[Beta Preview] DC-6 for X-Plane

[jcomm 5,890]

How torky will this one be :-)

[Desaix 235]

Great preview, those red lights on panels are amazing, how about FPS at current beta stage?

[Nyxx 6,993]

The VC looks Stunning 

[RudiJG1 172]

It does look sweet, and thanks, Kyle, for the peek. Really looking forward to this.

[F3lixZockt 0]

That´s looks really fantastic.

I have two questions:

 1) Can we get the manual before release?

 2) Will it be available on Steam?

[tonywob 4,768]

Also, if anyone's interested, the latest edition PC Pilot magazine in the UK has an article and some pictures of this plane as well.

[Jude Bradley 659]

Looks great - 

Understatement of the year

[roko71 0]

Nice,

 

Can't wait for new planes in X-plane.

 

Looks very good.

[wolke85 150]

Awesome!

[jerry allen 3]

Beautiful!  A real airplane.

[scandinavian13 5,192]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. This airplane really does satisfy my historically-inclined side. I've been reading a lot of Pan Am lore lately to help me answer the array of questions we get at airshows (you wouldn't believe how obscure some can be, though it's usually a core group of simple questions/comments), and reading about it all really makes me want to jump in the sim and try my hand at the same challenges of the time, in a classic like the DC-6. 

 

 

 

Although, a 430? A proper DC-6 would have a sextant. 

 

True, if you're simulating flying it back in the middle of the last decade. Still, ADF (mid 1930s), VORs (mid 1940s) were starting to pop up at the time, and radio navigation had been pioneered by Pan Am in the late 1920s. LORAN, of course, popped up on the civilian side a little later for those spots outside of VOR coverage. GPS isn't too incredibly different from the latter concept - it just relies on satellites instead of ground-based antennas.

 

 

 

If we do not have a complex hardware setup with lots of available levers for throtles and prop pitch, etc, how much are we going to lose in terms of enjoying the full experience offered by this simulation?

 

I have all of my throttles mapped to a single lever at the moment. With a steerable nosewheel, getting around on the ground won't be too difficult. Prop pitch in the real aircraft was also selected by a master, single lever (the white knob, marked "P" in the third picture just to the right of the #4 throttle lever on the capt side). There are definitely ways to get around your hardware limitations.

 

So far, I have:

-Throttle axis

-Toggle for cowl flaps open/close (incrementally); and

-Toggle for gear up/down (and a separate button to put the gear handle in the OFF position

 

The rest is pretty easy to manipulate via mouse click, though there are more assignable commands in the menu structure.

 

 

Kyle, will it be a bit similar to A2A ( sorry for comparison ), that engines and plane systems will depend to maintenance and mileage ? ( plane will remember own status and condition when left after last flight )

 

I don't believe this is in the scope of what we're trying to do with this project.

 

How torky will this one be :-)

 

Surprisingly tame, but it does hunt the yaw axis quite a lot, realistically.

[tf51d 284]

The DC-6 is a true 3 to 4 flight crew aircraft, to fly realistically you really need the extra crew member(s) to monitor and regulate systems. A2A accomplishes this with their B377 by simulating a Virtual copilot and engineer. How is this going to be handled in this aircraft?

 

Tom Cain

[scandinavian13 5,192]

 

 

 

 

how about FPS at current beta stage?

 

This I can't quite comment on because I only use X-Plane to test the 6, and I've been changing my graphics settings to get better performance out of the sim (weather, as an example, will bring the sim to its knees if you jack the settings up too high). I don't really have a good baseline without the 6, and on stable settings, so I can't even comment on a generic level of "it does/doesn't have too much of an FPS impact."

 

 

 

1) Can we get the manual before release?
2) Will it be available on Steam?

 

1) Not sure on this one.

2) We don't distribute via Steam at the moment, but it's fully compatible with the Steam version of X-Plane.

[x-plane 123 61]

Thanks for the pics Kyle. I can't wait to fly her.

[jcjimmy 150]

Many thanks for the update.

 

The a/c looks beautiful and well executed. I am an X-Plane fan and look forward to flying my first PMDG product.

 

I did fly the DC-6 as an F/O just before they were put out to pasture. It should be an interesting experience again.