Hi everyone,I'm working on a plan to fly my M.A.A.M.-SIM DC-3 (cargo version) around the world (twice) in the 1939 era. I want to use only the equipment and navigational techniques available at that time. So any responses to the following questions will be appreciated:1) I plan to use -- pilotage and dead reckoning, ADF with NDBs, charts showing NDBs, rotatable compass card, driftmeter, bubble sextant, Sperry auto-pilot, E6-B disk, slide rule, ATC (but only at airports), and the usual chart tools (plotters, parallel rulers, dividers). Is there anything on that list that wasn't available in my era? Is there anything that was avaialble, and might be useful, that I haven't listed?2)I won't use -- VOR, GPS, on-board map, heads-up display of position and wind, any electronic tools (e.g., pocket calculator), and ATC centers. Anything else I haven't mentioned that would be a no-no in 1939?3) We have all read about the legendary pilots and navigators of the 1930s and 1940s, but what about mechanics? Any names, books, or other references for the great DC-3 mechanics of the period?4) The use of the "Real Stars" add-on is a vast improvement over the default FS2004 stars for purposes of celestial navigation. Still, the problem (as with the default) is magnitude. Neither of those programs (nor one called "Auto Star") has magnitude correct. Does anyone know of a star add-on for FS2004 that actually handles magnitude correctly?Many thanks for your help,Gary

All sounds pretty spot-on to me, Gary, go for it! I note that you don't have the Radio Range equipment fitted (developed by the boys at DC-3 Airways) ... this would certainly be appropriate for navigation within the US during this period, although there were not many stations elsewhere.Don't know of any further star enhancement, sorry.MarkMark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/maamlogo2.jpg[/a]

Hello Gary,the only star enhancement I know so far is MyFsStars:MyFsStars increases the number of stars shown at night in Flight Simulator 2004 and also gives a more realistic view with adjusted brightness values. Optionally and "just for fun", constellation lines can be drawn as well.The new "stars.dat" file contains the ~5000 brightest stars (up to a magnitude of 6m0) that can be seen under (very) good conditions with (very) good eyes.Coordinates of the stars were taken from the "Bright Star Catalog", coordinates of the constellation lines come from another of my (private) projects.As already mentioned, the brightness values in the file are not real ones as FS does not show them in a very realistic way. In general, brighter stars were brightened and darker stars were dimmed in various levels, resulting in an emphasized (and more realistic look) of brighter stars.Download: http://www.elbiah.de/flusi/MyFsStars/MyFsStars-1-0.zipBut if this star add-on handles the magnitude correctly....I don't know :-hmmm GreetingsTimhttp://www.scharnhop-hh.de/sig.jpg

Hi Tim,Just now got around to installing and testing MyFsStars. Outstanding! This is much better than any of the other star add-ons I've tried. Magnitude isn't perfect, but it does a great job of variance in star brightness, making the sky very recognizable. I can actually identify many constellations (without the use of lines :-)) and can find enough navigational stars to handle celestial navigation with the Bitzer-Beaumont bubble sextant.Thanks for the tip,Gary

Hi Gary.... BRAVO on a great project! Will you be documenting this with a story of your experiences as you go along, and will you be doing screenshots? I hope so....I'd like to follow your progress! Skywatcher

Hi Skywatcher,Yep, I'm keeping a log, and will try to take one screenshot for each leg. If you'll send me your e-mail address, I'll send you a Word file (explaining my approach, and the rules I'll follow) and an Excel file (with the itinerary).I've actually begun, having left Austin, TX, and gotten as far as Evansville, IN, so far without incident :-)Best,Gary

>Hi everyone,>>I'm working on a plan to fly my M.A.A.M.-SIM DC-3 (cargo>version) around the world (twice) in the 1939 era. I want to>use only the equipment and navigational techniques available>at that time. [...]>2)I won't use -- VOR, GPS, on-board map, heads-up display of>position and wind, any electronic tools (e.g., pocket>calculator), and ATC centers. Anything else I haven't>mentioned that would be a no-no in 1939?They did not have computers running FS2004 back then.