This is belated recognition of a FSX model that sort of slipped past without much notice for some reason. It was the Lockheed Ventura ((Native) for FSX Beta produced by Milton Schupe with contributions by: Tom Falley, Rachael Whiteford, and Sounds by Nigel Richards. Pilot figures by Jan Visser back in March 2018. The Drop tank gauge was by Robert Sanderson. With time on my hands I set to do a repaint to get the scheme and era I wanted and well get to know the Ventura. This was an impressive package. Included was a copy of the original US Army Manual. Several models and liveries (RAF, Canadians and US) - glass nose and solid nose. The textures are beautifully done with bumps and speculars bringing out the rivets and joins. The VC is a treat, authentic in all aspects and most if not all relevant switches and gauges modelled and mouse clickable. Interesting internal views - right side observer or 2nd pilot, midsection, then navigator station. Bomb bays are operable and the turrets rotate in flight. The auxillary wing drop tanks are droppable. The colouring and general finish is first class, gauges and edges. Spend some time in this one and you begin to feel you are flying the real thing. Numbers and performance is per the book. FSX and FSXA Native model and high quality dds textures.
Well as for the Ventura?
First if your not into Lockheed style, round motors and slower times with basic navigation systems (gyros and compasses) understood but if your are then this is a great model and a welcome addition to the simulator.
The Ventura was mid to mid heavy development of the Hudson fitted with P&W 2800 engines. While a capable bomber it could handle a variety of tasks including reconnaissance, maritime patrol, personnel transport or evacuations and it got about at about 200 knots. It had an eliptical narrow chord wing and a big solid fuselage aptly called the 'Rounder'. Twin fins and rudders gave it the standard Lockheed look. The Ventura was basically the Hudson with a bit more muscle and girth. The wing had a high wing loading resulting in the need to fly this aircraft at higher speeds and carry a lot more power in all phases of flight, get on the back of the drag curve and it will fall out of the sky on you in a flash, which they did repeatedly on some.
While I really enjoyed the Lodestar by Milton and friends, the Ventura is another aeroplane again with its own character. Light on the controls but no rocket, solid performance but not sparkling. Ideal for long periods in the air in reasonable comfort. The animations are great, the finish amazing and the VC a high quality effort.
Glad to rediscover this 'Rounder' from Milton hope some of you do too. 9/10. A Schupe classic.
A couple of shots:
In the cruise.
The pointy end.
Interior - Nav station looking forward
And Milton was right with the Beta Release, it did not need any more work so the Beta is the one it stayed at. That is credit to all involved as well.
I made a quick test flight and it was indeed quite pleasant.
The plane works perfectly in P3Dv4, and the virtual cockpit seems to have a correct scale in VR. All controls are accessible in VR as well.
My only problem were the starters, which were barely moving the props. They didn't stay "ON" for long enough. So I pressed the M key and kept the '+' key pressed, the engine started correctly.
The sound set of that plane is quite nice by the way, and the engines seen from the VC look good.
I also started to fly the PV-1 just recently and was pleased to see this timely thread posted by Bendyflyer. I'd like to contribute here some pics and comments on the Ventura...so here goes. I've enjoyed this classic by Milton Shupe and team.
As my country New Zealand had 139 Venturas during the war, I took one of the paints of the tri coloured PV-1 with the green octopus on its back and repainted on top of the US markings the NZ markings and removed the octopus, to represent PV-1 NZ4633. The US wing star and bars had to be completely removed and the new markings re-positioned and re-sized to more accurately represent the RNZAF roundels with bars. Most of the Venturas came in the standard three tone colours and NZ4633 was one of those so it was just easy to paint on the RNZAF markings. The earlier ones had the two tone colours of intermediate blue and light grey.
I made some new camera views as well and dropped in the R2800 sounds from the SOH A-26 as I felt it sounded more like what the PV veterans described how it sounded.
One of the new camera views is in the turret, turn on the autopilot and switch views to the turret and you can pan view moving with the turret as it moves. You can just see behind the faint smoke trails from the R2800s. They were smokey engines, leaving a distinct exhaust trail. Makes you wonder how the gunner managed not to shoot off the wires and tails!
Another camera view standing up looking down at the cockpit.
Another camera view looking out at the wing trailing edge with the flap out.
