Bear’s Cave Special Edition by Steve (Bear) Cartwright

It has been a while since I’ve posted an edition of the Bear Cave, and over the last few months I have received some email wondering what happened to it. Its unfortunate, but the weekly posting of my picks from the AVSIM library is no longer feasible due to increased obligations with my real-world career, the increase in the average file size, and this increase in file size (on average) combined with the fact that I am limited to a dial-up only phone line just makes providing the weekly Bear picks currently impossible. I had stated a year ago that I would be posting an occasional Bear Cave “Special Edition”, but for the last few months I have been busy dealing with a string of personal issues that required my attention. Those personal issues have been my loss of both my parents (my mother last Christmas and my father in July), the loss of my favorite Aunt (also in July), the recent loss of my close friend and employer in September, and then a few weeks ago my older brother having suffered a stroke (he’s doing fine by the way). The time I have spent this year, flight simming, has been very limited, as I’m sure you can understand, but currently I am devoting some time, relaxing, and just simply flying in FS2004. While doing this I have run across some very extraordinary files from the AVSIM library that I want to share with you.

The number of quality add-on aircraft for FS2004 has reached epidemic proportions, and despite the fact that there have been a number of add-ons that are payware, the number of quality “freeware” add-on aircraft is equally as over-whelming! It is becoming increasingly difficult for a freeware aircraft author to be heard above the noise, but hopefully, considering my personal time constraints, I can do my part for the flight sim community by highlighting some of these authors and their outstanding aircraft I find in the AVSIM library. I can’t commit to any specific time frame for my posting of the Bear Cave down the road, but I will as often as I can bring you a special edition, highlighting those files I believe are truly outstanding and deserve the recognition of all of us.

I am going to be changing the general format of how I present the Bear Cave “Mini-reviews”, from the brief 2 or 3 paragraphs of information and the inclusion of 2 or 3 screenshots having no captions attached, into a format that I believe most of you will agree is better. The review section will be less than a full review of the file, but much more than what the former Bear Cave mini-review was. More importantly I will now be including several screenshots (12 to 21) per file, and each screenshot will have a short caption where the caption will be an important part towards the content of the file review. The reason for the Bear Cave now including more screenshots is to follow that old saying; “a picture is worth a thousand words”!

In this special edition of the Bear Cave, I will be looking at 3 spectacular freeware aircraft, all of which were pulled out of the AVSIM library, two of them are propliners and the third is a supersonic transport aircraft, with all three files depicting real-world classic commercial airliners. At the end of the year (2004) I posted a montage of FS aircraft, in the AVSIM screenshot forum, which had proven to be my favorites to fly (based on the flight hours logged in my MS default log book). Its interesting to note that currently I have about 650 different aircraft in my FS “aircraft” folder and of this broad number of choices, the following 3 aircraft are in the top 5 of my favorite to fly to date, including the Tu-114, which I have accumulated the most hours of any aircraft I have (the other two aircraft, making up my favorite top 5, that have shown to be my most preferred are the Martin Shupe Aero Commander 520 and the FSNordic Maule).

Lockheed L-1049 Constellation

Filename: fsdzl049a_v1.zip

Uploaded: 7th September 2004
Authors: John Howard White, FSAviator, Hans-Jeorg Naegele, Jaap de Baare
Size:30.8MB

FS2004 Aircraft

Conceived exclusively for Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA, later to be called Trans-World Airlines), Lockheed first introduced the concept of the model 49 Constellation in 1939 (with the first flight occurring in 1943) and with it was born one of the arguably most beautiful and sexist propliners in history. With production of the military version beginning in 1943 (designated as the model USAAF C-69), the Lockheed “Connie” was immediately a hit, despite some early problems with its engines and lending itself to the early nickname of “The World’s Best Tri-Motor”. Despite its early problems the USAAF loved the aircraft and its first military use was to carry military dignitaries and considering the dangers of transporting these people during the war years, the Connie was popular because of its range (nearly 4,000 miles) and its great speed (315 mph cruise at 75% power and a top speed of 375 mph), which ironically was faster than the Japanese Zero fighter at the time.

