Lockheed L-18 Project

[jbDC9]

Well, crap! I must have been in a coma for the last few months since I'm a Lodestar junkie and just now stumbled onto this project... beautiful work Milton! Can't wait to see and fly the finished product.

May I suggest one small change to the exterior model? The ADF loop antenna on top of the fuselage appears to be a wee bit too big; I've attached two pics of a C-60 Lodestar with a similar antenna in that location, looks to be a smaller loop...



BTW, that's me in the right seat landing at the Midland CAF airshow last October. I don't know who took the pics so I can't give credit, but he/she did a nice job. I have roughly 45 hours in this ship and just passed my PIC type ride in it last week, sweeet! It's a nice flying airplane, fast, handles well. It gets kinda funky in pitch when the gear and flaps are in motion (gear down, pitches down; flaps down, pitches up), but you get used to that pretty quickly. No autopilot needed, but thanks! The cockpit pic in post #203 on this thread is this airplane; it's basic. She's based in Houston, TX, owned/operated by the Commemorative Air Force... we're working on getting it set up on the ride program (similar to the touring B-17s), so if you wanna Lodestar ride, it could hopefully happen soon. Bring some $$ though, she's a thirsty beast with those twin Wright R-1820s!

 

[Milton Shupe]

Well, congrats on the PIC achievement! That's great!

Regarding the loop antenna, apparently there were several sizes over the years, or on different models as my reference pictures used during modeling showed large ones. Anyway I have a big inventory of available antennae so your input is valuable.

Just getting the exterior model prepared for mapping (for textures) now and still some work to do inside on the overhead panel underside.

We have the flight model pretty close to where we want it now displaying the flap and gear characteristics you described. VFE was a bit disconcerting for me as I am used to a faster deployment speed at least for the first notch. Flaps responses were based on the POH or Operating Guide description as attached.

The L-18 will be available with both the Wright and the P&W setup like the C-57 and C-60A.

Thanks for jumping in; we look forward to your involvement.

 

[jbDC9]

Whoops! I stand corrected on the loop antenna; I didn't know there were various sizes... carry on then!

Regarding the flap deployment speeds, yes indeed the original Lockheed spec for that is just silly slow at 100 kts for flap extension. Luckily, our ship has the partial Learstar mods done; the flap trailing edges are straight across compared to the standard tapered or curved trailing edge... I don't know if there were any structural mods done to the flap tracks, but flap speed are bumped up a bit. The first 10% can extend at 135 kts with the rest going out at 105 kts. The ability for flaps 10% at 135 kts is a huge help in slowing things down in the pattern... but then again, when in doubt, you can toss the gear at 145 kts. That's a huge speedbrake!

Attached is a pic of the V-speed placard riveted to the throttle quadrant; I'm assuming this would only apply to ships with Learstar/Howard mods. With a Google search of the old N9980F reg some interesting pics come up of a previous life as a '50s-'60s corporate transport and a '70s weather research ship.

 

[Scale Dail]

I would like to thank the team so much for working on this project, the Lockheed L18 Loadstar! My FS era is prewar late 30's and I have hoped for this aircraft for many years and as FS 2004 gets older and older the hope began to fade. The Milton and freinds team have renewed the excitement in FS 2004 for me again! I decided many years ago that FS 2004 is where I would stop. I have so many tweeks and creations in my installation, this is where I plan to stay forever! I don't care how many cars roam the highways of FSX!
Once this project is done I will have no more wishes! By the way my real hobby is building scale RC aircraft. I'll be starting on my own A-20G in the fall of 2015.
Thanks again! I look forward to anything new that comes out for FS2004 especially if its American with American markings!

 

[Milton Shupe]

Whoops! I stand corrected on the loop antenna; I didn't know there were various sizes... carry on then!

Regarding the flap deployment speeds, yes indeed the original Lockheed spec for that is just silly slow at 100 kts for flap extension. Luckily, our ship has the partial Learstar mods done; the flap trailing edges are straight across compared to the standard tapered or curved trailing edge... I don't know if there were any structural mods done to the flap tracks, but flap speed are bumped up a bit. The first 10% can extend at 135 kts with the rest going out at 105 kts. The ability for flaps 10% at 135 kts is a huge help in slowing things down in the pattern... but then again, when in doubt, you can toss the gear at 145 kts. That's a huge speedbrake!

