Flying Supersonic. Tu-144 'Charger' v3.5

[RyanJZ]

I'm starting to get the hang of the Tu-144.... sort of. I'm having a hard time programming it for my joystick. IS it compatible with the Thrustmaster T-Flight Stick X? Also, which axis is for the elevator? Ailerons? Rudder? and throttle? I did manage to get the nose cone down and extend the canards though

 

[SeanTK]

I'm starting to get the hang of the Tu-144.... sort of. I'm having a hard time programming it for my joystick. IS it compatible with the Thrustmaster T-Flight Stick X? Also, which axis is for the elevator? Ailerons? Rudder? and throttle? I did manage to get the nose cone down and extend the canards though

It should work with any stick. I am currently using it with the Saitek X-52, along with the Saitek Pro Flight Rudder pedals. I would use it with my yoke and throttle system, but you can't map each engine independently, so I've gotten more comfortable with the stick.

Please ensure you read through this SOH thread thoroughly.

I've also re-uploaded some English-language guidance I found on Project Tupolev's website long ago. One of the documents in there explains the joystick mappings.

http://www.speedyshare.com/QkJ3p/Tu-144-manuals.rar

 

[RyanJZ]

Thank you very much Sean!!

 

[RyanJZ]

Wait which axis is the throttle?

 

[vl82m]

Wait which axis is the throttle?

вы только говорите по-английски? пожалуйста читать руководство и РЛЭ!

EDIT: confused forums, but point still valid, Please read manual and RLE! Here is procedure engines but you won't get far unless you take time to learn, this is not a concorde.

 

[RyanJZ]

Sean, the Adobe PDF you attached isn't loading on my computer. It probably just needs an update, I'll let you know if it still doesn't work

 

[RyanJZ]

Yeah I can't open that file. Even with the latest update of Adobe installed

 

[Naismith]

Yeah I can't open that file. Even with the latest update of Adobe installed

Foxit reader, like Adobe without the bloat reads PDFs

 

[SeanTK]

Try this link via SOH...

View attachment Tu-144_manuals.rar

 

[RyanJZ]

Sean its not the link its the file itself. I get an error message saying "Adobe Reader could not open 'Tu-144_manuals.rar' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded).
Is that Foxit reader free?

 

[SeanTK]

Sean its not the link its the file itself. I get an error message saying "Adobe Reader could not open 'Tu-144_manuals.rar' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded).
Is that Foxit reader free?

RAR files are a type of compressed file format. The PDFs are IN the RAR file. You need something like 7Zip or WinRAR to unpack the file.

 

[RyanJZ]

RAR files are a type of compressed file format. The PDFs are IN the RAR file. You need something like 7Zip or WinRAR to unpack the file.

Ah okay. I didn't realize that. Thanks Sean
Which do you recommend?

 

[vl82m]

For anyone with issue on Tu-144 here is step by step in Russian. Video explains more than badly translated words in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARFfdXFzh9k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9jfrTa97sU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcJE7ZTIyBE


I find it strange foreigners want to fly this, I understand the usual subsonics. But a plane troublematic even for Russia is beyong my thinking.

 

[RyanJZ]

Sean never mind. I finally got into those files with 7Zip. Thank you so much!
vl82m, I'll check those videos out. I'm actually a little familiar with Russian alphabet, so the figuring out the instruments isn't too bad. It's just what order the switches need to be activated in and such Hopefully I'll finally get it in the air now!
Also even though the Tu-144 may have been inferior to Concorde in many ways, its still a fascinating aircraft and is a challenge to fly. Isn't half the fun learning it?

 

[SeanTK]

@Ryan,

I use 7Zip for everything and have been problem free. Either option is good though.

@vl82m,

Hard to explain where the interest originates but some of the following factors are involved at least for me:

1. General interest in Soviet-era aviation.

2. It's a unique, infamous airliner with major attributes that are unseen in almost all other civil aircraft.

3. I enjoy the quality of the addon. It's a systems simulation of something from decades past, and that alone interests me. It's Soviet origins and associated systems, which differ significantly (in some ways) from standard Boeing and Airbus types are interesting to me.

4. Even though I'll never understand everything about this addon (and it looks like many in the Russian community have difficulty as well), knowing that I can at least figure it out enough to operate it in reasonably safe and competent manner (I realize that's subjective) is rewarding to me. There seem to be very few in the flightsim community, and even fewer "foreigners" as you put it, who have attempted to learn to use this aircraft.

So, part of it is in my general historical interests, part is in my enjoyment of complex addons, and part is in the exclusivity of being able to operate this specific addon within the flightsim community.