During the Connie’s production run (beginning in 1943 and ending in 1958), a total of 849 Constellation and Super Constellations were built, ending with the model 1649 “Super Connie” which was also called the “Starliner” (a Lockheed designation). During the Connie’s production run, Lockheed’s biggest rival, the Douglas Aircraft Company, built 1,946 DC-4/DC-6s and ironically, the production of the Douglas DC-6B ended in the same month of 1958 as the Lockheed Super Connie. The Douglas’ aircraft had proven very economical in their operation and did prove more popular with the US domestic airlines, while the Lockheed Constellation faired better with the European and South American airlines due to its greater speed and range (as compared to the Douglas 4-engined propliners). The Constellation’s cruise speed was nearly 100 knots faster than any of the Douglas aircraft and the Connie’s range was equally greater in comparison (2,800 mile range for the Douglas aircraft and up to 4,700 miles for the 1649 variant of the Lockheed Super Constellation). The world’s airlines liked the Douglas aircraft for their domestic flights, but those airlines with scheduled trans-continental flights preferred the Connie. In Europe; KLM, Air France, Sabrena, BOAC, SAS, among a host of others that had scheduled flights from Europe to North America or for the long flights south into Africa, the Constellation was the aircraft of choice and it is believed that the last commercial Connie went out of service in the late 1980s. Currently, there are a number of DC-4s and DC-6s being used as “fire” attack aircraft, indicating that the classic Douglas aircraft are still in use, but the only known flyable Constellations are generally aircraft that are a part of a restoration program.

In the mid-1980s, a specially restored Super Connie (in TWA colors) called “Star of America” toured the United States and while on display at JFK International, the “Star of America” was pushed nose to nose with a British Airways’ Concorde, making for a very popular photograph and poster. The Lockheed Constellation was the fastest of all the early propliners, so it only seems fitting that it be photographed with the fastest of all the jetliners.

While the Douglas propliners proved to be excellent and economical work-horses, the Lockheed Constellation remains the propliner that truly romanticizes the grand age of the propeller driven airliners.

This definitive FS version of the Lockheed Constellation was authored by the FSDZign group, with the project manager being John Howard White, but the list of those individuals assisting John on this project reads like a who’s who of the flight simming community. Names like Tom Gibson, Martin Shupe, Jan Visser, Steve Hornberger, and FSAviator (among a host of other individuals) all had a hand at putting together what just may be the best propliner ever developed for Flight Simulator. Like the two following FS aircraft files reviewed here, I am stunned that an FS aircraft this complete and of this level of quality is being offered as freeware.

Some may look the other way on this aircraft because it lacks a DVC (Dynamic Virtual Cockpit), but I assure you that is not something I would use as an excuse to over-look this wonderful FS example of the world’s sexist propliner. The 2D panel in the FSDZign’s Lockheed Connie is so well done and so well presented, it is one case where I would state that including a virtual panel would have been unnecessarily redundant. I am a big proponent of DVCs, but that in all honesty is generally limited to smaller aircraft, typically general aviation types, rather than the larger prop or jet liner. That of course is strictly a personal preference, but I believe the majority of you that try this aircraft would agree. So read through the captions attached to the following screenshots and take a step back to the 1940s and 1950s.

Well done guys and another AVSIM “freeware” Silver award that is well deserved.

Tupolev Tu-114

Filename: tupolev114_install.zip
Uploaded: 15th September 2004
Author: Samdim Design
File size: 25MB

FS2004 Aircraft (required base package)

Filename: tu114_jal_install.zip
Uploaded: 15th September 2004
Author: Samdim Design
File size: 14.1MB

FS2004 Aircraft Repaint

Filename: tu114_aer70_install.zip
Uploaded: 15th September 2004
Author: Samdim Design
File Size: 13.6MB

FS2004 Aircraft Repaint

Filename: install_tu126.zip
Uploaded: 20th December 2004
Author: Samdim Design
File size: 13.7MB

