New FSX-Native Complex Aircraft: Antonov An-24RV

[ceo1944]

I was looking for something interesting and this attracted me, so I downloaded it and had a look. I'm really glad I did! This is a real jewel of freeware, and I hate to see it dropping down the list where people won't notice it any more.

If you are like me and enjoy flying airplanes more than pushing buttons on an FMC, and like something challenging but worthwhile, and have an affinity for something funky and out of the ordinary, this AN-24RV is something you should check out.

I realize how intimidating a Russian cockpit is to those of us familiar with Western ways. Cyrillic, meters, kilometers, kilograms! Worse than lions and tigers and bears.

But I'm taken with this thing. Hat's off to the developers. I have been following the (translated by google) thread on Avsim.ru as best I can.

So I've "westernized", and added some stuff, and fixed a few problems. All relatively easy stuff to do since it uses 2D gauges for most stuff so I can cut & paste.

- Replaced the ASI with one using knots not KMH.
- The VSI now measures in FPM not MPS.
- Put millibars on the Altimeter that measures feet.
- DME is now NM not KM.
- Used the English cockpit posted here (thanks for that SeanTK!)
- Translated the row of warning lights to English.

And the following enhancements/fixes:

- VOR navigation now works.
- Fixed the annoying gyro sound that kept sounding like it was starting and stopping constantly.
- Installed a modified and reliable KLN90B gauge in a pop-up that will now drive the heading in the autopilot.
- Rearranged the pop-up windows to include the new ones (below).
- Installed Lee Heatherington's TCASII gauge in place of the VSI.
- Installed a radio access pop-up that allows you to change the nav frequencies easily.
- Replaced the fake "Groza" weather radar with a working one - Roland's Radar that syncs with ASN/AS2016.
- Installed the FSCaptain FCDU and associated gear.
- Installed a working pressurization panel pop-up that is FSCaptain compatible but can be used without it.
- Installed a pop-up altitude alerter.

I used as a base the latest updated version from the Avsim.ru thread as of January 11. The one with the KLN90B taken out of the VC.

I am putting together a short simple "Pilot's handbook" and when that's ready (no promises, I have another more important project I am working on) I will post a link here to the version that has all this. Or if you are impatient and ask nicely I will post it without the docs and you are on your own.

All this should help get you "over the hump" if you have avoided this lovely funky jewel because of the strangeness factors. It's worth it.

Dutch

[Adonis]

- Replaced the fake "Groza" weather radar with a working one - Roland's Radar that syncs with ASN/AS2016.

The Groza actually isn't fake,just incomplete, only the ground mapping works and it works as it should.

[pbearsailor]

That's very good news, Dutch. Thanks!

really is a nice plane.

[ce_zeta]

Thanks Dutch! Will be interesting. There still an Iron Curtain in FS world. There are not exist a fluent share of information. They are in his side and westeners in the other.

Yeap. Felis is a great developer. All his aircrafts are a gems (Il-14, An-24RV, Yak-40 and Tu-154M*).
He is a Ukrainian payware developer but he released former addons as freeware and open source....For this reason, these folks take Felis models and maybe ¿some parts of the code**? and made a version for FSX. That's is a bit strange because other modeler Lesha, has an amazing An-24RV model with a beautiful 3D cockpit but he didnt found coders as far I know.

*At this moment this is flagship...I was skeptical about the quality of these addons (I discovered Felis Airplanes with the Tu-154M) but it's at least at the same level of systems than Project Tupolev. Maybe better.
**I doubt it. I think that they are using DZIES code.

Sadly An-24RV still don't work in X-Plane 11 Beta.

They made a mess with the KLN. I put in his thread info about the KLN last stable version (Dutch version) and development version...With a bit luck they can continue the development and add 2D/3D support and more features.

Groza is the same than this Project?

[ceo1944]

The Groza actually isn't fake,just incomplete, only the ground mapping works and it works as it should.

I really meant that it doesn't function as a real weather radar. Didn't mean to insult it! The ground mapping and drift do work and they are useful, and neither function works on the ASN radar. So you have the option, by selecting which to comment out in the panel.cfg, either way.

