Yet Another Bloody Auster

Having played a part in the creation of this aeroplane, I can safely say that it truly represents the real thing.

Now I may sound biased, but a lot of work has gone into this project, primarily by its builder Dave Molyneaux and its FDE designer Brian Horsey, but it is WZ662 in both looks and in the way that it flies.

As I am normally found in one of these rare aeroplanes at weekends, I had the full co-operation of the aircraft's owner and together we supplied all of the airframe and flight manuals as well as taking over 300 photos of this very example.

The sounds were recorded by myself on a local flight a few weeks ago and since then Leif Harding (RyDraiggoch) has produced what you hear today. This is the only aeroplane today flying with the 180hp Blackburn Bombardier.

Test flown by two Auster AOP9 pilots, this is a true representation of the last British built aircraft to see service with the British Army. WZ662 as depicted here was the prototype and first flew on the 19 March 1954 and after completing trials was sent to Borneo where it flew with the RAF and then the Army. Returned to the UK in the late 1960s, it became a roadside attraction at a garage, before being restored back to flying condition.

Today out of 182 built, only 7 are airworthy.

I hope you all enjoy flying it, as much as I did when test flying David and Brian's hardwork.

Best wishes,

Martin
 
Awesome work, fellas! :applause::applause: From the minute you climb into her you can tell that this was a real labor of love. Probably as close as I'll ever get to the real thing. Again, well done...and thanks!

Brian
 
Thanks for the HU and the history of the plane and its development.


EDIT: Tried it....... Wow! Beautifully done. Crisp, clear, and clean lines, especially the vc. Nicely done!!!

(the only thing I changed, which is personal taste, is the prop blur. Using BananaBob's Buecker prop replacement)
 
Loving this aircraft, and it's my favourite of the Auster series. Some screenshots while testing out Dustin Mosher's BETA Goodspeed scenery ...

Cheers & Enjoy! Mike :applause:
 
Nice animated prop blur

A couple changes that I tried....and like.

Using the BananaBob propwash replacement for the buecker 2 blade prop:

for safe keeping rename the original AOP9 bitmaps in the texture folder
prop_blurred.bmp.orig
prop_blurred-VC.bmp.orig

rename one copy of the buecker prop from prop_buecker.bmp to prop_blurred.bmp and another copy of prop_buecker.bmp to prop_blurred-VC.bmp

Then in the aircraft.cfg of the AOP9, add this line under the line ui_variation=?? (do for each texture, but there's only one for the AOP9)
Thanks to Cazzie for this reminder of "fleurdelys simple addition that does a lot to the animation of a prop"

ui_variation=WZ662
prop_anim_ratio=1.025

Now you have a nice prop animation in spot view and in VC view.

This change has no effect on any other part of the AOP9's prop animations or other nicely done features.
For those that don't like a flickering prop blur in the VC, just don't change out the prop_blurred-VC.bmp texture.

Try it and see if you like it.
 
It's been a long time since I last flew an Auster (25 years or so) and I have never flown an AOP, but as far as I can remember, the flight dynamics and characteristics are as close as they possibly could be in a sim.
I remember on a few occasions on approach into wind, dropping the flaps and adding just enough power to have such a slow ground speed as to look as if I was close to hovering and landing with a very short run. I tried this out last night and it brought memories flooding back, except I didn't have to worry about breaking the bungee suspension :kilroy::icon_lol:

The only downside (and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about this), is the lack of vibration and the typical smell inside the cockpit. I wonder if anyone makes an air freshener with that smell? I could put it close to my PC when I am flying to make it 'even more real'.

Many, many thanks to the team for the and other Auster models :icon29::medals:
 
sandar said:
It's been a long time since I last flew an Auster (25 years or so) and I have never flown an AOP, but as far as I can remember, the flight dynamics and characteristics are as close as they possibly could be in a sim.
I remember on a few occasions on approach into wind, dropping the flaps and adding just enough power to have such a slow ground speed as to look as if I was close to hovering and landing with a very short run. I tried this out last night and it brought memories flooding back, except I didn't have to worry about breaking the bungee suspension :kilroy::icon_lol:

The only downside (and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about this), is the lack of vibration and the typical smell inside the cockpit. I wonder if anyone makes an air freshener with that smell? I could put it close to my PC when I am flying to make it 'even more real'.

Many, many thanks to the team for the and other Auster models :icon29::medals:
Click to expand...

Sandar,

A very interesting read and thank you for your comments. The flight model for this AOP9 is very close to the real thing, as we had full access to all of the manuals and had two AOP9 pilots test fly her, before it was released.

