AVSIM Commercial Add-On Package Review Lockheed L1011 Tristar Aircraft/Panel Package

With the advent of more fuel efficient, more powerful, high by-pass turbine engines, aircraft manufacturers are preferring two engines on their wings instead of three or four. By removing excess engines, there's a saving in weight and excess fuel, meaning more carrying capacity for the airlines.

But having a third engine made the "three holers," as they're called, look sleek. The 727 with the S-shaped duct and the tail-mounted engines make the aircraft look gorgeous. The DC-10 with the straight-through tail-mounted engine is another sleek looking aircraft. But my personal favorite is Lockheed Martin's L1011. I have never flown on it. I haven't set foot in the aircraft but it looks absolutely beautiful. Pilots love flying it because it has a very spacious flight deck. Passengers love it because it has a smooth ride. As with most of the three-engined sister ships still in passenger service around the world, the L1011 is on its way out of passenger service for obvious reasons. But before we let it get away, let's have a brief look at the history of this marvelous machine.

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Back In The Good Old Days

The L1011 at the time of its production was considered the primary rival against McDonnell Douglas and their DC-10. The same basic fuselage structure (with less seating) and the same basic engine placement except for the #2 engine. But the similarities ended there. The DC-10 offered airlines who were considering a purchase the choice of engine manufacturers whereas Lockheed locked the L1011 into the Rolls Royce RB211-524, the same engine found on many other classic aircraft such as the 747s.

If we were to look the other way, Lockheed provided a spacious flight deck for the pilots whereas the DC-10 flight deck is cramped and small for three people. Lockheed also put an elevator in the rear of the passenger compartment, that lead to the full kitchen downstairs. This eliminated the need for galleys in the back, allowing for more seating. So why wasn't the L1011 a successful airliner? Primarily because of some fatal decisions made by Lockheed.

The decision to go with a single engine manufacturer despite the interest shown by United and a request for GE engines to be installed, would be considered the major factor. Rolls Royce went with a carbon-bonded fan blade instead of th trusted titanium blades. This resulted in the blades cracking and coming apart. Because of this, and the far too cheap unit price of $840,000, Rolls Royce ended up in bankruptcy in February, 1971. It's only because the British Government stepped in, bailed the company out, and negotiated a new contract with Lockheed consisting of a substantial price hike for th engine that Rolls Royce is alive today and the L1011 was built. Subsequently, Lockheed started shaving weight off the airplane because of the excess engine weight, which led to further delays in deliveries to launch customer Eastern Airlines. By the time the first L1011, registered N1011, took off from Palmdale, California, the DC-10 was already in service. And because of the late deliveries, some airlines either cancelled their orders or placed orders for DC-10s while awaiting their deliveries.

In spite of all these problems Lockheed still delivered approximately 250 of these fine machines. Depending on where you live, you may see them. Delta Airlines is still a major operator, but they're in the process of retiring them. Air Transat also operates a fleet but are being phased out with Airbus A330s. It's a good thing we got Flight Simulator because at least this piece of history can live on our computers for many more years.

Test System Intel PII/450Mhz Windows98 SE 128 Megs RAM Diamond Viper V550 Toshiba 48X CD ROM Diamond MX300 Sound Sidewinder Force Feedback Panasonic 19" Monitor Flying Time: 20 hours over 15 days EuCom Virtual Airlines assisted in the making of this L1011 package. This L1011-100 sits waiting for takeoff clearance. I think the Rolls Royce symbol grew mold sitting in the desert, although the recently released patch corrects this problem. D-AERU came off the production line in 1977 and sold to LTU in the fall, after being modified for increased operating masses. In 1994, the aircraft was sold to ILFC, who leased it to American Trans Air. They flew it until March 1996, after which they purchased it and cannibalized it. When it was retired, it had a total of 57,580 hours and 19,402 cycles TWA operated a group of six, modified Tristars for long range operations. At the start of the decade, TWA started replacing the L1011s with B767s, and in 1994, N81025 performed the last flight for TWA: LAX to JFK. It was later sold to The Memphis Group who dismantled the aircraft. Prior to retirement, the aircraft had logged 65,039 hours and 18,375 cycles. British Airways was the only major customer outside of the US, with a fleet of 23 consisting of three different types. All eight of BA's L1011-200s were converted to freighters for American Airways International. The aircraft currently flies for Kitty Hawk International, accumulating 45,561 hours and 11,799 cycles. Serial Number 1131 was Gulf Air's first Tristar 100. The airline offered "Golden Falcon" service through exquisite meals and excellent service. It was converted to an L1011-200 for standardization reasons, and sold in 1995 to IALI, which converted it to a freighter. Under its new registration, N307GB, it logged 60,981 hours and 27,411 cycles, making it the most utilizied L1011. Serial Number 1130 was first deliverd to TWA, and the very next day to Saudi Arabian Airlines, where it served for 22 years. It was converted to a -200 model and was retired at the end of 1998, after logging 42,632 hours and 28,526 cycles. Serial Number 1222 was the third of four delivered to BWIA in 1981. It replaced the old Boeing 707. It was also the only aircraft that still retained the original takeoff weight right out of Lockheed. It's still in service today with BWIA, logging on average 2.9 hours per cycle. The third aircraft for TAP was delivered in 1983. After seven years of continuous service, it was leased to Angola Airlines in 1990. It was later re-leased by Angola, and then sold to Delphi Aviation who leased it to Novair Airlinesin Sweden. At last count the aircraft had logged 53,442 hours and 10.878 cycles. As you can see from this picture of the real flight deck, the background color of the panel looks not even close to what you see in the package. Photograph courtesy Justin Cedarholm and Airliners.net Looks complicated but it's not. The only switches that are of concern are the APU start switches, the fuel pump switches and your gross weight indicator. The rest is there for showcase. Here's the heart and soul of the aircraft. Here, you have the radio stack, and the INS. The "Stewardess Call" switch starts playing cabin crew announcements, and the "Prepare" switch starts the verbal checklists. Here's another panel that looks complicated but really, there's nothing much up here that's worthy of mentioning. At least it looks similar to the real one. Let's have a moment of silence, shall we?