If the Wx function could be added to Groza that would be great - but it would require C++ to interface to the ASN API not the XML currently used.

I don't believe accurate Wx data can be displayed using XML. If I'm wrong I'd love to know how.

I'd love to integrate all this, but it's a major project and I don't have the time right now.

Dutch

[SeanTK]

Very cool, Dutch! This should make it much more accessible for those that don't want to deal with the Soviet/Ukrainian/Russian avionics idiosyncrasies.

I for one am interested in the following adjustments:

- VOR navigation now works.
- Fixed the annoying gyro sound that kept sounding like it was starting and stopping constantly.

If you want any help with the pilot's handbook, I'm open to seeing if I can be of any assistance just an an enthusiast even though I had no part in creating this addon.
I'm using the build from around January 3rd with the aircraft.cfg update from a few days later, as I wanted to keep the KLN.

[ceo1944]

Thanks Dutch! Will be interesting. There still an Iron Curtain in FS world. There are not exist a fluent share of information. They are in his side and westeners in the other.

All too true. There's somewhat a "not invented here" syndrome on both sides. Also, many US pilots are unfamiliar with metric measurements. It's hard when you've spent years thinking in knots, feet, pounds and nautical miles to get a feel for how far 200 KM is, or how high 5000 meters really is. And most of the ATC programs assign altitudes in feet and speeds in knots. And Russian aviation is different. I like that difference, because it makes life interesting, but some find it uncomfortable.

Yeap. Felis is a great developer. All his aircrafts are a gems (Il-14, An-24RV, Yak-40 and Tu-154M*).
He is a Ukrainian payware developer but he released former addons as freeware and open source....For this reason, these folks take Felis models and maybe ¿some parts of the code**? and made a version for FSX. That's is a bit strange because other modeler Lesha, has an amazing An-24RV model with a beautiful 3D cockpit but he didnt found coders as far I know.

*At this moment this is flagship...I was skeptical about the quality of these addons (I discovered Felis Airplanes with the Tu-154M) but it's at least at the same level of systems than Project Tupolev. Maybe better.
**I doubt it. I think that they are using DZIES code.

I looked at some of his other models. You're right this is the best so far. I'm looking forward to what the future may bring. I'd contribute code to this, except that I'm swamped with real-world work. So that would have to wait until the current project is done later this year.

They made a mess with the KLN. I put in his thread info about the KLN last stable version (Dutch version) and development version...With a bit luck they can continue the development and add 2D/3D support and more features.

I read that. What I did was put 0.76B in a 2D pop-up. Any version after that is, sadly, subject to crashes. I tried the Gabor 0.77B for a while, but after a couple CTDs I went back to 0.76B. I made a minor change to it and am now calling in 0.76C -- to export an Lvar to tell the AN-24RV to stop trying to drive the heading and let the KLN do it. That works very well so now AN will follow the plan in KLN.

Groza is the same than this Project?

Dunno. I will look later. Right now I'm fighting a sinus infection and don't have much energy

Dutch

[ceo1944]

Groza is the same than this Project?

Not the same. The Groza that's in the An-24 now is written in XML whereas the project on your link is in C++.

However - the C++ one is viable to be a complete Groza with a working radar, because it can be modified to use the ASN/2016 radar API to show actual conditions.

Good to see that exists. Ideally, we would have all the correct functions implemented. Eventually, if someone can take on the project to do it. It involves using SimConnect, which is not trivial unless you know what you're doing.

Dutch

[ceo1944]

Sean, you have a PM from me. Thanks for posting it here so we could see it. Otherwise I'd have never known about it probably.

All I really did was swap the ASI and VSI so the pilot can deal with knots and feet rather than meters. It already has an altimeter in feet. (I did change it so the setting is now in Hg rather than Mb.)

The Soviet/Russian/CIS style avionics work as in the original. All I did there was get the VOR to tune like it should. It was tempting to put in a Western style HSI but there's no real place to stick it, and besides, the authentic navigation system has its own weird charm and challenges. (I.e. you still need to understand the difference between the GIK and GPK gyros and what they drive, and how to align and adjust them.)

