Bombardier Challenger 604...a personal connection

[OBIO]

I recently found out that my brother-in-law's brother is a commercial pilot. This weekend I finally got to talk to him about what he flies. The Bombardier CL-604 Challenger. He is the Captain...the Pilot in Command. Not sure what outfit he flies for, but he flies coast to coast here in the US. He also flies another plane....can't remember what it was...something HP, something with more HP, I don't know.

I got home Saturday evening and went looking for the Challenger 604...and lo and behold, Premier Aircraft Design has one...actually they have 4 of them. So now, I can fly a plane that I have a personal connection to. Not that tubeliners are my cup of tea, but it does make things a bit more interesting knowing that someone in the family actually flies the bird for a living.

OBIO

 

[Motormouse]

I recently found out that my brother-in-law's brother is a commercial pilot. This weekend I finally got to talk to him about what he flies. The Bombardier CL-604 Challenger. He is the Captain...the Pilot in Command. Not sure what outfit he flies for, but he flies coast to coast here in the US. He also flies another plane....can't remember what it was...something HP, something with more HP, I don't know.

I got home Saturday evening and went looking for the Challenger 604...and lo and behold, Premier Aircraft Design has one...actually they have 4 of them. So now, I can fly a plane that I have a personal connection to. Not that tubeliners are my cup of tea, but it does make things a bit more interesting knowing that someone in the family actually flies the bird for a living.

OBIO

Challenger..not exactly a tubeliner... it was Bill Lear's last design
the tubeliner versions (CRJ200 /700/900) grew out of the Challenger

ttfn

Pete

(Ps there's a few of us on this board that are very familiar with Challengers!!)

 

[Brian_Gladden]

I used to keep this honey spotless...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Canadair-CL-600-2B16-Challenger/1124529/L/

Which replaced this one where I worked...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Canadair-CL-600-2B16-Challenger/0577604/L/

And N79AN in the hangar where I used to work

And I can tell you, those polished hubcaps on the main gear are a royal pain to keep shiny

 

[OBIO]

I am working, slowly oh so slowly, on a paint kit for the PAD Challenger. Trying to add some panel lines, add some details, will work on sharpening things up here and there. I had to enlarge the texture to 4096 by 4096 to lay out the panel lines...that way when I reduce the sheet down to 1024 by 1024, the panel lines are much much thinner than if I had drawn them at 1 pixel directly on the 1024 sized sheet. When the texture maps to the plane in the sim, the panel lines get stretched....by doing the 4X enlargement to do the panel lines, the panel lines don't look as big in sim.

 

[racartron]

I pulled this outta storage and installed better lighting. Thanks for reminding me of this nice bird.

Here are my Shockwave mods if y'all are interested.

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
light.0 = 3, -44.192, -30.9, -0.6, fx_shockwave_navred ,
light.1 = 3, -44.192, 30.8, -0.6, fx_shockwave_navgre ,
light.2 = 2, -71.53, 0.00, 13.862, fx_shockwave_strobe ,
light.3 = 3, -68.10, 0.00, 2.821, fx_shockwave_navwhi
light.4 = 2, -44.52, -31.7, -0.6, fx_shockwave_strobe_2 ,
light.5 = 2, -44.52, 31.7, -0.6, fx_shockwave_strobe_3 ,
light.6 = 4, -37.50, 0.00, 3.7, fx_shockwave_vclight,
light.7 = 4, -28.50, 0.00, 3.7, fx_shockwave_vclight,
light.8= 4, -22.50, 0.00, 3.0, fx_shockwave_vclight,
light.9 = 4, -14.50, 0.00, 2.7, fx_shockwave_vclight,
light.10 = 4, -15.50, 0.00, 2.5, fx_vclightwhite,
light.11 = 1, -66.10, 0.00, 15.375, fx_shockwave_beacon
light.12 = 1, -40.65, 0.00, -3.00, fx_shockwave_beacon

//--------- Taxi & Landing Lights Added -----------
light.13 = 6, -4.9, 0.0, -1.0, fx_shockwave_landing_light_double_small
light.14 = 5, -26.6, 4.2, -1.7, fx_shockwave_landing_light_double_small
light.15= 5, -26.6, -4.2, -1.7, fx_shockwave_landing_light_double_small

 

[OBIO]

Double post...sorry

 

[OBIO]

racartron

Thanks for the Shockwave light info....that saved me a bit of time.

I have the fuselage lines done....they aren't great, but they are greater than not having any lines at all. Wings will be next.

I tweaked the MDL file to reduce the specular shine by 50%...that made a huge improvement in the overall appearance of the plane. If you would like to do this tweak, grab Martin Wright's MDLmat utility, then grab the norab's PDF version of the tutorial I did on using MDLmat. Open the MDL file with MDLmat and tweak the LOD1 materials that have the specular setting at 255, 255, 255 to 120, 120, 120. Only two or three materials that need tweaked. Very quick and easy to do. Just make sure to make a backup copy of the stock MDL file first.

OBIO

 

[Brian_Gladden]

You won't find a single panel line on the fuselage of a Challenger (Except for a few access panels on the nose) The fuselage is perfectly smooth. I know this since I had to wax the dang thing every other month. Every place where the panels are fitted together are bondo'd and smoothed over.

In the pic below. there are no panel lines visible. the only thing that mars the smoothness is the fuel door (just forward of the landing light) and a removable panel along the top of the wing fairing that lets you get to some of the wiring and the bolts that hold the wing to the fuselage.

There's also a door aft of the wing on the right for servicing the Lavatory and the hatch to the "Hell Hole" under the tail so you can access the APU, battery and where the spare tires (yes it has one each main and nose wheel in there) along with a tow bar head to fit the interchangeable tow bars Also it's where the main hydraulic tank is too.

