Scorch00 Airtanker Conversion Projects

Q400-AT V2 Pack released for FSX and P3D

The Q400-AT/MR V2 Pack has been released here on SOH. The link is below.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=34&linkid=29149
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Work will now move forward on the P3D release of the C-119 airtanker conversion with Steward-Davis Jet Pack installed. R&D work has run well for it. I now have a modeled and functioning 3rd throttle in the cockpit to control the Jet Pack Engine up top. Still will need to adjust some textures to make it flow better with the interior of the C-119, but that largely works at this point. Will also add this to the 2nd model as well. There are still several things that need to be finished, fine tuning of the adjusted flight model with the addition of the jet engine, as well as finishing all the liveries I intend to include with the pack. This was a rough first test of the new throttle and jet engine start up.

 
FSX version has been completely axed. SDK limitations and the complexity of the AH model prevent it from being recompiled in MCX. So I've moved on, focusing on it being in P3Dv4+ only. That being said. I've successfully got the 3rd throttle working and is now installed on both expansion models with the Jet Pack up top. I am working on textures and the additional tweaks the flight dynamics need with the jet engine. There are several liveries planned, but work has been slow on them. Hawkins & Powers T-137 is looking to be close to being completed. How many liveries in total has yet to be finalized. But I'd like a decent amount of them. But it definitely wont be all of the tanker paints. There's just too many. Hemet Valley Flying Service, Aero Union, and Hawkins & Powers are the main operators I'm focusing on at the moment.

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Take off difficulties Q400

Hello,
Thanks for these machines, very nice
BUT I have lot of difficulties to takeoff
Full flaps, full power 180 knots and it does NOT take off
Recommendations?
Thanks in advance

By the way : how to change my signature?
Emile EBBR Z590 Aorus Elite, i9-11900K 3.5Ghz Nvidia RTX 3060, 16 GB Mem, SSD 1Tera + other HDDs, Dual Boot . Win10/Win11 Pro X64
 
Last edited:
Emile said:
Hello,
Thanks for these machines, very nice
BUT I have lot of difficulties to takeoff
Full flaps, full power 180 knots and it does NOT take off
Recommendations?
Thanks in advance

By the way : how to change my signature?
Emile EBBR Z590 Aorus Elite, i9-11900K 3.5Ghz Nvidia RTX 3060, 16 GB Mem, SSD 1Tera + other HDDs, Dual Boot . Win10/Win11 Pro X64
Click to expand...

Hello there, thank you for the support! Sorry to hear about the takeoff difficulties. In the readme I put in the takeoff procedures and cautions for not overloading the airplane. If you cannot rotate, its likely those procedures were not followed and the airplane is overweight. When the plane loads into your sim it will be completely loaded with full fuel and a full retardant tank. So you either need to 1)remove fuel weight to no more than 42% total fuel with a full retardant tank, or 2) remove the retardant load from the airplane. Takeoff procedures with a full load of retardant are Flaps 2, Trim Wheel to 50%, MTOW is no more than 68,200lbs. Rotation should be around 4,000' give or take.

Editing your signature I believe is in your profile settings. Top right corner >> Settings >> Left menu >> Edit Signature
 
Hello and thanks
I do not know how to do "1)remove fuel weight to no more than 42% total fuel with a full retardant tank, or 2) remove the retardant load from the airplane"

What do I need to change in the aircraft.cfg?
Example : Empty the retardant thank...
Thanks in advance

 
You don't need to edit the aircraft.cfg file. You can do that easily in your sim itself. In FSX it will be in the fuel and payload window in your loading window before you hit "fly now," button. It should be located right under your weather options in the FSX menu. In there you'll see your total weight and fuel. Adjust them properly and you should be good to go.
 