The AOP9 is a little different from all other Austers as not one part from this airframe will fit another Auster. It was designed from a blank piece of paper, unlike the other models which were derived from the J/1 etc etc.

A useless fact is that the mainwheels of the AOP9 are DC-3 tailwheels!!

We did discuss bottling the smell (but thought it would be extremely difficult to do!!) and as to the vibration, well a force fed joystick is the closest I think most people will get. The aeroplane certainly has a lot of character.

If interested in the real aeroplane, please have a look at the videos of WZ662 at:
http://classicbritishfiles.com/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&Itemid=189

Best wishes,

Martin
 
Where can we find the replacement prop textures for the [FONT=verdana, sans-serif][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Bücker Jungmann made by Bob?[/FONT][/FONT]
 
Anneke said:
Where can we find the replacement prop textures for the [FONT=verdana, sans-serif][FONT=verdana, sans-serif]Bücker Jungmann made by Bob?[/FONT][/FONT]
Click to expand...

I have attached it as a zip below Anneke, Bob's been under the weather, hope he's doing much better. Save the zip to a temporary location and extract and overwrite the propwash.

Caz
 
T6flyer said:
Sandar,

A very interesting read and thank you for your comments. The flight model for this AOP9 is very close to the real thing, as we had full access to all of the manuals and had two AOP9 pilots test fly her, before it was released.

The AOP9 is a little different from all other Austers as not one part from this airframe will fit another Auster. It was designed from a blank piece of paper, unlike the other models which were derived from the J/1 etc etc.

A useless fact is that the mainwheels of the AOP9 are DC-3 tail wheels!!

We did discuss bottling the smell (but thought it would be extremely difficult to do!!) and as to the vibration, well a force fed joystick is the closest I think most people will get. The aeroplane certainly has a lot of character.

If interested in the real aeroplane, please have a look at the videos of Z at:
http://classicbritishfiles.com/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&Itemid=189

Best wishes,

Martin
Click to expand...

I bust the bungees once, that was enough, if you bust it, you mended it, and it was a sod of a job on your own. It happened quite a lot on the grass strip we flew from if you overshot and landed in the rough. Being a glider strip we had to overshoot quite a lot, much cheaper and quicker than going around again.


I flew mostly a J1N, it was originally a J1A, but was re-engined with a Gypsy. It was this machine that had unpleasant vibrations, although I was used to that as I rode a Triumph Tiger motorcycle, so blurred vision and muscle tingling were constant companions (must have been a masochist).

It went for its C of A and had to be recovered, while it was away it had its Wooden prop changed for a metal one and the vibrations diminished considerably.

The other models I flew were the Tugmasters 6A and 6B and on a few occasions a Beagle Husky.

I learnt to fly on Austers and my instructor, a very early RAF Jet Jockey (Meteors) and an RAF aerobatic team member (Hunters), told me that Austers were very easy to fly badly and very difficult to fly well. I've never forgotten that. If you were wondering, I flew it badly.
 
Thanks very much Cazzie it's much appreciated! However there's only one texture but in the post above you mention two textures. Is that correct?
 
Anneke said:
Thanks very much Cazzie it's much appreciated! However there's only one texture but in the post above you mention two textures. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

Let me look Anneke, Bob's texture is 888-8 32-bit bitmap with an Alpha for the blur.

Anneke, I just checked all of my Bucker textures and there is only one for the blur, the one in my zip.

Caz
 
Rgr. Then I don't understand your instruction in the post above where you mention renaming two textures :redf:
 
Anneke said:
Rgr. Then I don't understand your instruction in the post above where you mention renaming two textures :redf:
Click to expand...

Make two copies of the prop_buecker.bmp that Cazzie provided:

Right-click on the bmp named "prop_buecker.bmp" and select copy.
Then right-click again on an empty space in the folder and select paste.
You now have a new bmp auto-named "Copy of prop_buecker.bmp"

Right-click again on an empty space in the folder and select paste.
You now have a new auto-named bmp named "Copy (2) of prop_buecker.bmp"

Rename "Copy of prop_buecker.bmp" to "prop_blurred.bmp"
Then rename "Copy (2) of prop_buecker.bmp" to "prop_blurred-VC.bmp"

Place the 2 newly renamed bmp's into the texture folder of the AOP9 and overwrite.
 
Hi,

where you mention renaming two textures
Click to expand...

It's not in Cazzie post .. but in the dogknot post instead.
You can (but not mandatory) replace the other texture with the same blurr mod .. but it's concern how will be seen the prop from inside the cockpit !
Well explained by dogknot.
Hope it's help.

Edited:

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