The Package

The package covers all the series of the L1011s that were produced, starting with the -100 and going through to the -500. A total of 16 airline colors are included:

1) Cathay Pacific
2) British Airways, in the very old colors
3) Gulf Air
4) LTU
5) Saudi Air, in the old and new colors
6) BWIA (West Indies), in two color schemes
7) Operation Blessing: The Flying Hospital
8) Delta Airlines, model -250 and -500
9) Royal Jordanian Airlines
10) TAP Air Portugal
11) A Private VIP color scheme

All have excellent, near-full functional main, and overhead panels, along with a flight engineer panel, and an excellent radio panel that seconds as the Interial Navigation system.

Installation and Documentation

Installation was simple through the installation program. Just tell the program where Flight Simulator is and that's it. Documentation is in the form of a 75-page (half German and half English) manual. It goes into great detail on the history of the aircraft, starting off with the initial planning right through to production, specifications, and a special section outlining the major accidents the L1011 encountered. Also included is a brief historical outline of each aircraft that is included in the package, based on registration. The best part is on the CD. It's a database that contains almost all the information on all the L1011s that were produced. When I ran the installation program, it came up in a language other than English. No problem. You should be able to figure out how to install it. The database is arranged quite neatly. You have the option of searching for an aircraft by either Lockheed's serial number or production number. Pick a serial number and you'll be presented with a photograph of the aircraft, along with information such as who the aircraft is flying for and flew for in its service life, whether it's retired and when, total flight hours and cycles, and if available, a video of the aircraft. It's quite obvious that a lot of time and effort went into this database, considering that it includes almost all the information on all 250 L1011s that came off the line at Lockheed. The manual also goes into detail in regards to the panel, the INS system and how to use it, along with a step-by-step checklist on how to start the engines from a cold cockpit.

Speedbird 001, Ready for Pushback

As you sit in the bus looking out the window at all the aircraft parked in the Mojhave desert in California, you feel a sense of excitement and pride in yourself. As the senior check pilot on the B747 and B777, and the former L1011 for British Airways, you were given the duty of heading down to California to bring an old workhorse back to London for a summer of charter flights. The aircraft: British Airways' ex L1011-200: G-BGBC, serial number 1182 off the production line. The reason: due to an increase in passengers and delays in deliveries from Boeing, BA was forced to bring back "The Short Silk Rose" to bridge the gap. You look out the front window of the bus and in the distant, you see a mirage, followed by the outline of an aircraft that instantly fills your mind with vivid memories. The spacious flight deck, advanced avionics in its time, the smooth ride and all the uneventful flights you flew first as a Flight Engineer, then right seat and finally the left. As you near closer, you start seeing the various liveries: a large fleet of ex-Cathay Pacific machines, a few aircraft from Gulf Air, LTU, Saudi Air, BWIA, Royal Jordanian, TAP Air Portugal, Delta, and a host of private aircraft.

As you drive by them, you notice the excellent condition of the aircraft, particularly the paint, in spite of them sitting in the scorching heat. Looking at the Cathay fleet reminded you of the times you flew the L1011s for BA into Kai Tak and the infamous Runway 13 approach. And as you'd approach the congested terminal, you'd gaze at the slew of L1011s Cathay had in their fleet.

