FS2002 PRO Beechcraft Model 18 on wheels and floats
Beech's most successful airliner, more than 9000 Beech 18s were built over an uninterrupted three decade long production run, and while many of those were built against wartime military contracts, vast numbers went on to see civil service. Some of them were converted for use as float planes, although there never were a lot of them in that capacity.
********THIS ARCHIVE DOES NOT CONTAIN THE FLOAT VERSION. PLEASE DISREGARD ANY INFO ABOUT THE FLOAT BEECH IN THIS README**********
ABOUT THIS PLANE:
I am not a professional aircraft model designer. I used Abacus FSDS to create the aircraft, and though there are some flaws, I will be learning more as I go and updating. Please understand this, as you will probably find a few flaws here and there.
Both version of the plane will have a "CARGO" version as well. This will select the model that has the seats removed, and replaced with wooden crates.
These planes has been optimized (to the best of my ability at this time) to fly as close to a Beech 18 Wheel and Float planes as possible. There are a few issues, however, due to the limitations of FS2002. For instance, the plane will need max throttle for a few moments to get moving on the water. In order to eliminate that, then you wind up with un-favorable flight characteristics. I decided that the handling on the water was not as important as the take-off run, and the flight characteristics once airborne. So......even when empty, the plane will seem a bit sluggish to get moving, but once it is moving, the characteristics should be fairly realistic.
This plane is internally turbo-charged, so the MP will read higher than the wheeled versions of the B18 that some of you are used too. Normal cruise and climb settings will be to decrease the MP to about 29 or 30, and move the PROP RPM to about 2000 to 2150. Mixture should be leaned as needed. Loading the aircraft to MTOW will increase the takeoff runs, but as per actual B18 pilots, the speeds do not vary much once airborne. I have taken some liberties with this plane, as it is on floats, and information that I had was all for wheeled versions of the aircraft. I slowed down many of the performance numbers to simulate the large floats that the plane has under it. It shouldn't perform quite as good as the sleek, retractable gear versions. This plane also features a one piece windscreen, with the braces removed. Many of the B18's used today have replaced the original windscreens with the one piece, simply for convienence.
There is no need for activating any water rudders on this plane, as the steering is set-up to be good without them.
The water rudders are animated, however, but will only move side to side with the rudder.
The Virtual Cockpit does not feature working gauges at this time.
I hope you enjoy this aircraft, and hopefully, I will be able to update it as I learn more about flight dynamics within the sim.
ABOUT THE PANEL:
The panel bitmap is a remake of the FS2002 beech 18 panel that I drew using Michael Schurz's panel bitmap from the Shlomo Hakim version. I created the layout using photo's, however, due to the space and scale of the monitor screen, I had to take some liberty's and place needed gauges in certain spots.
If you find you are missing some gauges, and are using FS2002 PRO version, make sure you have not run a GAUGE CLEANING UTILITY. There are gauges used in this panel that are default gauges, but are not assigned to any panels. Most gauge cleaners will delete them. You can restore these gauges by retrieving them from your FS2002 discs. They are found in a file called TYPICAL.CAB and can be opened with WINZIP.
ABOUT THE SOUNDS:
The sounds I used are for this aircraft are from the the original Shlomo Hakim aircraft, and I have no idea where they came from. I also used some start up sounds from the Fred Banting Beaver.
KNOWN ISSUES:
There are a few issues that I know about. Some folks may see some bleed through on the bottom side of the fuselage or on the nose. I see it on my system, but was unable to correct it, however, two of the beta testers reported seeing no bleed through at all.
Also, the props seem to "reflect light" with some video cards when viewed at night. I tried to correct this, but was unable to get it completely.
There are likely more issues, some I know about, and some I don't, but the overall model is pretty good (In my opinion) and will work very well on mid to low end computers.
TESTING: Testing was done on a medium speed computer with default scenery. The realistic settings were set at about 2/3 of full, where they seem to work the best for most aircraft.
I want to thank Don Moser and Warren Jones for doing most of the test flying of these aircraft, as they spent several hours with it. Thanks Don and Warren!
