Aero L-39 Albatros

[hews500d]

Although it looks awesome, how much functionality is packed in those gorgeous VC's. I hope it's not only eye candy? I think of Rick Pipers great Hawk's which did not even have an APU modelled.

Anneke, from what I've read it's going to be very functional with all the "quirks" of the real L-39 instrumentation.

Darrell

[GT182]

Darrell, ok I see that now. When I first read his blog it didn't sound as if it was included. I guess I was too excited to finally see an L-39 for FSX.

Pip is hopefully my next jet ride one of these days..... real life not pc.

Mike, is the recovery autopilot switch included on the joystick for the 39s?

Here's the real Pipsqueak cockpit.

[hews500d]

Pip is hopefully my next jet ride one of these days..... real life not pc.

.

GT be sure and take lots of pics when you get that ride !

Darrell

[GT182]

GT be sure and take lots of pics when you get that ride !

Darrell

You bet I will. As long as I can stand up to the 7 Gs too. Gotta join the 7 G Club.

[d0mokun]

Love it. :ernae:

[RudiJG1]

Like Spotlope and Scarecrow, I too enjoyed the Cpt Sim's L-39 back in the day and can't wait to get my virtual hands on this...it looks fan-dam-tastic!

[BananaBob]

Great texture work bro, dang that's brilliant work all around!!

[Lotus]

Hey guys, sorry for the slow response, was up all night working, needed a nap.

To answer all your questions...

Pipsqueak is included. I spoke with Joe Gano about it several months ago and he endorsed the idea and was kind enough to provide with me some performance data. Her performance is as close as I can make it to the real thing and quite a rocket compared to the stock L-39s. My version of Pip is in her race trim, with winglets instead of tip tanks, and with the back seat removed, so she's paired with a single seater VC. Goes like a scalded cat, and has about as much endurance. Full bore at sea level in that thing will run your tanks dry in about 35 minutes, hehe.

The version I have modeled is the original L-39C, the lightest, simplest, and most agile member of the Albatros family, and they didn't come with autopilots until the MS version that Aero made in the early 90's. The L-39C uses direct control rods, no hydraulics for flight control, and though autopilots can be fitted to them with great effort, I decided to leave it original. It's a stick and rudder plane anyway.

Almost everything is original equipment and steam gauged, all metric (except for the altimeter) and all 3D. The only non-original items are the radios, gps, and a secondary garmin OBS head, which are pretty common upgrades in reality, and essential given that Russian nav aid systems and radios don't really have any application in FSX. The plane is fully IFR capable.

As for functionality vs eye candy, well here's a shortlist of the modeled systems: Oxygen, pressurization, EGT limiter, engine de-ice, fuel controller, all electrical bus functions and depedencies, saphir starter turbine apu, emergency ram air turbine, main and emergency hydraulic systems with interconnect and emergency gear and flap release handles, all of the instrument failure mode switches, both red and white instrument light selections, the dreaded "network switch" (kills power to front cockpit), and an extending IFR hood in three variants.

The functionality and interdependencies of these are all based on the real L-39 operating manual and on my own experience in the jet, along with a ton of help from L-39 pilots and maintainers. Some of these systems have nasty 'consequences' if you ignore them.

The only systems I haven't modeled really are the air conditioner (which is mostly automatic anyway) and the weapons arming and release stuff, which was pretty limited in the C model. If that weapons project comes to fruition in FSX I will likely revisit the arming and release stuff at a later date.

There are some other fun minor functions included and also a few nice surprises that I can't talk about until release day.

Oh and I agree on the 7G club. When I flew a real L-39C last August I didn't quite get to that, but did get to about 6.2 G and experienced the sparklies and a bit of tunnel vision for the first time, and that was with a g-suit. What a ride, something I will never forget.

Cheers guys,

-Mike

[MenendezDiego]

Very excited about this! Amazing work!

Diego

[Lotus]

Thanks for all the praise guys, much appreciated.

I forgot to answer a couple of questions...

@GT: Thanks for the offer of beta testing, but that part is thankfully all wrapped up, just have to finish the other two million things that have to go with a release, doubly hard when it's my first FS project. Heck of a lot more fun and satisfying than developing console games though.