FS2004 Aircraft Additional Model

When the demand went out for a new passenger aircraft by the Soviet Union hierarchy, it was the Tupolev Design Bureau that answered the call and by 1957, the first prototype took to the air. During their production run (November 1957 to 1964), the Tupolev Design Bureau built 33 examples of the Tu-114, including the prototype which had the registration number of CCCP-L5611 and the name “Russia” splashed on its fuselage (there was also a ground test model built which is included in the total number of 33). The Tupolev Tu-114 was based on the military bomber and cold war icon, the Soviet Navy’s Tu-95 “Bear”, which is still considered the world’s fastest turboprop. With the Tu-114 going into production a couple of years before the Boeing 707, it still defies the imagination that the Soviet aircraft had a similar cruise speed, but it was doing it with a propeller driven aircraft. The Soviet Air Force had still a slightly different version of the SN’s Tu-95 and this model was designated the Tu-142. Further work was done and the Tu-114 had a Soviet military version of the American AWACS, with the Tupolev Tu-126 (including a large rotating radar dome). Nine of the Tu-126s were built and I believe all are still flyable today.

With a reported cruise speed of 460 knots and its obvious similarity to the “Bear” bomber, the USAF tracked the commercial liner on several occasions, to confirm its reported speeds. Interestingly, it was found that the Tu-114 was not only as fast as it had been rumored, but was in fact somewhat faster under ideal weather conditions and many times Tu-114 flight crews recorded ground speeds of nearly 600 knots. This is an astounding achievement and considering the size and load capacity of this aircraft (maximum take off weight was a tick over 250,000 lbs), the Tupolev Tu-114 was decades ahead of the west in efficient passenger carrying aircraft designs. In comparison to a modern day jetliner, the Tu-114 would be considered a “wide-body”, as its fuselage is 80% as wide as a Boeing 767, and its fuel efficiency (due to its turboprop design) rivals even today’s current turbofan powered airliners.

Converting the Tu-95 “Bear” into a passenger liner did require numerous modifications, specifically the enlarging of the fuselage, and the movement of the main wings from a mid-fuselage configuration to a low wing design. In the process, larger wings with a noticeable increase of reverse dihedral was also included, meaning that because of the Tu-114 massive counter-rotating propellers, the landing gear had to be extended, as now the nose gear was just over 3 meters tall (a little over 10 feet). Originally designed to accommodate 220 passengers, the production version were limited to 170 seats, with the extra room gained to serve as an on-board restaurant and sleeping cabins.

Flying in CCCP-L5611, the Soviet Union’s Premier Nikita Khrushchev, arrived in New York in 1959 where he was to address the United Nations and yes, he was wearing his famous shoes at the time. Of the 33 Tu-114s built, 4 where leased to JAL (Japan Air Lines) where the rest were flown under either the Aeroflot livery or with the Soviet military. Entering regular scheduled flights in 1961, the Tu-114 would serve the Soviet Union for the following 15 years, with the last flight of a commercial Tu-114 occurring on December 2, 1976 and the last flight of the military transport version of the Tu-114 happening in May of 1983. During its period of international passenger runs, it did open up the route between Moscow and Havana (Cuba), though the length of the trip did require a single fuel stop, initially in Northern African countries, but after the Soviet Union lost their landing rights at all available airports in Africa, they begin using Murmansk and followed an Arctic route, proving that the Tu-114 had a theoretical range of 6,700 miles. (reading of the documentation, with the FS version of this aircraft, includes some very interesting stories concerning how the effects of the cold war dictated the flight routes of this amazing aircraft)

The size, speed, and range of the Tu-114 cannot be over-looked, as its greatest contemporary rival (the Boeing 707-320) was slightly faster (460 knot cruise for the Tu-114 whereas the 707 could top out at about 490 knots), but the efficiency of the turboprop Tu-114 gave it a range that was double that of the Boeing jetliner (6,700 miles as compared to the 707’s 3,300 mile range). In addition, the standard passenger seat layout of the Tu-114 accommodated 170 passengers, where the Boeing aircraft would only carry a maximum of 149 total and then only when the seats were arranged in a six-a-breast tourist seating arrangement.

During its many years in service, only one Tu-114 was involved in an accident and even that was totally the fault of the senior Soviet official that was on-board, demanding that the aircraft take-off during a blinding snow storm, which was done despite the intense protest of the aircraft’s captain. The aircraft struck a snow bank on its take-off roll, as the pilots were unable to determine where the runway was because of the intensity of the snow storm. A total of 21, out of the 68 passengers on-board, were killed in the accident, but the aircraft itself was faultless as to blame. One other Tu-114 did have the nose-gear collapse during a repair service, but no injuries were incurred by the technicians working on the aircraft at the time.

