Once "extinct" aircraft discovered: F-91

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
Disassociated Mess

An aircraft once believe to be no longer in existance has turned up in Jamaica. The Fairchild F-91, an 8 passenger amphibious plane, is owned and operated by Jamair Charters, a subsidiary of Jamaica Air Lines. The aircraft is used daily to fly tourists on site seeing trips around the island nation and to various points of interest on surrounding islands.

The pilot of this super rare aircraft, Raphael Raphael Raphael, stated that the plane is in great shape and has presented very little mechanical problems during the 40 odd years of its service with Jamair Charters.

"Yah, mahn, da plane flies, mahn," Raphael stated, adding that the plane was 90% original construction. "Da motor stopt workin bout teen yeers ago, but since this is Jamaica Air Lines, da pilots are so high da planes don't need no motors, mahn."

When pressed for details on how the plane came to be in the ownership of Jamair Charters, Raphael stated that two of the planes were flown to Jamaica by some soldiers (nationality unknown) who were looking to avoid further combat during the second World War.

The second F-91, also in flying conditon, was confiscated by the United States Coast Guard under suspision that the plane was being used to smuggle marijuana into the United States. "Mahn, we don't be smugglin no gonja into the United States," Raphael ascerts, "we keep it for ourselves."

_____________________________________

Came across NCgents Fairchild F-91 and the plane struck just the right cord with me. It has a radial engine (like all the great planes did) and it is a floater...another big plus in my book. I redid the panel lines, ran the MDL through Martin Wright's MDLmat to give the plane some specular shine, and sprayed on a nice fictional paint. Since there are no known F-91 in existance today, this opens the plane up to a ton of What If paints. I will be doing some other paints to show what the plane may have looked like if more were produced and if they were still around.

OBIO

F-91.jpg


Disclaimer: This post is not a true reflection on the people of Jamaica, their pilots or their pot heads. No insult was intended. This post is intended for entertainment purposes only.

Just say no to drugs!
 
OBIO,

Any chance you could post a picture of the VC - I was a littlke confused about the various versions of this aircraft and never got around to sorting it out.

Thanks
kurt
 
A side bar moment if you please:

The pilot in my little made up news story...Raphael Raphael Raphael. Well, when I was in high school, there was a guy a year ahead of me. His parents were born and raised in Jamaica, and had come to the US to take teaching positions at a local branch college. His mother was a painter, and her favorite painter was Raphael..that's how he got his first name. His dad was a sculptor, and his all time favorite sculptors were by Raphael...that's how he got his middle name. The family name: Raphael. So yes, Virginia, there truly is a Raphael Raphael Raphael. He is now 40 years old (assuming he is still alive that is). I have not seen him since 1986.

When I was working on the F-91, the skin took shape without a lot of planning...just happened basically. Once the basic paint was done, I needed to give the plane an exotic feel...so I chose Jamaica. Jamair Charters just feel out of the air and landed on the plane.

As I was uploading the image to Photobucket, I began concocting the little story about how the once-extinct plane was found. The name for the pilot came from the far back of my memory banks...the only Jamaican descent person I have ever met....Raphael Raphael Raphael.

Here's to you Raphael, where ever you are. :ernae:
 
I'm not sure which version I have....just came across it on one of the sim sites and grabbed it. Really hope that I have the final version...would have to have an earlier version and the work I did on creating the repaint template be for naught.
 
I seem to remember a few versions were produced - I could not tell you what they were though.

Thanks for pics and I like the repaint and the tale to go with them.

kurt
 
Kurt

After making another run through the sim sites, I am pretty sure that I have the most recent version. On Simviation, the package is called fairf-91.zip. This package adds flaps and some other tweaks to the F-91. The VC is not as good as NCgent's current offerings, but VCs are not the easiest things to produce from what I gather....it takes several go rounds to get the hang of them....the VC isn't all that bad though...I can live with it.

I have done some work on the VC panel image to give the plane the look of a more 3D VC. Makes it look better....and that is the reason I spend so much time in Photoshop.

OBIO
 
IIRC this was NCGents first aircraft and it is way beyond anything that I could even attempt to do. No criticisms intended or implied. It is an interesting aircraft and I flew this model around the Amazon for a while.

kurt
 
I thought someone here had taken over this project and was going through the process of getting the animations correct and working on the VC. Whatever happened to it?
 
Came across some images of the F-91...some are period photos, some are drawings/paintings. Have based a paint off the box image from a model of the F-91 in RAF desert camo scheme. Looks good to my eyes.

F-91DesertCamo.jpg


OBIO
 
Getting the original skins that NCGent did for the F-91 repainted with more/sharper detail. Royal Navy, Japanese Navy are done...next will be the PP-PAT of Panair De Brasil S.A. Have a nice day glo orange and yellow job nearly done...not sure if it is a real scheme or not...just working off an image I found on line that showed the plane in those colors with NR777 as a registration number. Have the Spanish Nationalist "Virgen De Chomorro" nearly done...just have to get the stripes on the flap and airelon areas done and lined up with the stripes on the wing surfaces.

I am also wanting to increase the roll rate on the plane as it has the roll rate of a Greyhound Bus and turns like a box full of lead powder. Using AIR Wrench, I go in and adjust the roll rate and target speed....but the end result is that the plane will not get enough speed up to even get off the ground. Anyone have any clue as to how to change the roll rate without loosing the rest of the flight dynamics?

