Epic Victory Mini Biz Jet Released!

[Lionheart]

The hangers are slowly rolled open. Its a beautiful day out. A calm breeze, birds singing, the sky is blue, just a couple of clouds up there in the skies.

The wheels are unchocked. The guys roll the sleek new plane out of the hanger onto the tarmac. New tires, the smell of new paint and wax, new plastic, expensive Connolly leather. The sun bounces off the new bird with laser like reflections. The team quit pushing, letting the plane come to stop. One of the team places chocks under the tires while another removes the pitot flags and then the turbine cover plug at the intake of the huge Formula One like intake scoop high on the roof of the plane. Another technician unlocks the door, opening the top part first, then the bottom half of the clamshell like door, flipping the step pads out as it rotates to full open position.

The test pilot climbs in and flips on the switches. The fuel pumps come to life with a lite whine. A gyro hum can be heard, spooling up with its super faint, turbine like sound. The craft is coming to life, its vital signs showing. The pilot flips on the Avionics rocker switch and 4, high technology, digital LCD screens come to life like 4 computer screens, their bootup wallpaper coming up first, then their readout screens, showing airframe and speeds and map data, as they hum and come to life, gathering their data.

Meanwhile, the gray haired developer that was in charge of the building of the plane, walks around the plane nervously, like a dad about to give his daughter away in a wedding. Sweat pulsing out of his forehead, he can feel his gray eyebrows harden with stress, almost making lite sounds like an old oak tree's branches creaking. He whipes the sweat from his forehead. Its now or never. He could just keep it in the hanger for another week. Might have been less stressful... hmm.... It is time... Its been checked over and checked over. She is flying right. Its time to release the girl into the world...



www.lionheartcreations.com/Victory


continued below.....

[boxcar]

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.... I'm in!!..

.... Paid for via PayPal & downloading now. . http://www.lionheartcreations.com/Victory.html
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[Chacha]

Finally! :ernae:



Where is the link...? Mr. Lionheart?

[Dain Arns]

Fantastic Bill! Thank you very much for another great addon for the FSX community.
Looking at the new pics I can see why you wanted to model it.
She has great lines, doesn't she.

Its on my list.
Hopefully one day very soon, I can get that list whittled back down.

[Lionheart]

This is the Epic Victory mini biz jet, classified as a VLJ or Very Lite Jet. She is a new, 5 passenger aircraft, powered by a small Pratt and Whitney turbine jet engine.

She has a pure carbon fiber airframe, from nose to tail. Two men can pick up the fuselage structure with one arm each when its comes out of the oven, cured and ready for assembly.


This package features 12 paint schemes, perhaps 6 or 8 different interior paint schemes, and 5 different instrument panel themes, featuring glossy carbon fiber, dove grey metal, Walnut burled veneer, Teak veneer, and Cheery wood veneer. One interior almsot mimicks Ferrari's luxurious Connolly 'mustard yellow on black' leather interior styling.

The avionics feature the Garmin G1000 glass panel system, the TruTrak Sorceror state of the art, talking (female) Auto Pilot with programmable subsystems, and a new MVP-50 engine systems monitoring center complete with two page system and programmable Chronograph.

The soundpack is by the famous Kirk Olsson from his F-16 package. It was retuned 'slightly' for the Epic Victory. I had always loved that soundpack and I wanted it for the Vic badly. Kirk gave me permission for using it. Thanks Kirk. (salutes). The interior will at first seem quiet. This is because she is pressurized and the small jet is tucked way back in the rear under the rudder. So sound will be very low in the front cockpit of this sleek thing.

She features a built in Checklist system in the center MFD screen. (Click on CHKLIST and use PAGE UP and PAGE DN keys to scroll through 10 pages of data and checklists).

She will fly similar to the Epic LT, and 'not' a Lear. I was able to create a hybrid (yes, fancy sounding, eh?) airfile, copy/pasting over some of the tables and engine data into the Epic LT's airfile, creating a jet version aircraft which performs more like a plane with a regular small planes CG setup. If you like the way the Epic flew, this will be similar, though the nose will dive a bit in turns like a slippery dart would do...

The models exterior mesh, you will notice is very dang sharp, and is 'precise' to the actual plane. This is because Rick Schrameck (CEO of Epic Aircraft) sent me DWG files of the actual plane, and I was able to hire famed mesh artist John MacNeil to create the planes exterior from the drawing files. John does all those fancy prototype aircraft on the front of Mechanics Illustrated, Popular Science, etc.

Team members on this project are;
Rick Schrameck.........................Permission to do this
Dwight Furleigh.........................Instrumentation guru who endured my weighting him down with my wild gauge ideas
John MacNeil.............................Exterior model mesh
Bill Leaming..............................Guidence and 2D Panel; Sound system; Nav Lights
Ryan from Epic Aircraft..............Photos and telling me what everything is
Michael Hooper.........................Epic Test Pilot; tons of input
Nick Churchill............................Famed screenshot artist; screenshots

Thanks team!

