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AS P-80 Shooting Star panel

Jafo

Jafo

SOH-CM-2024
This is my latest project....after finding a handy photo...and again needing to setup a widescreen ver rather than what came with the Alphasim model.

Early days....as always having to find or make suitable gauges....;)

View attachment 12614
 
Jafo said:
Not entirely, apparently....the P/F-80 came first...and seems to have several vers...;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your work on the F-80. About the limit of my ability to "tweak" a VC in FSX is to swap out guages that are already out there and and try to install them in a layout close to what would have been installed in the original aircraft. I also evaluate using period gauges that would have been installed in the aircraft.

Besides looking at cockpit photos, I have found the Avialogs site (www.avialogs.com) to be a good source of information. In many cases, a review of the orginal pilot's handbook shows a good diagram and a description of the instruments used in the cockpit.

The original P-80 (circa 1945), for example, had just about nothing for navigation other than basic flight instruments and a radio range beacon receiver.

The F-80C, which began production in 1948 and ended in 1950, came equipped with a few more instruments and a radio compass to fly ADF approaches. The VC cockpit layout in the AS P-80 is a good match to the actual aircraft.

It appears that the first variant of the F-80 to come equipped with a radar and an ILS was the F-94B--an afterburning all-weather interceptor which came along in January of 1951. The photo shown in your first post comes pretty close to the F-94 cockpit depicted on the Avialogs website.

I look forward to your finished product.
 
blkbart ....thanks for that info [and link] ....I'll check it out.
Googling P-80s came up with the photo...which was an easy-adapter so I ran with it.
If it's more accurately a F-94B than I'll search via that too....to get more info.

At the moment I have one gauge that has me head-scratching....dunno what it is...but it's circled in this pic.

I've had to make a few of the others....couldn't find anything 'quite right'....and other details so far are 'guessed' which isn't ideal....so any info I can dig up will help....;)

Here's the status quo....

View attachment 12658.... buzzing local wildlife around YMML ...;)
 
Jafo said:
blkbart ....thanks for that info [and link] ....I'll check it out.
Googling P-80s came up with the photo...which was an easy-adapter so I ran with it.
If it's more accurately a F-94B than I'll search via that too....to get more info.

At the moment I have one gauge that has me head-scratching....dunno what it is...but it's circled in this pic.

I've had to make a few of the others....couldn't find anything 'quite right'....and other details so far are 'guessed' which isn't ideal....so any info I can dig up will help....;)

Here's the status quo....

View attachment 12658.... buzzing local wildlife around YMML ...;)
Click to expand...

I have no clue on the gauge either. At first, I thought it might be a LABS (low altitude bombing system) dive and roll indicator but it looks nothing like the gauge depicted in the F-100D and A-4 manuals. Good luck.
 
Still stuck with that gauge....made it a dummy so it's at least luminous at night...and has glass....but just sits there being enigmatic...;)

Here's how it is at the moment.... [the panel]...;)

View attachment 12711 ....now need to work out what's in those 2 holes...;)
 
According to the manual it would appear the panel you are using wasn't actually an F-80 panel. If this is the case, then the unkown gauges weren't actually part of the F-80's panel. Not trying to be a critic, just trying to help solve the problem about the unknown gauges. Now I'll bud out.
 
mal998 said:
According to the manual it would appear the panel you are using wasn't actually an F-80 panel. If this is the case, then the unkown gauges weren't actually part of the F-80's panel. Not trying to be a critic, just trying to help solve the problem about the unknown gauges. Now I'll bud out.
Click to expand...

Yes, it appears to be from a related airframe. The P-80 obviously spawned several offspring....but I'm continuing with this one as it's almost finished....and then I'll have a panel-without-a-model ....and probably do a more-specific-80 instead...;)

....if I can just find out what that darn gauge is supposed to be.

Searching through thousands of aircraft panels [200 gig plus of FSX] I find it not uncommon there'll be a 'dummy' gauge....a static bitmap loaded like a gauge [at best] or simply part of the photo-panel never touched [at worst].

I try to get it a little more 'right' than that...;)
 
mal998 said:
According to the manual it would appear the panel you are using wasn't actually an F-80 panel. If this is the case, then the unkown gauges weren't actually part of the F-80's panel. Not trying to be a critic, just trying to help solve the problem about the unknown gauges. Now I'll bud out.
Click to expand...


The photo of the cockpit is from the Air Victory Museum"s P-80A Shooting Star located in Lumberton, NJ. To see a very clear photo of it, do a Google search for "P-80 cockpit photos" and scroll to where it says "Lockheed P80A Shooting Star (44-85391) Cockpit/Flickr...". Note the statement of the photographer: "This is the very cool and beautifully restored cockpit of the Air Victory Museum's P-80". Another photo he took shows the exterior of the aircraft as it exists today. The placard details the aircraft was assigned to the 61st Fighter Sq, 56th Fighter Gp located at Selfridge Field, MI.
Joe Baugher's website details the production cycle of the P-80/F-80 series and indicates the aircraft in question was the 399th P-80 to come off the line.
When it came off the line, the original cockpit probably looked like the first panel shown in your post. I suppose it is possible the cockpit was modified to its current configuration later and flown but I doubt it. The dead giveaway is that the exterior of the aircraft does not show a radome to match what appears to be a radar scope in the cockpit. The black cover on the nose is installed over a AN/ARN-6 direction finding loop. In my opinion, the cockpit was most likely "built" later--perhaps as part of the restoration process.
 
Yep...that's the image I started with.
Now I'm looking for something in an F3D SkyKnight ....another AS panel needing a 'stretch' to 1680....;)
 
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