EDIT: Ryan, once you get further along with learning it, shoot me a note about the braking parachute. It's not covered in the manual, and I only found out how it works through the Avsimrus forums. In short, there's a switch on the overhead that you need to activate to turn the system on, then when you have touched down, you need to press the spoiler key "usually default is your slash '/' key" to deploy the chute, and press it again to remove it. One time use, and it's a necessity on landing.

 

[RyanJZ]

@Ryan,

I use 7Zip for everything and have been problem free. Either option is good though.

@vl82m,

Hard to explain where the interest originates but some of the following factors are involved at least for me:

1. General interest in Soviet-era aviation.

2. It's a unique, infamous airliner with major attributes that are unseen in almost all other civil aircraft.

3. I enjoy the quality of the addon. It's a systems simulation of something from decades past, and that alone interests me. It's Soviet origins and associated systems, which differ significantly (in some ways) from standard Boeing and Airbus types are interesting to me.

4. Even though I'll never understand everything about this addon (and it looks like many in the Russian community have difficulty as well), knowing that I can at least figure it out enough to operate it in reasonably safe and competent manner (I realize that's subjective) is rewarding to me. There seem to be very few in the flightsim community, and even fewer "foreigners" as you put it, who have attempted to learn to use this aircraft.

So, part of it is in my general historical interests, part is in my enjoyment of complex addons, and part is in the exclusivity of being able to operate this specific addon within the flightsim community.

EDIT: Ryan, once you get further along with learning it, shoot me a note about the braking parachute. It's not covered in the manual, and I only found out how it works through the Avsimrus forums. In short, there's a switch on the overhead that you need to activate to turn the system on, then when you have touched down, you need to press the spoiler key "usually default is your slash '/' key" to deploy the chute, and press it again to remove it. One time use, and it's a necessity on landing.

You got it exactly right Sean! One of the most fascinating airliners there is, IMO, as flawed as it was. Also of major interest to me are the Antonov 225 and the Hughes H-4 Hercules!

 

[RyanJZ]

Also thanks for the tip on the parachute! Wasn't the Tu-144 the last airliner to use parachutes? And what's the landing performance/run in it like?

 

[SeanTK]

Also thanks for the tip on the parachute! Wasn't the Tu-144 the last airliner to use parachutes? And what's the landing performance/run in it like?

Not sure if it was the last commercial airliner to use parachutes routinely. I'd have to look into that more.

Regarding the landing distance, again, the deployment of the parachute makes a big difference. Do the final approach around 330km/h +/- 10km/h. The landing distances I'm reading for maximum weight is in the 8,000 - 8,500ft range, but again, that's maximum weight and without tracking it precisely, I think many of mine are closer to the 7000ft region +/- 500ft in actuality.

 

[RyanJZ]

Sean, on those files you attached a few posts ago, it looks like they're for the FS2004 version(2.0). Will these manuals work for the FSX version (3.5)?

 

[vl82m]

Sean never mind. I finally got into those files with 7Zip. Thank you so much!
vl82m, I'll check those videos out. I'm actually a little familiar with Russian alphabet, so the figuring out the instruments isn't too bad. It's just what order the switches need to be activated in and such Hopefully I'll finally get it in the air now!
Also even though the Tu-144 may have been inferior to Concorde in many ways, its still a fascinating aircraft and is a challenge to fly. Isn't half the fun learning it?

I personally use winrar, not sure how it ended up on my computer but it does open up all files I ever want to see.

Russian alphabet is easy, here is a small course in Russian if interested. I redirected some other people I'm helping with the Tu-134 and Il-62 to it and they have made great progress. Knowing how to read cyryllic is very easy and can be learned in only a day: http://learnrussian.rt.com/

Tu-144 wasn't inferior to Concorde despite both aircraft we somehow based on each other due to industrial spionage on both sides, but only the west made a ruckus about theirs whilst the Soviet decided to keep shut and didn't have the same contacts to mass media, hence many in west people don't know about it.

However, as I have mentioned the Tu-144 was both economical and aviation disaster, a plane Aeroflot didn't even want to operate and highly inefficient, just like the Concorde. The difference of the Concorde was that in west at least a lot of wealthy businessmen could pay the cost off with the price of the ticket while in the Soviet Union the system was different, but far more fair.

It's fun to learn a lot of aircraft, Tu-134, Tu-154, even Yakovlev 40. Tu-134 manual is in progress but documentation for the other two are plenty, you can learn to maste it succesfully without having all the headaches of the Tu-144. A note about the manuals of 2.0 version against 3.5 version is that the 2.0 uses the simpler INS system which makes navigation a breeze. In the 3.5 version there is flight computer that is not very documented and author refused to install I-21 INS.