Attached is a pic of the V-speed placard riveted to the throttle quadrant; I'm assuming this would only apply to ships with Learstar/Howard mods. With a Google search of the old N9980F reg some interesting pics come up of a previous life as a '50s-'60s corporate transport and a '70s weather research ship.
View attachment 7736

jbDC9, wow, I cannot believe how long its been since we had a post here. Unfortunately, Nigel has had power issues at home for a time but that is now being corrected and we are getting back to full speed again. Trying to finish up the Harpoon now and we will be on the Lodestar next. She's mapped for textures and ready for Nigel to do his magic.

Thank you for posting the V-Speed placard. Where do you have that mounted on your aircraft?

 

[Milton Shupe]

I would like to thank the team so much for working on this project, the Lockheed L18 Loadstar! My FS era is prewar late 30's and I have hoped for this aircraft for many years and as FS 2004 gets older and older the hope began to fade. The Milton and freinds team have renewed the excitement in FS 2004 for me again! I decided many years ago that FS 2004 is where I would stop. I have so many tweeks and creations in my installation, this is where I plan to stay forever! I don't care how many cars roam the highways of FSX!
Once this project is done I will have no more wishes! By the way my real hobby is building scale RC aircraft. I'll be starting on my own A-20G in the fall of 2015.
Thanks again! I look forward to anything new that comes out for FS2004 especially if its American with American markings!

Scale Dail,

Hello and welcome to the project thread.

Thank you for your warm comments. Sadly we had this on hold for a bit while we get back up to speed. With the issues now resolved, maybe we can get some activity going here again.

I do have several variants of the models available in two engine cowling configurations and just a bit more work left in the VC to wrap her up. But even with that we are looking at the new year before release.
I'll keep you informed.

Attached are screen shots of the C-57, C-60A, and the L-18 in their current state.

 

[jbDC9]

Thank you for posting the V-Speed placard. Where do you have that mounted on your aircraft?

The new Vspeed placard is on top of the throttle quadrant, flat part ahead of the throttles... in the pic below the Garmin GPS is sitting on it, highlighted in red.

I like your posted screenshots, looking good! Still looks a bit weird with the big Pratts installed since I'm used to seeing the 1820s, but I can get used to it.

 

[Milton Shupe]

The new Vspeed placard is on top of the throttle quadrant, flat part ahead of the throttles... in the pic below the Garmin GPS is sitting on it, highlighted in red.



I like your posted screenshots, looking good! Still looks a bit weird with the big Pratts installed since I'm used to seeing the 1820s, but I can get used to it.

Thanks. Oh, I will have both engine nacelles available; already done awaiting textures to get started.

 

[tgibson]

Looking forward to this, especially the AI version.

If an AI version of the civil model is not on the table, I could always add LODs...

 

[Milton Shupe]

Looking forward to this, especially the AI version.

If an AI version of the civil model is not on the table, I could always add LODs...

Thank you Tom.

I would be happy to share the gmax source with you if you wish to add LODs. I have no experience doing that and would greatly appreciate it if you would make an AI version available.

The exterior models are completed and mapped and the interiors are mostly done and mapped awaiting some final cockpit changes but enough to do AI models.
Of course, for AI, one might prefer a more AI-friendly mapping.

Whenever you want the source, you may have it.

 

[tgibson]

As soon as the external model is completely mapped and it is known there will be no mapping changes that would be great. I prefer to wait a while until people start painting the flyable model - that has a way of uncovering unexpected mapping issues. Once things are settled then the AI version can get started at that point. I also prefer to keep the flyable aircraft's mapping, so existing liveries can be used on the AI model as well. If possible I'll reduce their size by 2X or so, if it doesn't cause too much blurriness. Since no interior textures will be be needed (cabin or VC), it should be enough to reduce the texture load to acceptable levels. It's not like you're going to have hundreds of these at an airport.

Thanks,

 

[Willy]

That color photo of NC34217 is beautiful!! Got to have one of these after the models available (new personal transportation). Bill

Is there still interest in this one?

I think I have enough pics to do it. But I'd also like to have some history on it as well.