Ciao, bella! Piaggio P.149D "Fighter/Bomber"

Wild Bill Kelso

Wild Bill Kelso

Charter Member 2011
I think this beauty is part of our "freeware gems" list, and I intended to paint her for a long time (paint kit is just too elaborated to resist...).

Here she comes:

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German Airforce Piaggio P.149D
'91+57' of JaBoG 49

The original P.149 was constructed by Piaggio Aero Industries, Genova/Italia and took its maiden flight in 1953.
Starting in 1957, the German Airforce received a total of 266 P.149D aircraft, equipped with a 290 hp Lycoming GO-470 B engine. Only 76 of these were built by Piaggio, the rest of 190 got manufactured under license by Focke-Wulf at Bremen, resulting in the Luftwaffe designation "FW P.149D".
The "Piggi" mainly was used as a training aircraft, replacing the Piper L-18C Super Cub. Besides these trainers, most Luftwaffe units were equipped with P.149D for liasion purposes. They quitted the liasion role in the early 1970s, their training and pilots screening missions ended in 1990.
In the beginning of their career, the German Piggis wore a blank-metal finish, later replaced by overall Trainer Yellow or camo scheme with (or without...) dayglo markings.
This repaint depicts '91+57' (Focke-Wulf c/n 157), assigned to JaBoG 49 (Fighter/Bomber Wing) as liasion aircraft in its post-1969 tactical registration (type-based code, first two digits from 90 to 92 standing for the P.149D). It's a pretty much worn aircraft at the end of its operational service...

Uploads done.
Enjoy!

Cheers,
Markus.
 
I agree Markus, an excellent model and while I haven't tried to move it into FSX, I fly it quite a bit in FS9. About 3 years ago, I got to fly one briefly. I was working for an aircraft restoration company locally and a gentleman from Dallas flew his up to the airfield to take the guy I worked for to lunch up on the lake and I was invited. After lunch, and before we returned to the airfield the boss and I were treated to a fly-by so the owner of the restaurant could get a few shots of it as we left. The pilot asked what we thought about doing a little roll as we did the fly-by. . .lol. we took off, flew out over the lake and made the approach over the field and at show-center he pitched the nose up slightly and we did an aileron roll probably not more than 50 or 60 feet off the ground. . . .phew!!

After that he turned the controls over to me and I flew the rest of the way back until we were back in the pattern. A beautifully restored 149 and a great opportunity to fly such a nimble little airplane.:salute:
 
whitehawk_2009 said:
Looks like a two-seat Navion. . . .WH
Click to expand...
Yea, the owner pointed out a few differences. . .like the engine, the clear aft cockpit transparency and also the gears on the 149 open inboard and the Navion opens outboard. They do look quite similar though. There were other less obvious differences but I've slept since then, lol, so I don't really remember what they were.:salute:

The only thing that bothers me about this model. . .and it happens everytime I load it up to fly, is that the pilot and passenger are much too small. The P-149 cockpit and backseat are quite roomy as small as the aircraft appears sitting on the ground, but it's not as roomy as those smallish figures make it look. If the figures were larger and lower in the cockpit (they are also sitting up too high, probably to compensate for their small size), it would look perfect.
 
This is great news, have flown the "Piggi" quite alot in FS, love the sounds of that Lycoming geared engine ...


Thanks very much ! Mike :salute:
 
falcon409 said:
I agree Markus, an excellent model and while I haven't tried to move it into FSX, I fly it quite a bit in FS9. About 3 years ago, I got to fly one briefly. I was working for an aircraft restoration company locally and a gentleman from Dallas flew his up to the airfield to take the guy I worked for to lunch up on the lake and I was invited. After lunch, and before we returned to the airfield the boss and I were treated to a fly-by so the owner of the restaurant could get a few shots of it as we left. The pilot asked what we thought about doing a little roll as we did the fly-by. . .lol. we took off, flew out over the lake and made the approach over the field and at show-center he pitched the nose up slightly and we did an aileron roll probably not more than 50 or 60 feet off the ground. . . .phew!!

After that he turned the controls over to me and I flew the rest of the way back until we were back in the pattern. A beautifully restored 149 and a great opportunity to fly such a nimble little airplane.:salute:
Click to expand...

What a great experience Falcon, I love this P-149 because it shares so many similarities with the r/w Pilatus P-3 I used to fly, engine, sounds and so much more ... Mike :salute:
 
I never realized that there was also an entirely redone GMax version for FSX as well. I found it last evening over at AVsim (it was released in 2008, so it's not a recent release). So now I can fly it in both sims. I did notice that from the VC, the proportions seem correct as far as how much space there is while sitting in the front seat. It's just from the exterior view that it is out of proportion.:salute:
 
Good to know it works in FSX as well!
I wonder how shiny this one appears over there:

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Stripping paint is waaaay easier!

This one belongs to Flugzeugfuehrerschule "S", Staffel A (crest on the cowl), 1959's appearance (Diepholz AB). The pre-1968 registration was unit-based, letters "AS" standing for this specific pilot's school.

Quite funny side-note:
The base's phone-number was painted on the tailfin these days, as this comparison shot reveals:

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To be uploaded soon!

Cheers,
Markus.
 
In my FSX this plane looks lovely but the FPS hit is quite huge.
Same goes with the Piaggio 808 jet. :/
 
I believe so, yes.
I will nevertheles download it once more to try it again, but I've learned to be very pessimistic with the planes of this guy.
The one and only Piaggio that works beautifully in my FSX so far is the P-180 Avanti, no display issues and great performance. But this P-149 and the 808 are just catastrophic.
 
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