Although, if you are careful about powering up with the APU before opening the engine start cover, it won't reset everything, and the gyros will be set up and aligned for you. This is a feature of the original, I didn't change it. This is why we need a handbook. This thing has a lot of interesting features and quirks that need explanation.

Dutch

Very cool, Dutch! This should make it much more accessible for those that don't want to deal with the Soviet/Ukrainian/Russian avionics idiosyncrasies.

I for one am interested in the following adjustments:

- VOR navigation now works.
- Fixed the annoying gyro sound that kept sounding like it was starting and stopping constantly.

If you want any help with the pilot's handbook, I'm open to seeing if I can be of any assistance just an an enthusiast even though I had no part in creating this addon.
I'm using the build from around January 3rd with the aircraft.cfg update from a few days later, as I wanted to keep the KLN.

[SeanTK]

Sean, you have a PM from me. Thanks for posting it here so we could see it. Otherwise I'd have never known about it probably.

All I really did was swap the ASI and VSI so the pilot can deal with knots and feet rather than meters. It already has an altimeter in feet. (I did change it so the setting is now in Hg rather than Mb.)

The Soviet/Russian/CIS style avionics work as in the original. All I did there was get the VOR to tune like it should. It was tempting to put in a Western style HSI but there's no real place to stick it, and besides, the authentic navigation system has its own weird charm and challenges. (I.e. you still need to understand the difference between the GIK and GPK gyros and what they drive, and how to align and adjust them.)

Although, if you are careful about powering up with the APU before opening the engine start cover, it won't reset everything, and the gyros will be set up and aligned for you. This is a feature of the original, I didn't change it. This is why we need a handbook. This thing has a lot of interesting features and quirks that need explanation.

Dutch

Thanks. Still getting the intermittent battery sound but the VOR indicator seems to work at it should now so that's a bonus.
Also noted that when flying in colder weather and/or at altitude, this turboprop does leave contrails unlike many other FSX turboprops. Downside is that if it does so on the ground due to temps, it really eats at framerates.

[ceo1944]

Did you copy the three .wav files and the sound.ini to the AN24_X\sound folder? The sound.ini should replace the existing one, but the three .wav files are new. The original sound was named 'gyrosound.wav' you can delete that.

Obviously you got 'Global_Processor.xml' in the right place or the VOR wouldn't be working right.

Thanks. Still getting the intermittent battery sound but the VOR indicator seems to work at it should now so that's a bonus.
Also noted that when flying in colder weather and/or at altitude, this turboprop does leave contrails unlike many other FSX turboprops. Downside is that if it does so on the ground due to temps, it really eats at framerates.

[SeanTK]

Did you copy the three .wav files and the sound.ini to the AN24_X\sound folder? The sound.ini should replace the existing one, but the three .wav files are new. The original sound was named 'gyrosound.wav' you can delete that.

Obviously you got 'Global_Processor.xml' in the right place or the VOR wouldn't be working right.

Yep, and all of the code seems to work with the other functions. I'll just try to reinstall again. Probably just a fluke on my part. It's happened before.

Can't thank you enough for your efforts though!

[SeanTK]

Updated aircraft.cfg values from someone in the Avsim.su forums who claims these are more true to life in terms of airspeeds and fuel-flow rates, at least as far as Google Translate tells me. I haven't flown with these yet, and I recommend backing up your CFG before making these changes. Apply the changes to the sections in brackets below, so that they reflect the numbers below. The following are just what is changed. Do not delete any lines or any other values.

[Propeller] thrust_scalar = 1.3
[Turboprop_engine]
power_scalar = 1.3
[TurbineEngineData]
fuel_flow_gain = 0.003 // 0.005
[Flight_tuning]
cruise_lift_scalar = 1.5
parasite_drag_scalar = 1.3
induced_drag_scalar = 1.2
[Weight_and_balance]
max_gross_weight = 49604.010
empty_weight = 31488.625
[GeneralEngineData]
fuel_flow_scalar = 0.70 // 0.95
[Airplane_geometry]
wing_winglets_flag = 0
oswald_efficiency_factor = 0.627


I've attached the following to this post:

1. The later aircraft.cfg but it does NOT have the above fixes applied!
2. High def Russian VC textures (Russian language). This comes with the aircraft but I noticed an inconsistency in them being applied across the liveries, as sometimes some VC textures I noticed were at a lower, blurry resolution. Install these in in the texture folder of any livery where you want crystal-clear Cyrillic text in the cockpit! The lower resolution was particularly noticable across the lower portion of the panel (lights and individual gauge switches). Now all text is super clear.


