FS98 Argonaut Pirate vintage Amphibian.
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Stephan Scholz, June 2009
INSTALLATION
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Unzip "Pirate.zip" into a temporary directory and copy the directories "Argonaut Pirate Land" and "Argonaut Pirate Water" into the main FS98 aircraft directory.
The water sounds contained in "Watersounds.zip" are the water-touchdown sounds to be used with the water version in combination with the Extra300 Sounds, as described further below.
The virtual Model
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Built with Aircraft Factory 99 and animated with Aircraft Animator: Rudder, elevator and propeller, and als landing-gear for the land version, featuring transparent windows and hollow cockpit.
As this is a model of an amphibious flying boat, two models are supplied with this release:
1.- The water version, whose hull disappears below landing speeds and whose retracted external landing gear is permanently visible tucked in under the wings outside, next to the cabin wall.
2.- The land version with retractable landing gear and normal hull.
NOTE: The arc along which the landing gear retracts is 130 degrees, which is greater than the Aircraft Animator standard 90 degrees, so the moving gear disappears at the end and an extra gear appears in the fully rectracted position.
The model features transparent windows and hollowed-out upper cockpit with pilot and passenger.
Parts count for the land and water versions are at 131.1% and 127.1%, and despite the inhabited, hollow upper-cockpit, bleedthrough problems are within acceptable limits, including the landing gear and the ventral fin aft of the single water step in the hull.
Textures:
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Special thanks to Udo Entenmann for his expertise on the lettering and other details on the Textures and for their general enhancement.
Panel:
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Custom panel for standard guages included.
Sounds:
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Default Extra 300 sounds, quite fitting got the Menasco Pirate racing engine used on this aircraft. An entry of 82 in. for the propeller diameter parameter in the .air file will give the proper sound for the max. 2,175 rpm of this aircraft´s engine.
Water-touchdown sounds:
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For the Argonaut Pirate Water Version, the following will be necessary:
1.- Copy the Extra300 Sound directory into the "Argonaut Water"aircraft directory, overwriting the previous sound directory.
2.- Substitute the existing touchdown files for the ones supplied with this release in the "WaterSounds" directory (they are originaly by Mike Hambly). They have already been conveniently re-named so that they will overwrite the land-touchdown sounds.
The real Argonaut Pirate Amphibian.
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The following information is available on the Internet, supplied by Aerofiles and/or History of Airplanes:
The Argonaut Pirate was the first product of Argonaut Aircraft Inc., North Tonowanda NY. built in 1935. It was a three-seat high-wing pusher-type amphibious flying boat, powered by an air-cooled, 4-cylinder in-line inverted Menasco C-4 engine, which was usually employed in racing aircraft.
The hull was of single water step side vent type, semi-monocoque wood construction with Haskelite 7-ply diaphragms connected longitudinally with spruce stringers and Haskelite plywood planked and doped top and bottom, and then fabric covered. The nose section was plywood covered.
The wing was fabric covered, built with solid spruce spars and built up ribs and a Clark Y section. They were externally braced with streamline flying and landing wires.
The engine was mounted on steel tube struts carried through to the landing gear, drove a Flottorp four-bladed metal-tipped wooden propeller, and had a starter.
The landing gear was retractable, positive acting and locking, actuated by a wheel in the cockpit moving axles and wheels down by fore-and-aft movement into line of flight. It was equipped with Goodyear airwheels, mechanical brakes and Rusco ring shock absorbers. The tail wheel was fully swiveling and had a Goodyear tire.
Standard equipment included cabin heater, anchor, navigation lights, brakes, switch. Instruments: airspeed indicator, compass, tachometer, fuel gauge, ammeter, voltmeter, altimeter, oil pressure gauge, oil temperature gauge, bank and turn indicator.
Engine Specs:
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Menasco Pirate C-4 engine, with Stromberg Carburettor, non turbo-charged version.
Displacement: 5,950 cc
Compression ratio: 5.5:1
Max power: 125hp @ 2,175 rpm.
Cruise: 95hp @ 1,975 rpm.
Dry weight: 284lb
Argonaut Pirate Amphibian Specs:
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Span: 35 ft 4 in
Length: 26 ft
Height: 8 ft 2 in
Wing area: 185 sq ft
Legal stuff:
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This aircraft is freeware, created solely for the enjoyment of the flight simming community. No responsibility is taken for any loss or damage incurred directly or indirectly from its use. The original unaltered files may be freely distributed, uploaded, downloaded and shared. Please maintain proper credit, of course, and make no financial gain whatsoever!