[Lionheart]

Here are some pics of the bird...



Red; Banking


Britain in flight


Black; Taxiing


Walnut Panel


Gray Panel


MVP 50 engine monitor center

[Lionheart]

Some more pics....



Cherry wood veneer


Carbon Fiber


Checklist system; new


Ferrari like interior


Presidential style interior


Front Nose Closeup

[Lionheart]

One last photo..



Parked mode, suit cases deployed.

[cheezyflier]

i'm going there right now woohooo!!!!!!

[pilottj]

on my way too

[Rezabrya]

Downloading now

[Lionheart]

For bug catchers; I am way ahead of you (I hope).

The aircraft will appear to slide on her nose tire in turns. Use less steering input. She is extremely light and tends to scoot on her tire if you over do the steering input. If this can be improved, it will come out in an update. But as it stands, with her weight and balance set, this is how she does in turns. Be gentle.

There is a 2D 'wide screen' setup for people with wide screen monitors. Easy to configure. Take out the 'aircraft.cfg' file from the folder marked 'Wide Screen 2D Panels' folder in the main Epic_Victory folder, and drop that into the main Victory folder. It is now in wide screen mode. Its best you keep a copy in that folder. If you want the older version back, there is another folder called 'Regular 2D Panel'. Copy out that config file into the Victory folder to get normal 2D panels back. There are 2 2D panels 'each'. One is wood, one is gray. We didnt do all 5 and normally people rarely use the 2D panels anyways.

You cant find the checklist? yep, thats right. :d its in the MFD screen now like on the actual Garmin system. Click 'CHK LIST' and then PAGE UP and PAGE DN to go through the 10 pages of onboard checklist data and mini tutorials.

XM Radio system is built into the panel as like in the Epic LT.

There is a cool panel thing I created (myself by the way) that is a Remote Command Console. Mainly it was made so that you can watch the front and rear cowlings float off (magically) from the planes fuselage from outside of the plane. It can also bring up the fuel truck as well as call up your female pilot, and a few other options. It makes noises too. (love that part).

There are a huge list of FAQ's at the Victory webpage, here; www.lionheartcreations.com/Victory


The plane is not yet up at PCAviator.com and SimMarket.com It should be soon. I emailed them, but havent heard back. Please be patient.



Bill

[Lionheart]

Side notes;

Your new plane will hold only 200 gallons. The wings are smaller then the Epic LT's. The turbine will give you a range of 1200 miles if you hold her to 250 Knots 'indicated' at say FL 280, (cieling). The distance will make it. I certified that myself.

She will rotate under 100 knots, and she stalls clean at 74 Knots, flaps up.

You can hide the steering yokes if you dont have TrackIR. I highly recommend getting TrackIR though. (awesome.... just plain awesome).

The fuel selector may read 'OFF' position occasionally. This is a built in bug with FSX. It has 'startup' position at Left. If you do not use that, it will read OFF enven though its in Both position. Bill Leaming produced some cool code that gets around this, but occasionally it will still read OFF. Just 'left' click the knob to Both and you should be good to go. (Use left click and right click to rotate it. Dont try dragging it or mouse wheeling it. Just left and right clicking).


The paint kit and graphics performance package are not online yet. The manual is if you would like to check it out. It is available here; http://lionheartworld.net/ev/Epic_Victory_Manual.pdf 40+ Pages. I tried to be 'to the point' and not bore people. (tried.... ).


Addtional note; When taking off and when landing, YOU MUST HAVE THE Auto Pilot OFF. This means, having the green screen on the AP 'black', not green (on). The AP has a 'armed' mode and a 'on' mode. The rocker switch on the left bank of black rocker switches on the instrument panel by the pilots yoke 'powers up' the AP and arms it. The AP button on the AP's face plate turns on the actual system, making it active. However (important part here), with AP button off, and the rocker switch on, (green LCD screen glowing green), your AP will be in 'Wing Leveler Mode'. You must turn this unit off at the rocker switch (LCD screen turns black) and then you have full yoke control.


You can preprogram your ALT (SEL) and your TRK (heading) before taking off. Use the knob to rotate to selections, click on system to set (SEL and TRK) but do not use the 'lock into system' center click on the knob. Only click on the system selection, such as SEL, then dial it in, then turn off the subsystem (SEL), same for TRK. Then turn off the unit. Take-off, stabilize your climbout, then turn on the AP, turn on SEL, click center of Knob to lock/enter setting, repeat for TRK. All settings will be held in the memory buffer.

The windows look wacky at first. Note that the front perspex is tinted 'gold' for maximum UV protection of the pilot. It also has a dark tinting along the top. The rear windows are dark tinted like the real plane. The interior shows a lighter tinting, easier to see out of.

