Visual model, textures, panel and documentation by
Stuart Greene
Seven little steps to get her flying:
1) Unzip file ultimate.zip to a suitable temporary directory.
2) Go to this temporary directory and move the folder Ultimate to the aircraft directory of your Flight Simulator 2000 directory.
3) Go back and go into the gauges folder and move the file Ultimate.gau to the gauges folder of your Flight Simulator 2000 directory.
4) Go back and go into the gps directory. Move the file vbrun300.dll to the /Windows/System directory. You need this (if you have
not already got it) to be able to edit the G.P.S. system.
5) Go back to the gps directory and unzip the file bengps.zip to a suitable temporary directory.
6) Copy the file bengps.gau and bengps.exe to the gauges folder of your Flight Simulator 2000 directory.
7) Start up FS2000 and away you go.
A little background for anyone who may be interested:
My interest in this aircraft creation lark was sparked when I downloaded the Douglas DC3 by the Rambow / Chaffin / Visser
team. Their aircraft is a work of art and it inspired me to have a go. Cheers guys!
I chose to create the Ultimate 10-300 as I used to fly a radio controlled version of the Bluehawk machine a few years ago.
Unfortunately she became rather uncontrolled when the receiver gave up due to an insufficiently vibration damped engine and
the plane was smashed to pieces a few seconds later.
I also think the 10-300 is a sensational looking aircraft and I have not seen any other versions of it for download so I
hereby present my version.
The flight model is based on the Extra 300s which comes as standard with FS2000 but I have altered a fair number of the
parameters to make her hopefully more representative of the Ultimate. The main difference is that the Ultimate is quite a
bit lighter and smaller than the Extra and you will find that with roughly the same power, she fair leaps off the ground!
Also, I have softened the control responses quite a bit as I find the Extra a bit too lively. Consequently the Ultimate is
quite a bit easier to fly but she will still roll at about 360 degrees a second, which is somewhere near realistic. She is
also a lot less 'flicky', a trait of the Extra which personally I don't much like.
The control panel
Much of this panel is guesswork, as I don't have particularly detailed information on the real thing and I am guessing a
good number of the instrument and switches. However, the references at the end of this bit of waffle will point anyone
interested in the direction of the images I found and I'm sure that others will know better what the instruments are. The
airspeed, altimeter and chronometers are easy enough. I think what I have shown as a V.S.I. is actually a combined V.S.I.
and G-meter. If this is the case I don't know anything about gauge programming and so the basic V.S.I. will have to do! The
central area of the panel looks to contain radios and radio navigation gear and so I have used the standard radio stack in
my panel. On the right is what looks like a G.P.S. but I am not sure. It may be an electronic engine management unit but I
have decided to make it a G.P.S. Please see further on for details and credits for the G.P.S. unit.
The real Ultimate's panel looks pretty sparse and I have tried to duplicate that for the look of the FS2000 panel but
functionally it may not please some flight simmers and so I have built in two ancillary panels.
Clicking the icons for 'engine gauges' and 'navigation gauges' will bring up the extra panels shown above. The aeroplane can
be flown quite happily without them, but they are there for anyone who wants them.
The bank of five red switches is a major feature of the real panel and I wish I knew how to make them illuminate when
switched on. Maybe someone would like to modify the gauge file if they know how and have the inclination. The best I could
do is as shown above but of course when flying at night they are not truly illuminated. I decided not to put switch titles
on the panel, as the real one has no identifiers. From left to right they are smoke system, avionics master, strobe lights,
alternator switch and fuel boost pump switch. Again, I have no idea what the real switches do and I have just used some of
the switch functions used in the Extra 300 flight model.
The G.P.S
The G.P.S. incorporated in this panel is one I downloaded from www.simviation.com by a fellow called Chuck Dome. I have used
several of Chuck's utilities in the creation of this panel and I would like to say thank you to him for his quality utilities
such as gaubmp2 and makepink which make things considerably easier.
The following is taken from Chuck's instructions for the G.P.S., reproduced here for the convenience of keeping the written
stuff together.
Here's a Bendix-style GPS gauge for FS98 or CFS. It comes with 100
waypoints that represent Florida airports. Each waypoint can be reprogramed
with the included utility, explained below.
To install BENGPS, simply put the BENGPS.GAU and BENGPS.EXE files in the
\GAUGES subfolder of either FS98 or CFS. Those who know how to edit panels
may then use the gauge in any panel. Those who don't may use the included
default FS98 Cessna 182RG panel. To do so, simply copy the included
PANEL.CFG and BENGPS.BMP files to the C182\PANEL.RG subfolder of FS98 or CFS.