I've enjoyed flying this Milton Shupe classic quite a bit lately going on long cross country flights, tonight I did one cruising at 200 - 212 knots (220-245 mph) at 45" manifold pressure and 2400-2500 RPM at 4000ft altitude. It drinks a lot of fuel for sure! Could have used lower settings but I just wanted to go a little bit faster at the higher cruise settings. With water injection at full throttle it can go up to 57" tops, without it's at about 52" tops.
If anyone wants these camera views for their PV-1, I'd be happy to post here for those of you that would like to copy and paste it into their own Ventura aircraft cfg.
Nice shots of the NZ PV-1. It is a strange aeroplane in some ways. Big engines but always feels underpowered for the wing they used. In some ways performs similar to the Curtis Commando. Good down low and lots of load lifting grunt but cannot throw it around hard and low speeds, load factor iccrease will get you every time I guess if you delivered ordinance with it you did it on a low diving run so you kept up plenty of speed. Yes please to the camera views - good job there.
Thanks Bendyflyer. According to comments by PV-1 pilots, it was a "hot ship" to fly and had good flight handling - a bit like an oversized fighter ship. Escorting Corsairs had to open up to keep up with the Venturas on missions. According to someone who heard the Australian PV-1 flying before it was damaged in a belly landing and grounded years ago said it sounded like a concrete mixer from the ground - if you have worked with a concrete mixer picture the sound, quite an oddity. It could be from the paddle props combined with the engine sound I think.
I think the engine power in the cfg needs to be upped a little bit as the Ventura certainly wasn't underpowered. The Harpoon that followed after it was much heavier and quite a bit slower.
Here's the camera views. Highlight and copy it and then paste to the bottom of your Ventura Aircraft.cfg. If there are already camera views in your cfg, you have the option of overwriting it or just pick the views you want from here and add them on to the end of the existing camera views in your cfg. Make a backup copy first before you do this! Let me know if it all works ok.
//External Views
[CameraDefinition.0]
Title = "Right Wing"
Guid = {d1a06ec7-ca13-4731-ac75-a148b63a6d77}
Description = View from the right wing tip looking at the cockpit
Origin = Center
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = FALSE
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = FALSE
Track = None
ShowAxis = FALSE
AllowZoom = TRUE
InitialZoom = 0.8
ShowWeather = Yes
InitialXyz = 22.5, 1.75, 6//InitialXyz = 0, 0, 0 //RI -LE, UP -DN, FW -BW
InitialPbh = 5, 0, 248//InitialPbh = 0, 0, 0 //-UP DN, TURN, RI -LE
XyzAdjust = TRUE
Category=Aircraft
ClipMode=Minimum
[CameraDefinition.1]
Title = "Left Wing"
Guid = {87c59c32-de9b-4081-b8bc-940247ff8ff7}
Description = View from the left wing tip looking at the cockpit
Origin = Center
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = FALSE
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = FALSE
Track = None
ShowAxis = FALSE
AllowZoom = TRUE
InitialZoom = 0.8
ShowWeather = Yes
InitialXyz = -22.5, 1.75, -5//InitialXyz = 0, 0, 0 //RI -LE, UP -DN, FW -BW
InitialPbh = 5, 0, 80//InitialPbh = 0, 0, 0 //-UP DN, TURN, RI -LE
XyzAdjust = TRUE
Category=Aircraft
ClipMode=Minimum
Great work on the RNZAF repaint modification there as well mrogers.
Any chance you could upload it here?.
I have been flying the RNZAF RB-34 texture that I came across but would love to fly the PV-1 in RNZAF colours.
There is also a very nice paint available for Milton and teams PV-2 Harpoon that the RNZAF had four of for a couple of months late in WWII.
Thanks. Yes, I'll upload the modified paint as soon as I can. I'm still making some adjustments here and there, for example I had to move the port side roundel and bars foward quite a bit from its original position as it shows in photos that there was a little recangular window on the port fuselage side and the roundel was much further forward to put it ahead of the little window. I also am going to add exhaust stains under the wings from the engines as it shows in photos as being quite dirty behind the exhausts. Once I'm happy with it I'll upload it.
I've also got some RNZAF B-34 and PV-1 paints in the works too, plus one USAAF B-34 with the dark olive drab and light brown camo.
Those 4 RNZAF PV-2 Harpoon skins are texture modifications that I did too.
Thanks very much.
I will look forward to that.
Great work there on the PV-2 textures.
Out of curiosity I wonder how many potentially restorable Ventura airframes exist.
I think the one that is with the RAAF Museum at Point Cook was the last one restored to and flown in stock configuration.
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