The iPad is not real. They arent out yet. That is a cardboard mockup....

I think thats all.



Bill

[boxcar]

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[Lionheart]

For those wishing a CD Backup copy of their purchase, LHC now have a supplier that offer this service. The charge is $12.00 and includes your shipping. As soon as that is activated, it will be posted on the Victory webpage.


Nice picture BoxCar!




Bill

[Ferry_vO]

Looks great Bill; I've downloaded and payed it, but now I need to go to a concert to do some photo shooting. Will have to wait to fly her until I get home. :ernae:

One tiny comment: It is possible now to pay with Paypal using the Flight1 wrapper and a Flight1 account. Very easy to do, and in case of a new version you don't have to request more downloads from payloadz first.

[Skittles]

Lionheart can I give you a quick bit of feedback - although I havn't bought it and most likely will not be able to afford to do so;

The layout of your website is extremely difficult! Scrolling through to find prices and download links etc is never a good thing. Chuck all that at the top of the page and if people are interested they'll go through and have a look and all the screenies etc.

Good luck with your aircraft, I hope it does well. It certainly looks great.

[Paul_Yorks]

Looks beautiful.

We are spoilt for choice with addons at the moment. How FSX has come of age, compared with even 12 months ago.

[N2056]

Congratulations on the release! :ernae:
The Victory is a lot of fun. I know the amount of effort it took you to build, and it shows. From one builder to another...:salute:

[Lionheart]

Thanks guys for the kind words.

Lionheart can I give you a quick bit of feedback - although I havn't bought it and most likely will not be able to afford to do so;

The layout of your website is extremely difficult! Scrolling through to find prices and download links etc is never a good thing. Chuck all that at the top of the page and if people are interested they'll go through and have a look and all the screenies etc.

Good luck with your aircraft, I hope it does well. It certainly looks great.

Hey Skittles,

Thanks for the heads up. I'll think about a better way for people to navigate to the planes department.

I should have posted a link to the plane. I'll do that now.



Bill

[pilottj]

just took her for a ride around the block, great handling plane I thought she wouldnt be quite as spritely as the LT, lol I was wrong. I also thought without spoilers that slick little plane wouldnt want to slow down but those flaps are like dive brakes lol, was able to short field land well under 1000' Takeoff distance seemed comperable to the LT. While she may not quite have the range or the speed of the LT she certianly is a great entry into the VLJ category and can get you in an out of just about any typical GA airport. Very easy aircraft to fly too, one engine lever vs 3 from the LT, definately a great bird for piston pilots looking to transition into turbine. My avatar would look good in that copilot seat of this spaceage looking craft...lol bill you think you can give the pax antenna...i'll paint her blue? haha

Cheers
TJ

[Dain Arns]

Bill, I have always thought your website is straightforward, professional looking, and really very stylish.
I have never had any difficulties navigating it. For what it's worth, IMHO, I wouldn't change a thing. :salute:

[Lionheart]

just took her for a ride around the block, great handling plane I thought she wouldnt be quite as spritely as the LT, lol I was wrong. I also thought without spoilers that slick little plane wouldnt want to slow down but those flaps are like dive brakes lol, was able to short field land well under 1000' Takeoff distance seemed comperable to the LT. While she may not quite have the range or the speed of the LT she certianly is a great entry into the VLJ category and can get you in an out of just about any typical GA airport. Very easy aircraft to fly too, one engine lever vs 3 from the LT, definately a great bird for piston pilots looking to transition into turbine.

With just 200 gallons and a turbine jet, I thought 1200 NM was really good. Perhaps too good. I tested it from Phoenix (Deer Valley) to Chicago International KORD, which is just over 1200 NM. Cant imagine flying that far in such a small plane, at that altitude.

My avatar would look good in that copilot seat...lol bill you think you can give the pax antenna...i'll paint her blue? haha

Cheers
TJ

Oh man... We'll see. The blue skin is no problem.


I did have an extra set of eyes in the girls head that I had forgotten about. When she would look around, this gold sphere would come out of her ear, like some sort of implant... Bad alien ubduction gone horrible...

Bill, I have always thought your website is straightforward, professional looking, and really very stylish.
I have never had any difficulties navigating it. For what it's worth, IMHO, I wouldn't change a thing.

Dain Arns

Roger. I was thinking of just sprucing up the site. Some new buttons...

[n4gix]

The Epic Victory at 33MO after leaving the Avionics Shop:

[pilottj]

lol yeah the range is perfect for that bird. after the usual flight briefing room cup of coffee or two i wouldnt last longer than DVT - ORD either...not without the optional lav. I had a hard enough time going PRC - DUG+ distance trips in a 172 when I was at ERAU :d