CH-47 Project Announced

After the current C-119 project, I have also begun a repaint project for the Nemeth/MilViz CH-47s. The pack will consist of similar firefighting liveries I previously released for the freeware UKMIL version. But will be slightly modernized to represent more recent liveries. Also, I will be doing another tank asset pack for the different internal tank/snorkel attachments for the various operators, as well as properly sized bambi buckets for versions that are not tanked. The buckets provided by FireFighterX do work just fine, but I feel are undersized for the ones actually used on the Chinooks. Below is "4AJ" flown by Billings Flying Service of Montana. Operators Coulson-Unical, Columbia Helicopters, Helimax, and Army National Guard liveries will also join the paints on the Nemeth/MilViz platform. There looks to be at this point to be two versions of EACH of the tank/snorkel attachments, one for the UKMIL version and the other for the Nemeth/MilViz version. Hopefully any other platforms people have can pick either version to attach to their CH-47 and it will fit using either option. The buckets will be unaffected by the different 3D models. The tank assets will be for P3D only however. Repaints will be for either FSX or P3D though.

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The Steward-Davis Jet Pack modified C-119s are in the process of being approved on here and the other site I upload my work to. So that will be forward posted in here once it's approved. The C-119s not only have the J34 affixed on the fuselage, but have performance additions for the jet, as well as it being able to be controlled independently of the radials if you have a throttle and assignments set up that way. It's a pretty cool modification I have to say. I'm pretty proud of it.

ND/MIlViz CH-47 work continues for the firefighting repaint package as well as the parallel tank/snorkel and bambi bucket additions for FireFighterX. I have two sets complete for the MILVIZ CH-47's dimensions and just finished those changes for the Nemeth/MilViz CH-47, seen here on Billings and Columbia's helicopters tank and snorkel systems on the ND/Nemeth CH-47. The challenging tank will be Coulson-Unical's as their tank has a retractable snorkel. Which I'd like to have work, but we'll see if I can get that to work as an attachable object as this project progresses.

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C-119 Steward-Davis Jet Pack Airtankers uploaded!

If you haven't caught the upload yet, it is live here on SOH now at the link below.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=219&linkid=29192


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Focus has now moved to repainting the Nemeth/MilViz CH-47s with firefighting liveries. Prototype tanks are currently in development for the Nemeth/MilViz CH-47 and the UKMIL CH-47s. I plan on also trying to do a few different bambi buckets, but haven't started the modeling process yet or am I 100% positive that different buckets will be added as tank assets for FireFighterX. The Nemeth MilViz repaints are slated for Coulson-Unical (seen below), Columbia Helicopters, Billings Flying Service, Helimax, Helifor, and California Army National Guard.

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Nemeth repaints are continuing for the CH-47s. As are the tank assets. I am working out details for the different tank/snorkel setups for the operators that use them. I've recently added the tank overflow nozzles to both the Billings and Helimax setups. I still need to properly scale the tank doors on the bottom properly as well. But things are progressing well with that part of the project. I'm currently contemplating nixing the UKMIL options for now. After testing the aircraft with the tanks setup in FFX it's clear that it is not properly setup to actually carry anything close to the aircraft's true weight. So I'd have to completely edit the aircraft.cfg files for the UKMIL versions to operate them how they would be IRL. Not something I'm really looking at doing.

Helimax:
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Billings:
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Video of the Helimax version while testing with FFX in P3D:
 
Livery and tank work continue on and for the CH-47s. I've started on the Army National Guard liveries. I've decided to cap the repaints at 8. 2x Billing Flying Service, 2x California Army National Guard, Columbia Helicopters, Coulson-Unical, Helimax, and Helifor will be represented. Columbia, Helimax, Coulson, and Billings will also have their respective tank/snorkel setups included for the tanked CH-47s in service. Seen below are some high res shots of the Billings liveries and the tank/snorkel.

