README.TXT for 2012 Concorde CONCALL "Concorde Collection"
flight model, sound and panel upgradefor FSX freeware
by Paul R Varn.
Sept 19,2012
Distribution file: CONCALL2012.ZIP
Matching aircraft.cfg and concorde.air file MUST be used together and only
on this 3D model or unsupported and undocumented behavior will result.
There is important information in this file necessary to enjoy your
first flight.
|||| INSTALLATION at the bottom of this file. ||||
In support of this nice 3D model and livery collection, an all-new
and original flight model was created to fully support FSX features
and provide exacting flight modeling. Many problems existing in the
CONCALL.ZIP distribution have been solved including correct wheel
placement and balancing. Using the original FS2000 Concorde gauges,
the Auto fuel transfer gauge maintains correct COG throughout flight
without pilot intervention when correct fuel loading based on flight
duration is performed on the ground.
In support of some Concorde advanced features, additional custom
gauges are provided for:
1) Main Exit, Cargo Exit, and Emergency Exit Warning lights.
2) Electrical/Battery/Generator Warning Lights.
3) Pitot Freezing Warning Light.
4) AP Disengaged Warning Light.
5) Landing Light animation extended Warning light and
drag associated with extension.
6) Lights test switch to help identify warning lights
and see what they look like activated.
7) Fuel Dump switch.
8) An additional fuel tank #9 is provided which burns off
before the other tanks and helps prevent excessive
rear COG on departude taxi and early in the flight
through sub-mach acceleration to 400 KIAS.
An additional gauge is provided in support of this tank.
9) Hidden gauge activates high angle of attack
forward wing vortex effect on landing and take off.
10) Special switch on main panel which provides awareness
engine four take off RPM limit is in effect.
Other special features:
- Drag associated with lowered visor and nose positions.
- Extensive Kneepad checklist and Reference files with
tutorials for all modes of flight.
- Panel created with original FS 2000 gauge for authentic
appearance. All relevant gauges represented with full
engine stack and Captain 3D panel.
- When flying in FSX ATC control, the aircraft make, model,
and call-sign is correctly identified and "heavy" gates
assigned.
- Advanced FSX auto-pilot performs near perfect ILS and GS
approaches from up to 90 degrees off the approach track
when correct weight, speed and altitudes are used.
- Some of the interior and exterior views have had placement
correction to be more interesting.
- 3D cockpit lighting without the need for landing lights:
In the original distribution of this model, the 3D cockpit
was dark at night unless the landing lights were on. I have
positioned a red navigation effect inside the 3D pit so it
is illuminated correctly at night without landing light
activation.
- Default FSX "Don't Sink" callout is configured correctly.
Since the Concorde does not have flaps, that callout is
suppressed. All without the need to nork your default
FS wav files.
See graphic illustration "conc_2DPanel_image.jpg" for location
and identification of special switches and warning lights.
Image taken with Lights Test switch activated so all the lights
appear on.
Overview:
For those familiar with the Concorde, operational procedures
will feel familiar from the engine 4 limiter yaw during take-off,
to sluggish acceleration when fully loaded. When correct
speeds and weights are used, real world procedures can be followed
with exacting precision including "cruise climb" above 50K ft.
For those who might be trying the Concorde for the first time,
be warned this plane has a much higher workload than other default
FS planes. Special attention is needed to initial fuel loading and
correct speeds. The use of the afterburner at the correct time
is critical for certain power requirements, but excessive use will
prevent maximum or calculated fuel range. Since this distribution
does not attempt to replicate every switch throw in the real plane,
more casual pilots who expect the plane to fly and look correct but
want a lower workload than payware aircraft, will find this
distribution approachable. If you are expecting a point and go
high performance fighter, this is not it. The most difficult aspect
for new pilots is the landing view. The plane lands at +13 degrees
angle of attack (while most airliners are 1-5) which in FS has you
looking at the sky during approach and landing unless you know how
to correct your pilot views in FSX. In the 2D pit, this involves
using the Control-Q and Control-Shift-Q keys to tilt up and down.
