I've been flying this an awful lot lately...

[Drzook]

Oddly enough, I have found the default Vega's a really nice plane once you take out the center tanks and put the standard 50-gallon wing tanks in. Granted it won't have the range of Post's Winnie Mae or Earhart's Little Red Bus but it's a lot easier to handle on the tarmac.
The textures are slightly modded from the Air Atlantique repaint (hey, I like dark blue on a plane, what can I say?). I also replaced the sound files with something a bit more throaty...Lawdog's Cyclone sound (for the F2A Buffalo) has a very nice feel for this plane.
I also noticed that this plane didn't have a gas gauge...anywhere (sorry I just don't trust the fuel pressure gauge). I also didn't like looking down so far just to find out if I were going up or down; and since I don't rely too much on ADF for navigation, I ended up switching around a few gauges and swapped out the pressure gauge for a fuel gauge from an F4F. It may look patched together but it works out pretty good. It's almost as fast as a Mooney but not nearly as complex.

[dandog]

Very nice modding. I'd be interested in giving it a go! :kilroy:

[Lionheart]

Its cool to see this going on. Shows people how one can take one single aircraft and totally trick it out with personal modifications.

Could you imagine redoing the textures to 2048 scale, redoing the art to high resolution (better rivets, details, wood grain paneling, etc), how photo real that thing could be made to look?



Thanks for sharing the cool mods you did. Very cool...


Bill

[EMatheson]

I would really like to try your modded dynamics... since I first flew the default Vega, I have wondered why such a pig of a plane was so popular in its day!

[Lionheart]

since I first flew the default Vega, I have wondered why such a pig of a plane was so popular in its day!

On a documentary I was watching one day, they showed the Vega and talked on it for a bit. What really gave it some fame was when it was entered in some air races, and won! The darn thing would compete against much smaller planes, and yet hold its own in the race circuit. That was when its future and interests changed.

It was odd though how designers put you 'in' the wing. You actually set with your head in the wing area, so looking out to the sides meant bending over fully and trying to look under the wing (side windows mounted very low). The roof in the cockpit was level with the top of the wings. (The Cessna AW is arranged like this, but on a smaller scale aircraft).


Bill

[OBIO]

Drzook

Any chance that you would be willing to share these mods with us?

OBIO

[Gibbons]

The Vega is a classic in every sense.

I flew it from S.F. to Hawaii a few years ago on three or four legs. Great sound, great view out the top at the stars at night, and you have to love the older gauges and instruments. Much more elegant than modern avionics.

Gibbons

[OBIO]

Came across a replacement Vega gauge set on Flightsim.com (I think). This set adds back lighting to the gauges...not accurate, but makes the gauges easy to see duing night flights.

The file is called vega_lm.zip.

OBIO

[Panther_99FS]

Lifejogger has done some nice repaints for it :)

[Drzook]

Drzook

Any chance that you would be willing to share these mods with us?

OBIO
No problem there, Obio.
First and foremost I would suggest making a new aircraft folder for the 'stock' version. Post and Earhart flew heavily modified Vegas.
Model folder: suggest using Model.1-this is Earhart's Vega; has two windows on it.

Texture folder: As Panther mentioned, our own Lifejogger has made some great repaints. I am rather partial to his Braniff Airlines repaint; this can be obtained at The Old Hangar.

Sound: I have nothing against the stock Vega Sound. Ms Leeanna just needed something not so anemic. Lawdog's Cyclone sound for the F2A Buffalo has a certain cachet to it that I like. I also like 'warbirdsnd.zip' at flightsim.com for that matter (both are R-1820 Cyclones; I know the Vega was usually powered by a R-1340 Wasp but I couldn't find a decent soundset at the time for the Wasp)

Panel:See attached; it's in txt format but you could easily select all, copy and past to the panel.cfg file. Basically I swapped the ADF for the VSI and swapped the locations of the OAT for the fuel pressure gauge, then swapped out the fuel pressure gauge for a 'normal' fuel quantity gauge, this one came from the CFS2 Wildcat.

Aircraft.cfg:
Again, see below. just select, copy and paste beneath where it describes the aircraft. I only changed the part about fuel tanks. I haven't gotten to the point where I can actually put passengers in it yet.:kilroy:

Lockheed_Vega.air, ref and checklists:
Didn't touch them.

I also took out the extra fuel tanks in NCGent's Air Express and it also flies great with a full load. Come to think of it it handles a little better on the ground too...

[Drzook]

On a documentary I was watching one day, they showed the Vega and talked on it for a bit. What really gave it some fame was when it was entered in some air races, and won! The darn thing would compete against much smaller planes, and yet hold its own in the race circuit. That was when its future and interests changed.

It was odd though how designers put you 'in' the wing. You actually set with your head in the wing area, so looking out to the sides meant bending over fully and trying to look under the wing (side windows mounted very low). The roof in the cockpit was level with the top of the wings. (The Cessna AW is arranged like this, but on a smaller scale aircraft).


Bill
You realize the head designer of the Vega was one John Knudsen Northrop...(yeah, that John Northrop):engel016:
Actually the way the fuselage was made and to ensure maximum structural strength they almost had to put you in the wing. Either that or raise the wing and put you in the back (a la Air Express). Eventually they got to the point where they could get away with putting the wing on the bottom. And so the Explorer was born, and after that the Sirius, then Altair, culminating with the Orion.
As for the air racing, the Vega was originally built for a California-Hawaii race. The first one was never seen again but there are some rumors that persist that it crashed on the Big Island. As they got into more and more air races there arose a saying:
'It takes a Lockheed to beat a Lockheed'

[Lionheart]

Wow.. Good to know..

Small world back then.. So many famous people that started out on the bottom rung.



Bill

[NAMBUS]

Thank you Drzook.

I am keen to try your mods to this classic.

:ernae: