Pam, just a side note, thanks for sharing that amazing piece of information about Frank Walter above. This is an absolutely great read about the history of the PW2800 and the way these engines were engineered.
I also admire your (and the other members) depth of knowledge and dedication to this project.
I think the P-61 will be one of the best aircraft to be had for FSX and will gladly donate an amount for it that is normally paid for a good payware product.
Keep it up!
Cheers,
Mark
Thanks Mark.. We're really trying to make it that.. i dont know what the end game will bring to be honest, but we keep doing our best and will continue to do so.. i ran into a conundrum this morning about 2Am.. When you take the plane over 350 mph or so, the prop pitch levers stop having any effect and even at 300, the effect is very limited. Perhaps 500 rpm. i did more investigation and it seems that the lower your speed and the lower your manifold pressure, the greater range of response you have with the prop pitch levers. At 250 mph, as example, you can adjust the rpm's down to about 1700, and at 150 you cn adjust them down to almost 1000 rpm..
above 400 mph, the only ways to slow the plane down is to either chop the throttle, or go into a climb. Since that happens irregardless of the wind and weather, i can only speculate that it is something happening between the prop and the governor.
Now, i've noticed with automobiles over the years, that there is a certain speed that each cat likes to travel at. this speed differs with every car, but its that point on the speedometer where you can be oing sixty or seventy mph and barely touching the gas peddle remain at that speed all day.. its where the power of the engine balances with the mass of the vehicle. its neither pushing the car, nor being drug down.
i cant help but wonder if thats possibly what i'm seeing in the p-61.. Above 400 mph, the rpm's begin to climb, and at 450 mph the rpm's are at 3500. fortunately, the only way to get to that speed in the B model, is in a dive. Fortunately, the only reason to go into a dive in this plane, is for a strafing run, and thats always best done at slower speeds as it maximizes the potential for your guns to actually hit something. The higher your speed, the greater the distance between the impact points of each round, and the fewer the rounds that actually find their way into a target. low and slow would give you the best attack window to shoot through. in fact, the only reason for this plane to fly at such high speeds, would be to catch a v-1 or enemy aircraft, or evade ( seeing as how the faster you move, the better the plane responds to controls )..
I dont know if there's a way for me to remove this phenomena, and more, i dont know if i should. it seems to be a natural phenomena, and does require the pilot to keep their whits about them and actually manage the throttle and props.
Folks.. I'm going to ask a huge favor of you all. I'll ask it again at a future date too, but i hope no one will feel badly towards me for it..
I've been Speaking with Bill Rambow, the chief of MAAM-Sim recently, and he reported to me that at th moment, MAAM's P-61 project is hurting for funding.. Yes, i KNOW its Christmas, and i know how bad the economy is. We all do. But, Anything can help. MAAM and i are asking you for anything you can donate. it doesnt have to be much. A few dollars. If like myself you dont have it, spread the word.. Anything to help this bird fly again, nit just for us, but for our children and their children, and the thousands of men who served in the Night Fighter Squadrons. This isnt going to be a static display. its going to be a piece of working, flying, living history, that you can help make happen.. Check out this link for further details.. <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <mispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m
Pam
The modeling continues...this week I worked on additional panel line art for the fuselage, cutting in the emergency exit for the pilot, detailing the belly cannons, cleaning up the pitot tube, and adding the cabin vent air inlet.
Attachment 24902 Attachment 24903
Its lookin good Robert!
"If three-holers are gas guzzlers, why are there four-holers now???"
"But what do i know? I'm just the 800 pound guerrilla in the room."
Fire! Fire! Your pants better not be on fire....
Ok Guys..
Theres a new model from Robert uploaded to the file browser called P-61 5 Dec.zip, that containst the opening escape hatches for the Pilot and R/OAs well as some texture enhancements on the right wing..
There is also a new psd file there for download as well.. The name is lady n the dark.psd. Its the nose art that i've cleaned up somewhat and reworked to loose the half tone dots that are in the print..
and yes, my version is "blue" not black ::LOL::
I did a bit of work tonight... Thanks to iris simulations and specifically David Brice we now have the special effects for the guns.. they still need work, but its a good start..
Pam
oohh, looking very good Pam!
Time flies like an arrow
fruit flies like a banana
As you can see well illustrated here, the muzzel flash from the upper 50's could be problematic for the crews night vision!
Nice effect: T
Bet it wasn't so great for thier hearing either!Originally Posted by fliger747
That's looking awesome.
- Paul
yeahhh,, on both counts.. when those guns go off at night, the panel goes flat with with no detail.. it would be horrible fornight vision.. and i'm not sure i can even begin to imagine the noise..
The effects at the moment have two unwanted side effects.. As the smoke streams converge about two hundred feet back, they form a fireball that trails the plane, and from tower view, it looks as if the entire plane is mimicing a saturn five rocket ( see the panther award thread ). i went at it with the fx tool all last night while waiting for my 5:30AM bus, but i'm a novice at effects, and only made myself greatly confused.. As we progress, hopefully an effects guru will be kind enough to straighten them out for us. As you can see though, the effects are needed for the plane to have any sort of logical place in history and existance.. without them and the radar, the plane may as well have been a cessna..
How bad was the noise? B-29's had four 50 cal Brownings in the forward upper turret. Some crews thought they were taking hits when the four machine guns were fired. It had to be a horrific racket.
My computer:Win XP 32 Home SP3, Q9650 @ 3.8 GHz, 4GB DDR2-800 RAM @ 845, Zotac Nv 8800GT-OC. Jul. 21,2011
Working on one of many nose art pieces. It looks substantially better but my video card never cooperates
I know that in Nam, when shadow was making a run a few miles out, we wouldnt hear the engines at all ( and Shadow's a big ole AC-119 ) but there was no missing the miniguns. You may not even see the tracers, but you hear those guns.. Thats pretty darned loud.. I can only imagine that when all eight guns went off, it would very much sound like all hell was breaking loose. Yu wouldnt be able to hear the engines. All youd hear is the cacophonous racket of eight guns firing a total of upwards of 4000 rounds per minute. The plane would shudder and vibrate itself to the point of making you wonder if it would hold together, and the force of those canon firing, would always knock a few mph off your speed.. For a few brief moments, it would feel like the end of the world, and for whatever you were shooting at, it was..
My Dilemma is that, in the thirty years abouts that ive worked on computers, i've never been able to program or script. I've tried, hundreds of times.. I mean, I was an IT manager right?? Bourne,C, php, all of them. i can correct them when theres a problem, but my mind simply will not wrap itself around the languages in a way that will let me create them. But with a little fancy xml work, we could at least program the guns to slow the plane down by using the otherwise unused spoiler. Loudness is also easy. Whats impossible, is the amount of shake rattle and roll you get when you fire the guns.. We'd need to rig your living room chair and make the panel vibrate out of focus to do that.. Yeah, I'd really like to take it to the limit, but i simply dont have the skills..
I've never done special effects before. never even opened up a file to look inside, and i'll tell ya, its confusing. The FX tool, seems reasonable enough, but ive already destroyed five sets of effects files just trying to get rid of this annoying flame that keeps following the plane when you fire the guns. I need help. I need someone who knows how to code and i've asked repeatedly for that help, and only David has offered any at all. I know we're all very busy right now, but it still makes me feel like i must be one of the most hated people in the developers community.
We move forward anyway..
Pam
That looks pretty decent Oleboy.. I like it..
I need for you and Jankees to communicate and get organized as to who's doing what.. That way, no one will be duplicating the others work, and everyone can still have fun..
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