"Vintage" (30s and 40s) aircraft recommendations?

[Rocky_53 1,566]

With you on that.  Lots of civilian and SAR possibilities - freighters, aerial tankers, postwar US Coast Guard.  If I recall correctly, Lewis mentioned recently over on the A2A forums that he's tried talking up a civilian B-17 but to date it hasn't gotten on their schedule.  We can hope, though.

 

I agree. Personally speaking, for some reason I don't understand, I'm not a lover of war birds, and as much as I enjoy my B17, a civilian version would be superb.

[Alan_A 1,650]

I agree. Personally speaking, for some reason I don't understand, I'm not a lover of war birds, and as much as I enjoy my B17, a civilian version would be superb.

 

It's sometimes a little hard to fit warbirds into a civilian environment, at least if your "back story" involves a mission of some kind.  I find I use the B-17 for weather observation flights - I can convince myself that the guns are some sort of instrument.  Or I land with bombs still aboard and let the weight represent cargo - in that case I avoid looking at the exterior model too much, to avoid the disconnect between military and civilian. And sometimes I'll cruise along the shoreline in the RAF Coastal Command repaint, looking at Henrik Nielsen's AI ships.  In that case the guns are less jarring, but it's still a bit of a stretch.  

 

When Jan Visser finishes his vintage VC for Manfred's C-47, I may wind up using it in place of the B-17 on many of those flights.  I use it a lot now, but the VC will really polish it off - maybe not as atmospheric as the B-17 but very close.

[Wendall 50]

Does that Dragon Rapide work in P3D? I've always thought the Dragon is a gorgeous aircraft, I've just never seen anything worth downloading until now.

[Alan_A 1,650]

 

 

Does that Dragon Rapide work in P3D?

 

Works perfectly for me.  I downloaded it last night and only had time for a short flight, but it behaved perfectly.  All lights showing, no gauge issues, no system problems, no model problems, good flight behavior, good frames.  This was in P3D v2.3.  Based on that limited experience, I'd say it's good to go.  

[Don Quixote 76]

Ah, a civilian B-17 would indeed be most wonderful. And I think we're all still waiting for an A2A DC-3... I hope they get back to classic aircraft once they are done with the first "batch" of GA aircraft.

 

I've gone ahead and got the Stratocruiser, mostly for the wonderful all-round visibility. Naturally, I've set the engines on fire while taxiing. This one will need some studying... Next weekend maybe. Now I'm off to fly the Rapide. Yay!

 

 

When Jan Visser finishes his vintage VC for Manfred's C-47, I may wind up using it in place of the B-17 on many of those flights.  I use it a lot now, but the VC will really polish it off - maybe not as atmospheric as the B-17 but very close.

 

I'm also greatly looking forward to the classic VC. The C-47 is fantastic already, with vintage avionics it will be near perfection.

 

That being said, I really, really like the "Uiver" DC-2 a lot. Not because it's better than the C-47, but mostly because it's more challenging. Of course I have no idea whether these two sim aircraft behave anything like their real-world counterparts, but judging from what I've read from pilots who have flown both, they seem to be quite accurate. The DC-2 can be quite a beast! Especially with random failures enabled. Had some heart-stopping moments when an engine suddenly started belching smoke...

[Alan_A 1,650]

Agree about the Uiver - it's wonderful but not at all tame.  I find I turn to the C-47 more often, because I'd rather relax and work with the airplane rather than against it.  For the same reason I put more hours on the B-17 than the Stratocruiser.  But I understand the opposite impulse.  It's an accomplishment to get the DC-2 from one place to another without breaking stuff.

 

I have a fantasy about Manfred's C-47, which is this: A2A decides to provide an Accu-sim module for it.  They've already modeled the Wright/Cyclone R-1820 for the B-17, so how hard could it be? (he asked, speaking as someone with no background in programming...)  Of course, nothing like that will ever happen - A2A seems to be pretty overbooked.  And it's not essential - the failure modeling on the C-47 is already very good, so the only thing that's missing is persistent wear and tear.  Not Accu-sim but decently close, and the price is right.  Still, I can dream...

[Rocky_53 1,566]

 

I think we're all still waiting for an A2A DC-3... I hope they get back to classic aircraft once they are done with the first "batch" of GA aircraft.

 

Heeey, is this wishful thinking or have you heard something in the pipeline?

[TheFamilyMan 279]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned the Aerosoft PBY Catalina.  It's super well-modeled all around and includes versions with either '40s vintage or modern navigation systems to fit your flying mood.  I love its VC and amphibious nature, though its turtle-like slowness can get tiresome. 

[Mithras 87]

Just found Ant's wonderful freeware Tiger Moth, what a beauty of payware quality. Lovely! Especially cool because I'm currently reading a flight test article about a pilot retraining on the Moth after decades away from it imn this months's Pilot Magazine ...http://www.pilotweb.aero/home

I think Steve is on to something, trying to navigate with the Tiger Moths maritime compass is tricky, and landing is equally hard, it took me three go arounds to land at a local farm strip. I read the web log of a guy who flew the entire length of Africa in a 1940s plane only using a compass, map and landmarks. That kind of challenge really appeals to me ....

[Alan_A 1,650]

 

 

Heeey, is this wishful thinking or have you heard something in the pipeline?

 

Can't speak for DonQ but for me, it's wishful thinking.  I don't know that A2A has any plans to do a C-47.  IIRC, they decided a few years ago not to do one so as not to step on MAAMsim's proposed new FSX version.  MAAMsim folded, of course, and I guess by that time A2A had gone on to other things.  It'd be wonderful to see them do one, but on the other hand, Manfred's is very close to A2A quality - beyond Aircraft Factory even if not quite Accu-sim.  Once it has the new VC, I don't expect I'll be pining for an A2A version... well, maybe every now and then...

