DC Designs Northrop P-61C Black Widow RELEASED

[Seahawk72s]

Yes there is. It also opens with Shift-E

Wow, missed that, thanks...

[Seahawk72s]

Just flew a short hop and she flies like a charm! Just a couple niggles about switches

The landing lights can be extended but I can't turn them on, no switch and no taxi light, most switches on the left hand panel appear to be inverted (battery, avionics, engine start switches are on energize when they aren't going and switch to "off" to start, same with fuel pumps)

Otherwise, shes a gem!
Pam, I see what you mean about the wonky takeoff settings, you can feel the weight of those props in the throttle. You should be proud of your FDE work, it feels great!

Landing lights in aircraft.cfg are commented out.
I ended up adding a small popup light switch panel.
This will add taxi light...

"//Taxi Light
light.XX =6, -1.40, -0.10, -2.85, fx_landing.fx,"

And if your into it recognition lights.
//Recognition Lights
light.8 = 7, -33.500, 9.50, -0.78, fx_navred // bottom red fuselage recognition
light.9 = 7, -34.500, 9.50, -0.70, fx_navwhi // bottom amber fuselage recognition
light.10 = 7, -35.500, 9.50, -0.70, fx_navgre // bottom green fuselage recognition

[Seahawk72s]

- VCockpit 5 does not seem to be mapped to any surface.
- F15 smoke resides on VCockpit 3 & 4.
- VCockpit 3 is not quite mapped completely to object.(see pic)
- Could VCockpit 4 & 5 be mapped to other RO surfaces..?
- Could generator switch panel be mapped to VC so voltage gauges could be placed..?

[DC1973]

Thanks for the feedback folks! In brief to reply to some observations:

The bouncing aircraft on the runway that won't take off is something I recall seeing myself once before with another airplane and I think it was something to do with airfield elevation but I can't remember what the cause was. I think Pam's right in that it seems to be peculiar to scenery rather than the model. If it pops back into my mind I'll report it here.

Vcockpit 5 is mapped to the upper quadrant of the RO position and displays altimeter and ASI. I'll look at the maps also when I get a chance.

I'll look at the switches in the VC but they're the same set as the Reporter and nothing's been changed that I'm aware of so they should be operating in the same way.

I'll get to any other niggles as they come in for an update, but am having a little break from modeling at the moment before beginning the next project as my daughter's on her school summer holidays at the moment. Once all the data's in I'll do the work and update the files here and at Simviation

Cheers!

[DC1973]

Just flew a short hop and she flies like a charm! Just a couple niggles about switches

The landing lights can be extended but I can't turn them on, no switch and no taxi light, most switches on the left hand panel appear to be inverted (battery, avionics, engine start switches are on energize when they aren't going and switch to "off" to start, same with fuel pumps)

I identified the problem with the switches - they're fine, but I used an old texture map instead of the Reporter's new one. Where the panel says "off", it's supposed to say "on"! Will update it shortly.

The landing light switch is on the same panel, bottom middle. Works fine on my machine and extends the lights, illuminated. The landing light is double-spaced out in the .cfg because the light is an attach-point and swings down with the animated light assembly itself.

[MrZippy]

Awesome..
OK, so what this means, since the FDE for the zP-61C is a modification of the one i had you download, is that my next step is to put the two side by side and figure out which difference is causing the issue.. This may talke a couple days.. Bear with me ..

Thanks, Pam....there's no rush.

[roger-wilco-66]

Hi,

just a few observations on the reported bouncing.

- Props twirling during bounce:

In my opinion: That effect comes from the aircraft being suspended in the air for a second or so during the bounce. With the plane afloat the sim thinks that the prop should be windmilling. As soon as the aircraft lands on the ground it stops the revolutions again. When the airplane bounces all this happens in a short time frame. This is an oversimplification effect of the sim, since a prop should not be windmilling beyond a certain speed.