You may first wish to save a backup copy of the existing PANEL.CFG file.
USAGE:
The gauge interface is meant to be simple and easy to use. Mouseable
areas include an ON/OFF switch as well as > and < buttons to cycle forward
and backward through the waypoints. For faster cycling, the >> and <<
buttons respectively increase and decrease the waypoint by 10 numbers per
click. At the left end of the readout area, the waypoint distance and number
are displayed. To the right of the vertical bar are three information lines.
The top line displays the waypoint name. The middle line is a course
deviation indicator (CDI). The bottom line presents, in degrees, the
destination track (DTK) and the current track of the aircraft (TK).
REPROGRAMING THE WAYPOINTS:
The BENGPS.EXE file is the waypoint reprograming utility. Because it was
written with Visual Basic 3.0, it requires the VBRUN300.DLL file to be in
your \WINDOWS\SYSTEM subfolder. This file is widely available in such places
as the "Must Have Files" library at www.SurClaro.
As mentioned above, BENGPS.EXE must be run from the \GAUGES subfolder.
Its purpose is to modify the default waypoints and its operation is,
hopefully, pretty self-explanatory. The opening screen presents the current
values of waypoint 1. Clicking the ">" button will present waypoint 2, etc.
Clicking the "<" button will cycle backward through the waypoints (from 1 to
100, etc). An alternate method of choosing a waypoint is to enter its number
in the small white text box at the upper left corner of the screen. Clicking
the "GO" button will then present that waypoint's values. At any screen,
clicking the EXIT button will end the program. In some of my past waypoint
utilities, you needed to enter all new info each time you changed a waypoint.
With GPS100, you only need to change the numbers that will be different. You
do, however, need to enter a new waypoint name each time you "SEND" info to
the GAU file. Otherwise, the waypoint name will be blank on the gauge.
Remember to HIGHLIGHT any new numbers before clicking SEND. When the
program is run, all numbers will be "highlit" in some color. If your display
uses the "Windows Standard" settings, the numbers will be in dark blue. My
computer is set up to use "Desert" colors, so my numbers are a dark green.
NEW COORDINATE NUMBERS MUST BE LIT WITH THIS HIGHLIGHT COLOR (NOT WHITE)
BEFORE "SENDING" THEM TO THE GAUGE. Numbers can be changed either by mouse-
clicking the little up and down buttons to the right of each number, or by
clicking the number then using the keyboard arrow keys.
NOTE 1: You may rename the gauge after modifying the waypoints, but the
utility only works on a file named BENGPS.GAU.
NOTE 2: Do NOT attempt to run BENGPS.EXE while running FS98 or CFS. WINDOWS
won't allow two programs to use the GAU file at the same time.
I hereby declare this panel and gauge to be in the Public Domain. Anyone
may use them for any purpose without asking permission. You do not need to
acknowledge me as the original designer, but it would be nice. The panel and
gauge should not harm your computer in any way but, if you imagine they have,
I accept no liability.
Chuck Dome
chdome@worldnet.att.net
Visit my home page at http://home.att.net/~chdome
I hope you enjoy flying the Ultimate. I had a lot of fun creating her, more so than actually flying the simulator if I am
honest. This is my first submission and as such is fairly amateurish in places. If you are able to improve any aspect of it
please feel free to do so. I would love to see someone build upon it.
Stuart Greene
sgreene@windowglass.co.uk
The legal bit
This package, excepting the file vbrun300.dll (copyright of Microsoft), the gauge file (modified version of Extra 300s gauge
file and therefore copyright of Microsoft) and the G.P.S system (which is subject to Chuck Dome's conditions) is hereby
declared to be in the public domain.
Disclaimer
Use of these files should not harm you or your computer in any way but I accept no responsibility for any perceived damage
that may have been caused by any direct or indirect use.
Credits for applications and utilities
Chuck Dome
G.P.S system
Gaubmp2.exe
Makepink.exe
Scott Macmillan
Scalemaker.exe
Ed Struzynski
Cfgedit.exe
Visual model created using Abacus FS Design Studio 2000.
Visual model animated using Abacus Aircraft Animator.
Panel configured using Cfgedit.
Extra300s gauge file modified using gaubmp2.
Views created using Paint Shop Pro and Autocad 2000i.
Sound file is aliased to Extra300s standard sound pack.
