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Canadair CC-109 Cosmopolitan for FS2002
by Greg Pepper
August 24, 2002
Modifications by Tom Gibson
September 7, 2002
Repaint by Keith Clifford
Pegasus Aviation Design
May 18, 2003
Keith Clifford's notes:
This is a repaint of Tom and Greg's excellent Convair 580. Their work just does justice to the old girl. The aircraft I depicted 109151 is shown as she was in 1980.
The Cosmopolitan was built by Canadair for the Royal Canadian Air Force. It was called the CL-66B by the company and the CC-109 by the Air Force. Originally it was a Convair 440 airframe mated to a Napier Eland turboprop. The first RCAF Cosmo flew in 1960 and ten entered service. Eventually eight were re-engined with the Allison 501-D36 engine as the Eland proved to be a poor choice. The other two were scrapped. The Cosmo served with 412 Squadron based at Ottawa. Cosmos were used as VIP transports and served at locations in North America and Europe. The Cosmo was retired from Canadian Forces service June 1994. At that time there were seven survivors. One Cosmo was destroyed in a fire.
Tom Gibson's modifications:
I've made some minor improvments to Greg's great 580 (with Greg's permission) - thanks for the wonderful model, Greg!:
Props now display the pitch visually - you can feather the props by pressing and holding Crtl-F2 and watch them rotate. Flaps deploy as proper Fowler flaps (i.e. slide back), and the flap/nacelle joint has been corrected to 45 degree angle. Airstair handrails now deploy realistically. Props have smooth curved edge, corrected right wing misalignment, pointed the rear fuselage, smoothed rear fuselage, and added view blocks in air intakes, prop spinners, main gear wells, and under stairs. Scissors links are added to the gear, the gear retraction cycle has been altered to match video footage, the nose has been slightly reshaped, antennas have been added, glass has been added to the cockpit, and the airstairs plate reads correctly from the back as well as the front. Nosewheel now steers with the rudder. Added reflective textures, and it is lit at night, albeit subtly, and the virtual cockpit gauges are lit. Altered Greg's original textures to match photos I had. Corrected blue textures showing on bottom fuselage. Greg has added a smoothed wing root too.
Download other propliners at my Cal Classic Propliner page - http://www.calclassic.com/
Greg's original text:
This is an all-new simulation model created from scratch using AutoCAD and gMAX. All textures are original and were created in PhotoShop. All gauges are stock FS2002 gauges and should not cause any display problems. Default Beech Kingair sound files were also used. I recommend down loading Lockheed C-130 or P-3 Orion sound files. They all use the same engine. These should be available where you downloaded this file. The 2D and 3D panels are also original and use photos from real Convair 580's. The model includes many working parts as well as a working "airstair".
This particular flight sim model has what appears to be quite a past. From what I can discern it was originally created several years ago for FS5 with FSFS by I think Keith Waugh. Later it was upgraded to FS98 by Dee Waldron using AF99. Through the years it has been modified by Tom Gibson, Dave McQueen, Frank Safranek and K. Trinkle. The flight dynamics have also under gone many changes, The documentation included with some of the files list designers Michael Verlin, Mike Vidal and Sam Chin. I flew the FS2000 version in Sierra Pacific colors for many hours. Recently I found yet another incarnation of this model with the FS2002 version by Igal Kaplan (panel) and Glen Hall. With the advent of gMAX I thought I would like to try to take this old model to the next level. I found the FSDS sourse files by Dee Waldron and Michael Verlin for the FS2000 version at FreeFlight Design. All of the parts for the FS2002 gMAX version are new and none of Waldron's model was used. However, due to it's accuracy and attention to scale, I did use it as a template. This saved a great deal of time. The 3D model and virtual cockpit were built using AutoCAD. The 3D model was then imported into gMAX. The textures (created with PhotoShop) were applied and the animation perfected. The model contains almost 17,000 polygons. I don't know what the limit is but I'm sure this may be pushing it. (note: the model was created and tested on a 700 MHz PIII and frame rates do not appear to be a problem) I think it was Dee Waldron who said he found this model file on FreeFlight Design and after doing his magic with it, was returning it to where he found it. I too am returning it to where I found it by posting the gMAX file at FreeFlight Design for the next generation of designers to make this old 580 even better. It's ironic that this flight sim model seems to have as many lives as its "real" counter part. I just keeps getting better and better.
