Flight Replica DC-4 released

[Chock 17,769]

A video of some firefighting using retardant to contain the area around a forest fire so it burns itself out (which is much safer than water-bombing over those big flames), in the Flight Replicas DC-4 with Lorby SI Firefighter X in P3D V4.1. I cranked up the sound levels in P3D so you can hear the engine noise, which as on the FR North Star/Argonaut, is also really excellent on this DC-4:

 

 

 

 

[AviatorMan 253]

4 hours ago, Chock said:

A video of some firefighting using retardant to contain the area around a forest fire so it burns itself out (which is much safer than water-bombing over those big flames), in the Flight Replicas DC-4 with Lorby SI Firefighter X in P3D V4.1. I cranked up the sound levels in P3D so you can hear the engine noise, which as on the FR North Star/Argonaut, is also really excellent on this DC-4:

Sounds like there are some good things to be said for this DC-4 model, but your comments about the limited systems depth make me think I will just stick with the PMDG DC-6. I also picked up from the comments in this thread that the Manfred Jahn DC-3 needs to have the Doug Dawson 64-bit sound gauge file installed for P3Dv4.1 - I have been flying it without it and was happy enough, not noticing that the cockpit switch sounds were not there. I have installed the Dawson file and see what I was missing. Two great aircraft in P3Dv4.1 - the PMDG DC-6 and the Manfred Jahn DC-3!

 

 

 

 

[Chock 17,769]

19 hours ago, AviatorMan said:

Sounds like there are some good things to be said for this DC-4 model, but your comments about the limited systems depth make me think I will just stick with the PMDG DC-6. I also picked up from the comments in this thread that the Manfred Jahn DC-3 needs to have the Doug Dawson 64-bit sound gauge file installed for P3Dv4.1 - I have been flying it without it and was happy enough, not noticing that the cockpit switch sounds were not there. I have installed the Dawson file and see what I was missing. Two great aircraft in P3Dv4.1 - the PMDG DC-6 and the Manfred Jahn DC-3!

Yup, if you want the systems to be simulated in more detail for these types of old airliners, A2A and PMDG would be the best choices. You can find some other stuff out there which is good too if you like old airliners such as these, for example the Aerosoft Consolidated PBY Catalina is very good in that regard, as is the Aeroplane Heaven/Just Flight Boeing B17F.

I do have the PMDG DC-6, although I've also got the Just Flight one too, which is pretty good and despite the JF website not saying so, it does work in P3D V4.1, and obviously I've got the Flight Replicas DC-4 and their North Star as well, and in spite of them not matching the PMDG in terms of system simulation realism for an old Douglas airliner, I do still think they have their relative merits.

Here they are, all those old Douglas propliners lined up to make a really cool ramp. The Flight Replicas BAF ATL-98, Air France DC-4 and a BOAC Argonaut with Merlin engines, the Just Flight Pan American DC-6B, and the PMDG British Eagle DC-6A:

 

[AviatorMan 253]

On 11/4/2017 at 4:26 PM, Chock said:

Yup, if you want the systems to be simulated in more detail for these types of old airliners, A2A and PMDG would be the best choices. You can find some other stuff out there which is good too if you like old airliners such as these, for example the Aerosoft Consolidated PBY Catalina is very good in that regard, as is the Aeroplane Heaven/Just Flight Boeing B17F.

I do have the PMDG DC-6, although I've also got the Just Flight one too, which is pretty good and despite the JF website not saying so, it does work in P3D V4.1, and obviously I've got the Flight Replicas DC-4 and their North Star as well, and in spite of them not matching the PMDG in terms of system simulation realism for an old Douglas airliner, I do still think they have their relative merits.

Here they are, all those old Douglas propliners lined up to make a really cool ramp. The Flight Replicas BAF ATL-98, Air France DC-4 and a BOAC Argonaut with Merlin engines, the Just Flight Pan American DC-6B, and the PMDG British Eagle DC-6A:

 

That's a fine looking fleet you have! Love these propliners from the 50's. My dad was a flight engineer for American Airlines, flying DC-6's (later he flew the Lockheed Electra turboprop, Boeing 707, and retired flying the DC-10). As the whole family had free flight passes, we took advantage of these every year at vacation time, and I have fond memories of many flights in DC-6's, DC-7's and other liners of the period. Another piston airliner of the era that I think is very interesting is the Convair CV-240 twin mid-range, which American had developed to replace its fleet of DC-3's. I haven't seen any simulation model of this aircraft since CalClassic's FS9 version.

[Chock 17,769]

18 minutes ago, AviatorMan said:

That's a fine looking fleet you have! Love these propliners from the 50's. My dad was a flight engineer for American Airlines, flying DC-6's (later he flew the Lockheed Electra turboprop, Boeing 707, and retired flying the DC-10). As the whole family had free flight passes, we took advantage of these every year at vacation time, and I have fond memories of many flights in DC-6's, DC-7's and other liners of the period. Another piston airliner of the era that I think is very interesting is the Convair CV-240 twin mid-range, which American had developed to replace its fleet of DC-3's. I haven't seen any simulation model of this aircraft since CalClassic's FS9 version.

Yup, I'm really hoping some stuff such as the Convair CV-240 and the Lockheed L-188 Electra show up for P3D

[Chock 17,769]

Just a heads up for anyone interested in this thing; it's now available from Just Flight's store, which means it's available at a much more palatable £28.49 than the 40-odd quid I payed for it when getting thoroughly stiffed by the Dollar to Sterling conversion rate upon buying it direct from Flight Replicas and paying through Paypal. Not that I'm having a go at them, nobody twisted my arm lol.