In this respect, the 3D view is far superior to the 2D view requiring
little pilot adjustment of the stick hat button pan control.
What I do is get the approach set up in 2D, then switch to the 3D
near the threshold (about 1500 ft altitude.) You will likely
develop your own preference.
Please review (I know I'm asking a lot here) the in-game checklist
and reference kneepad documents before flying the plane for the
first time. The lower portion of the Reference Kneepad contains
step by step tutorials you can follow without the need to print
out documents and thumb through them, or task switch back and forth
between desktop files. Reading these will help avoid the "gotcha"
surprises new pilots will inevitably experience. Do not expect
the FS simulation to load the correct fuel on the fly on startup
from scratch. Please configure the fuel correctly based on the
simple rule of thumb examples in the documents. Doing so will
help avoid major problems getting the plane airborne and up to
cruise.
WHAT IS THIS SWITCH? (see "conc_2DPanel_image.jpg")
Looking at the provided image, notice just to the right of the
engine four N2 RPM is a small unlabeled switch. This switch is
normally on the engineer's station and when enabled (normal up
position) reduces engine 4 throttle within a limited take off
speed between 21 and 61 knots indicated. It is misplaced here
on purpose so you know it's there and activated. The purpose
is to prevent reverse vortex coming off the right wing from
stalling engine four until there is enough speed to push the
vortex far enough back it will no longer enter the engine
intake. If this switch is disabled, engine four will shut
down during take off roll requiring an abort. The effect during
take off is the engine four will throttle back momentarily
causing a right yaw so be ready for that.
WEATHER!:
The Concorde flies at a speed and altitude poorly supported by
the built-in Jeppeson weather service. Like other high speed models,
it's highly sensitive to the rapid and unrealistic wind shifts
and temperatures the local-based METAR sustem in FS provides.
Wide differences and inconsistancies between stations can cause FS
to interpolate unrealitic weather changes.
If your only option is to use Jeppeson, I strongly suggest purchasing
the payware version of FSUIPC which provides some wind, temperature
and pressure smoothing without which an unsatisfactory flight is likely
to result. Imagine the trouble you now have with Jeppeson weather
in your subsonic plane multiplied 2X. The concorde also flies mostly
over large bodies of water where there are no METARS. When this happens,
FS immediately shifts to default clear and calm regardless of the
weather conditions you just had. This could be a huge disruption.
Enough to knock the plane out of the sky.
Active Sky 2012 SP1 was specifically designed to support
high altitude Mach 1+ aircraft and with certain settings provides superior
flight. For the Concorde, use DWC mode with the following settings:
Force Destination WX Zone
Create Additional Stations
Enhance Route Coverage
Local Station Writes with DWC
Prevent Cloud Redraws (FSX DWC Mode)
Known issues:
The cockpit 3D panels do not display their textures unless
it's dark enough to enable lighting effects. Engine 4 controls reverser
bucket animation for engines 1,2,3, and engine 2 controls engine 4 bucket
animation. These are hold-over problems from the original distribution.
A rear portion of engine 4 has the wrong texture applied.
This distribution makes no attempt to solve 3D model issues from the
original CONCALL distribution.
Livery Textures which appeared to not work correctly are commented
out and those which do work, but were configured incorrectly
in the distribution now work.
The FS2000 gauges are not click-able within the 3D pit.
Unknown issues:
The afterburner operation is based on previous FS versions including
FS2000, 2002, 2004(FS9) and FSX Deluxe. FSX Acceleration does not
support the older shift-F4 burner activation and uses throttle
position staging instead.
Although FSX Acceleration staging is provided in this distribution, it's
largely untested and has limitations how close to real-world it can preform.
Due to this difference, there may be unwanted AB performance related
to AB igniting and disabling at the right time based on throttle position
only.
In FS deluxe the pilot simply uses the key combo when the AB should be
used or disabled. In Acceleration, the pilot does not have a choice other
than to manipulate the climb and speed settings. Hopefully, experience
will provide some accommodation to get close to documented procedures
and avoid excessive AB use or not enough power at critical moments.
