Aeroplane Heaven C-47/DC-3 is out!

[Alan_A]

Since I'd been airing out my startup frustrations earlier in this thread, I wanted to come back to report that, thanks to a lot of help from Baz and a lot of work on his part, they're now fixed. My DC-3s are now starting as reliably as my C-47s (very reliably). I hope Baz won't object to my reporting that the fix that worked on my system is due for inclusion in the next update.

I'm now looking forward to flying the airplane, instead of running through the startup routine. Though I now know the startup routine really well, so that's something.

Hope this is good news for anyone else who's had startup issues.

 

[cavaricooper]

Alan-

Good to hear... I noticed some odd Energize/Mesh interactions during in flight re-starts and hope that’s sorted now. Looking forward to what AH has in store for the old girl. Hopefully some of our painters will get their brushes out for her. There are many civilian liveries from the 40s and 50s I’d love to see.

Best- C

 

[degeus]

add-ons

Hi,
Personally I prefer to see more military repaints, there are many C-47's with good history or on exhibition in musea. Take a look at the long list of repaints for Manfred Jahn's C-47. It would especially be nice if AH can supply us with a model with paratroopers, but without the radar dome underneath.
Piet de Geus

 

[Alan_A]

Personally I prefer to see more military repaints

I'm more of a civilian flyer - or maybe that's pent-up demand now that we've got a set of DC-3 models to fly. But to bridge the two worlds, what I'd love to see, if painters are up to it and if the paintkit is workable (that's two "ifs"), is a couple of Air Transport Command repaints. We've been generously supplied with Troop Transport Command repaints, and we're likely to be once again with this version. But the "Association of Terrified Co-Pilots" needs equal time. After all, we're talking Ernie Gann here...

A couple of nominees - this one:

And maybe also this one:

Could be a big ask, depending on the workload. But I can dream!

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to take them on.

 

[YoYo]

The paintkit not ready yet (not present in download section on AH webpage) but perhaps after the SP2 it will be released so ... who knows ?

 

[cavaricooper]

I keep hoping that Yo-Yo, Jankees, Gordon and some of our other Stars will move some of their amazing work over to the AH Dak. That is of paramount importance for it's success and I hope AH is courting those talents. I am looking forward to taking her to the PNW, but am holding on for debut of the aforementioned Service Pack.

Hey, whilst discussing this, is this windshield post position correct? I seat myself directly behind the yoke/wheel, and this puts the window opening divider squarely in the middle of my view. The MJ C-47 is quite different in this regard. I cannot speak from experience (the DC-3 I was familiar with had the modern single piece windshield)... can someone add to this discussion?

In this same vein, tail rise (perhaps because of my viewpoint) feels like wheel-barrowing. Almost an unnatural angle. Again, I solicit input from those with time in type.

When looking at knob behavior, could the fuel tank selectors vs. mouse clicks be examined, and could the mouse wheel/mouse clicks for propellers be reduced to a change of 1% vs. 5%?

Best- C

 

[bazzar]

The forthcoming upgrade will have certain geometry adjustments which will include the quarter window and its post. We do indeed appear to have it too far over to the centre of the aircraft. On studying the plans and drawings used, we find them in error, which is disappointing as they are supposed to be the best available. This has now been addressed, along with the infamous landing gear knuckle arrangement.

On Paintkits, V5 has thrown a significant spanner in the works with their unheralded change to reflection channels etc. This means a total redo of all default liveries and the files for a full paintkit. Moreover, it requires a total re do of some 38 liveries scheduled for the livery packs. From what we have tested so far however, the "new"materials are backward compatible with 4.5 so there will (don't quote me yet though) be no necessity to run different textures per sim.

If people just want a set of wireframes and a paint guide, then we can get that out but I have assumed that more complex files would be preferred. All of the weathering, rivets and so on are created in the 3D paint programme we use and therefore embedded in the final liveries. However, we are looking at producing plain sets for aluminium, polished aluminium, grey paint and white paint overall. Then a painter just needs to do the overpaint livery items on the chosen finish and mask the metallic map to achieve an embedded look. I take it that would appeal more?

 

[bazzar]

As a quick and dirty fix for your wheelbarrowing, navigate to the [flight tuning] section of the aircraft cfg and the first line is cruise lift scalar. Try the value at,say, 1.18 and see how you go. We'll take a look at the profiles in more detail for the Upgrade.

 

[YoYo]

btw. 2 nice wallpaper found in the net (in hi res). The first is on my desktop from the time when AH released his C-47 .

