JBK Short S23/S30
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Thread: JBK Short S23/S30

  1. #1
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    JBK Short S23/S30

    For those interested in the next month I will be uploading another updated version of Jens Kristensens marvellous Shorts S23 or C Class Flying Boats. I will also be including a batch of repaints to cover the Qantas Empire Airways fleet for the S23. I had been researching the aeroplane for non sim reasons and as a result have slowly but surely decided to incorporated a number of new but important small features (via new gauges). The package will be come as four types, the S23 Canopus (The first and prototype S23) the S23 MK1, the S30 LR CABOT and CLARE and MR AWARUA and CLEOPATRA (the Perseus engined S23s with long range tanks known as the Atlantic and Bermuda Boats respectively). There are significant changes to the load systems and layout based on the real aircraft and some minor tweaks to the aircraft config files. There are also a complete new set of sound files which are now modified for 4 engines and are still Pegasus engine sound. I have also updated the user manual and some effects files.

    The basic aeroplane remains as Jens built it but is now refined to the point where it is more representative of the original flying boats. Jens did such a great job with the aerodynamics and model that I have found no reason to want to change anything but more time spent with this old bird has increased my appreciation of his work and the aeroplane itself. Cockpit graphics may not be high fidelity but it was a 2004 model originally.

    After all how many flying boats could be airborne in 26 seconds with less than 1500 feet take off run at 40,000 lbs to 48000 lbs Take Off Weight, stall at less than 70 knots but cruise along happily at near 160 knots and do that for up to 19 hours non stop - Answer only the S 23.



    S23 Camilla on the water at Karumba.

    Oh and flight simming at its best - No ATC, No VORS No ILS the odd NDB, No traffic just you and the world about you - perfect.

  2. #2
    Looking forward to this!
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  3. #3
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    Sorry all but this project is on hold for some time. I had a major meltdown of my PC as a result of a power supply issues (external) that effectively destroyed my main hard drive, WIN7 installation and seriously damaged the back up drive as well. The so called Surge protection failed and therefore everything else on that line took a hit. In short my FSX installation has ceased to be along with all my work and projects. Some of the data on the back up disk may be recoverable (some) but the rest is a goner not to mention every other thing of value or interest. At this stage not even sure I want to start again on FSX or the PC either.

    Sods law at work. Not only the PC but a damn lot of other electrical stuff got fried as well.

  4. #4
    SOH Staff .."Bartender" AussieMan's Avatar
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    Lightning strike cause the power surge? I once discovered a surge protector cannot protect from lightning strikes. Everything computer related in my home now gets unplugged (even my phoneline and modem) at the first sound of thunder these days.


    Cheers
    Pat


    "Some people might say that freedom is being alone in the bush with the only sounds being the murmurs from the birds ... but I believe freedom is at 5000 feet with no other sound than the engine roaring."- William Hutchison, a young man taken from us far too young (16).

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    SOH-CM-2024 MrZippy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AussieMan View Post
    Lightning strike cause the power surge? I once discovered a surge protector cannot protect from lightning strikes. Everything computer related in my home now gets unplugged (even my phoneline and modem) at the first sound of thunder these days.
    More likely a voltage spike suppressor is needed.
    Charlie Awaiting the new Microsoft Flight Sim and will eventually buy a new computer. Running a Chromebook for now!

  6. #6
    SOH Staff .."Bartender" AussieMan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrZippy View Post
    More likely a voltage spike suppressor is needed.

    If it happened over the weekend or Monday I would say a lightning strike as we had a series of storms cross large parts of the state at the time. As I live on the Central Coast of NSW I follow them on the radar to see how close they are getting to me.


    Cheers
    Pat


    "Some people might say that freedom is being alone in the bush with the only sounds being the murmurs from the birds ... but I believe freedom is at 5000 feet with no other sound than the engine roaring."- William Hutchison, a young man taken from us far too young (16).

  7. #7
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    Yep it was a lightning strike. Every LED light in the house also blew but not the heavy duty electrical stuff with motors like the fridge, anything with a low voltage tolerance. Good news is managed to fix a few things on the PC but reformatted it and clean O/S install and as you know that means a clean reinstall of everything from FSX upwards. Generally well backed up and the back up drive was able to be resuscitated once the power supply issue was rectified. But anything recent last month or so well was kaput. Ah well. A fresh install may do wonders. Gotta look on the up side. Anyway, I will sim again.

  8. #8
    SOH Staff .."Bartender" AussieMan's Avatar
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    ​Good to see you back up and running. Reinstalling can be a real pain in the a**e.


    Cheers
    Pat


    "Some people might say that freedom is being alone in the bush with the only sounds being the murmurs from the birds ... but I believe freedom is at 5000 feet with no other sound than the engine roaring."- William Hutchison, a young man taken from us far too young (16).

  9. #9
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    Short update for those interested. I managed to salvage from backups a reasonable amount but not all. I have decided to reissue the packages this way (together or separately yet to be decided).
    S23. MK 1 Canopus - the first S23 or C Class flying boat. Short range.
    S23. MK II Centaurus and Canopus (Plus several other Australian liveries) New Pegasus Sound Package.
    S30. MK II Cabot and Clare. These were the first LR or Atlantic Boats. They had Bristol Perseus sleeve valve engines and significantly increased fuel capacity and take off weights. New sound package based on the Hercules sleeve valve engine.
    Some mods and changes to the panel and instrumentation to incorporate prop deice systems which was a retrofit to all C Class Flying Boats and a Flap Warning indicator also a retro refit on all the C Class flying boats.

    Probably about Xmas or early new year. Now redoing a lot of the lost textures.

  10. #10
    So glad you're back up and running. And glad you've decided to continue working on the project. Thank you so much.