I would like to thank all those mentioned above who have gone before me in providing such a fun and well-executed model. I hope I haven't left any body out. My deepest apologies if I have. I would also like to thank Felix Rodriguez and all the other designers at FreeFlight Design. The service they provide aspiring designers like me is invaluable. They have helped me with this 580 as well as other models. Thanks is also deserved by Tom Gibson who gave me early information on the air stair operation and provides one of the best propliner sites in the world. Lastly I would like to thank "Cowboy" Bob Palmer. I've known Bob sense I started flying co-pilot in Tired Iron's B-25 several years ago. Bob used to captain a Convair 580 for Sierra Pacific and was invaluable in providing technical information on the 580.
Important: This is Freeware! It may not be used commercially in any way. This simulation is made for the sole purpose of entertainment for fellow flight simmers. It may NOT be sold or distributed on any disk or CD, regardless of whether the disk or CD is allegedly "non-profit". I reserve ALL rights to this model.
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e-mail: tgibson@sunstroke.sdsu.edu
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TO INSTALL: Use a decompression program like Winzip to unzip the downloaded file to a
temporary directory; then use Windows Explorer to copy the CV580FAL folder to the Flight Sim 2002 aircraft folder. That's it: it should be ready to go. "Kick the tires and light the fires!"
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About the model:
This model represents Convair 580 N73127 operated by Frontier Airlines during the 60's and 70's. Frontier operated several 580's into the 80's before selling or leasing some to other carriers or repainting the remaining ones in the white, red and orange scheme to soldier on for a few more years. You will notice the 2D cockpit uses a Beech King Air throttle quadrant while the 3D cockpit more realistically shows only pilot and co-pilot throttles. The real 580 only had throttle levers. The prop RPM was controlled by an automatic system using engine torque, throttle position and the prop governor. There were no condition levers as the fuel was controlled with on-off toggle switches on the overhead panel. Due to the lack of avilable gauges. using the King Air throttles was the best alternitive. I took some liberties with the engine instruments as most were located on the co-pilots side to the right of the weather radar. Once again the 3D cockpit is more realistic but the 2D panel is more flight sim friendly. The airstair can be deployed using the "SHIFT E" keyboard command. Remember to make sure the left prop has stopped turning before you open the door. Don't want anybody walking into a prop. (makes a really big mess on the side of the airplane!) Those big paddle blades have a lot of momentum and take a long time to "spool down". If you're in a hurry, move the prop levers into "feather" and they will slowdown faster.
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The following was take directly from Dee Waldron and Michael Verlin's read me file. Although I have modified the aircraft.cfg file and .air file to represent the 580's flight dynamics as they were explained to me, much of this still applies. Items in () are my comments.
Flying the 580:
Taxing is fairly easy if you remember to "downshift" the engines into Low RPM. Remember to "up-shift" the engines into High RPM before takeoff!
(30% power with props in low and condition levers at flight idle will produce breakaway thrust and the plane will begin to move)
At all weights, use one notch of flaps for takeoff. Vref (rotate) about 100-105 knots V2 at about 120 knots (gear up: V2 + PRC) Initial rate of climb about 1500 ft/min, flaps full up after passing through 1500 to 2000 ft agl. Then look for a target speed of +180 KIAS and set climb to 1800 ft/min.
In the roll axis, the 580 is very stable and almost flies hands off. However, these engines are VERY torque! When increasing or decreasing power watch carefully to keep wings level. Pitch axis is a little sensitive. Careful and constant use of pitch trim is always required.
(adding or removing even one notch of flap will require a small but immediate trim change)
Watch your airspeed carefully while flying at lower altitudes. Keeping the 580 slowed down is going to be a full time job.
(the secret to good landings is get it slowed down early; 160/140 KIAS, gear down and one notch of flaps for downwind, 120 KIAS 2 notches of flaps on base)
Approach to land with full flaps, approach speed around 110 knots, and about 100 at touchdown. After you get all 3 gear planted, FLAPS UP and prop reverse.
(it requires very little flare)
It's important that you practice your approaches and get the airspeed right on! The airplane has a bad "floating" tendency while in ground effect if you're going to fast. So I'll repeat it one more time: After you get all 3 gear planted, FLAPS UP and prop reverse.
(as an added note, my 580 pilot friend say Dee and Michael's numbers are right on!)
It is inconceivable that anything in these files could cause problems with your computer, however: there is absolutely NO warranty or guarantee of any kind, expressed or implied, for any problems arising from the use of these files. This includes, but is not limited to, any hardware and/or software problems. All use of these programs and their related files is at the users own risk.