Finally, you approach the end of the line and right at the end, you see your aircraft: The Short Silk Rose. Sitting pristine in the original red, white and blue BA colors, a stair truck pulls up. But before going in, you decide to take a walk down memory lane.

Starting at the nose, you notice the nice dark blue and white paint, just like the day you delivered it. As you progress towards the back, it dawns on you how large the aircraft is, and how three 6' men can control such a large machine. As you progress towards the back, the name catches your eye, along with the big "British" label in the same blue as the belly. With the new paint schemes that BA has adopted, the airline has also changed its attitude from a pompous, snobby attitude to a customer friendly attitude. The old paint scheme displayed the former attitude very clearly, although now, the old scheme is a rarity.

As you continue your stroll towards the #1 engine, you squint your eyes as the glare from the sun shining on the metallic colored cowlings gets you. Finally, you check the main gear and the set of eight new wheel assemblies installed before heading up the stair truck. As you open the main entry door, the smell of a classic airliner welcomes you. As you swing to the left and enter the cold cockpit, you're greeted by a spacious flight deck with a lot of gauges, dials and switches, reminiscent of the Boeing 747-200 you flew for many years before progressing to the glass cockpits.

As you take your seat, you call over to the flight engineer to prepare the checklists. He pulls out a book and flips through to Chapter 8—Checklists. After turning on the power, and completing the "Before Start" checklists, you progress onto starting the engines. You ask the flight engineer to make sure all the red switches are turned to green, starting at the top left hand corner. Next, the electrical power comes on, followed by the three busses and the three generators coming online. The fuel pumps are turned on, followed by reseting the engines. The takeoff weight is calculated and dialed up, and finally, the APU is started. Once the APU is online, the ignition switches are turned on, and one by one, the engines are fired up. Luckily, no problems are encountered during the engine startup, since you were ready for either a hot start or the possibility of a hung start.

Since it had been quite some time since the engines had been started, you decide to enter the waypoints into the INS after the doors are closed, just to let them warm up and stabilize. You enter the first 10 waypoints into the system, and keep the flight plan handy as you'll be entering more waypoints as you progress through the flight. With the waypoints entered, and the autopilot set, you release the brakes and advance the throttle levers forward. The rumble of the RB211s coming to life is like music to your ears. Ground handling is just like you remember it: responsive. Slight movement of the rudder pedals turns the aircraft. Approaching the threshold of the active, you complete the pre-takeoff checklists, and ask for takeoff clearance. Once received, you line up, apply the brakes for a second, and then release the brakes and advance the throttles. As the aircraft roars down the runway, you're being held back firmly in your seat. As the airspeed indicator reaches 165 knots, you pull back gently on the control yoke and the aircraft majestically lifts off the runway. For that split second when the nose comes off the ground, it felt as if the airplane had stopped. As the aircraft becomes airborne, it quickly starts to accelerate so back come the throttles. You set the climb speed to 300 knots, engage the autopilot, and begin the climb to FL380. As you pass through 7,000 feet, you flick the switch marked "INS/RAD" to INS and click the Nav switch on the glareshield on, followed by the aircraft banking to the first waypoint.

Once levelled off, you decide to fly manually just to bring back some old memories and get a feel for the aircraft. Plus it's a perfect time since the aircraft is empty of passengers and their baggage. The autopilot is switched off and the controls are yours. Instantly, you remember old times and how maneuverable the aircraft was. Nothing has changed. Slight movement of the control wheel yield an excellent response from the flight controls. Since you're flying the aircraft after such a long time, you opt not to perform stall tests.

After an uneventful, busy hop across the pond, the final test is dawning on you: the approach into London Heathrow. About 100 miles out, you begin the descent, speeding it up through the use of the spoilers and speed brakes. As you lift the spoilers and speed brakes, the airspeed bleeds off surprisingly fast. Quickly you stow them, amazed at how fast the airspeed bled off. With the descent, approach and landing checklists completed, you lower the gear and make a procedure turn for Runway 27R, which the aircraft completes remarkably tight, even without the use of the rudder. With the approach speed stablizied at 155 knots and full flaps, you're set. Tower gives you the clearance to land and at 50 feet, the throttles come back and the nose goes up, checking the attitude indicator which is showing almost 10 degrees nose up. The vertical speed slows down and smoothly, the aircraft touches down. With the brakes applied and reverse thrust on, the aircraft slows down amazingly quick. As you take the first right off the runway, you take a quick look to your left and realize something: you're the only L1011 on the airport. With this thought, your pride increases. As you get off the airplane, you look to your right and see spectators standing in the terminal, taking pictures of the classic bird. A sense of pride fills you, as you realize how fortunate you are for having been given the opportunity to fly this excellent piece of history.