  11. #11
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    All done and uploaded to the SOH library under FSX Aicraft Civilian Props. You can find them there. I have uploaded a scenery package with PART 1, it is limited in the sense that I have not listed needed library objects etc required. If you have Cal Classic Librarys, FSX default objects and Ted Andrews librarys you should be ok but the purpose is to provide proper ADE-AFCAD file for basically every major port and location used by Imperial Airways, Qantas and TEAL. I may release stand alone scenery packages in the near future but time is limited as I am back teaching and instructing airline pilots at the moment.

    The packages are two parts, PART 1 and PART 2. Part 1 contains the S23 MK 1 and MKII relevant effects files and manual and other material. Part 2 contains the S30 LR and MR models. You do not need one for the other to work they are all standalone.

    I have kept it simple. I have had no issue testing with my system but there is one important piece of information I neglected to include in all this - to get the correct water effects you will need to download and install the McCoy Water Affects AddOn package available from Flight Sim and Avsim both.

    Thats it, any complaints well you can contact me and I will see what I can do. But they should work as advertised. Have fun!

  12. #12
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    Looks great, will it squeeze into FS2004?
    Robin
    Cape Town, South Africa

  13. #13
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    zswobbie - should do it is basically a 2004 model ported over into FSX by JBK originally, So the gauges etc should all work, the DDS textures may be an issue, not sure, sound etc should be fine. I do not have 2004 so I have only run it in FSXA.

  14. #14
    Seems to work in P3Dv4 OK except for warning sign about Cockpit sounds not working. Not taken them for a proper flight yet just checked to see loaded OK and did a take off in the S23.

  15. #15
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    simondix - Thanks, good to know as I do not use P3D. The gauge warning would be a DSD sound gauge issue, probably one of those gauges not compatable with P3D. It only provided clickable sounds when switches etc were activated. Acutally great to hear this for those who use P3D. I hoped that this wonderful original work by JBK would survive into the post FSX era and it has.

    I am still fence sitting on whether to go P3D or not. As my FSXA is running very smoothly since I had the hard drive crash and did a clean install of Win7 64 bit and FSXA. Must have cleaned out a lot of built up conflicts etc. I have no real incentive to move on in that area for the time being.

  16. #16
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    A small point - maybe obvious to some but on load up the models all default to max fuel and load. Users can easily change loading in the aircraft weight and balance menu to represent what ever loading they like to.

    These aircraft seemed not to carry full passenger loads which is why they converted the front cabin into the pursers office and a freight and mail bag compartment. As mail was very profitable they generally it seems from the few remaining records, carried as much as they could (about 8000 lbs was not unusual) and it seems between 8 - 12 passengers was the norm, except during the war when they were doing a lot of evacuation and personnel transport work. What was also remarkable was the way Short kept increasing the takeoff weight from the original certified weight so by the last mark or the S30 they had increased the allowable take off weight by nearly 25% and done no mods to spars or the general construction. The S30s got more powerful Bristol Perseus engines. And there were a few that were retanked including in the compartment in the flight deck (it was a removavle tank system) and capable of carrying nearly 3000 gallons of fuel which made them very long range indeed. Seems the Mayo composite work was a waste of time the aircraft could carry the weight of the fuel, the wing could accomodate the extra tanks after all. The Sunderlands which was basically the same hull and wing used to go out grossly over max take off weight sometimes as much as 10,000 lbs, which is why they needed a lot of water to get airborne. A truly remarkable design all things considered.

    I am redoing the Qantas Empire Airways liveries with the aim of having all the various C Class boats operated by Qantas available. As a small point of interest as a young pilot we often used the make up callsign ABC when doing radio theory and practice I always wondered why there was not VH-ABC on the Australian register. It turns out that that ABC was originally allocated to a C Class flying boat that crashed at Townsvile in 1942 killing all on board which led to the point that the Australian authorities never reallocated registration marks from aircraft involved in such accidents to new aircraft later on, they were kept aside for good.

  17. #17
    I did a quick flight from Pembroke to Tenby using the scenry provided and was good. The warning sign says it will use the default P3D programme. shame there are not more of Jens planes converted so they run inP3dv4. The Viscount, does and also over at CalClassics Tom has converted the DC's plus the Viking. Thanks for taking the time and effort to doing these aircraft.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by simondix View Post
    Seems to work in P3Dv4 OK except for warning sign about Cockpit sounds not working. Not taken them for a proper flight yet just checked to see loaded OK and did a take off in the S23.
    I tried swapping in the 64-bit P3D-compatible version of the DSD sound gauge, but it doesn't look like the CockpitSounds.ini file from the original was included.

    The gauge will work if you substitute this for the current gauge16 in the virtual cockpit:

    gauge16=dsd_p3d_xml_sound_x64!Sound, 0, 0, 0, 0, .\Gauges\CockpitSounds\CockpitSounds.ini

    But it complaints it can't find the CockpitSounds.ini file, and the .ini file I have in my folder is from the DR400...

  19. #19
    SOH-CM-2021 BendyFlyer's Avatar
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    I may have actually lost that guage during the crash and missed picking it up on the rebuild. For those scratching their heads, There is this freeware gauge available (I think it is the same one) from Avsim here is the link.

    https://library.avsim.net/search.php...root&Go=Search

    but you will need Doug Dawsons FSX xml sound gauge to go with it

    http://www.douglassdawson.ca/

    Doug has some specific gauges there for P3D Whether this will then work in P3D I am unable to say. If they do not then just edit out the line in the panel config file.

    There are no warning sounds for the flap light, it is just that a light that comes on when power and flap are selected - that is all they did in the original S23. A visual reminder not to select more than 20 degree flap for take off and that flap was selected.

  20. #20
    Thanks for your replies about the gauge everybody.

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