About
Built by a pilot,
for pilots.
“I Want To Believe”
The Hang Gliding Files is a one-person passion project — a simulation ecosystem built from scratch to give hang gliders the flight experience they deserve in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Richard Sebastian
CTO, NextWave Mobile Apps
The Pilot
Richard Sebastian
Richard Sebastian is a software engineer, CTO of NextWave Mobile Apps, LTD, and a hang glider pilot. When he isn't designing mobile applications or managing engineering teams, he's either at a launch site or writing code to simulate the experience of being there.
Hang gliding arrived in his life as an answer to a question most people never ask — what is the quietest, most exposed way to fly? The sport demands an understanding of the atmosphere that no other discipline quite matches: you read the land, read the sky, and commit. There is no throttle to reach for.
The two worlds — software and soaring — converged when Microsoft Flight Simulator arrived without a single flyable hang glider. That absence became the brief. If no one else was going to build it properly, he would.
The Project
How This Started
Hang gliding is one of aviation's most demanding and elemental forms of flight. It has almost no presence in mainstream flight simulation. You can fly an Airbus, a Spitfire, a Cessna — but try to find a hang glider that actually flies like one, and you will come up nearly empty.
THGF started not with building gliders, but with building the world around the ones that already existed. On Flight Simulator FSX, a small number of off-shelf hang gliders were flyable. What they lacked was context — real launch sites, the ability to teleport to a ridge, tools to navigate like a pilot would. That gap was the first problem worth solving.
When MSFS 2020 arrived and reset the platform, the scope expanded: now the gliders themselves needed building too. Every version since has added another layer — custom aircraft, in-sim instruments, a community platform. The problem keeps getting bigger. So does the answer.
The Origin
THGF begins on Microsoft Flight Simulator X. No custom gliders — the sim already had a small handful of off-shelf hang gliders, and that was enough to start. The innovation was the accessory layer built around them: a flying site database, in-sim teleportation to any launch, site search, and navigation tools. The gliders existed. The world to fly them in did not.
First Custom Glider
Microsoft Flight Simulator relaunches the genre. THGF moves with it — and this time builds the aircraft too. The first custom hang glider simobject ships alongside a new application architecture, a rebuilt site database, and the Widget that puts it all inside the cockpit. Free, open, and designed to grow.
The Database Grows
373 real-world flying sites are catalogued across 47+ countries — coordinates, launch types, elevation, landing zones, and regional context. The desktop app matures into the primary tool for managing and syncing the database to the simulator.
The Ecosystem Takes Shape
In-sim tools arrive: the EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) for site navigation and the Variometer — a custom WASM audio gauge with real climb-rate behaviour. Tow planes, additional glider categories, and the site package system follow.
A New Architecture
MSFS 2024 introduces a fundamentally different add-on model. THGF redesigns around it: modular category packages, variant plug-ins, and a proper commercial platform. The website is rebuilt from the ground up as a full community platform.
Community & Live Flying
The platform expands beyond files. Live telemetry, group flights, flight records, and real-time tracking. The simulation becomes a place to fly together.
The Technology
Four Pillars
THGF is not just a file download site. It is a connected ecosystem — simulator packages, a web platform, a desktop application, and in-sim tools that all talk to each other.
MSFS Packages
Hand-crafted glider simobjects for Microsoft Flight Simulator. MSFS 2020 packages are free — the gateway. MSFS 2024 packages are the full experience: modular categories, multiple variants, add-on support, and realistic flight models built from real polar data.
Flying Sites
373 real-world hang gliding sites documented across 47+ countries — launch coordinates, landing zones, elevation, site type, and regional context. Every site is searchable and filterable. The full database is available in-sim via the EFB and the desktop app.
Desktop App
A Windows application that bridges the website and the simulator. Manage your local flying site database, sync changes to the MSFS Widget, and — as development continues — connect to the live community platform. Version 4 and actively maintained.
In-Sim Tools
The EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) puts the full site database on your instrument panel. The Variometer — a custom WASM audio engine — gives you climb rate feedback that behaves like the real instrument. The Teleporter Widget drops you precisely on any launch in the database.
What's Next
The Road Ahead
The files are just the beginning. The vision is a platform where hang glider pilots can fly together, compete, log flights, and build a shared record of virtual soaring that mirrors the real-world community.
King Post — MSFS 2024
The first paid MSFS 2024 glider category. A complete King Post package with multiple real-world make/model variants, full EFB and Variometer integration, and the modular add-on architecture.
Live Telemetry & Tracking
The simulator knows who is flying and where. Pilots set a callsign in MSFS that matches their THGF account. The telemetry client reads SimConnect data and sends it to the platform — your flight appears on the live map.
Group Flights & Events
Scheduled flying sessions by category — King Post pilots, Topless pilots, open events. Set a time, set a site, and fly together. Events show in your local time zone with reminders.
Flight Records & Replay
Upload your IGC log and replay any flight on an interactive map. Community records by distance, triangle, and altitude — per site, per country, and overall.
More Glider Categories
Topless, Ultralight, and beyond. Each category follows the same modular architecture — base package, multiple variants, add-on ecosystem. The framework is in place.
“I Want To Believe that simulation can
capture what it feels like to fly.”
Every glider, every site, every instrument reading is an attempt to answer that question. Follow the project on Patreon or YouTube to see how the answer develops.