The Jonker JS3 is one of the most celebrated high-performance sailplanes in modern competitive gliding. Designed and manufactured by Jonker Sailplanes in South Africa, the JS3 has earned its reputation at the highest levels of the sport, delivering the kind of aerodynamic refinement and cross-country efficiency that makes it a genuine contender at world championship level. Thanks to a collaboration between 3D artist CalVR and developer B21, a detailed freeware rendition of the JS3 in its 18-metre wingspan configuration has arrived for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
Glider simulation has historically occupied a quieter corner of the flight simulation hobby, but it is one with a deeply passionate and technically knowledgeable community. The discipline demands accurate flight modelling, believable thermal behaviour, and instruments that reflect real-world soaring practice — areas where this release appears to have invested considerable effort. Built from scratch specifically for MSFS 2024, the JS3-18 represents a ground-up development effort tailored to the simulator's current architecture.
Both the exterior and interior have received a high level of attention, with animations covering elements that are often overlooked in sailplane add-ons. The cockpit levers, airbrakes, and retractable main and tailwheel gear are all animated, and the instrument panel itself has been modelled with notable fidelity. The screenshots accompanying the release give a clear sense of the care taken throughout the interior, where the LX competition panel — a staple of real-world contest flying — takes centre stage.
That LX panel is fully functional, providing computer-assisted navigation and a variometer system that builds on instrumentation B21 has refined across previous soaring-focused releases. For those unfamiliar with competition gliding, the variometer is the pilot's primary instrument for detecting rising and sinking air, and a capable nav computer is essential for planning and executing cross-country tasks efficiently.
The flight model reflects the JS3's real-world performance figures. A best glide ratio of 56:1 places it firmly in the upper tier of modern sailplanes, and the high-speed glide performance of 27:1 at 140 knots speaks to its effectiveness on fast cross-country legs where maintaining speed through sink matters as much as climbing efficiently in thermals.
The current release covers the 18-metre variant, though a 15-metre version has been in development alongside it from the beginning. The development team has indicated that both variants will be available within the same package in the near future, giving pilots the choice between the longer wing optimised for thermalling efficiency and the shorter span suited to faster racing conditions.
The Jonker JS3-18 for MSFS 2024 is available now as a free download on Flightsim.to. You can find the add-on here ➡️ Download the Jonker JS3-18 for MSFS 2024.