Fly Commando!!

***Willy*** · September 13th, 2016, 17:02

As much as I hop around from one aircraft to the next, always tweaking something, making something work just to see if I can do it, there's one aircraft that always seems to be recipient of all the stuff I pick up that does work. The L. Guzman/Tom Gibson C-46 Commando. I've been jacking around with it since before it was released. And as much as I like to paint the thing, most of the real life liveries for it have already been done. So, I make do with what ifs. Anyways, this one is my go to C-46 in the latest version of it's paint. Santa Fe Railroad did operate an air freight business for 18 months after WW2, but even with it's being a success flying surplus C-47s and C-54s, the CAB shut them down. Santa Fe never operated the C-46, although I think it would have been a natural for them. So, I painted one.

Anyway, that's about where I'm currently sitting with the C-46. Still need to tweak this one a bit but it's pretty much there. It's still a portover with no bump maps or specular textures, but I think I've done a fair job of working around that.

***Sundog*** · September 13th, 2016, 17:09

That looks cool. I've been thinking of attempting some locomotive based paint schemes on the Virtavia C-87, just because it looks like a flying locomotive to me; and I mean that in a good way.

**paiken** · September 13th, 2016, 17:24

Nice to see "Auntie Santy" up in the air! Long time fan of Santa Fe paints...on locomotives.

**PeteHam** · September 13th, 2016, 17:51

WOW , that looks great.

Pete.

***Willy*** · September 13th, 2016, 17:52

We did some railroad based paints for Milton's Lodestar. They should be in the library here. (I did the Santa Fe one)

***manfredc3*** · September 13th, 2016, 18:11

Still loving this Monster. Taking it out for a spin on a frequemt basis. Usually in the Buffalo Airways paint, as they still have it in service.

Willy, will you be uploading that Santa Fe paint?

**napacon** · September 13th, 2016, 18:18

Too Long Neglected...A WW 2 HERO...most Times they were "HUMP DAYS " For her....NICE PAINT THNX!!

**expat** · September 14th, 2016, 03:22

Funny, I just got out and flew the Guzman/Gibson C-46 last night, there is something about it that brings you back to it more than others. Big, solid twin freight mover but as a twin can access more airports than four engined aircraft. Those R2800's also distinguish it from the popular C-47 and Lodestar.

Like the look of all your Santa Fe paints Willy.

***Willy*** · September 14th, 2016, 05:17

Thanks guys. There's all kind of things that can be done with it.

Good sound packs really help the immersion factor. Over at California Classics, on the Sounds page, there's a link for a set of very high quality stereo DC-6 sounds by Jon Jefferys. Excellant sound pack but I modified the sound.cfg file by removing all the entries for engines 1 & 4 and then renamed 2 & 3 to 1 & 2 respectively for a better fit for a big R-2800 powered twin.

I did a good bit of the panel for the original version and was never really satisfied with it, but at that time, it was about all I could with it. The guys over at CalClassics have since redone it in Vers 2 and it's now much better than my original effort. But, as usual, I can't leave things alone. I redid the gauges to use the latest DC-6 gauges by Ken Mitchell from California Classics out of their DC-6. Although I'm currently trying out a more military looking gauge set, the panel.cfg using the DC-6 gauges will be going back in.

I've got some more what if paints that were pretty much done and then I learned some more tricks that I want to apply to them before release. (Santa Fe is my usual test subject).

**Aharon** · September 14th, 2016, 05:28

Israel hired Alaska Airline's C-46s and their pilots to fly thousands of Jewish people from Yemen to Israel under Operation Magic Carpet.

All of you have heard of the world's greatest airlift called Berlin Airlift but all of you have never heard of the world's second greatest airlift called Operation Magic Carpet conducted by C-46s and DC-4s by Israel using Alaska Airline's planes.

About 55,000 Yeminite Jewish people in Yemen were in danger of persecution and facing elimination in their own country. So Israel decided to hire Alaska Airlines to use C-46s and DC-4s to mount a massive round the clock operation for 18 months airlifting the Jewish Yeminite people out of Yemen to safety to Israel. Why Alaska Airlines 7,000 miles away far far away from Middle East? This airline in 1950s had one of five largest cargo fleets in the world!!!

If you want to recreate the amazing airlift operation flights, here is instruction for you to use C-46s and DC-4s!!

Your job is to evacuate 50,000 Jewish Yeminites from Yemen to Israel.

C-46s normally carried 46 passengers at standard operating procedures but in this magic mission, they carried 76 passengers per flight so add 30 percent more to your C-46's payload plus fuel load!!!

DC-4s normally carried 60 passengers at standard operating procedures but for this magic operation, the DC-4s carried 150 passengers per trip. So DOUBLE your DC-4's payload plus fuel load!!!!