The nose has an access door on the right for ground power, the pop out for the "RAT" (Ram Air Turbine) and the oxygen tanks. The matching door on the left is for avionics.

Hope that helps :d

 

[OBIO]

Are the wings equally smoothed over?

I guess the panel lines will just be used to line up paint work on the plane and will not be used in the final textures. That's okay...they really don't look all that great anyhow...too much stretching and blurring.

OBIO

 

[CG_1976]

We up North are very familiar with the Challenger.
http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/v2/equip/cc144/index-eng.asp

 

[Motormouse]

Are the wings equally smoothed over?

I guess the panel lines will just be used to line up paint work on the plane and will not be used in the final textures. That's okay...they really don't look all that great anyhow...too much stretching and blurring.

OBIO

Yup!!

You'll only see access panel lines on the undersurface for the fuel tank hatches;
Aileron power control actuator access and Flap drive shafts access;
not that they stand out very well

-----> http://www.airliners.net/photo/Canadair-CL-600-2B16-Challenger/1831713/L/

Upper surface only has the spoilers to disrupt things.

Here's just one (of several) I used to look after

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Canadair-CL-600-2B16-Challenger/1343968/L/

the highly reflective natural metal 'stripe' is actually a metallic film decal (sticker)

We up North are very familiar with the Challenger.
http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/v2/.../index-eng.asp
​

aahh... the Challenger 601-1A


Speaking of Military ones...wonder whatever happened to the project by Turbine Sound Studios
they were modelling a Danish maritime patrol version; the early renders @ 2008 (?) were very good.
From the wayback machine ----> http://web.archive.org/web/20080503...07_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?428.last
​

ttfn

Pete

 

[Brian_Gladden]

The top of the wing, other than the spoilers is perfectly smooth as well. It's a laminar flow wing so the top needs to be really smooth. The bottom is also smooth but needs the removable panels to access the fuel cells, wiring, etc. Also, the belly fairing is painted a different color (usually gray) on most Challenger 601's and 604's. It's a special paint that resists the inevitable leaking Skydrol (hydraulic fluid) from the gear wells that tends to remove paint after a while.

Not sure about the new 605's since they're so new and the only ones I saw when I worked at BTV were the "Green" ones (Factory fresh with no paint) heading from Montreal to Bradley to the completion center. They had to clear customs at Burlington. The 605 also has a different tailcone than the 601/604. The earlier ones tailcone looks like a flat bladed screwdriver, the 605 is a cone.

 

[aeromed202]

I just fired off what I think are some flying improvements to PAD. They have been very helpful and sympathetic before when their Saab 2000 went down instead of up when flaps were deployed. I had to change the flap lift_scalar to a negative number to fix that. They were stumped. Anyway, this 604 came with some tips from a 'real' pilot so I made some changes so it flew more like what he described. Use less than full power for takeoff with rotation crossing 120, will cruise at 38000, can bleed off speed clean until you use flaps to do the rest, dirty final leg at 130 with slight flare for touch down. I also adjusted the panel.cfg on mine a little so 2D over-the-panel view is much closer to the VC one. I don't like a big viewing angle change when swiitching from one to the other. Get all set with references then switch views and everything is different. I hate when that happens. I owed them a look for their opinion. If they blast me and my arrogance (a-la FSD) we'll see what to do, otherwise I hope they agree so I can share.

I earlier did a circut at Dublin which had a wicked stiff wind going. It handled really well and took about an 18kt crosswind with gusts. Don't know what it's rated for but I'm thinking it's close to that.

 

[falcon409]

Making some updates to the two VC textures right now:
Note: If anyone knows exactly what the numbers are for the two Placards on these two panels, I sure could use that info. I've checked a lot of pics but none get's in close enough to read them.

 

[Motormouse]

Making some updates to the two VC textures right now:
Note: If anyone knows exactly what the numbers are for the two Placards on these two panels, I sure could use that info. I've checked a lot of pics but none get's in close enough to read them.

I'll dig out my tech notes tomorrow (its' 11pm here and Mrs Pete says its time for sleeps!) got a 4-page flight deck fold out with every switch,button and control; I'll scan and pm you rather than take up outhouse bandwidth.

ttfn

Pete

 

[falcon409]

I'll dig out my tech notes tomorrow (its' 11pm here and Mrs Pete says its time for sleeps!) got a 4-page flight deck fold out with every switch,button and control; I'll scan and pm you rather than take up outhouse bandwidth.

ttfn

Pete

Awesome Pete, thanks a bunch!:salute:

 

[Motormouse]

Colour scan didn't work too well, so here's detail from parts list
(all aeroplanes are now delivered with the 48,200lb VA placard)

Colour is white on dark grey (or black)

for some reason I can't attach files to PM..so here it is...


View attachment 30328

ttfn

Pete

 

[Motormouse]

I earlier did a circut at Dublin which had a wicked stiff wind going. It handled really well and took about an 18kt crosswind with gusts. Don't know what it's rated for but I'm thinking it's close to that.

24 knots; 10 knots if runway is wet (contaminated) or runway friction below 0.3

ttfn

Pete

 

[falcon409]

Outstanding job Pete, many thanks.

 

[aeromed202]

Thanks Pete, I guess I wasn't far off. Bob May over at PAD was interested so here are my edits. He has the right idea that more testers are helpful. Areas I remember editing are CoG, flight tuning, MOIs, flaps, engine power and thrust, brakes, and contact points. Just trying to get that air feel. Anyone can dive in and edit some more.

View attachment 30335