Lockheed L-18 Project

Hi,

Just glad to be looking helpful:wiggle::wiggle: This airplane is looking so great, whatever type of radios it has in it !

In fact, that Nord 2501 has a light on the nose as well, and that is shown as a taxi-ing light, so perhaps the light on the nose of the L-18 was for the same purpose?

Andy.
 
Thanks Andy. According to the manual, the nose light is tagged as a warning light, separately switched.
 
The overhead radio instruments look tailor-made in situ - The VC's really taking on life.
I used to be a 2D panel flyer - thankfully, gone are those miserable days of eyes 12.

Thank You Milton. :medals:
 
Hi,

I've tried some old radio set-ups in the Harpoon, but cannot get any of them to work fully...just the Bendix as fitted. I did post lower down in the Harpoon thread, but am now trying higher up the line :encouragement: .
Is there a change or two to be made to a cfg?

Andy.
 
The problem might be the standby frequency option that the Bendix radios have. If that's it you can try this setup and see if it works better for you.

[Radios] // availiable, standby frequency, has glide slope
Audio.1 = 1
Com.1 = 1, 0
Com.2 = 1, 0
Nav.1 = 1, 0, 1
Nav.2 = 1, 0, 0
Adf.1 = 1
Adf.2 = 1
Transponder.1 = 1
Marker.1 = 1


Hope that helps.
 
Last edited:
As SrGalahad wraps up his panel mods, I have been focusing on the Republic XP47's and adding a few more VC touches to the L-18. I suspect in a week, I should be able to map her for textures. That will take 4-5 days then she will be off to the paint shop ... somewhere, or maybe several paint shops. We shall see.

Once we get the mapping done and as the other aspects of the project are fleshing out, I will move the share-able parts to the C-57 and C-60A to modify for the military side, and then they will be ready for mapping.

The PV-1 Vega Ventura benefits from all that work as some share-able parts will then move to her interior and she will be ready for mapping.

That is the game plan and status of this project right now.

Keep the faith :wavey:
 
Maarten:

Received the CD via the royal post, many thanks. Good thing too as it's rough sledding once the snow melts.

Regards: Tom
 
Milton:

Can you share a projected target date for your XP-47s ?? I don't remember seeing one published.

If you would rather not say, I'd understand that also.

Thanks.
 
glh said:
Milton:

Can you share a projected target date for your XP-47s ?? I don't remember seeing one published.

If you would rather not say, I'd understand that also.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

glh,

Thank you for your interest. I am preparing the Republic XP47's for beta as we speak and hope to get it out in a few days. If all goes well we should be going Gold by mid-April.
 
Milton:

Thank you.

I have a bit more interest in them than the Harpoon or Lodestar. I prefer to wait for the final model
for the latter two whenever you are done but I have been (patiently) waiting for your XP-47s which
whetted my appetite when you first announced them. You and your associates do such excellent work.
 
LOL MM: Actually aside from preparing the XP47's for beta, I am working on the L-18 Civilian version daily. Just got the panels and gauges assimilated so I can finalize the panel layouts and go hi-res for the upper panel that is stocked full of period radios. Once I have that behind me, I can finalize the little things in the cockpit to flesh it out. Then I will be ready to the complete exterior and interior for textures before sending her to the paint shop.

Tom has the preliminary flight model phase completed.

Still lots to do and we are probably looking at early Summer here for a beta test.

I will be away for 3 weeks in May so that slows things down a bit.
 
I would just like to give a "shout out" to some people here for behind the scenes assistance that helps make these projects so much better than they would otherwise be.

Thanks to Maarten who has provided so many great resources and reference material, not just for this project, but nearly every project we work on.

Thanks to SrGalahad "Rob" for his relentless quest for details hidden in the recesses of the Internet and on bookshelves. The materials and info he finds sometimes blows me away. :) Rob has also invested considerable time researching, suggesting, and finding the proper gauges and radios for the Lodestar cockpit.

There are others who always research and provide inputs early on in these projects, send stuff, provide links, pictures, scale drawings, etc. that tend to go unnoticed publicly. It's this kind of collaboration that helps bring better results on these projects to you, and we sincerely appreciate all your efforts and support.

We are trying to finalize the the Republic XP47's and 72 now and will be back on the Harpoon very soon to prepare it for beta, while I work to finalize the L-18 interior cockpit details and begin mapping the L-18 for textures.
 
Update: The L-18 project is living and breathing and making headway every day.

Along with significant gauge and radio progress, (thank you Rob), Tom and I have been working everyday to improve the flight model for the commercial airliners. She is such a sweet hand flyer, not sure you will care much about an AP. :) Tom has nailed the performance on these aircraft with both of the modeled engines. Just trying to tweak out the slow approach and flaps responses to finalize that side of it.

I have broken out the military variants separate from the commercial ones to give us more flexibility in load-outs, weights, configurations, and modeling differences.

Once we get the Republic XP47's and XP-72 out the door, this will get more active.
 
Milton Shupe said:
Update: The L-18 project is living and breathing and making headway every day.

Along with significant gauge and radio progress, (thank you Rob), Tom and I have been working everyday to improve the flight model for the commercial airliners. She is such a sweet hand flyer, not sure you will care much about an AP. :) Tom has nailed the performance on these aircraft with both of the modeled engines. Just trying to tweak out the slow approach and flaps responses to finalize that side of it.
Click to expand...

I haven't vanished, just getting ready for the summer job and getting new staff trained. In the meantime been flying the Lodestar in (mostly) non-destructive testing of Mr. Sperry's autopilot. Yes, the Sperry can be nice and it will work but pilots will have to be aware it's not a K-Tel "set it and forget it" device. It can control heading and pitch but is not intended as more than a 'relief pilot during cruise' to reduce the need for hand-flying for long periods. Particularly, with the trim changes associated with those big Fowler flaps, letting "George" fly the airplane on approach might produce some unpleasant moments! It'll be fine to get you to final approach but after that you'd best be off auto and have a hand/mouse close to the trim wheel/button. ('Realistic' is a word that comes to mind...)

However, as Milton has said, it's a wonderful aircraft to hand-fly so why let some automaton have the fun?

Milton, I should have a draft of the appropriate "Pilots' Notes" for you in the next few days.

R
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top