Who could we talk into making one of these?

Milton Shupe said:
The floats are bigger than the aircraft ... that can't be right.
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LOL Plastic model box art was notoriously "artistic" but some floats were pretty large relative to the aircraft.

Several times I've found what seemed to be "oversize" floats but there seem to be a few reasons:

  • Instead of getting custom floats made for a small run, manufacturers would just spec the nearest stock size from MacDonald Bros. (EDO) or a couple of other early builders, always erring on the side of excess (floats are rated by "buoyancy").
  • changes would be made to the a/c specs and require a step-up of the floats.
  • owners would destroy a set (gee.. there were rocks in that lake....) and put on the nearest available and then like the extra capacity. "Bigger must be better, huh?"
Even so, the art for AMT was probably done by some $0.25 /hr artist in a factory far, far away with one grainy, crumpled pic to go by :kilroy:

Price tags look big too... a new set of 5850's for a Beaver run $60K a set!
 
Lindbergh's Lockheed Sirius would be a good choice too. The float Vega looks to be a much more substantial - and healthy IMHO - aircraft compared to Post's Vega, which always looked like an accident waiting to happen with that soda straw landing gear.

N.
 
ThinkingManNeil said:
Lindbergh's Lockheed Sirius would be a good choice too. The float Vega looks to be a much more substantial - and healthy IMHO - aircraft compared to Post's Vega, which always looked like an accident waiting to happen with that soda straw landing gear.

N.
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Are we talking about the same aircraft? the landing gear as depicted on the default Vega was standard issue on the Models 1, 2, and 5 Vegas (and on the Model 3 Air Express) and looks pretty robust to me.
That being said Wiley Post did modify the Winnie Mae for some high altitude flight in early 1935. He put on some jettisonable wheels and reinforced the belly with a metal covered spruce skid. Those wheels did look kind of spindly but they weren't designed to endure the stresses of landing.
Of course you could be referring to the gear found on the 'Speed Vega', the Y1C-17. That looks spindly as well with all those wires instead of shock absorbers and all but it did add some 20-25mph to the top end.

Back to the original thread I would love to see a float equipped Vega (maybe as part of a pack with full VC interior and wheeled versions with the option to have or not have wheel pants...:jump:). Y'know Jens Christiansen did an excellent job with the Orion...(hint hint wink wink nudge nudge...)
 
OBIO said:
This is a plane I would love to have for FS9. A Lockheed Vega Float Plane.

http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/kits/images/Aviation/amt-t637vega.JPG

Also, would love to have a Lockheed Orion and Vultee V11 on floats as well.

OBIO
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OBIO, wasn't a float equipped Orion what got Wiley Post killed? From what I remember reading the floats were too big and made it nose-heavy. It didn't help that this plane was a veritable chimera of parts; the prop was some three bladed unit, and the wings were from a Model 4 Explorer, one of the most ill fated products Lockheed ever came up with. Still I wouldn't mind getting one for FS2004 just so I can say I've flown it (Hey if I can almost land a Gee Bee Model Z an ill-balanced float equipped Orion should be cake, right?)
I was just thinking...Killworks would be perfect for Post's Orion. One of a kind; certainly rare and just a little bit infamous :)
 
Here is a late 1950's photo of "Nugget" from Richard Allen's excellent book, Revolution In The Sky. This is probably the photo used by AMT's artist. "Nugget" operated along the Alaskan coast from 1933 to 1958.
 
Jen's Orion and Vultee V11 were among the first 10 planes I installed into FS9 when I got it for Christmas 2008. I had them converted to CFS2 and flew them there...but they acted like Zero fighters since I used the flight dynamics from the CFS2 Zero to get them to fly.

OBIO
 
Hurricane91 said:
Here is a late 1950's photo of "Nugget" from Richard Allen's excellent book, Revolution In The Sky. This is probably the photo used by AMT's artist. "Nugget" operated along the Alaskan coast from 1933 to 1958.
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The dark color is a deep blue and the cheat line and logo are gold. A rather attractive livery, IMO.

Did the aircraft SDK for FS2004 come with the Vega? In addition to adding floats, I always thought one without wheel spats would look nice, as would an early Vega without the NACA cowling (something about all those cylinders whistling in the wind...).
 
ThinkingManNeil said:
Lindbergh's Lockheed Sirius would be a good choice too. The float Vega looks to be a much more substantial - and healthy IMHO - aircraft compared to Post's Vega, which always looked like an accident waiting to happen with that soda straw landing gear.

N.
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The only one I've seen is the Lago FS2002 one, http://www.avsim.com/pages/1202/spirit/luckylindey.html, it suffers from missingpropitis in FS9 unfortunately. Also don't know if it's even available anymore? But Istill like it, prop or not.

Jamie
 
NCGent (Top Flight Simulations) did the Lockheed Sirius. The last time I talked to him he had plans on doing a float equipped version...or maybe he said he wasn't. One way or another....can't remember which now.

Haven't heard from him in a while...I hope all is well with him.

OBIO
 
adhockey said:
The dark color is a deep blue and the cheat line and logo are gold. A rather attractive livery, IMO.

Did the aircraft SDK for FS2004 come with the Vega? In addition to adding floats, I always thought one without wheel spats would look nice, as would an early Vega without the NACA cowling (something about all those cylinders whistling in the wind...).
Click to expand...


I think it was just the Curtiss Jenny in the SDK.
 
OBIO said:
NCGent (Top Flight Simulations) did the Lockheed Sirius. The last time I talked to him he had plans on doing a float equipped version...or maybe he said he wasn't. One way or another....can't remember which now.

Haven't heard from him in a while...I hope all is well with him.

OBIO
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Tim,

e-mailed to NCGent recently, seems his computer took a knock during a move (house?). He's working at getting everything ship-shape at the moment. I hope he is well, that wasn't brought up.

I did manage to hack the LAGO model into FSDS for a rebuild to fix the prop. Not much success so far though, but even if I get it fixed, due to it being payware, can't share the goods, sorry.

Saying that, if Chris is busy, I'd be willing to try to add floats, etc to his model as long as it was FSDS. Again, his is payware, which I'm the happy owner of, it even has same paint as the floater of Lindbergh (pre-float conversion).

Jamie
 
I will try

Obio, please get me 3 view diag for the floatplane and I will make an exterior model and vc model in FSDS. I will upload my project file so others can play with it.
Sid
 
Sid

I could not find any three views of the Vega Float Plane...I did find some 3-views of the Vega in normal wheeled attire.

OBIO
 
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