Aircraft_CFG_070117.zip
RussianHDCockpitTexture.zip

[SeanTK]

Here's what it looks like at night for those who are curious. Also see the new aircraft.cfg edits and the attachments posted above. Thanks.

[SeanTK]

Update: Flew with the above suggested changed values in my aircraft.cfg, and I think the cruise lift scalar value is overdone, but aircraft performance other than that seems to be generally closer to real life. Still experimenting with values but it may be better back at 1.0 or 1.1. Suggest experimenting with it.

Also, there is current a cockpit retexture effort with what I understand to be partially photoreal textures on the Avsim.su forum. No indication when those may be released.

[SeanTK]

New rewritten flight dynamics from one of the authors of the FSX conversion out of the Avsim.su forums dated 16 January 2017. Comes with a new air file and new aircraft.cfg file, so backup any repaint entries. Haven't tried it yet.
Attached to this post.

UPDATE: The new FDE is excellent! Engine responsiveness is much improved which allows for finer control on final, airspeeds are by the book and realistic, and in general handling all around is wonderful.

[Stefano Zibell]

Any news on that "westernization"?

[Dino Cattaneo]

This project seems awesome... I need to find the time to try it. Being a developer it is really difficult to find the time to fly anything that is not a WIP project of yours... and it is a shame. Then I confess I am one of those simmers that are a little frightened by cyrillic characters in the cockpit. But on the other side of the "flightsim iron curtain" there are some amazing developers and pretty exotic (for us) aircrafts to discover. This may be a (partial) solution to the problem of having too many P-51s and Cessnas (which is indeed an issue)...try and fly an Antonov!

[ian elliot]

Im having problems loading this aircraft up, im getting an exception and a fatal error warning before the sim shuts down, the version ive installed is from FSX aircaft at the main AvsimRus site, but im not sure if thats the best version to download, any ideas.

[DaveB]

Ian..

This error is linked to the KLN GPS. Go back through the thread and you'll see I reported it early on. One of the members has posted a link to the latest KLN build.. use this instead of the one that comes with the model

ATB
DaveB

[ian elliot]

Thanks Dave, cant seem to see your post anywhere but notice'd the links in SeanTK's first post, for the time being, ive just removed anything beginning with KLN90 from the panel folder, i rarely use GPS anyway, if thats what it is,
and now im flying , i'll explore the fix's when i have more time, thanks again,

[DaveB]

Sri for the curved ball mate. I made the post in the FIRST thread.. not this one started by Sean. Realised this when I went back and couldn't see my post here

This is probably the better thread as Sean highlighted all the very latest bits to throw it all together. I've just flown it Geneva to Zurich and couldn't find the pitots so I'm gonna try the English panel I like to leave them authentic whenever possible but I'll fly this so little.. remembering where stuff is will be (and is) a problem.

I've not tried the new KLN (not really my thing either) but installing it fixed the problem and it's there should I ever want to use it. If I remember right.. it comes as an exe and is a remarkably simple install. Just install the gauge and do no more. The AN24 already knows where it is!!
ATB
DaveB

[SeanTK]

I'll post the version I'm using (and the dynamics I'm using) later today. In short, I'm not using the link from the Avsimrus file library, I'm using one from the forum thread over there, as well as flight dynamics.

[ian elliot]

Thanks Sean, i thought i'd try and convert an X-Plane scheme over, found a good looking VVS camo skin that i like'd and after 2 mins with DXTBmp, im flying. Cant make my mind up if there's a mapping issue or thats how they really look'd, the black areas seem really black but you can just make out rivets and panel line's and the icing boots seem rather large, but i still like the look. Now i know how easy it is, i'll try a few more.

[SeanTK]

Here is the version of the aircraft I'm using, plus the aircraft.cfg and air file update.

An24_X.rar

upd_an24_160117.zip