You will fly from Asmara to Aden to Tel Aviv to Paphos to Tel Aviv to Asmara and then repeat the flights.

Flights for C-46s and DC-4s (use specific payload info mentioned above):

From HHAS Asmara International Airport in Eritrea to OYAA Aden International Airport in Yemen, you will take off in empty plane with seven Israeli rescue aid staff members with heavy fuel load ENOUGH for flight to Yemen, then to Israel, and then to Cyprus without refueling.

From OYAA Aden International Airport to LLBG Lod airport in Tel Aviv, you will load up little more fuel to make up for loss of gasoline consumed during flight from HHAS to OYAA and load your plane with passengers at specific payload mentioned above (for C-46 30 percent more than full payload and for DC-4 DOUBLE the full payload).

You will fly from Aden to Red Sea to fly north staying in middle of Red Sea or otherwise if you get closer to left or right, you will risk being shot down. Fly north in middle of Red Sea toward Gulf of Aqaba where you will make right turn and fly in center of Gulf of Aqaba toward Eilat waypoint and once you enter Israeli airspace, feel free to fly to Tel Aviv.

From LLBG Lod Airport to LCPH Paphos International Airport, you will take off with empty plane to LCPH where you will park your plane for overnight in safety (Alaska Airline was afraid of attacks in Tel Aviv airport during the war)

From LCPH Paphos International Airport to LLBG Lod Airport, you will take off in empty plane with heavy fuel load enough for flight to Tel Aviv and then to HHAS Asmara International Airport without refueling.

From LLBG Lod airport to HHAS Asmara International Airport, after picking up seven Israeli relief staff members, you will take off in empty plane for Asmara flying to pass Eilat first and then entering Gulf of Aqaba to fly center of that Gulf until you reach Red Sea, then you turn left to fly south in center of Red Sea to Asmara.

Then repeat process for both C-46s and DC-4s for fights from Asmara using instructions above for few flights.

In one of the flights of Operation Magic Carpert, Alaskan pilots of C-46 flying from OYAA Aden International Airport to LLBG Lod Airport made mistake with fuel consumption calculations due to unexpected strong winds from sandstorm and was forced to make emergency landing at HSPN Port Sudan New International Airport in Sudan which you will do same thing. At HSPN airport, you are going to lie to officials saying you are on emergency medical flight from Yemen to Rome, Italy carrying chicken pox victims and ask for more heavy fuel load enough to reach Rome which Alaskan pilots did to avoid airport authorities' inspection and avoid risk getting shot. This trick worked as Egyptians did not want to catch chicken pox and quickly refueled the plane telling the pilots to take off immediately after refueling. After getting amount of refuel enough for Rome, you will take off from HSPN Port Sudan to fly along the shoreline of Sudan and Egypt to make your story for Rome flight believable until you reach Gulf of Aqaba where you will make quick right turn to make dash to the Gulf toward Eilat on way to Tel Aviv.

That is exciting and challenging tour for you especially you should try to figure out how to take off and fly with HEAVY FUEL LOAD plus DOUBLE CARGO PAYLOAD!!!

Regards,

Aharon

**expat** · September 14th, 2016, 07:50

I did a good bit of the panel for the original version and was never really satisfied with it, but at that time, it was about all I could with it. The guys over at CalClassics have since redone it in Vers 2 and it's now much better than my original effort.

Pretty sure I have v2 panel with latest updates but notice as dusk approaches there are several white circles created by the lightmap texture that don't have gauges mapped to them. Anyone else find this?

**expat** · September 14th, 2016, 07:56

. . . probably because I - as I tend to do - have gone and mixed different paints with panels that came with v2 . .

***Willy*** · September 14th, 2016, 08:13

Sounds like the light maps don't match the gauge positions. Don't ask how I know about this....

Aharon, great history lesson there! Over at California Classics in the Frank Gonzales Memorial page are download links for a lot of Frank's paints. Included are a couple of El Al and an Alaska Airlines C-46s. Frank was an outstanding painter who never really got enough attention to his work while he was still among us. There's a few more C-46s there too (CAT, Pan American, Lufthansa and Canadian Pacific). I know of a few more C-46 paints that he did as favors to others that aren't available anywhere.

http://www.calclassic.com/frank.html

***Willy*** · September 14th, 2016, 08:26

Went to go take some screenshots for the upload and decided that I need to do something about that cheatline first. It just aint natural like that.....

Hopefully, I can have it out within the next 24 hours or so depending on real life stuff that pops up. (Mrs Willy is getting ready for a yardsale this weekend and that usually involves my moving a lot of stuff around).