The FS version of this truly outstanding aircraft comes from the Samdim Design Bureau (a Russia based FS aircraft design group lead by Dimitri Samborski). Working as project coordinator, Dimitri lead a team of fellows from at least 3 different countries (Russia, France, and Ukraine) and their efforts have resulted in one of the most extensive and most complete FS aircraft freeware packages I have ever come across. This FS aircraft from Samdim is total and complete, including a very authentic 2D captain’s panel, 1st officer’s panel, the navigators flight position and panel, all cockpit views are rendered, and this aircraft includes a dynamic 3D virtual cockpit. Additional downloads include all of the liveries this aircraft originally had (CCCP-L5611 “Khruschev”, JAL, and Aeroflot), the exterior modeling is superb, including full animation, there are some very unique special effects, an absolutely wonderful flight model, and custom sounds authentic to the sounds you would expect from the Tu-114’s huge turbine engines driving those massive counter-rotating propellers.

Dimitri and friends have been releasing numerous FS aircraft, each based on real-world Russian aircraft, beginning with their award winning Antonov AN-24R for FS2000, but I am of the opinion that this is their finest release yet! Much of the details of this FS aircraft are covered below with the captions for each of the screenshots I have included, but I wanted to extend my experience at flying this aircraft, particularly as it relates to the Samdim flight modeling.

The Tupolev Tu-114 was a heavy aircraft, tipping the scales at just about 250,000 lbs in maximum take-off weight (about 45,000 lbs less than the Boeing 707-320), so this over-sized propeller driven FS aircraft requires an excessively long runway despite the enormous amount of power produced by it massive turbine engines. Taxi control stability is very good and considering that I use a Saitek Cyborg 3D “Gold” joystick (with twist-grip for rudder control), this says a lot. Just like the real thing, the Samdim Tu-114 does require you set the flaps to 25º and you need to set the elevator trim about a half to one full notch pitch up, before you begin your take-off roll. Be sure you are operating from a runway having at least 8,500 feet of length (if operating from sea-level) and sufficient taxiway and runway width to handle this aircraft, but considering the size of modern jetliners, this shouldn’t be a problem, certainly not like it was back in the late 1950s when this aircraft first went into service. When flying many FS aircraft I’ve noticed an excessive over-sensitivity to the pitch (elevator) trim control. Before FS9, the default Learjet was notorious for its over-sensitivity and it seems that many of the add-on FS aircraft suffered from this same condition, but the Samdim Tu-114 does not have this condition at all and flying this aircraft from the trim control is quite possible. Roll rate is also highly dampened, once again lending itself to how you would expect the real Tu-114 to react to your control inputs; after all, this is a very very heavy propliner. My first attempt at landing was at Sheremetyevo Airport (UUEE), just outside of Moscow, and it was after a flight beginning in Gdansk, Poland and the Tu-114 flew exactly as I had expected of an aircraft of this size and weight and a great deal more controllable and stable as compared to most 3rd party aircraft of this size. Taking off was equally as inspiring as landing, as far as the realistic feel of this aircraft’s flight modeling and if you have all your settings properly set (pitch trim and flaps) this aircraft will simply fly off the runway and your rate of climb can be fully controlled by your trim and power settings.

This is an impressive FS aircraft and it has an equally impressive (and I’m assuming realistic) flight model and even though I have several hundred downloaded aircraft on my harddrive, the Samdim Tu-114 is my most favored FS aircraft to fly.

Considering all that is included in this package; beautifully and very realistic model and texturing, outstanding 2D & 3D dynamic virtual panel, authentic sounds, multiple liveries covering all of the original real-world liveries used on this aircraft, excellent flight modeling, and a very comprehensive document set (formatted in HTML) covering every aspect of this aircraft, so what more could you ask for? How about the Tu-126 version you say? That’s just what the Samdim Design Bureau did in a separate download! This additional version of the Tu-114 has a slightly different panel (includes a couple of additional gauges and the view forward also includes the re-fueling snorkel) and the fuselage and tail assembly are also slightly modified, but the big difference is the huge rotating radar dome atop this aircraft (which rotates after striking the “shift” + “W” keys). The installation of the Tu-126 requires that you have the base model Tu-114 from SDB installed prior, but the Tu-126 add-on also includes some additional scenery, which is a group of dynamic air tanker aircraft. Because the air tankers (they appear to be Badgers) are a part of the scenery and are not AI aircraft, they can be found exactly where there are expected to be and at the times posted in the Tu-126 documentation, allowing you the opportunity to practice mid-air re-fueling.