Closing Remarks

Most of the features that are incorporated in the panels have been described above. The INS system is used through the Radio panel. The control knob on the left can be used to display the current latitude and longitude position of the aircraft, along with current wind conditions, the latitude and longitude of the waypoints, distance and time to the next waypoint, and a whole bunch of other information. Entering waypoints into the INS is a piece of cake. Just head over to the FS2000 database to get the longitude and latitude of the waypoint and go for it. A semi-functional overhead panel is also provided, but there's not a lot of relevant features up here, so it's one of those less-used panels. The main panel seems to be incomplete because there's a gauge missing on the right hand side. The panel is the typical old-fashioned style. One thing that is totally unrealistic is the background coloring of the panel. As you can see from the screenshot of the real flight deck, it's totally not the same color. And there seems to be a misunderstanding in terms of what sort of engine gauges the aircraft used in the flight deck. The L1011-500 panel in the package uses vertical bar gauges, similar to those used in the early generation Boeing 747s. But the picture of the L1011 flight deck shows shows round gauges. Maybe Lockheed offered airlines the choice of different gauges for their specific aircraft. Other than that, it's a pretty neat package. Still if you're a die-hard L1011 fan, it's a package worth adding to your collection. The included database with the information on most of the L1011s that were produced is a major highlight of this package. It's something that is definitely worth checking out, and something all L1011 fans will simply love.

The retail price of the package is US$34.90 and can be ordered by clicking here. The website also includes some neat screenshots, and a separate download section where you can download additional paint schemes and aircraft. Pilots has also released a patch which fixes some issues with the panel and the INS, along with compatibility for Windows 2000 users. You can also "try before you buy" by downloading an evaluation version L1011 for FS2000 only. Although there's no panel or sound files included, it still gives you the chance to check out the aircraft before you pull your wallet out.

Interview with Stephen Schaefer

Avsim: Tell us a bit about yourself, your team, and your company. How did Pilot's come about?

Stephen: PILOT'S has been in existance since 1995. We made the first large scale commercial Add-On (back in that times for FS5) called FSWG HONG KONG. Since then we have successfully released many add-ons (Airbus 1998 / Airbus 2000 / FS Global to mention some of them). Some of them were produced through The Associates (Just Flight as they are called now), some of them produced through PILOT'S itself. We do work with freelance designers. Some of them have turned out to work for us again and again. The coordination and production is done by myself.

Avsim: What prompted you do produce a package based around the L1011?

Stephen: I saw a certain "hole" in the market there. Firstly, a good L-1011 is hard to find, even on the web. Secondly, a three engine plane is something like a challenge to built. And finally, the TriStar simply is a beautifull aircraft

Avsim: How long did it take to make the product?

Stephen: The basic work started just after the release of FS98. The release of FS2k made us develope a completely new version for the new sim. Both are included

Avsim: What was the biggest hurdle you had to overcome during the production of the package?

Stephen: To set up gauges for FS2k (with its functionality) in a very short time. And the parallel release of WIN2k, where suddenly things did not work, though they should. All have been fixed with the patch now.

Avsim: What features are in the package that replicate the real aircraft?

Stephen: Hopefully all. However, everyone knows, that there are certain aspects in Flight Simulator we simply cannot overcome. We have seen, that the functionality of the panels and the layout even for L-1011 pilots does give them the feeling of sitting behind the yoke. However, since most of the L-1011s did have custom built panels, this was very difficult. Then we saw, that the model design does face up to the current standards and even goes beyond them (see the cockpit through the windows from outside at night!)

Avsim: How long have you been a Flight Simulator user and what do you think of it?

Stephen: For some of the FS buffs I might have started "late". I am a FS user since FS4. I think every version still lacks some reality in certain aspects, and always will. However, every new version goes ahead a bit, enough to make the users happy and still leaving the community space to enhance our "toy".

Avsim: What's on the horizon for Pilots in terms of their next project?

Stephen: We have two things in the works for a fall release. One is the B717 and on the second I can not comment at this time. We will have an official announcement later next month. Avsim: And finally, in your personal opinion, where do you see flight simulation on the home computer in say two to three years?

Stephen: Well, we will have Microsoft Flight Simulator 2001 or 2002 (or whatever Microsoft names the next official release). We will have the same (low) frame rates, as new releases always throw us back in terms of frame rates to the release of the last version. We will have a lot more features and functionality. But I also see some competition coming up from other edges. Fly! has the capability and also Airline Simulator if we see another version.