@Darrell: Do you mean this blue and white camo below? If so, it is a civilian L-39, C-GOZA, Canadian registered, owned by Ed McDonald and based in Edmonton, and was the first paint I did actually. He retained the gun pod (disabled) for balance concerns and looks I think. It's one of the three long range tank models included.




Thanks guys!

-Mike

[BananaBob]

Hey Mike, haven't you done some videos for FSX too?

[Lotus]

Hi Bob. Yessir I have, Vectors, Lament, Vantage and all those. I go by Ramasurinen on youtube. I used one of your paints in Vectors actually, that lovely dirty rogers scheme you made for the Iris F-14.

[BananaBob]

Hi Bob. Yessir I have, Vectors, Lament, Vantage and all those. I go by Ramasurinen on youtube. I used one of your paints in Vectors actually, that lovely dirty rogers scheme you made for the Iris F-14.

That's how I remember you, man those are cool vids!! You got talent sir! :ernae:

[Lotus]

Hehe, thanks Bob. I wish I had your painting talent, you make it look easy. Every single texture in this Albatros has been a battle for me, but also a good learning experience.

[An-225]

Keep up the good work, this airplane has been missing from FS for a long time, and we need more Vodka Burners!

[VaporZ]

Wow !
This is a very good news indeed !

My credit card is ready and this is now Priority One on my list of
"paywares to absolutely buy".

I also put the good news in french on "Pilote-Virtuel.Com" Forum of France
http://www.pilote-virtuel.com/viewtopic.php?id=11323

The Breitling Team being based at Dijon, France and all Pilots
being Ex-Armée De L'Air retired officers, your future Payware could eventually be very popular among French FlightSimmers.

Congratulations for this beautifull Digital ArtWork !

VaporZ

[Lotus]

Thanks VaporZ. I have done the Breitling paints as well, both 2008 and 2009 schemes, but I cannot release them as part of the package. The Breitling team is very difficult keep in contact with. I've tried to get permission from them many times, by phone and email, but they never respond at all. I think they're too busy flying airshows right now to deal with a virtual L-39 hehe. Anyway, both paints will be available as a separate free download, probably on the day I release the plane.

They certainly are amazing to watch in action, especially considering that the L-39 is a challenging plane to fly in formation due to its very slow engine response and low thrust to weight ratio. They're truly excellent pilots.

Cheers,

-Mike

[peter12213]

Sorry you know what I mean soviet block type jets!

[hews500d]

Thanks for all the praise guys, much appreciated.

I forgot to answer a couple of questions...

@GT: Thanks for the offer of beta testing, but that part is thankfully all wrapped up, just have to finish the other two million things that have to go with a release, doubly hard when it's my first FS project. Heck of a lot more fun and satisfying than developing console games though.

@Darrell: Do you mean this blue and white camo below? If so, it is a civilian L-39, C-GOZA, Canadian registered, owned by Ed McDonald and based in Edmonton, and was the first paint I did actually. He retained the gun pod (disabled) for balance concerns and looks I think. It's one of the three long range tank models included.




Thanks guys!

-Mike

Mike, yes that's the one! I was thinking it might have been the mil model with the gun pods. That paint scheme looks grrrrreat !

Darrell

[yago9]

100% awesome.I will buy it for sure.

[Txmmy83]

Mike,
looking very forward for your release it is a must buy plane for me
but hope that not only paypal is offered as purchase method since my father has a crusade with them and they are not helpful

arent you involved on IRIS T6 Video ?

BR
Tom

[Rezabrya]

Looking great. This is a must-buy for me. Me and Kiwikat will be doing some multiplayer flying in this bad boy as it seems like it will be great for multiplayer. I have to wonder though, how will performance be in this beast? It looks amazing and the VC is breath taking. It almost looks real. Keep up the great work!

[Lotus]

Hi Tom. To answer your question, I won't be selling it myself, more headache than I'm prepared to deal with on this first aircraft, and I don't have final sales details worked out yet but it will probably be available through Simmarket, FSpilotshop, or both, and possibly one other vendor. I'll have answers to that in about a week hopefully. Support will be through my own site though and I'll post the web address when it's finished. It's under heavy construction atm. Long story short, you won't have to use paypal.

