Hi there, and thanks for downloading my first attempt at aircraft construction for FS9. This aircraft is a Diamond DV-20 Katana 100, a light 2 seat general aviation aircraft. THE DIAMOND KATANA 100 is an improved version of the popular DV 20 Katana. A factory upgrade, it is certificated to JAR Very Light Aircraft requirements, and flew for the first time in 1999. The Katana 100 is delivered as a refurbished DV 20 airframe with a new 100 PS* Rotax engine driving a Hoffman constant-speed propeller. The aircraft is attractive and well-proportioned, weighing in at just over 1,000 lb.
While the real Katana does not have steerable nose gear, mine does, as this was a learning project for me and I was taking the opportunity to learn how the various animations work. All control surfaces are animated, the canopy opens with the shift-E key sequence. Wingtip nav and strobe lights, as well as taxi and landing lights.
Aircraft comes with custom panel, designed from a photo of a real Katana panel downloaded from the net.
Aircraft also has a working dynamic virtual cockpit with backlit gauges.
Sound aliased to the default Cessna 182.
Here's hoping you enjoy my first creation. If you do, Great! Look for more in the future. If not, delete it, won't hurt my feelings any.
Constructive criticisms, tips and suggestions are welcome, but if you want to email me to nag about how this or that is wrong, or why you don't like it, don't waste your time, or mine. As said before, this was a first project to learn how to do it. I know some things aren't right.
Legal:
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Aircraft made with FSDS 2.24, Paint Shop Pro 8, and DXTBMP
Panel designed with FS Panel Studio and Paint Shop Pro 8
This aircraft is released as FREEWARE. You can do anything you want with it, just don't make any money off of it. If you wish to repaint it, feel free, no need to ask permission, just please send me a screenshot of it when you are done!
This aircraft runs fine on my system, a 1.8 Pentium 4 with 512 ram and GEForce TI 4400. I am not responsible for any damage you think it may cause to your system!
Acknowledgements:
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I would like to thank the following people, whose support, encouragement, help and advice made this plane possible.
Barry Blaisdell - for allowing the use of his flight dynamics with my aircraft. Lord help me if I had to try to figure those out, that spreadsheet looks like a nightmare!
Mike Stone - One of my favorite A/C designers. Thanks for the support and encouragement on your forum, and for your advice on how to deal with the shading issues.
Sonja Michelle Thomas - for advice, encouragement, and reference pictures.
Néstor D'Angelo - whose civil pilot model and .fsc files were used for the pilot for my plane.
David Eckert - for his many tutorials on FSDS design, and for his help with the animations on the canopy.
Au-MaV - for his excellent advice on the freeflightdesign.com forums on getting my landing lights to show from the 2D and VC cockpits, and invaluable help with the VC gauge lighting. I couldn't have done it without him!
Tim "Piglet" Conrad - for his help solving the part order \ transparency issues I was having, and for his little "You ARE gonna have a VC , aren't you?" nag. ;) I probably wouldn't have done the VC without a little push to do so.
John Auger - beta test pilot and all around pain in the butt! Love ya John!
Roger, Ken, Piglet and the rest of the people at the Sim-Outhouse fs2004 forum for their support and encouragement!
Don "Bushpounder" Moser - for support and encouragement over at his genav.com forums. Here's hoping you blow me away with your first release, Don!
Shane (aka Skunktracker), Gixer, JaeTee, Scott "Barry White" Norris, Mike "why's everybody always pickin on me" Ritchey, and all the rest of the gang at the Deer Valley Flying Club, the best virtual aviation group on the net! Thanks for your support with this project all, it really meant a lot during the times when I was bangin my head against the wall trying to figure this or that out!
My apologies if I left anyone out of this list, there were so many of you that helped me with suggestions, advice and support that I tried to include you all, but may have missed you by accident!
