"Cessna T-50 as "Songbird" in TV series Sky King "

[Kofi]

If you've got the AlphaSim Bobcat, this repaint is available at AVSIM

[Kofi]

A few shots of her...

[Boomer]

Kofi,

How do you lik Alphasim's Bobcat? I was thinking about getting it but havent heard anything about it, favorably or otherwise.

[attaway]

Hi Boomer:

I've had the t-50 for a while. It wants sorting.

The vc is very nice, but the gauges are blurry. The flight model is nicely coordinated once you are in the air but very squirrely on take off. I hear dropping in the airfile from Milton's Twin Beech D18 fixes that. Gonna try it tonight.

This song bird repaint is so beautiful I'm going to redo the panel, adding a mp guage and swapping default gauges around until the blurries are minimized. Should be done sometime next week. I'll talk to Tom about posting the new panel here.

...and if anybody has ideas about reducing those blurries, I'd be glad to hear 'em.

Kofi, my apologies for stepping on your frequency. Just trying to be helpful.

Stephen

[Boomer]

Stephen,

Thank you for the info. It was most helpful.

Since I dont yet have the T-50 I may be speaking out of turn but I can probably tell you how to fix the blurry VC gauges.
Open the panel.cfg & scroll down to the vc section. You should see a line that reads:
size_mm=256,256
Now the 256 may say 512 but in either case increase the resolution by increasing the size. The size must be in multiples of 256. So change it to 512 or 1024.
When you do so none of your gauges will line up on the VC panel & they will appear very small.
Next step is to resize the gauges. You can do so using just the panel.cfg or a much more preferable way to go would be to use FS Panel Studio to change the size & position.
The hard part is to get the positioning correct. It is modify/try operation. Its time consuming but you will be happy you did.

If you arent pressed for time I plan on buying the T-50 tonight. I will make the mods I mentioned & post them here.

Best of luck.

[Kofi]

No need for apologies, I'm glad everyone's happy

[Boomer]

I just bought the Bobcat... No time like the present what!

I miss spoke on the VC resolution. They already have it set to 1024. The way they have the VC mapped is screwy at best. Also as you mentioned the air file needs work as does the contact points for the float version.

Looks like I have a project
I will post my 'corrections' once they are done.

[attaway]

Hi Boomer:

Looked around and found an old panel for the Bamboo Bomber that is much better than alphasims: t-50pan.zip at all nodes busy.

Bill Lyons used it in his fs 2002 version - which alas, is not compatible with fs2004.

I found a couple of panel pix on line. Both were completely different. t-50pan.zip is true to their spirit.

Hope this helps...

Stephen

[attaway]

Hi Boomer:

Well, I got her fixed up to my satisfaction.

IMHO the eyepoint was too far forward, and that was what was causing the blurry gauges. I went into aircraft.cfg, moved it back 0.8 ft and voila! No more blurries. Heres the value I'm using:

eyepoint=0.000000,-1.15000,3.700000

Second, her sound was aliased to the extra 300. I dropped in the sound file from Bill Lyon's 2002 version (skyking2.zip at all nodes busy). Ahh, much better.

Third, added in the .air file from Milton's d18s, which made a nice little difference in her handling.

Forth, I added a manifold pressure gauge and put in a better airspeed indicator from Bill's Travel Air - plus the Trimoter turn and bank and the rpm gauge off the Comet. Here is the relevant part of the panel.cfg:

[VCockpit01]

size_mm=1024,1024
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$vpanel
background_color=0,0,0
visible=0

gauge00=Typhoon_Compass, 436,127,57,57
gauge01=Typhoon_Altimeter, 346,143,70,68
gauge02=Typhoon_Attitude, 509,149,68,68
gauge03=Ford_Trimotor!turn_and_bank, 430,57,65,65
gauge04=Shack_VSI, 513,79,54,52
gauge05=taasi, 358,79,60,60
gauge06=..\Aircraft\DeHavilland_Comet\panel\DeHavilland_Comet!RPM_Left, 232,107,60,60
//gauge06=Alpha_Clock, 236,111,44,44
gauge07=Typhoon_Fuel2, 52,186,45,45
gauge08=T-50_Gear, 165,192,50,30
gauge09=T-50_Flap, 110,186,40,45
gauge10=Alpha_Spoiler_Lamp, 100,100,70,70
gauge11=Lockheed_Vega!manifold_pressure, 168,120,60,60

Thats it. I'm off into the clear blue of the Western sky!