I'm surprised that no one mentioned the Aerosoft PBY Catalina.  It's super well-modeled all around and includes versions with either '40s vintage or modern navigation systems to fit your flying mood.  I love its VC and amphibious nature, though its turtle-like slowness can get tiresome. 

 

+1 to all of this.  I haven't flown the Catalina in too long - need to get it out of the hangar (or away from the pier).  Agree that you have to be in the right frame of mind for it - climb at 120, cruise at 120, descend at 120... but atmospheric and, of course, really versatile.  

 

My must-fly list is getting longer thanks to this thread...

[Mithras 87]

Re: my last post - http://www.piloting-across-africa.info/

[Bjoern 1,153]

Sim-Outhouse has some vintage stuff, especially the FSX native conversion for the Howard 500 and the Spartan Executive.

 

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=34&sort=d&page=3&pp=20

[Don Quixote 76]

Heeey, is this wishful thinking or have you heard something in the pipeline?

 

I wish! Unfortunately, it seems that since A2A are so successful with their GA aircraft (which are excellent, without a doubt) that they probably will continue in that direction. But that's just guesswork. In any case, Alan is completely right, Jahn's C-47 is so good that we can easily live without an accusim one.

 

Some great aircraft suggestions in this thread - Thanks to you all! - I'll have to look into many of these.

 

Navigating with nothing but a compass and a map is a real challenge, but (in my opinion) immensely enjoyable as well. I've found that with a modern GPS or similar navigation devices, the only real challenge is starting the aircraft up, and landing it safely. Everything in between is mostly limited to checking your instruments every once in a while, and there's just no challenge in getting from one airport to another since a device is taking care of all the navigation. Even when not using the autopilot, the most you have to do is turn the aircraft the way the needle is pointing.

 

If you remove all the high-tech devices, just getting to your destination suddenly becomes a real challenge. You have to use visual landmarks - cities, roads, coast lines etc - as guidelines and figure out how to best use them to get to where you want to be. After some miserable failures I've more or less got the hang of it, even though I still take a detour every once in a while.

It feels like a great triumph when, after descending through a thick cloud cover, you see the runway lights of your destination airport in the distance, or, after flying over water for an hour or more, you see the coast with familiar landmarks coming into view.

Reading (auto-)biographies about pilots of this era, such as Ernest Gann or Saint-Exupéry has been a great inspiration for me. I didn't think that it was possible to recreate this type of flying in a simulator, but to my own surprise it is.

 

Of course, having accurate scenery and a map is indispensable. Personally I use UTX (in combination with FTX global) which I've found to be far more accurate than FTX vector when it comes to placement of cities, villages, and other landmarks. I don't know if there's anything similar out there, but apart from photoscenery it's probably the next best thing for this sort of navigation.

 

Cheers! :-)

Steve

[bob44 1]

There is a great many vintage aircraft available for FSX. Many FS9 aircraft have been modified to work better in FSX. Also, check out Golden Age Simulations for some native FSX vintage AC.

For some old time navigation, how bout a sextant. The DB and MB sextant for FS9 has been updated for FSX. I have recreated the Amelia Earhart flight round the world using the FSDB L10E using only the sextant. Great fun and challenge.    

[LHookins 3,102]

I started flying dead reckoning when I got the A2A J3 Cub.  Nothing but skyvector.com charts, a stopwatch, and the on-board compass.  No autopilot, no GPS, not even the built-in map.  This kind of flying is a definite skill that has a learning curve, but is very rewarding. 

 

You don't need custom scenery of any kind to use dead reckoning in FSX or P3D.  The default scenery is just fine.  Of course, you won't find any individual buildings, but everything else in there where it's supposed to be.

 

I'm currently duplicating Stephen Coonts' 48 state tour from his book "Cannibal Queen" in the Stearman from Golden Age Simulations.  I started at Boulder Colorado, flew to Baton Rouge,  Orlando Florida, to a small strip in Maine, to Niagara Falls, to Coonts' home town a couple hundred miles south of Erie, back to Boulder, to Washington state, down to Chino California, and I'm currently on a detour in Death Valley to Furnace Creek (211 feet below sea level) and next stop will be Boulder dam near Vegas.  All with real world weather from ASN.

 

That's about 7600 miles, 85 hours of flight, just over 90 flights, with 5 waypoints per flight (all of which were in the scenery) and at least 10 times that many checkpoints where I had to match something on the ground with something on the chart.  That's around 5000 individual scenery items that matched the map.  There were only a handful of things that I expected to see in the scenery that weren't there, and way more often there were things in the scenery that weren't on the charts.  This is with default scenery.

 

I've been able to get lost a couple of times, and once landed at the wrong airport as night was falling.  These are basically impossible if you're using a GPS.  Usually, they're only things you read about in books. 

 

If you're just starting learning dead reckoning, start with easy stuff and work your way up.  Fly short legs, no more than about 20 minutes between waypoints.  Select waypoints that you can see from 5 miles away in case you get off course.  Follow roads/railroads, rivers, shorelines when possible.  My flight plan waypoints look like "course 259 for 18 minutes, south tip of lake."  Wind correction are done "seat of the pants."  "Ok, I arrived about 10% early on this waypoint so I've got a tailwind, reduce flight times by 10% while flying this direction."  Look out the window to see which direction you're drifting;  this is easier if you're flying fairly low.  Oh... and have fun. 

 

Love the suggestions for various aircraft in this thread.  Thanks, guys.

 

Hook