FS2002 ***** Conair Grumman S2 Firecat ******** FS2004 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTES
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This aircraft works in FS2002 and FS2004
This is a repaint of the original Grumman S2F-U Tracker by Tomohito Unayama. This file contains the complete aircraft and is ready to fly. However the sound is aliased to the C-182. There are a number of piston engine sound files available on the web but there are a couple I recommend by Aaron Swindle .. wasprsnz.zip (my preference) or c47snz.zip. Both are available at www.SurClaro.
DESCRIPTION
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Conair's main base of operations is located at the Abbotsford International Airport, British Columbia, Canada. Conair operates a fleet of 43 fixed-wing specialty aircraft primarily in the forest fire fighting role. The Grumman S2 Firecat is one of the types flown.
Many of these aircraft are ex-Canadian Armed Forces Trackers which have been re-fitted for the fire fighting role in both the Prairies and B.C., as well as, the United States, as water bombers.
One disadvantage it suffers is its being "short coupled". Having a short fuselage in relation to its wingspan, its nose pitches up severely when retardant is dropped (little warning is given when it stalls at low speed). Usually carrying one pilot, nine Firefighting Trackers have crashed, killing ten pilots in this service. The flight simulator model does not pitch up like this. A testament to its durability, though, can be found in one Tracker which lost 25% of one wing, and an aileron, and made it back safely.
This summer, with the numerous fires burning throughout British Columbia, the Grumman S2 Firecat can be seen operating out of a number of airfields through out the province.
INSTALLATION
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1). Download and unzip ConairS2.zip to a temporary folder.
2). Cut and paste the complete Conair Firecat folder to your aircraft folder.
3). Cut and paste the Gauges to your gauge folder
4). Copy the following into the aircraft.cfg file
5). Copy the fx_largage03_red.fx to your Effects folder
That's it .. go flying and put out all them forest fires :-). To activate the fire retardant dispersal, press and hold the "I" key.
Known Issues
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I know that the real Conair S2 Firecat has the sonabouy rack and search lights removed. This is a function of the 'model' and only Tomohito Unayama can remove it. Just have to live with it :-)
Credits
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Thanks to Tomohito Unayama for the excellent Grumman S2 and for allowing me to repaint and upload it for others to enjoy. Also to Syunpy for his excellent panel.
LEGAL STUFF
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The original aircraft is the copyright of Tomohito Unayama. The panel is the copyright of Syunpy. Please read the ReadMe_Unayama file. The Conair textures are copyright of Vern Opperman August 2003.