The Samdim Design Bureau fully deserves the AVSIM Gold award for their efforts and for now this package will probably be my personal pick for the AVSIM annual BravoZulu award (2005) for best freeware aircraft package.

Tupolev Tu-144S

Filename: tu144.zip
Uploaded: November 12, 2004
File Size: 20.2MB
Author/s: Thomas Ruth, Claudio Mussner

FS2004 Aircraft

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Soviet Union, the United States, and a British-French consortium were all working at developing MACH + commercial airliners. The American effort, being developed by Boeing of Seattle, Washington, was easily the fastest of the three (projected speed) with a planned cruise of MACH 3+, the Soviet design would eventually prove to be marginally faster then the British-French effort, with a demonstrated cruise of MACH 1.85+. The British-French Concorde would still prove to be an able performer, with a cruise of MACH 1.8, but the Concorde would be the only one of the three that would provide world wide service for nearly 3 decades. The Boeing effort, with Federal financial assistance, estimated to cruise at least double the speed of either the Tu-144 or the Concorde, was also estimated to require nearly 3 or 4 times as much in developmental and in operational costs, so the project was cancelled before the first prototype was built, though a full size plywood mockup was constructed (the Federal assistance monies intended for the Boeing SST were re-directed to the NASA Apollo program). The Boeing SST plywood mockup was sold to a group, in Florida I believe, to be converted into a theme restaurant. The Soviet Union, after losing the moon-race to the United States, began re-directing money into the Tupolev SST and believe it or not, the Tu-144S prototype took to the air several months ahead of the British-French Concorde. Just a few examples of the Tu-144 were built, but after a series of problems, including the spectacular crash of the original prototype at the Paris Air Show, the Soviet Tu-144 (or Concordski, as it was often affectionally referred to, or in some cases “Charger”) was regulated to handling cargo missions within the Soviet Union itself, but by the late 1970s, the grand and beautiful Tupelov Tu-144 was grounded for good. The British-French Concorde went on to be one of aviation’s greatest success stories, and what the American Apollo was to spacecraft, the British-French Concorde was to commercial aviation, as it has often been said that the Concorde was Europe’s equivalent to the American Apollo program.

Its also been said that the Soviet Tu-144 was a rip-off of the Concorde, but that is simply not true, as despite the two, from a distance, being similar in appearance, the two aircraft are actually distinctly dissimilar except for their both having a delta wing design (the Boeing SST was a swing-wing design, similar to the B1 bomber). The British, French, and particularly the Italians, have for decades designed their cars and airplanes having a shape that is very stylistic where function is seemly secondary to the final look or appearance of their machines. The British-French Concorde is very graceful and swan like, with its lines flowing smoothly and uninterrupted, from front to rear, with the blending of the wings into the fuselage being as smooth as any part of the aircraft. On the other hand, the Soviet Tu-144 is shaped with necessity of function over form or style. Even in its landing configuration, the Concorde is still graceful and swan like, but the Tu-144 is more brutish and angular in it shape and if you look close enough, the Tu-144 (from the front) bares a very striking resemblance to a cross-breed of a Diamond-Back Rattlesnake and King Cobra. Soviet aircraft of this era were all generally designed similarly, in that necessity of function always took precedence to stylistic considerations, but that’s not to say there isn’t a sort of a beauty all its own with aircraft designed in this fashion. I believe that the Concorde is or was one of the most beautiful aircraft ever built, I also believe that the Soviet Tu-144 had a uniquely and striking beauty as well. The Concorde flew with all the appearance of grace and beauty where the molecules of the atmosphere were pierced from the sharpened point of its stiletto shape, while the Tu-144 appeared to fly more akin to the brut force of a sledge hammer, attacking the air molecules head-on, where even its forward canard winglets were angled at 90 degrees to the airflow, almost in defiance of the atmosphere itself. Even the shape of the Tu-144’s cockpit brows appear like the ears of a pit-viper on the prowl.

