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Vulcanair P68 Observer

falcon409

falcon409

SOH-CM-2025
One of these landed at North Texas Regional about 4 years ago and was immediately surrounded by onlookers from hangars near ours. It belonged to the Feds and the pilot told us he flew around the country for the Dept. of the Interior, doing surveillance work. He never knew where he would be next or what the assignment would be. . .anything from counting Migratory Birds, to Poachers to checking on stranded wildlife due to floods or other natural disasters. Interesting airplane. . . .he had a nose wheel problem (shimmy when taxiing) and our A&P was able to correct it and get him back in the air in very little time. Haven't seen one of these since, but I was always on the lookout for one in FS9 or FSX. Against my better judgement, I purchased this a few days ago from Abacus for $19.99. We have better freeware being developed and released every day, but this was never going to be one anyone was interested in doing, so I HAD to get it, lol.

I'm slowly redoing as much as possible to HiRes textures (dds) both inside and out. I've done three so far, the Italian State Police version, the US Gov. version and one I saw on Airliners.net. If anyone took the plunge like I did and has a need for these new textures, let me know and I'll package them up and get them to you. I seriously doubt that there is sufficient numbers to actually post it to the downloads section here though.
 
VERY interesting aircraft! NEver heard of it, but I really like it! Great pilot visibility for sure!! Thanks for showing it off.
 
Gibbage said:
VERY interesting aircraft! NEver heard of it, but I really like it! Great pilot visibility for sure!! Thanks for showing it off.
Click to expand...
Yep, designed specifically as an Observation and Surveillance platform. This version has a solid sheet metal nose but there is one that has a solid plexi nose-piece which makes for even better downward vision. I suspect the designer was unable to model that and so went with this version (just my guess, tho that may not be the case).:salute:
 
I did a little research on this aircraft, and it seems that the nose changes a LOT from customer to customer. Overall its not really needed I think, and im sure just adds to the cost without adding a lot of visibility. This aircraft reminds me of another observer aircraft, with a ducted fan behind a pod like gondola and a twin boom. The Edgley Optica. I heard they are trying to bring production back on it!

74689_big.jpg
 
I used to work at an FBO that maintained a P68. Every airplane had unique parts that were made to order. As a result, you could order part 404505-1 for serial number 123 and it would take 3 months to get it. If you had serial number 140 that needed the same part, but quicker, the part made for #123 wouldn't fit.
 
Railrunner130 said:
I used to work at an FBO that maintained a P68. Every airplane had unique parts that were made to order. As a result, you could order part 404505-1 for serial number 123 and it would take 3 months to get it. If you had serial number 140 that needed the same part, but quicker, the part made for #123 wouldn't fit.
Click to expand...
That sucks. . .maybe backstock? Even that could get expensive if the parts were basically custom made for each airplane, what a nightmare.
 
Gibbage said:
I did a little research on this aircraft, and it seems that the nose changes a LOT from customer to customer. Overall its not really needed I think, and im sure just adds to the cost without adding a lot of visibility. This aircraft reminds me of another observer aircraft, with a ducted fan behind a pod like gondola and a twin boom. The Edgley Optica. I heard they are trying to bring production back on it!

74689_big.jpg
Click to expand...



It is an Optica in your photo.
 
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