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I've done a 2,000 gallon bucket that will also join the asset package for the repaints now. I've started putting together a reference document for the tanks to be used in Lorby's FireFighterX as well. The tanks range from 2,500-3,000 US Gallons. Pretty impressive for a helicopter. But I'm expecting the repaints and assets to go out some time this week. The bucket provided in FFX is alright, I just wanted one that looked a bit more realistic. I may do other versions of buckets down the road, but just added this one for now to get this out faster. Assets will be for P3Dv4+, liveries will be for FSX up through all versions of P3D. The Nemeth/MilViz CH-47 proved a great platform for this project. I'm very happy with how it's progressed.

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CH-47 LIveries & Firefighting Assets Pack Released

For those that haven't seen the CH-47 Pack is available now here on SOH.
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=188&linkid=29209

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Aeroplane Heaven B-17 Airtanker Package Project:

The project was started upon around the same time I had permission granted by AH to modify their C-119, the B-17 was the 2nd aircraft they allowed me to modify. I'm not sure exactly how many versions of the firefighting versions I will do, as there were a number of them. Right now I'm focused on the Aero Union variant and will move onto the others once this one is done and all the body changes that need to be done to "civilianize" the B-17s. Removal of guns, turrets, etc. This version seen below in Aero Union and Evergreen liveries. Had all those removed, as well as the nose glass and had a more aerodynamic nose cone substituted for the glass. Not sure as to why this was done, but in aerial firefighting, it was largely done for a reason to either shed weight or increase performance in some way. Repaints below are still very early WIP of both the model and the liveries.

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The B-17 looks great.

Just curious, I'm not really into armed warbirds, but a 'civilian' B-17 would be a 'must have'. So could this be FSX compatible?

Pete.
 
PeteHam said:
The B-17 looks great.

Just curious, I'm not really into armed warbirds, but a 'civilian' B-17 would be a 'must have'. So could this be FSX compatible?

Pete.
Click to expand...

It's a possibility it may, I don't think it's as complex, as say their C-119 is. But no guarantees of yet. Their C-119 I did, would not recompile with the FSX SDK and MCX, so I had to abandon an FSX version of it. But I'll definitely see if it's possible.

EDIT: I actually just tried to do a recompile in an FSX .mdl and it worked. Showed up in P3Dv4.5 in the FSX.mdl file. so at least currently, it seems that it could be cross platform compatible in both FSX and P3D.
 
The B-17 project is progressing, albeit slow given personal time to work on the project. I have finished the first variant. I will be moving onto another version here fairly soon I hope. Evergreen T-22, Aero Union T-17, and TBM Inc. T-65 round out this version's liveries. I have a few other projects looming in the background I'm looking into at the moment as well. So it's also helped slow progress down slightly. But I'll be throwing those back on the backburner while I wait for prototypes to work out. The project at this point does look to remain FSX and P3D compatible. So I'm pretty comfortable saying that when release happens it will be for both platforms.

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Work has progressed, albeit slowly. Given IRL responsibilities and such, work has just been slower than I'd prefer it. But progress regardless. I've just finished a few more configurations of the B-17 Fire Fortresses. So far as seen below I have 5 versions available. I'm looking to see if the configuration I just finished for Globe Air was used by other operators. But if not, the pack will likely stay this size and I'll move onto cleaning up the pack and getting it ready to beta test in FSX to double check everything works as it should. The aircraft has remained in FSX.mdl this whole time luckily, so it should work in both sims. But will know that for sure once I give it to beta testers. It works flawless in P3Dv4.5. Different versions of the B-17s carried differing amounts of retardant, so tracking down that information and placing them with the correct configuration will also present a bit of a challenge. But it's minor I feel. Configuration file was, I have not touched the dynamics at all. The only thing I've changed are the main landing gear contact points. Which were sunken into most if not all runways. Everything else has been model or texture related changes. I am currently looking at another rotary wing project currently. That being the Sikorsky S-61N. Which at this point, looks to be a P3DV4+ project. More info on that as I get closer to finishing the B-17s as there is prototype work going on for it and different tank designs on it.

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