OBIO
 
roll rate

I use the flight tuning section. The rudder was very ineffective too.

[flight_tuning]
cruise_lift_scalar =1.0
parasite_drag_scalar =1.0
induced_drag_scalar =1.0
elevator_effectiveness =1
aileron_effectiveness =1.5
rudder_effectiveness =2.5
pitch_stability =1
roll_stability =1
yaw_stability =1
elevator_trim_effectiveness =2.0
aileron_trim_effectiveness =1
rudder_trim_effectiveness =1
 
You need a copy of AirEd by William Roth. Go to Avsim and search for:

aired152_update806.zip

Once installed, start up the editor, browse to FS, and to the aircraft/air file. ( You've already created a bakup of the airfile)
Open the airfile, scroll down to entry "1101 Primary Aerodynamics."
Clicking on it opens an extended sub-menu. Scroll down that until you see "roll moment due to Ailerons." The value will most likely be some like -250, -650....whatever. The larger the number, the greater the effect. Click on the entry, it will open a tiny window were you can alter the number. Hit "enter" to close the window, and "save" the file.

Back to FS, re-select/re-load your aircraft for the change to take place, try it out. Make more change if neccesary.

Best of luck!
 
magoo

I have Air Ed....version 152 I do believe....but air files are so complex that I am still in the early stages of learning what does what and how one setting effects a few others and how those effect even more.

Will try changing the settings in the config file and see what that does to get the F-91 flying a bit better.

OBIO
 
NC

First off...LOVE this plane. It looks good, the texture mapping is spot on and easy to work with. The VC may not be up to today's standards, but is still very usable.

It's amazing how the old gal looks with some fresh make up and a new pair of pantyhose.

I think you will be surprised when I upload the finished package.

OBIO
 
Obio
If you go to this site there is a shot of the panel, it is a vidio.http//www.truveo.com/Fairchild-model-91-Baby Clipper/id/4157613617.ckissling
 
I won't upload the Aircraft.cfg with these tweaks, but I went in and changed the effects calls to use the effects calls from Bill Lyons P-23 Apache Float Plane...and man oh man is the result a huge huge improvement over the stock effects...going to make that change to all my float/sea planes.

OBIO
 
Have been unsuccessful in getting the roll rate increased....air files just aren't my cup of tea. Oh well, the plane flies well enough as is...but maybe someone with flight dynamic skills can give the F-91 a better roll rate and more rudder input.

Here's a list of the paints that will be coming with the reworked plane, starting with those based on profiles or historic photos:

British Royal Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
NR777...Orange and Yellow job
PANAIR Do Brasil S.A. PP - PAT
RAF Desert Camo Scheme (The Gar Wood donated SAR plane)
Spanish Nationalist "Virgen De Chomorro"..still a tad bit of work to do on this one

Fictional Skins

Jamair Charters
US Army Air Corps Blue and Yellow scheme
US Army Air Corps OD over Neutral Gray scheme
US Navy
Maroon and Cream...very classy looking civilian color combo


Will be doing one more fictional civilian paint. Not sure if I will do a Blue and White, Green and White, Green and Yellow or Orange and White.

Should have the package ready to upload in a day or three.

OBIO
 
OBIO said:
Getting the original skins that NCGent did for the F-91 repainted with more/sharper detail. Royal Navy, Japanese Navy are done...next will be the PP-PAT of Panair De Brasil S.A. Have a nice day glo orange and yellow job nearly done...not sure if it is a real scheme or not...just working off an image I found on line that showed the plane in those colors with NR777 as a registration number. Have the Spanish Nationalist "Virgen De Chomorro" nearly done...just have to get the stripes on the flap and airelon areas done and lined up with the stripes on the wing surfaces.

I am also wanting to increase the roll rate on the plane as it has the roll rate of a Greyhound Bus and turns like a box full of lead powder. Using AIR Wrench, I go in and adjust the roll rate and target speed....but the end result is that the plane will not get enough speed up to even get off the ground. Anyone have any clue as to how to change the roll rate without loosing the rest of the flight dynamics?

OBIO
Click to expand...

OBIO;

Your repaints look very nice. :wiggle:

I really like NCGent's work on this plane. I think his skill levels were about where mine are when I finished the "Early Fairchild Series"; and his finished producted looks and feels like "one of the family;" at least in FS2002 (haven't had a moment to try it in FS9 yet.)



Same for the VC; may not be very detailed, but once again, "feels like family" with the Vega gauges.



Regarding increasing the roll rate: this is a BIG plane for a single engine floatplane. The earlier Fairchilds are bigger than your average Cessna; and they look small in the company of the F-91. With that big float on the bottom and that engine up high, it probably was a sedate flyer with a large MOI; I found it's handling qualities to be close to the other Fairchild aircraft in my hanger. The only vice it displayed in FS2002 was a tendency to bounce alot on the ground.



Thanks NCGent for a nice model of this rare classic.

-James
 
Remember too OBIO that this was before the days of boosted controls and overpowered surfaces. In many cases the control inputs were huge and/or required proper coordination (rudder balanced by aileron) to make a turn. In some cases the designers limited the control effectiveness to prevent too-abrupt inputs tat might overstress an airframe. She's a sedate lady, not a racer.

Rob
 
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