- Bouncing:

- MrZippy, you could try to adjust your mesh setting to 5m. That's what ORBX recommends for their scenery, and I think it's also a good setting for other sceneries. It also could be that any mesh related problems can be aggrevated by orientation parameters in the aircraft.cfg like static_pitch . We're looking into that.

I flew the P-61C for weeks now, on default sceneries, various payware and a very exotic scenery of my own, and did not experience that effect, I must say. But that doesn't mean that there isn't something going on.


Cheers,
Mark

[Seahawk72s]

[QUOTE=DC1973;1150344]Thanks for the feedback folks! In brief to reply to some observations:


Vcockpit 5 is mapped to the upper quadrant of the RO position and displays altimeter and ASI. I'll look at the maps also when I get a chance. /QUOTE]

I took a second look and RO gauges are on VCockpit 8...?
A small item but I noticed fuel diagram on left is upside down..

[Catboat]

Dean, What can I say! As a person who is a computer Neanderthal, I am as always totally in awe of what you Gents can do!! Great hairy-chested aircraft and a tribute to Jack Northrop, one of the great innovative designers of the era, whose work, though not overlooked, has been overshadowed by some better-known designers of the time.

[DC1973]

[QUOTE=Seahawk72s;1150380]

Thanks for the feedback folks! In brief to reply to some observations:


Vcockpit 5 is mapped to the upper quadrant of the RO position and displays altimeter and ASI. I'll look at the maps also when I get a chance. /QUOTE]

I took a second look and RO gauges are on VCockpit 8...?
A small item but I noticed fuel diagram on left is upside down..

Thanks. I'll flip the fuel diagram in the textures. Unfortunately, I just went to check the VC texture maps in FSDS and in the rush of changes and requests, it appears that yesterday I inadvertently deleted the entire VC source model. My fault entirely, but I suspect that any changes from now on will be texture based only. I'm off to have a lie down...

[DC1973]

Dean, What can I say! As a person who is a computer Neanderthal, I am as always totally in awe of what you Gents can do!! Great hairy-chested aircraft and a tribute to Jack Northrop, one of the great innovative designers of the era, whose work, though not overlooked, has been overshadowed by some better-known designers of the time.

Thanks, glad you like the airplane!

[falcon409]

Dean, thanks for yet another beautiful airplane. The P-61 is a gem and I enjoyed a relatively short flight from Nantucket down to Dover AFB. I will say that I saw no real reason for anything other than a very normal approach and landing. I have realism settings almost maxed and using flaps alone I made a normal approach and nice soft touchdown at Dover. I even made the approach a very short one to see if dropping airspeed from 300kts to an approach speed was difficult, but with the spoilers and flaps used sparingly to bleed airspeed, even a short approach was easily performed.

Thanks again and well done!!

[falcon409]

One thing I did discover which I wish had been done differently is that there is no large size gauge panel. I was thinking about adding bezels to the gauges similar to what Dean showed in the actual cockpit images he posted in this thread. However the panel texture (or at least the only thing I can find that seems to be the panel texture) is located in the lower left corner of the "virtual cockpit" texture and too small to allow any enhancements. There are other panel textures but they seem to be only for the various switches and such.

Sorry Dean. . .an otherwise excellent airplane. . .just a personal preference probably not shared by most, lol

:after more searching it seems (according to MCX) that the texture for the panel may be part of the model file and not accessible as it references a texture $VCNEW which I'm pretty sure is a placeholder, but there is no corresponding texture in the folders.

[Seahawk72s]

One thing I did discover which I wish had been done differently is that there is no large size gauge panel. I was thinking about adding bezels to the gauges similar to what Dean showed in the actual cockpit images he posted in this thread. However the panel texture (or at least the only thing I can find that seems to be the panel texture) is located in the lower left corner of the "virtual cockpit" texture and too small to allow any enhancements. There are other panel textures but they seem to be only for the various switches and such.

Sorry Dean. . .an otherwise excellent airplane. . .just a personal preference probably not shared by most, lol

:after more searching it seems (according to MCX) that the texture for the panel may be part of the model file and not accessible as it references a texture $VCNEW which I'm pretty sure is a placeholder, but there is no corresponding texture in the folders.

