Daves Mercator- Native.

[lazarus]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bym...ew?usp=sharing

Attachment 38070Attachment 38071


OK, I had to do some radical surgery on this one to get the gear sorted out. I had to model a set of spinners, main gear, and it's got new engines in the external model- the cowls looked a bit empty. The light model and contact points were a beast, too. With all the new stuff and problems with this one, I really need some eyes on this, see how it runs in other systems. It looks great and runs smoothly on my box, but some testing is in order.
It may be a while before I get to the rest of the Mercator balbo- it's something of a pig of a process for this one.

[falcon409]

I can confirm, after a short flight, that in P3D_V3.2 it looks great (albeit in need of serious texture upgrades), nice shine, windows and prop look excellent. All control surfaces functional (flaps, spoilers, ailerons, rudder, etc.). VC is obviously another area in need of upgrade, however all gauges appear to function, most animations seem to work with the single exception of the mixture. . .I have that mapped to a button on my CH Throttle and I was unable to get any movement. As expected, nothing is clickable in the VC. Also the bomb Bay doors work. I adjusted the eyepoint to suit and changed the nose wheel steering from 30.0 (no turning ability at that setting (personal preference)) to 50.0. . .better but not as I like it.

A short hop around the German countryside near Spangdhalem netted a cruise of about 300kts, climb rate of an amazing (to me anyway) 3000fpm at 200kts. Understand though that anything I fly, is flown at the limits, I never have crash detection turned on, engine damage off most realism sliders at midway or a bit over center. Not concerned with MP or RPM, the airplane is flown as fast as it will go. . .soooooo, the numbers I give you are "probably" inflated, lol. Landing was smooth as silk, plenty of braking and turnoff and engine shut down completed. At first look I thought the airplane was butt ugly, however it does grow on you and I'll follow the progress you make. Your work on the MB-5 was excellent. . .fly it every day. Nice work Lazarus!

[lazarus]

Great news. Had my fingers crossed, half expecting ...'I've got parts all over the screen'... with everything turning and burning, its fast. It seems to fly appropriately by the numbers- of shove it into high blower + 60 "HG and take off in 100 meters.
Sorry about the paint- I'm a lousy painter, and I think the cockpit is pretty basic in this one, though I could try out assigning click spots for such controls as there are.
I'm also trying to get load-visibility conditions working- finicky, those, but a load of mines and a load of torpedo's would be nice.
The important thing is- it works, and it looks just great- Dave really got the shape right, and there are a lot ob subtleties in the Mercator's shape.
I like it a lot, and the piston- jet set up is cool- though I can't find the air inlets- have to make a pair and add 'em in, I guess.

[harrybasset]

" like it a lot, and the piston- jet set up is cool- though I can't find the air inlets- have to make a pair and add 'em in, I guess. "
<!-- --> I may have not understood your point if so I apologise. If you mean on the model I don't know about them but on the real Mercator the jet intakes are "sugar scoops" in the front,deeper part of the engine nacelles. They closed to reduce drag when the jets were shut down.

I've just loaded the FS9 version and the scoops are open.

[falcon409]

I have a question on the VC panel ($panel.bmp). Currently it is squashed down to 1024x256 in the panel folder. If I redo it to 1024x512 will that mess up the placeholder or will it still display correctly?

UPDATE: The answer to that is no, it doesn't mess anything up and it displays just fine.

[falcon409]

Out of Hawaii at 10,000' heading for Point Magu.

[falcon409]

Something I just noticed...the smoke effect only extends to the area of the tail then disperses outward from there rather than trailing off behind the aircraft. Just an FYI....Hawaii to Point Magu= 5 hrs, lol

[this4dave2]

Hi All:

I thank you for all the kind words about my Mercator.

I don't know much about FSX but if I can be of any help please let me know I will do what ever I can. because it was made with FSDS v2 the jet air inlets for instance were tied to an engine condition which is why they don't work in FSX. I would be happy to make the FSDS source file available to some one if it would help with your project.

Dave

[ToniJH]

Thank you for sharing this plane, tomorrow i will make my test flight with this plane.

[lazarus]

I always thought the Mercator was one of the best looking aircraft to come out of middle river-not pretty though, all business, weapon pretty.
Thanks to the stamp of official approval, Dave.
I thought I recalled the scoops operating. I went through about every combination I could think of in the conditions dialogue to get those to show, even as an unknown or in the hierarchy editor, they wont read, at all. I'm almost tempted to ask you to throw a different animation tag and material on those in the FSDS file so I can find 'em. I think I'll just hackout a pair in FSDS and slide them into the model- this one doesn't object to adding extra parts.
Got bomb load going on load conditions, now I need to find some photo's of period air-delivered sea mines and make a load of torpedo's with the drop nos and air-tails fitted.
Damned good-looking machine.

[falcon409]

Current state of the VC:

[dharris]

My old squadron VQ-1 operated the Mercator before switching over to WV-2's just missed being on them. Thanks for redoing this..Don

[falcon409]

One more little thing I noticed in the VC, there are no throttle levers. Mixture, Prop, flaps. . .but nothing for the throttles.

[GunnyG]

Nice work!

But.... since I don't have the Virtavia AJ-2 Savage model, I also don't have the sound files

Anyone have a hook-up or an idea? ;-)

[lazarus]

The FS9 Mercator has a pretty good sound file, really. I simply tend to alias sound files together to save disk space. Not that it helps much. I'm in danger of maxing out 2TB- (!!) unreal. In the '70's a terabyte was off in the realm of science fiction!

[falcon409]

The FS9 Mercator has a pretty good sound file, really. I simply tend to alias sound files together to save disk space. Not that it helps much. I'm in danger of maxing out 2TB- (!!) unreal. In the '70's a terabyte was off in the realm of science fiction!

I agree. . .really good sound file. . .good radial sound with the "whistle" of the jets, also on shutdown you get the engine shutdown and then the slow wind down of the jet engines. . .very nice.

[mcanx]

Falcon great job on the vc update! I swapped the model.1 folder with the original now you get your throttles back.

[bob407]

Thank you Falcon for the excellent cockpit enhancements. Very nice indeed! Thank you Lazarus for bringing this interesting aircraft up to native FSX. The fps and smooth operation on my system is quite amazing. Enjoying it very much! And of course to you Dave Wooster thank you for creating and bringing this project to the enjoyment of so many. All of your generous contribution and effort is much appreciated....
In the second pic here is a very early wip where I am trying to come up with a bit of a faded and weathered look. Certainly no pro at it and a long ways to go but having a good time trying.

[bob407]

wip...adjusting color, reflection, spec, panel lines, etc...