Stephen

[gjet]

I made the modifications above and the result is much better than the original. Just a thought, though. In a freeware release, some of this is to be expected with people working in their spare time, learning, etc. But in a piece you pay for? For the model to require that much tweaking is bordering on the unacceptable. That's just my $.02 worth. All in all, I still like it and I guess that's all that counts.

[Boomer]

gjet said:

I made the modifications above and the result is much better than the original. Just a thought, though. In a freeware release, some of this is to be expected with people working in their spare time, learning, etc. But in a piece you pay for? For the model to require that much tweaking is bordering on the unacceptable. That's just my $.02 worth. All in all, I still like it and I guess that's all that counts.

I agree with you. I frequently tweak my payware planes but that is just to fit my own tastes, not make up for deficencies in the aircraft.
I guess you can write this one off because is the cheapest payware plane I have ever bought.

I mainly bought this for the float version. To that end I have made some mods that I will share with you all. 1st off the Bobcat rode to high in the water & didnt have a proper stance. That has been corrected with these contact points. Also it tended to dig in on landing & either flip the plane or just register a crash. That has been corrected.
Lastly, it is a little know item but float equipped planes can land on any slick surface. Usually that means snow but I have read accounts of people landing on wet grass
Anyway the way FS models floats you cant do this. Well with my mods you can

Backup your original in the unlikely event you dont like this & replace you contact points section with this one.

[contact_points]
static_pitch = 3.470
static_cg_height = 6.170
tailwheel_lock = 0
gear_system_type = 0
max_number_of_points = 15

point.0 = 4.000, 3.661, -6.300, -6.000, 1800.000, 1.000, 1.100, 0.000, 0.350, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 2.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.1 = 4.000, 3.661, 6.300, -6.000, 1800.000, 1.000, 1.100, 0.000, 0.350, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 2.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.2 = 4.000, -6.217, 6.300, -5.141, 1800.000, 2.000, 1.100, 30.000, 0.350, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 3.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.3 = 4.000, -6.217, -6.300, -5.141, 1800.000, 2.000, 1.100, 30.000, 0.350, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 3.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.4 = 1.000, 3.661, -6.300, -7.500, 1800.000, 0.050, 0.100, 0.000, 0.350, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 2.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.5 = 1.000, 3.661, 6.300, -7.500, 1800.000, 0.050, 0.100, 0.000, 0.350, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 2.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.6 = 1.000, -6.217, 6.300, -6.541, 1800.000, 0.050, 0.100, 30.000, 0.350, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 3.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.7 = 1.000, -6.217, -6.300, -6.541, 1800.000, 0.050, 0.100, 30.000, 0.350, 2.500, 0.700, 0.000, 0.000, 3.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.8 = 2.000, -2.750, -20.768, 2.339, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 5.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.9 = 2.000, -2.750, 20.853, 2.416, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 6.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.10 = 2.000, -24.849, 0.000, 1.976, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 9.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.11 = 2.000, 1.163, -6.228, -1.782, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 4.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.12 = 2.000, 1.178, 6.305, -1.708, 1574.803, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 4.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.13 = 2.000, -22.484, 0.000, 7.907, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.14 = 2.000, 6.439, 0.000, -3.965, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 4.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.15 = 2.000, -8.680, 0.000, -0.686, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 4.000, 0.000, 0.000

In regards to the VC, Stephen your mods work well thank you but I am taking a much more 'extreme' approach.
I will post it when done.

[attaway]

Hi gjet

Yes, we have put in a fair amount of work on a payware release. Thing is, she's a sweet little plane.

In fairness to Alphasim, thier recent releases are much more finished.

and I'm looking forward to your panel, Boomer.

Stephen

[Admin]

Just a quick comment on Alphasim products... There are a number of developers who build Alohasim products and some are better than others. That being said, all of them seem to have improved based on the screenshots I am seeing and the Bobcat is fairly old for FS9. I have it, I like it. I will play with the above tweaks. I use the sound set from the simTech Beech 18 btw.

[Kofi]

admin said:

Just a quick comment on Alphasim products... There are a number of developers who build Alohasim products and some are better than others. That being said, all of them seem to have improved based on the screenshots I am seeing and the Bobcat is fairly old for FS9. I have it, I like it. I will play with the above tweaks. I use the sound set from the simTech Beech 18 btw.

Well said Tom. Yes the AlphaSim Bobcat is quite old and I'm very convinced that if it were done today, it would be much better This of course does not mean it's "bad" as it stands

[314clipper]

FYI-

Bill's Flying Crown Ranch scenery from his Bobcat package works great in FSGW3!