 

[degeus]

air transport command

I'm more of a civilian flyer - or maybe that's pent-up demand now that we've got a set of DC-3 models to fly. But to bridge the two worlds, what I'd love to see, if painters are up to it and if the paintkit is workable (that's two "ifs"), is a couple of Air Transport Command repaints. We've been generously supplied with Troop Transport Command repaints, and we're likely to be once again with this version. But the "Association of Terrified Co-Pilots" needs equal time. After all, we're talking Ernie Gann here...

A couple of nominees - this one:



And maybe also this one:

Could be a big ask, depending on the workload. But I can dream!

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to take them on.

Yes, If wee couyld have these ones.....................................
Piet

 

[degeus]

Window-post position

The forthcoming upgrade will have certain geometry adjustments which will include the quarter window and its post. We do indeed appear to have it too far over to the centre of the aircraft. On studying the plans and drawings used, we find them in error, which is disappointing as they are supposed to be the best available. This has now been addressed, along with the infamous landing gear knuckle arrangement.

On Paintkits, V5 has thrown a significant spanner in the works with their unheralded change to reflection channels etc. This means a total redo of all default liveries and the files for a full paintkit. Moreover, it requires a total re do of some 38 liveries scheduled for the livery packs. From what we have tested so far however, the "new"materials are backward compatible with 4.5 so there will (don't quote me yet though) be no necessity to run different textures per sim.

If people just want a set of wireframes and a paint guide, then we can get that out but I have assumed that more complex files would be preferred. All of the weathering, rivets and so on are created in the 3D paint programme we use and therefore embedded in the final liveries. However, we are looking at producing plain sets for aluminium, polished aluminium, grey paint and white paint overall. Then a painter just needs to do the overpaint livery items on the chosen finish and mask the metallic map to achieve an embedded look. I take it that would appeal more?

In the meantime I corrected it with a new value in the [views]-section in the aircraft.cfg. Change the middle-value according to personal preference.
Piet

 

[cavaricooper]

The forthcoming upgrade will have certain geometry adjustments which will include the quarter window and its post. We do indeed appear to have it too far over to the centre of the aircraft. On studying the plans and drawings used, we find them in error, which is disappointing as they are supposed to be the best available. This has now been addressed, along with the infamous landing gear knuckle arrangement.

As a quick and dirty fix for your wheelbarrowing, navigate to the [flight tuning] section of the aircraft cfg and the first line is cruise lift scalar. Try the value at,say, 1.18 and see how you go. We'll take a look at the profiles in more detail for the Upgrade.

Ta Bazz- I think that this aeroplane in particular exerts a very visceral response from it's aficionados, and thus makes a case for the relentless pursuit of perfection. Many of us have had our heart strings pulled by the old Dak, and thus it is a formidable task for any developer. Your work is made even more difficult because of the superlative freeware offering made by her ardent devotees.

I appreciate your candor and willingness to make changes. In the end, that is what we ALL are collectively looking for, a worthy tribute to a brilliant aeroplane.

I look forward to the changes you mention. Please consider the mouse wheel manipulation for knobs and levers I mentioned earlier (including the 1% increments for fine tuning). Maybe a right click will work for the catch lever, and then the mouse wheel can move to the individual gates to replicate RL mixture operation?

Best- C

 

[bazzar]

Whilst I appreciate that the subject is one that can and does polarise people, I would ask people to understand that there is one thing that makes a considerable difference between pay and freeware. Time.

In a business like ours, time is precious. We cannot devote years to a subject. If we were to the price would be astronomical compared to what it is now. We do our best to provide an entertaining, rewarding product that will tick as many boxes as possible, within the scope of a time/budget plan.

Of course, we are committed to right any wrongs there may be by way of direct faults with the product and do from time to time provide upgrades with an improvement or two where we can. Beyond that we have to move on as a business. Otherwise we would not be developing anything for much longer! And on the subject of freeware I believe Aeroplane Heaven, in its time, has delivered more freeware than a lot of other payware houses.

It must also be remembered that we do not have the same access to the numbers of talented individuals with experience in a range of different areas who can freely give their time to a project,as they do with freeware. On DC-3, we have actually approached a few of the better known practitioners of several of the "dark arts", including some who apparently worked on the freeware one but have been unsuccessful in recruiting them either for moral, timeframe or monetary reasons. It is extraordinary how many, when discovering that we are a payware company, run for the forest as if we have some sort of plague. That's OK, we have several extraordinarily talented individuals we do call on when needed and who are happy to provide assistance for sensible money.

So, I guess what I am saying here is that whilst we too have a passion for the DC-3, and all the subjects we make, we will not be engaging in an endless quest for perfection. Commercially, that would be suicidal and in my opinion, unnecessary. Our DC-3 is what it is - about 12 months of hard, difficult work and for us, an honest tribute to a great aeroplane. The definitive payware DC-3? Probably 2 years and $200 away...

