Heading west

Willy

Willy

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Staff member
Doing some testing on some mods to the JBK DC-4 and decided to make a flight out of it. Took off from Memphis TN on this one and headed west to Little Rock AR. Just kept it to about 6000ft and motored on.

I was mainly looking for things to tweak on this flight as well as getting used to an engine control gauge that we're checking out. I'd hate to embarass myself during an online MP flight by blowing the engines off the mounts or wipe out the gear from going to fast. Better to do it offline where there's no witnesses. As it was, I didn't tear up anything important (I've already done that doing touch n goes at Memphis).

Off to do some tweaking in other areas and then I'll be ready to head further west to evaluate the changes.
 
Willy, are you also by chance using your own FDE and settings by chance with the mods?
 
I'm using the Vers 2 FDE, but to use the older Vers 1 paints I'm using the Vers 1 models with those paints. There's a difference in how the paints are mapped out on the two models between the two versions. Other than that, the Vers 1 models work very well with the Vers 2 FDE allowing all the repaints to be used. I've acquired quite the collection of DC-4s in the hanger. The screenshots here are of a Vers 1 model with Pennsylvania Central paint using the Vers 2 FDE.

The Real Engine gauge that we're adapting to the JBK DC-4 is from what I understand much like AccuSim but for FS9 and is still under development. I don't have FSX, so I'm not acquainted with AccuSim other than by reputation. The RE gauge is Gunter Teson's baby and we're just making it work with the DC-4 as it's adaptable to most any piston aircraft if you have the data references for that aircraft. Moses used data from the C-54 flight manual and the Type Certificate Data Sheets for the R-2000 engines in setting up the RE gauge. We've still got a few issues of conflicting data that we're trying to sort out, but I suspect those are the differences between a C-54 and the postwar built DC-4 1009 models which are included in the JBK DC-4.

I never really thought much about the DC-4 before this other than using AI versions. But I'm developing quite the liking for them as I gain more experience and knowledge about them. The Real Engine gauge is just icing on the cake.
 
Took off again from Little Rock to Shreveport LA to test my panel tweaks. I'm thinking I've pretty much got the panel where I want it. While I was at it, I was feeling a bit "High and Mighty"ish so I switched paints. Now if I could just get the co-pilot to quit whistling......
 
Moses03 said:
Better watch those MAP and especially RPM settings. Might lose a crankshaft! :p:

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Oops... So that's what that racket was ;) Note to self......... Actually all engines I ever ran into have what is known as "vibrational speed" where the vibration harmonics from continual operation at that speed can be hazardous to engine health.

bpfowler said:
hey willy,
What radios are you using on your panel?
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It comes with the default DC-3 radio set. Which for me is good as I actually like that radio. I did add the DME readout from Milton's Beech 18 to the panel though as one of my tweaks yesterday. Figured if it came with VOR, DME should be there too. Replaced the gyrocompass with the wind drift gauge (which has a compass built in). Now I'm ready to start flying it without the GPS.


This afternoon, I left Shreveport behind heading further west over east Texas to Fort Worth in a United paint from 1954. The Real Engine gauge kicked in some carb icing on me just as I was getting to Dallas and I had to turn on the carb heat to clear it. Fortunately I'd heard about that kind of behavior out of the gauge a couple of days ago, so I made sure I knew where the carb heat switches were at. Also forgot to add some fuel back in Louisiana and made it in on fumes to Greater Fort Worth Intl (KACF). So far, I haven't done anything really stupid with it, but that could change on the next flight.....
 
That Real Engine gauge sounds interesting. I like to fly as realistic as possible. Good luck with the adventures.
 
Left Ft Worth in the rain and flew on to Amarillo in a Eastern paint scheme. Apparently Amarillo Intl missed the the California Classics retro treatment. Either I'm getting the hang of Real Engine or it's setting me up for a trap further on.
 
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