... and another thing, turn the wind down on the Sierra Nevada range to something reasonable and your thermal and wind-lift hunting will be more enjoyable. Also, check the swap pages there are several powered gliders (one is turbine, another uses folding prop) that can get you up, or keep you up, when needed... also experiment with editing the planes and modifying the CG point (fore aft) ... some of the models tend to be nose-heavy.
I absolutely love sail-planes, and I find the soaring experience in the Sim to be very good; although, I must admit that its taken me a LOT of experimenting and tweaking. Also, there are other airports you can use with tow aloft options... another plane pulls you up and you use (B) to release when the tow plane waggles its wings, then return to the airport... its very realistic (as possible) and also enjoyable. The plane with the built-in turbine can leave the ground on its own power (quickly runs out of fuel) but gets it up so that it can return to the airport. Its very good.
I use the Europhia 2K, Flyzone Calypso, Mistral 3M, Rf 97 (advanced), and the RF 98... see the Swap Pages. I modify all my planes for scaled up vehicle, and then I experiment with scaled physics, including CG placement. I have had some good success making the above models work will in Rf9.5 Sim.
marcus