WEIGHT AND BALANCE GUIDELINES:
Open the "aircraft.cfg" file using Notepad. This will allow you to manually edit the Weight and Balance Section without using FS EDIT.
Once you have the aircraft.cfg open, scroll down until you find the WEIGHT AND BALANCE section. You will see that the Maximum Take Off Weight is listed, as well as the empty weight of this aircraft. You will also see an entry that tells you how much you can load on the airplane to stay within limits. You, as the pilot, will have to decide how to load the aircraft, and take into consideration how much fuel to use, and the weight of the fuel. I have also noted how much weight you can load using a full fuel load.
Now, you will have 5 stations to load ,including the two pilot positions. I have placed a pilot and a co-pilot in by default, with weights of 170 each. The rest of the stations are listed as to where they are situated in the aircraft. You can add weight by changing the very first number after the station identification.....for example, you will see:
station_load.2=0,-1.0, 0.0, 2.3 //Fore Cargo
To add weight, change the "0" to your weight value. So to load a passengers or cargo of 200 pounds in that section, your entry would look like this:
station_load.2=200,-1.0, 0.0, 2.3 //Fore Cargo
Keep in mind that the heavier you load the plane, the more runway you will need to take off, and the harder it will be to get airborne. If you load the plane completely full, you may have to put some forward pressure on the yoke to keep in on the ground until you get your speed up.
Also remember to figure in the weight of the fuel. This plane uses 206 gallons of fuel. There are 4 fuel tanks, all mounted in the wings. They include a main tank of 78 gallons, and an auxilary tank of 25 gallons in each wing. The switch has a center tank position, but this aircraft is not equipped with a fuel tank in the nose, although I did position the tank in the "FUEL TANK" section of the aircraft.cfg. If you want to add the extended tank, you simply need to add 77 to the "quantity" of the center tank to add the 77 gallon long range tank.
You can edit this during flight, by editing the aircraft.cfg, and then saving it. Then use the "Select Aircraft" menu to re-select your aircraft.
I hope I have covered the basics here. You may want to make a back-up copy of the aircraft.cfg file before making any changes to it, just in case. Now, install the aircaft and have fun!
INSTALL:
To install this aircraft, extract into your main FS2002 folder, and everything should fall into place (use folder names on your zip utility).
This will place a module in the MODULES folder of FS2002 called FSSOUND.DLL. When you start FS2002, the sim may alert you that the software may not be compatible. Select YES to use it, as if you don't, you won't see or hear some of the gauges.
If you get an error message that "FS2002 was unable to load some 3rd party software" make sure that BOTH of the following lines appear in your fs2002.cfg file.
[OLDMODULES] ;<-- if this line already exists
fssound.dll=1 ;<-- only add this line below it
AIRCRAFT CREDITS:
Thanks to Dave Eckert for allowing me to use some of his parts.
Also thanks to Steven Grant for allowing me to use some of his parts as well.
PANEL CREDITS:
All authors of components of the panel have given freeware distribution of their gauges. They may not be included in any file or compilation, or any project that will make money. All copyright laws apply and they retain the copyrights of all the gauges used in this panel.
Panel Bitmap is by Fred Choate.
Thanks to Fred Banting for the following gauges ( I have renamed the gauges, as I changed the color of night lighting on them.......but Fred Banting did all the work with them);
Other 3rd Party Gauges (I am uncertain of the authors, but I am listing the gauges):
FB_Stall_Warn
cesmap12 (renamed to b18map12)
cesrpm12 (renamed to b18rpm12)
compass.repeater (b18compass.repeater)
ff.imp.gph
MS.Master_Switch
COPYRIGHT AND NOTICES:
This file may be uploaded to websites as long as it is offered FREE OF CHARGE to ALL. It is freeware, and may not be included with any compilation that makes any money. It is intended to be used for the entertainment purposes of flight simulation, and does not intend to reflect actual flight dynamics, nor any actual aircraft.
This file was tested using FS2002 PRO version and worked fine. I make no insurances that it will work perfectly on your system, and take no responsibility for any harm that might occur from this file (which there should be none).
MODEL, AIR FILE, PANEL, TEXTURES are all copyright Fred Choate, and may not be used in other projects without permission.
