Fun Flying

Sometimes we forget the idea that that this is something we do for recreational purposes.
Recently I decided to take out one of the older projects for a few circles around the island airfield where most of my testing is done.

One picture that amazed me a bit was how well the P-40F camouflage blended in with the background.

- Ivan.

Hello Ivan
Yes indeed!
This is one of the recent downloads champions with 71 hits.
Very fine looking!
Cheers,
Aleatorylamp

it's a great image and beautiful model, Kwong.
funny you should mention fun flying.
the other day, after a post by Guy,
i went looking in my archives for the DB lancaster.
while i was there, i stumbled across an old scenery
we used in multi player games. it's called zrcanyon.
basically, it's a maze like race course
with 3600 foot high walls and tight corners.
needless to say, i had to give it a go.
'twas fun stuff.
i just might have to take your p-40f over there for a little spin.

Thanks Guys,
I was actually in the simulator trying to get a couple screenshots to post and afterwards, I just kept playing for a while.
I like the look of this aeroplane because of the way the camouflage pattern turned out and because it really had not been done before in all the years Combat Flight Simulator has been around.

This is actually very funny how things turn out because years ago, I would never have called myself a fan of the P-40 and yet I probably now have more versions come out of my workshop than anyone has before.
There are actually a couple more P-40s in the workshop in various stages that are stuck because of the very unreliable Development machine. For completeness there really should be about another three models at least and a substantial correction to the visual model of the P-40K that I released earlier.
One thing that needs fixed is the dead gauge from the stock P51D that is included in all of the panels. That task does not need the AF99 Development Machine to accomplish.

I actually had not noticed that the download count had gotten so high. I am not really convinced that download count has much to do with the quality of a project though. I suppose that this is really a rare bird though. I don't believe there is another Merlin P-40 that isn't just an Allison version minus the Carburetor Scoop.

Time for more Fun Flying.....
It is a lot more relaxing than doing more research.

- Ivan.

Saturday evening I spent a couple hours looking for some rather obscure information about the early P-38 Lightning.
I ended up getting distracted as usual and ended up watching a wartime training film for the early P-38 by Milo Burcham.
(Not really off topic, but I didn't need to watch the whole film.)

Afterwards, I felt inspired to take my own P-38F up for a spin in the virtual skies to finish up the evening.
We had to get up fairly early Sunday and were expecting a long and busy day.

The Game Machine was on. ....But my P-38F was not loaded on it! Apparently I had never loaded my P-38F though the P-3J was there.
It was well past midnight, so there was no point in looking for it on the Development Machine.
I ended up checking out several other P-38's without any particular purpose in mind.

The one I ended up spending the most time with was not an early model but was the model I used to develop the flight model for my own Lightning.

- Ivan.

I spent about a half hour late last night in testing and looking over a new Merlin P-40F.
One of the most annoying things was wobbling all over the runway on take-off; Engine torque is high and Directional control is low.

I decided to end the night on a more pleasant note with an aeroplane that doesn't have any noticeable engine torque or directional trim changes. The interesting coincidence was that this was the same aeroplane I used for my last post in this thread over a year ago.

- Ivan.

In reworking the flight model for the long tail P-40F, I found some odd issues and decided that working with the latest P-40 flight model (Hawk 87W or P-40N) would be the best idea. The P-40F has some odd characteristics that are not reflected in any of the other P-40 versions.

In playing with the P-40N, I figured this would be a good time to try out an engine tuning idea.
Last night, the engineers and pilots worked overtime to gather information and this morning the Test Pilot took off to test out the changes.
It turns out that none of the changes were an actual improvement, so the test aircraft will be put back into its original condition so that it can be used in manufacturing a new propeller that can be shared with the Merlin P-40.

Some of the Technicians in the Gauge Department are thinking that this failed experiment might open up some possibilities with automatic tuning to restore power.

The pilots also found that the torque effect on take-off isn't terrible once you can anticipate it and catch it early.

- Ivan.

After doing some editing on another project (A6M3-22) recently, I found that I was at a good stopping point but that the aeroplane was not in a state that was ready to be tested.
To end the evening on a more fun note, I decided to try out something I had not touched in quite some time.

The B-25C Mitchell is one of the projects currently stalled for lack of a couple gauges.
It flies pretty well.... Or so I thought.
Actually it probably does fly reasonably well but for the idiot that flying.

The first attempt to fly it from the test airstrip that I usually use was "interesting".
I put flaps down two notches and gave it full power and found even a B-25 has some engine torque though there was no real danger of going off the runway if you're awake.
I barely left the ground before I passed the chevrons at the end of the runway.
Gear Up. Flaps Up.....
.......
The aeroplane began to sink and I didn't have enough airspeed to maintain altitude.
I never really pay attention to this with a higher powered aircraft because most of the fighters would have a couple hundred feet of altitude by the time they passed the chevrons.

