Lockheed S-3 Viking - The Sequel Thread

[delta_lima]

Obviously, continuous improvement where possible is good - but Dino, I had a good 45 min hop aboard v1 and had some great fun. Love the model, and Russ's and Antonio's paints are smashing.

I had what appeared to be some coding conflict on the lights - I couldn't turn on the beacons without also turning on the interior panel lights. Turning off the interiors also turned off the beacon/nav lights. Maybe it's just me.

Thanks to all who have worked on this - not usually a fan of late 80s/90s period aircraft, but this one is stunning exception in my hangar.

cheers,

dl

[Dino Cattaneo]

@All (& delta_lima)

There seems to be a bug in the light system indeed - I will double check that.

@MaddogK

I believe I got the whole airframe dimensions wrong (a little oversized), while the crew figures are slightly too thin/small... this is probably the reason why the model may look weird to a trained eye. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about that at this point.

As I said, I will leave things as they are for a week or two to collect some feedback and then release an update.

[seawing]

Hi Dino!

Again a great release of a great aircraft! Thank you so much for it!!

As of feedback, I would like to rise a few points:
- most important (to me personally, anyways) are the torpedos. I do fully understand that TACPACK cannot at this time handle them other than put them on the aircrfat. Therefor I would like to suggest to have them simply jettisonable, like the tanks. This way one would be able to put them on and drop them again to "simulate" a torpedo launch. Anyway, the weight and the model of the torpedo could be removed by the selective jettison function of TACPACK. I think it would really be worth to have a function like this, since the S-3 is originally a sub hunter and the torpedo is the main weapon system.

- secondly, I see the light switches move in the VC overhead, but I cannot touch them. Is that intentional? Only the key commands make them move. Also, when I touch the turn knobs for the internal lighting of the cockpit, I discovered that the Nav lights also switch off. If I key-command the internal lights off (SHFT-L) the Nav lights stay on.

- the roll rate of the aircraft seems very low to me compared to what I saw the real S-3 do over NAS North Island. I put the effectivness value for the ailerons to 5.0 and it rolls much more like what I saw the real thing do.

- the landing light, although a work around if I understood you correctly, is somewhat misaligned with the light in the model. It should be slightly higher and further to the left (in direction of flight)

- from what I can see in pictures of the real aircrfat the lower gear doors should be closed a little further (at least with hydraulics on the aircraft) and the bomb bay doors be opened a little further (~90°) than they are in the model right now

- the wing fold sequence is to fast compared with video of the real aircraft, as is the tail fold, although I don't know whether the latter can actually be changed in speed for the water rudder function.

So, that is it for the moment! Sorry, but you asked for some feedback ... ;-)

Best regards,

Seawing

[Dino Cattaneo]

Well, I always ask for feedback - and it always welcome. It is the only way to understand where you can improve.
...to be honest, I would have preferred to get more feedback from version 0.99 - most of the issues for which I received feedback were addressed... But in Italy we say "better late than never", and I expected that some people would have skipped v0.99...anyway, I'll tray to update the S-3 when possible...

- Torpedoes, I have to confess I do not know how to create a bespoke, jettisonable object which can be freely used in single player and in multiplayer. Tacpack can be used to get rid of the weight, but to jettison the object it must be a Tacpack object.

- As per my previous message, there is still a bug in the light system - but you should be able to click the switches in v1.00.

- Roll rate - I will double check the flight manual (I do not think I had found clear indications). It would be an easy change anyway.

- Landing light, as well as every .fx effect, may have misplacement errors. It seems aligned on my setup, but I will double check.

- I will check again the doors opening against actual photographs

- Wing fold sequence speed has been already pointed out previously in this thread by Russ (and also noted on V0.99 - my apologies once again for having skipped this!). Afaik, rudder water deployment speed cannot be changed.

Thanks!

Dino

[delta_lima]

Regarding the lights, I can switch them on/off, but what they do seems a bit wonky (as per my earlier post of the beacon and instrument lights being linked).

As with some models (the Flying Stations Bucc, for example) sometimes where you're zoomed at determines whether or not switch can be thrown. Usually cured by zooming in. So switches do seem to work, at least for me ... hope the actual light code logic can get sorted.

Spent a couple of hours doing some FCLP and carrier work last night ... man, is this a fun, stable, and beautiful model to fly. Inclined as I am to anything SIGINT, ELINT and or reconnaissance, I have to say even the ES-3A Shadow, with the antennae farm top and bottom, is a lovely aircraft ...





Well done Dino, Russ, Antonio, and all other participants. Definitely got Viking fever ...

[seawing]

Hello Dino,

well, ok, concerning the torpedos, is there a way you could make the single torpedos removable? When I use your TACPACK stores management "panel" I can only put them all on or remove them all. Could you - as a kind of a work around to the discussed problem - change the management panel so that one could add and remove the torpedos one by one?

I will check the light switches again tomorrow and see how I could "grab" them.