I too would be interested to hear Dean's response as there are a few paint additions I would like to add to the panel texture.

[Seahawk72s]

.....However the panel texture (or at least the only thing I can find that seems to be the panel texture) is located in the lower left corner of the "virtual cockpit" texture and too small to allow any enhancements. .

This turns out to be the gun sight...

[Seahawk72s]

Using Rosa26 gauges with a few texture tweaks...

[falcon409]

OK, then that leads me to think, unless Dean says otherwise, that the texture for the panel is an internal part of the MDL file. That’s unfortunate.

[falcon409]

Using Rosa26 gauges with a few texture tweaks...

What are “Rosa26” gauges?

[DC1973]

Just a super quick reply but I was asked to remove the bezel part of the VC so that folks could change the layout of the instrument panel. Will reply in more detail later.

[MrZippy]

@roger-wilco-66...tried the 5M mesh setting-no help.

@warchild....Pam, I did a little cheat to get this bird flying. I started off with my twin-engine Volpar and after getting the gear and flaps up, I switched over to the P-61C. Flight performance was spot-on. Achieved a good landing using the air-brakes and flaps. It got real bouncy as it slowed on the runway. Sure is weird! Am I correct that the only steering is the use of differential braking?

[Seahawk72s]

:What are “Rosa26” gauges? :

Gauge cab from an SOH A26 project led by Milton back around 2007.

[huub vink]

I assume these are the gauges by Real Old Salt done for Milton Shupe's (and team) A-26.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...tid=8&id=10505

The can be found in the library here under FS2004 others....

When my memory is correct there were two different .cab files. One with the ghost image of Real Old Salt (called Rosa26.cab) and one without this image (called Nosa26.cab)

Cheers,
Huub

Edit: SeaHawk just beat me......

[Seahawk72s]

I assume these are the gauges by Real Old Salt done for Milton Shupe's (and team) A-26.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...tid=8&id=10505

The can be found in the library here under FS2004 others....

When my memory is correct there were two different .cab files. One with the ghost image of Real Old Salt (called Rosa26.cab) and one without this image (called Nosa26.cab)

Cheers,
Huub

Edit: SeaHawk just beat me......

You topped me with the Nosa26 cab, did not know about that...

[warchild]

@roger-wilco-66...tried the 5M mesh setting-no help.

@warchild....Pam, I did a little cheat to get this bird flying. I started off with my twin-engine Volpar and after getting the gear and flaps up, I switched over to the P-61C. Flight performance was spot-on. Achieved a good landing using the air-brakes and flaps. It got real bouncy as it slowed on the runway. Sure is weird! Am I correct that the only steering is the use of differential braking?

Glad the flight part of it was good .. we';ll get you fixed on the rest of it too.. Check your PM's and let me know ..
As for steering, the simple answer is no. I'm old you see and my hands are weak and my joystick is a force sensing one, so using differential braking, was breaking my hand. Youll find i added a 45degree deflection on the nosewheel so we could use nosewheel steering if we choose.

Regarding bouncing.
I just did a flight out of a pre-alpha airbase thats as exotic as you can get. It's part of an as yet unreleased scenery package by a very dear friend, whom i hope gets a chance to release it some day. Of course I had an issue. It put my plane in the middle of a gravel pit that i had to drive out of, but once I was up on the main ground, tyhere were no problems. That of course is using the FDE i sent you. If everything works on your end, I'll post it here as a fix and an update as some minor but possibly important things were reworked..
I also hope everyone enjoys this little snapshot, of Claire Chenaults Kunming China.

[DennyA]

Just a huge thanks to everyone involved in the project! Beautiful plane, and wow, it flies well. Really feels like a real plane as you're reaching takeoff speeds, more so than some payware that just leaps into the sky.

My default flight had the lights on so my guns were stuck firing, but once I figured out they were slaved to a light all went well.