Prop Strike.

I managed to glide it a bit to bleed off speed and put it down in the water just off the beach.

The Mechanics hauled the Mitchell out of the water and put it in the shop for new propellers.
They gave me another Mitchell that needed to be tested. In the background, I could hear someone muttering something about an incompetent pilot....
This one was slightly different and they wanted me to test it with a 5000 pound bomb load.
I figured I bad better make sure I had no trouble with it was NO bomb load first.
It had no trouble as long as the Flaps were left down until the aeroplane had gained enough airspeed.
I also tried running up the engines while holding the brakes and that gave me a bit of margin before the chevrons.

Time for the bomb load.

The acceleration was a lot slower and I had to pull up right at the chevrons at the end of the runway.
Climb was very slow and trimming for cruise was much more difficult.
The changes turned out now to be successful, but the Mechanics will probably keep trying.

After testing, there was still plenty of fuel and time, so I took it out for a spin.
It was still a good occasion to fly something different even if it wasn't completely for fun.

- Ivan.

Recently I was reading about the Westland Lysander and decided to take this one out for a spin.
It is a modified version of the AFX by James Elwood. The engine and canopy frame have been extensively updated.
The propeller has been replaced by one of the proper size and direction of rotation as well.
This is intended to be the basis of some serious experiments which may take a while to finish.
The wing is currently being rebuilt in Ivan's Workshop along with a bunch of other details.

- Ivan.

This is a texturing test of the rebuilt wing.
The original wing had a single 256 x 128 pixel file covering a span of 48 feet and chord of 6.9 feet.
The new wing is split into four Components which eliminates a couple bleeds and uses square textures which is what the test textures are intended to test. Matching rib lines across textures is a pain though.
The original texture files were stretched for testing, but the problem is that their ribs are slightly diagonal and that isn't how the actual aeroplane was built.

Next step is to revisit the canopy and frame. The shapes are not quite right. The actual aircraft wasn't nearly so rectangular there.
The example pattern is a canopy piece from "The Squadron Shop". I didn't buy the piece, but the image is easily found on eBay.

- Ivan.

It looked a bit too bare without paint.

- Ivan.

After the recent dealings with Alex Simon's FW 190D-9, I decided to check out a very old project which would likely become the basis of any version of the FW 190D that I would build. It doesn't handle quite as nicely as I remember, but it IS much more "pointable" and quite easy to line up with ground objects as can be seen by the second screenshot.
The only thing REALLY wrong with the handling is that this is a very heavy aircraft with a small wing and it is pretty easy to stall.
Flying this aeroplane is a bit different from many others to avoid a vicious accelerated stall.

This particular version hasn't had the SCASM treatment which may not be obvious from these images and the flight model is likely to get a pretty thorough revision to take into account what I have learned since I last worked on it.

I don't think this is too bad for a project that probably was first released around 2003. Before it becomes a "Dora", it is most likely to become a F/G model Ground Attack bird and also become the Hotrod A-9 version.

- Ivan.

I just installed Cfs1 after a very long absence and am having so much fun with the Bob campaign. I recently flew Il2clodblitz Version 5 and I cant believe that I am enjoying this old sim just as much. The 2d terrain is pretty good when compared with Cfs2 euro and Cfs3 stock terrain. I would even say that it is better. I tried a blue sky mod but uninstalled it because it ruined the feel of the sim. It would be nice to have a nice cloud mod though. I downloaded a few more Bob campaigns from Simviation, so hopefully the fun will continue.

After a recent (successful) experiment with an edit to a Gauge, I thought the P-39C would be a good aeroplane to check out again.
Although I believe the P-39D flight model was done reasonably well, a simple reduction in weight probably was not the correct way to represent the P-39C which may not have had the same degree of CoG issues. At this point it still remains an interesting bird to fly even if it may need a rework at some point.
For some reason, a low pass next to buildings or along a runway always seems to be the most fun even if there is a good chance it might end badly.

- Ivan.

Here was a recent diversion. This is the reworked Alex Simon FW 190D-9 being taken for a "Test Flight".
The general performance was not too far off, but the general handling was a bit less than predictable.

It is still nice to have a fast and powerful fighter at low altitude..... As long as you can keep it out of the trees and buildings!

- Ivan.

After installing and testing a couple new gauges in the F4U-1A Corsair, I thought it would but fun taking this old bird for a spin....
Literally.

The first screenshot is of me observing a spin just a bit too long with no altitude left to recover. For some reason, the Corsairs seem to get into spins relatively easily.

The other screenshots are just a matter of enjoying an aircraft with a lot of power that handles well at low altitude.

- Ivan.