your releasing the tow cable, freeing the glider to soar. To do a "towed" takeoff, first select an aircraft such as the default Piper Cub, and fly up to the altitude that you'd like to start your gliding flight (around 3,000 to 5,000 feet AGL). When you are ready to start gliding, press the ALT key, and select "Aircraft/Select Aircraft..." on the menu. Select the MAG Basis-15 glider, and press "OK".  Now, you will be returned to where you left on your "towing" flight, and in the Basis-15. (The Basis-15 has no 2D cockpit, so be sure to use the "S" key to cycle to the Virtual Cockpit view.)

"Slew" takeoff:

This method is faster, and could be thought of as a simulation of a cable/winch lauch for the glider. To do a "slew" takeoff, load up a flight with the MAG Basis-15 at an airfield and scenery you'd like to fly over. When you have moved to the virual cockpit, press the "Y" key to enter "Slew" mode. Now, you can use the F1through F4 keys to adjust your altitude, and your joystick to adjust your position around the world. The F1 key decreases your altitude rapidly. The F2 key stops all altitude change. The F3 key slowly increases your altitude, and the F4 key rapidly increases your altitude. When you have moved your Basis-15 to a position and altitude you like, press the "Y" key again to leave "Slew" mode and begin flying.

Sometimes when you leave "Slew" mode there is abrupt motion of the aircraft, so carefully correct any unwanted movements.

Flying:

Flying the MAG Basis-15 is easy and hopefully fun. This flight model is not based on any real aircraft, but has been edited so that it feels fun to fly by itself. After you are up in the air, the first thing to do is adjust the elevator trim to acheive the cruising speed, around 47kts. This speed is indicated by a green triangle on the airspeed indicator. This speed will help ensure that during level glides, you rate of decent (shown on the VSI guage) will be closer to optimal. For turns, you'll want to take notice of the yarn that is taped on top of the canopy. This yarn will blow to the side indicating a slip or skid condition. Use the rudder to keep the yarn centered during turns for the best performance.

During your flights, surely you'll try some loops and fast manuvers. You can use the G-Meter on the instrument panel to monitor your g-forces during your turns. The roll performance on this glider increases with a bit of airspeed, so gain a bit before most big manuvers.

The spoilers are used to control the speed of the glider, specifically to slow it down during fast manuvers or during landing. During a steep dive, your airspeed may climb dangerously high, even passing the upper limit of 150kts for this glider (don't pull to hard at these speeds! Over stress will end your trip early!) To control this, use the spoilers during fast dives to keep the speed to a safe level.

Use of spoilers during landing approach is also very important. I find that deploying the spoilers to about halfway gives a nice approach speed and touchdown. When extending the spoilers, also be ready to apply some trim to keep the controls balanced.  Be careful not to slow too much on approach, as your decent rate will increase, possibly leading to a very rough landing.

Landing:

Landing in the Basis-15 is pretty simple. Just keep up a steady decent rate of 200 to 300 feet per minute, and give yourself plenty of room on the approach. Using the spoilers about halfway deployed gives a good result, just find a balance that you like. Having the spoilers on a joystick axis really helps find a good balance during landing. The most important thing to remember is not to over flare. Keeping the nose level or just above is a good start until you find a method you prefer. Getting a nice landing is very easy, but if the nose is too high a bounce or dangerous float may follow. On the roll out, avoid using the brakes as much as possible to prevent nosing over. Use the spoilers and some light back elevator to help burn off speed, and keep the wings level until slow enough to avoid damage or excess rotation when the wing tip touches down.

Donations:

If you enjoy our work on this project, please consider sending a donation to support our future efforts. Using the PayPal button below, you can send a secure donation (the amount is up to you, even just a dollar or two is fine!) directly to our PayPal account. We appreciate your support. Thanks, and happy flying!

-Bryan and Kevin Gibson