I would say that lower price, especially when you'd also get about £1.50's worth of loyalty points from JF, taking it down to about 27 quid, is probably about right price-wise for what it is, i.e. not a massively in-depth simulation in comparison to the PMDG Douglas (yeah I know it's not the same aircraft, but it's sort of similar), but largely offset by the fact that you are getting three different aeroplanes for the price with that Flight Replicas package, and quite a bit of variety among the three variants too, including the rather unusual and (depending on your point of view) either fugly, or interesting, ATL-98 Carvair. 

I've been having a lot of fun with the Firefighting C-54 variant of it coupled with Lorby's Firefighter X. And on the plus side given its comparative simplicity to the PMDG Douglas, it does sound great and seems to handle in a very similar fashion to that PMDG DC-6, so I'd guess it must be a reasonably accurate flight model, certainly it does seem to fly in a pretty convincing manner and I do like the way it does it without me having to pray to the God of Pratt and Whitney to get its engines to fire up lol.

Worth a look if you've got about 25 notes burning a hole in your pocket and are keen on old propliners.

[keithb77 308]

Quote

I've also got the Just Flight one too, which is pretty good and despite the JF website not saying so, it does work in P3D V4.1, 

Alan,
Do you find the engines work properly on the JF DC-6 in V4?
As I remember there is a 32-bit WEP gauge (War Emergency Power) in the panel which I think is used for the superchargers ... and that won't work...

It flies OK in V4 but is a little slow/thirsty which hurts the pocket in FSEconomy :) )

Cheers
Keith

[AnkH 2,267]

On ‎03‎.‎11‎.‎2017 at 10:56 PM, AviatorMan said:

 I also picked up from the comments in this thread that the Manfred Jahn DC-3 needs to have the Doug Dawson 64-bit sound gauge file installed for P3Dv4.1 - I have been flying it without it and was happy enough, not noticing that the cockpit switch sounds were not there.

Just be aware that not only the cockpit switch sounds are missing without this updated sound gauge, but also all co-pilot readouts. This I was missing, that's why I use the Doug Dawson gauge now.

[Chock 17,769]

56 minutes ago, keithb77 said:

Alan,
Do you find the engines work properly on the JF DC-6 in V4?
As I remember there is a 32-bit WEP gauge (War Emergency Power) in the panel which I think is used for the superchargers ... and that won't work...

It flies OK in V4 but is a little slow/thirsty which hurts the pocket in FSEconomy :) )

Cheers
Keith

Well, the DC-6B from Just Flight has to be manually installed in P3D V4.1 (it isn't listed as P3D compatible at all on the JF website, only FSX, and not even FSX-SE according to the product page). I'd tend to think it would actually be fully FSX-SE compatible though since it says SP2/.Acceleration compatible on the product page, but as you know, you do need that Acceleration stuff for some additional engine features of FS add-ons to work, for example, the Flight Replicas Argonaut/North Star won't even throttle up on FSX (boxed version) without the Acceleration add-on being installed, or of course FSX-SE since Acceleration is part of that. It was actually that on the Argonaut which prompted me to get the Steam version, since I'd lost my Acceleration DLC installation files which I bought as DLC years ago and it was the first add-on I installed after a HD wipe and reinstall of FSX boxed and I found would not work without Acceleration.

Having said all that, I've not noticed it working in P3D V4.1 (which I manually installed the JF DC-6B into), when using those Water/Methanol injection switches on the overhead, i.e. no boost in power, no engine noise change and no indication of anything different on the engine gauges. Supposedly it is only available above throttle settings of 95 percent, at which point the available lights come on, but unless I'm doing something wrong (not unknown lol), it doesn't look like it does much, although it's been a while since I've tried it, so I might take another look and see if I can get it going because the JF DC-6B is kind of cool and I do like it.

[Chock 17,769]

Re: Water Methanol Injection on the Just Flight DC-6B. It works via the VC switches on the thing in FSX-SE, but the switches don't trigger it in P3D V4, however, you can get it to work by assigning a button or keypress to WEP in P3D V4.1 (there is no key assigned by default), and then it is reflected on the engine gauges in the JF DC-6B in P3D V4.1. So in other words, yes it does work, just not via the switches on the overhead in the VC when in Prepar3D.

[AviatorMan 253]

9 hours ago, AnkH said:

Just be aware that not only the cockpit switch sounds are missing without this updated sound gauge, but also all co-pilot readouts. This I was missing, that's why I use the Doug Dawson gauge now.

You're right. Also you hear the landing gear & flaps retract/extend, the parking brake, touchdown when you contact the runway. At the end of the flight after you shut down, the pilot and co-pilot say "goodbye...see you next flight". Many sounds that you do not hear without the Doug Dawson gauge. And the gauge is very easy to install, just rename it per the instructions and put it in the panel folder.

[AviatorMan 253]

A question about the real-world DC-4: Did it have a Flight Engineer position? I assume that it didn't, that the FE position was added when the complexity of engine management was recognised in the DC-6 and the Lockheed Constellation? 

[NW21 1]

My Dad flew the DC-4 for Northwest.  There was no Flight Engineer position in the cockpit.  There was a Navigator on long over water flight such as PANC to RJTT and KSEA to PHNL.

Regards,

Bill Roth