LET'S FLY!
Flight profile overview (the high points):
Do not attempt take off on your first flight on runway less than 1100 ft.
Take off neutral trim, nose -5, full throttle until engine status lights
just turn amber (fuel bug set one click under 20) with full after-burner,
no spool-up breaks. 180-190 knots IAS rotate to +13 degrees pitch and hold.
On positive climb raise gear and nose up to zero, visor down.
Retract landing lights and off.
Set climb to +1500 ft/min and set restriction speed (usually 250 below 6000ft)
on the AT. Passing restriction, set throttle +101% and adjust climb rate
for a slow/steady acceleration with no AB. At near max weight, a very shallow
initial climb rate is necessary until near 350 KIAS.
Approaching 400 KIAS, reduce throttle and set AP IAS to hold 400
KIAS or Mach 0.94 climbing at _1500 ft.min. Nearing 28000 ft or while
over water and mach restriction ends, activate AB and continue climb
+1500 ft/min or max throttle and use climb rate to keep speed ~400 KIAS.
Transonic or M 0.97 raise visor. Passing 32K ft, barber
pole will start to advance past 400 KIAS. Adjust throttle or climb rate
to keep speed one needle width from barber pole. Approaching 530 KIAS, set IAS
bug to hold 530 KIAS. Crossing M1.70, disable AB and continue climb on
military power. Crossing 45K ft, start reducing climb rate so by 50K ft,
climb rate is +100 ft/min. Crossing M1.94, set mach hold to 2.00.
Continue climb to filed altitude at +100 ft/min. (cruise climb.)
375 miles from destination, slow gradually so by 300 miles, speed is 350
KIAS. At 300 miles, start descent -2200 to -2400 ft/min. Set bug to hold
350 KIAS (usually 225 KIAS to start.) Hold 350 KIAS for entire descent.
Crossing M 0.97, lower visor to nose zero degrees. Nearing restriction,
slow to restriction speed (start slowing about 14K ft.)
Nearing terminal area or 20 miles, slow to maneuvering speed
(appx 225 knots or faster.)
When turning onto final approach around 20 miles, slow to approach speed
or 180 KIAS (7000 Kg fuel.)
Extend Landing lights and turn on.
Lower nose to -5. On glide slope capture, lower gear. 9 miles, slow to 10 knots
above threshold speed (or 165 KIAS) and lower nose -10. 7 miles, slow to
threshold speed (or 155 KIAS.) 500 feet AGL, disable AP and hand fly the
approach slowly pitching up to + 13 deg AOA. At 50 ft AGL, disable AT and
idle engines. Adjust pitch to hold +13 AOA. Touchdown threshold speed
minus 20 knots (or 135 KIAS.) Push stick down to wheel contact while
raising nose to -5 deg. On contact, full reversers. Slowing below 65 knots
ground speed with toe breaks onto taxiway no faster than 20 knots ground speed.
Full stop at safe location on taxiway and shut down engines 2+3. Taxi to
parking on engines 1+4 and taxi lights.
Acceleration users might be able to refine the AB on-off speeds by adjusting
the following values in the [TurbineEngineData] section of the aircraft file:
afterburner_available=45.1 // AB pwr curve determined in AIR file (in acc pack 1 = 1 stage at AB on = 100% AB)
afterburner_throttle_threshold = 0.579 //Percent of throttle range where a/b begins (60%)
afterburnthrustspecificfuelconsumption = 1.4191 // zero for no AB (determines AB thrust percentage of engine military power. 104.2%)
INSTALLATION:
Open this distribution zip file and extract the contents to
.\SimObjects\Airplanes\CONCALL
folder path within your FSX installation. If you already have a previous
CONCALL installation, you can simply over-write existing files with these.
Needless to say, if you think you might like the original distribution
better than these, a backup or installation to a new directory is in order.
The \effects folder has to be extracted into your FSX \Effects folder and the
\gauges folder has to be extracted into your FSX \Gauges folder.
If you do not have CONCALL installed, this distribution is complete.