 

[Alan_A]

As a quick and dirty fix for your wheelbarrowing, navigate to the [flight tuning] section of the aircraft cfg and the first line is cruise lift scalar. Try the value at,say, 1.18 and see how you go. We'll take a look at the profiles in more detail for the Upgrade.

Tried this myself and it cured the pronounced nose-down on the takeoff roll... but also killed elevator effectiveness in slow flight, which made for some, um, exciting crosswind landings. Did much better with them when I restored the original value. Passing that along for whatever it's worth. Really enjoying the airplane as I get into it.

EDIT: I should add that I've discovered that on the takeoff roll, if I give the yoke a sharp tug as the nose starts down, it'll stabilize in a level attitude until I pull back for takeoff. For me that's a decent workaround - I'm treating it as a quirk of the airplane (this particular DC-3 wants to sniff the ground) until you guys get it into the shop and re-trim it. Nothing the crew can't handle for now.

 

[Alan_A]

So, I guess what I am saying here is that whilst we too have a passion for the DC-3, and all the subjects we make, we will not be engaging in an endless quest for perfection. Commercially, that would be suicidal and in my opinion, unnecessary. Our DC-3 is what it is - about 12 months of hard, difficult work and for us, an honest tribute to a great aeroplane. The definitive payware DC-3? Probably 2 years and $200 away...

Makes complete sense from a commercial perspective. Re: Carl's request for mousewheel control of the levers - maybe a simpler tweak would be to widen the gates slightly for the mixture controls. In practice I'm finding that it's hard to position them correctly by clicking and dragging. They tend to overshoot. That's fine when you're increasing the mixture - the worst is that you go to emergency rich and then pull back. But when reducing the mixture, it's easy to pull past auto-lean all the way to cutoff and inadvertently shut down an engine. So in the course of updating, if there's a way to make that process safer, it'd be welcome. Caveat: I have no idea what the workload is for this or any other revision, so please take it for whatever it's worth.

 

[cavaricooper]

Whilst I appreciate that the subject is one that can and does polarise people, I would ask people to understand that there is one thing that makes a considerable difference between pay and freeware. Time.

In a business like ours, time is precious. We cannot devote years to a subject. If we were to the price would be astronomical compared to what it is now. We do our best to provide an entertaining, rewarding product that will tick as many boxes as possible, within the scope of a time/budget plan.

Of course, we are committed to right any wrongs there may be by way of direct faults with the product and do from time to time provide upgrades with an improvement or two where we can. Beyond that we have to move on as a business. Otherwise we would not be developing anything for much longer! And on the subject of freeware I believe Aeroplane Heaven, in its time, has delivered more freeware than a lot of other payware houses.

It must also be remembered that we do not have the same access to the numbers of talented individuals with experience in a range of different areas who can freely give their time to a project,as they do with freeware. On DC-3, we have actually approached a few of the better known practitioners of several of the "dark arts", including some who apparently worked on the freeware one but have been unsuccessful in recruiting them either for moral, timeframe or monetary reasons. It is extraordinary how many, when discovering that we are a payware company, run for the forest as if we have some sort of plague. That's OK, we have several extraordinarily talented individuals we do call on when needed and who are happy to provide assistance for sensible money.

So, I guess what I am saying here is that whilst we too have a passion for the DC-3, and all the subjects we make, we will not be engaging in an endless quest for perfection. Commercially, that would be suicidal and in my opinion, unnecessary. Our DC-3 is what it is - about 12 months of hard, difficult work and for us, an honest tribute to a great aeroplane. The definitive payware DC-3? Probably 2 years and $200 away...

Bazz-

I appreciate your points and I look forward to the next Service Pack. MJ's DC-3 is indeed unique in the annals of freeware- it did elicit a profound and altruistic response from some of the most talented individuals in our field. Because of the subject airframe, it has got to be the amongst the most widely downloaded freeware in our microcosm.

BTW, it is my fondest hope that you might be correct re. the definitive DC-3... but, as they say, hope springs eternal.

Thanks Bazz- C

PS- WHAT is that winged thingy at the end of your posts, and what does it mean?

 

[bazzar]

It's a little angel Carl, from Aeroplane Heaven.

 

[cavaricooper]

It's a little angel Carl, from Aeroplane Heaven.

SPLENDID, ta!

C

 

[bazzar]

DC-3 in V5

We now have the polished metal where we want it. Checked this in 4.5 and it's all OK there too.
There some major changes in the V5 Upgrade including a new six - window and eight window option for the P&W DC-3s.
More of that anon but here are some screens from V5 of the polished alloy.

 

[cavaricooper]

Bazz-

Will those V5 upgrades (other than the v5 materials based ones of course) filter to v4.5; geometry, window assignments etc.?

That side dusk shot looks splendid, thanks for the update!

Ta- C