No US based airline purchased a Concorde, but it may surprise many to know that the USAF-NASA did purchase a Tu-144 and it was used as a high-speed research aircraft.

Thomas Ruth (model and textures) and Claudio Mussner (panel and sounds) have put together a FS2004 GMAX version of the Tupolev Tu-144 and I must say it is outstanding. From the outside, Thomas’ modeling and texturing is superb, while Claudio’s work with the 2D panel is equally up to par with Thomas’ work. Lacking a 3D virtual panel, the 2D panel designed by Claudio Mussner more than makes up for this omission. The external appearance of this FS aircraft is truly life-like and does offer up a very accurate rendition of the Tupolev designs and the general rough appearance of Soviet aircraft from that era. The real aircraft had a “close enough for government work” look to them and Thomas Ruth has duplicated this appearance quite well, thank you. Chuck full of FS9 effect features, Thomas and Claudio have also included a couple of original ideas as well, one of which is the brakes that heat up and begin to glow, almost white hot, on roll out from landing, or the variable way the engine smoke appears, dark and thick with cold engines, then thinning out to a bare whisper of carbon particulates at cruise speeds. On landing or high angle of attack flight, vapor trails appear at the wing-tips and the tips of the forward mounted canard winglets and at anything above 5º of AoA, rolling vapor appears off of the upper wing surfaces.

Claudio’s panel work follows the true appearance of the real Tu-144, yet compromises toward usable features for the virtual pilot of this superb FS aircraft. One of the unique features of Claudio’s work is the pop-up push-back panel, which has a click-able feature for controlled auto-throttle settings for a safe and reasonable taxi speed. Plus there is the AoA gauge mounted on the center post, also with a maximum angle “bug” set at 8º, and then there is the working windshield wiper system, and even “hot” points for removing the forward nose cowl (which does block your forward view from the cockpit) or the lowering or raising of the windshield sun-visors. On the panel you have two radar gauges, the #1 radar gauge is Eric Marciano and Jorge Salas’ TCAS gauge (requiring Pete Downson’s FSUIPC module be installed), while the #2 radar is a dummy gauge. Probably my favorite gauge is the secondary forward pop-up window screen, giving the virtual pilot a very useable forward looking camera view with built-in HUD readouts. Lacking any side cockpit views, Claudio has included 3 rearward views of the rear interior of the aircraft.

The sounds that Claudio has included are said to be authentic to the original Tu-144s and does include an audible “boom” whenever MACH 1 is exceeded. In addition to the sonic boom, you also have a very noticeable increase in sound when you kick in the afterburners (which also include realistic appearing engine exhaust flames when the re-burners are active).

Flying this aircraft is something that requires practice and that is not in any way meant to deter against their work on this FS aircraft’s flight modeling, but in fact says the opposite. You cannot just jump into this aircraft, like it was the default Cessna 172, and go flying, it simply doesn’t work that way, but that doesn’t mean that flying this aircraft is too difficult or complex for the average flight simmer either. I have no way of knowing how accurate the flight modeling of this FS aircraft is as compared to the real thing, but I can tell you that learning to fly this FS aircraft smoothly and with confidence does require patience and practice, but once you’ve accomplished a smooth cross-country flight ending with a perfect approach and landing, well……, its a very satisfying experience. Because Claudio has limited the duplication of any of the real-world aircraft’s systems, this has kept cockpit management to a minimum so that you can concentrate on simply flying this wonderful aircraft. After reading on the real Tu-144, it is obvious that the real aircraft had some flight control problems, particularly in slow flight and when attempting to land during windy or cross-wind conditions. If it is your desire to attempt to fly this aircraft under those conditions, that proved tragic to the Tu-144, Claudio has included a “hot” point on the panel that will recreate those conditions known to have been fatal to the Tu-144 remaining airborne.

The Tupolev Tu-144 for FS2004 by Thomas Ruth and Claudio Mussner is, in my opinion, a must have for all you flight simmers seeking an FS aircraft having all the bells and whistles as to its animations and special effects, an excellent 2D panel, but requires something other than a casual approach to flying it. This AVSIM library file is more than deserving of the AVSIM freeware Silver award! Both Thomas and Claudio deserve a round of applause for their Tupolev Tu-144 Super Sonic Transport.

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