Concerning the doors, I found, for instance, these pictures:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...S-3_Viking.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...iking_S-3B.jpg
http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft...-3dm-sh011.jpg
http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/s-3/s-3_03.shtml
http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft..._gearwell2.jpg
http://www.skytamer.com/samples/Lock...ohn_Shupek.jpg

From these pictures, it appears that the mentioned doors hang down somewhat with no hydraulic power compared to their "on-power" condition.

Thanks again for all your time and effort into this and all your other planes!!

Best regards,

Markus

[Dino Cattaneo]

@Seawing - thanks... but rest assured I already downloaded (and went through) hunderds of pictures (including walkaround sent by fans)... In general, in absence of detailed drawings and specs, it is always possible that there are mistakes.
I will try to improve the model in the next round.

[dhazelgrove]

@Seawing - thanks... but rest assured I already downloaded (and went through) hunderds of pictures (including walkaround sent by fans)... In general, in absence of detailed drawings and specs, it is always possible that there are mistakes.
I will try to improve the model in the next round.

I believe that the word should be "refine", rather than "improve".

The model is already exceptional.

Dave

[Dino Cattaneo]

Thanks for the appreciation.

By the way, extending the project to cover ES-3 and US-3 has been considered and it is not ruled out for the future.

[wombat666]

I believe that the word should be "refine", rather than "improve".

The model is already exceptional.

Dave

+110%.

[Dutcheeseblend]

About the coupling between Nav and Instrument lights, I believe they are coupled by FSX itself. In the modeldef.xml, the animation code for the instrument lights gives both a command to toggle the instrument lights, and the nav lights. I don't know if this is the issue here, but that was what I encountered during my Fokker development. I solved it by creating a custom animation code that removes the nav lights toggle from the instrument lights.

The Viking is beautiful by the way. I've been flying Dino's bird for a few times, but I'm too busy with my own project and real life issues. So sorry for having no feedback

Keep up the good work!

[skyhawka4m]

Thanks for the appreciation.

By the way, extending the project to cover ES-3 and US-3 has been considered and it is not ruled out for the future.

[Sundog]

Gathering of the last flyable S-3's.

[delta_lima]

Thanks for the appreciation.

By the way, extending the project to cover ES-3 and US-3 has been considered and it is not ruled out for the future.

Awesome ... would bring this old antenna-head much joy.



Meanwhile - thanks for the explanation, DCB - hope that can enable Dino to sort the lights. Not that if not fixed, it'd be the end of the world; it's just nice to extinguish the interior cockpit lights, formation lights, and nav/beacon lights individually of each other. But even if the lights was an "all or nothing" proposition, this bird is already outstanding.

thanks!

dl

[golakers]

Just almost finished my first repaint for Dino's magnificent Viking. "Almost", because the wolf on the tail is still copied from a low-res jpeg. Since I am a graphic-designer, I usually go the professional route of producing the tail graphics in vectors so I can scale them at will. Before that last step, I'd like to get some feedback on this one.

This is the CAG bird of VS-35 Blue Wolves, BuNo. 160577 NK700, WestPac cruise 1996, CVW-14 aboard USS Carl Vinson.
I have allready done both F-14D CAGs of VF-11 and VF-31 with rainbow tails, so these should fit nicely together. I'll do a low-viz Viking from the same year, right after i nail this one.

[Dino Cattaneo]

...which reminds me I need to find the time to finish an update I have been working on for a while.

Dino

[Christoph_T]

Mai 1985: The german navy took part in the exercise "fish hunting" in the mediterranean see. This picture was taken near the sardininan coast showing the 43+89 at one of their missions.

[flewpastu]

A little off topic, but did anybody ever make a paint kit for this wonderful aircraft ? I would love to do some paints but can't seem to get them right without a paint kit. Even a simple one would do. Any suggestions ?

Bill

[Christoph_T]

A little off topic, but did anybody ever make a paint kit for this wonderful aircraft ? I would love to do some paints but can't seem to get them right without a paint kit. Even a simple one would do. Any suggestions ?

Bill

No, there is no "official" paintkit. For the paint above, I have made my own. But at the moment it is very customized for the needs of the "Marine" livery.

Christoph

[morpheusfz]

Where can we get this fantastic Paint???

[Christoph_T]

Where can we get this fantastic Paint???

Well, it is still very much a WIP.
Havn't decided yet, if it will make it to the public.
Time will tell....

[YoYo]

Hi,
just question, can't find it. Where is shut off fuel or how to turn off engines?
Throttles doesn't take a "off" position and I don't see fuel cutoff switch.

[DaveB]

ctrl+shift+F1 will do it

ATB
DaveB

[Woogey]

[QUOTE=gray eagle;889804]

A couple of miscellaneous asnwers:



- Engine exhaust effect is a leftover from a comparison I did between my aicraft.cfg and the DSB one... they are not meant to be there.


/QUOTE]

Dino,

So, the exhaust effect was not suppose to be there? I'm confused. Please explain.
I also noted that the fan blades seem to take a while to stop spinning when the engines are shut off. Is that normal?

Turbofan engines never stop spinning........... They only cease to have power driving the fan blades. Once fuel is cut off, the engine Will spin with even the slightest breeze.

-Woog
Repaint Artist at GroomLake Simulations