On the Iris T-6 video, yes that was my work, long time ago now! hehe. David Brice is a friend of mine and has been very kind and helpful with advice along the way.

Raptor, thanks, glad you like the look of it. On performance, don't worry at all. I'm obsessive about framerate. I only fly in multiplayer, haven't flown singleplayer for pleasure in 3 years, so I've built everything in the plane for that much harder hitting environment. The external model is only slightly heavier on frames than the default FSX planes, only about 30-35k polygons depending on loadout, and the VC is brutally efficient in its modeling and mapping. Next to the shared cockpit functionality keeping performance as high as possible was my biggest goal on this project. My background is in console game development, the early days of it, PS1 and such, so I love getting the most out of the least. I'm fanatical about it really, hehe. The cpu hit from this aircraft is extremely low, just about everything is built into the model itself, no framerate sucking 2D gauges, so it's very smooth. It is somewhat videocard heavy though, using texture for detail rather than polygons in many cases, so the stronger your video card the better your performance will be.

I have a similar system to yours and when flying a full featured two seater VC Albatros I can get at least 4-5 other L-39s on screen with high scenery settings before my fps starts to drop below 30. I've also included three single seat VC models which knock about 20-25% of the render load off, so for big multiplayer trips (6-8 planes together) those might be the preferred rides. There's a totally stripped down formation team model as well, which will likely outperform the default Extra-300 in multi. That model has none of my special secret features really, and doesn't have bump maps, but has all the same systems functionality as the others. It's really meant for use by online formation teams only, since for them fps matters more than anything else, but it might also be of value to those with older and slower systems.

Cheers,

-Mike

[Txmmy83]

Hi Tom. To answer your question, I won't be selling it myself, more headache than I'm prepared to deal with on this first aircraft, and I don't have final sales details worked out yet but it will probably be available through Simmarket, FSpilotshop, or both, and possibly one other vendor. I'll have answers to that in about a week hopefully. Support will be through my own site though and I'll post the web address when it's finished. It's under heavy construction atm. Long story short, you won't have to use paypal.

On the Iris T-6 video, yes that was my work, long time ago now! hehe. David Brice is a friend of mine and has been very kind and helpful with advice along the way.

Raptor, thanks, glad you like the look of it. On performance, don't worry at all. I'm obsessive about framerate. I only fly in multiplayer, haven't flown singleplayer for pleasure in 3 years, so I've built everything in the plane for that much harder hitting environment. The external model is only slightly heavier on frames than the default FSX planes, only about 30-35k polygons depending on loadout, and the VC is brutally efficient in its modeling and mapping. Next to the shared cockpit functionality keeping performance as high possible was my biggest goal on this project. My background is in console game development, the early days of it, PS1 and such, so I love getting the most out of the least. I'm fanatical about it really, hehe. The cpu hit from this aircraft is extremely low, just about everything is built into the model itself, no framerate sucking 2D gauges, so it's very smooth. It is somewhat videocard heavy though, using texture for detail rather than polygons in many cases, so the stronger your video card the better your performance will be.

I have a similar system to yours and when flying a full featured two seater VC Albatros I can get at least 4-5 other L-39s on screen with high scenery settings before my fps starts to drop below 30. I've also included three single seat VC models which knock about 20-25% of the render load off, so for big multiplayer trips (6-8 planes together) those might be the preferred rides. There's a totally stripped down formation team model as well, which will likely outperform the default Extra-300 in multi. That model has none of my special secret features really, and doesn't have bump maps, but has all the same systems functionality as the others. It's really meant for use by online formation teams only, since for them fps matters more than anything else, but it might also be of value to those with older and slower systems.

Cheers,

-Mike

that is the best way you can do !
Thankyou

BR
Tom

[Rezabrya]

This is really sounding great. I cant believe you were able to squeeze all that detail into only 35000 polys! That is insane. You need to teach your methods to some other developers lol. Sell tutorials. Can't wait to give this thing a try.