NOTE: This release combines the previous Seabee1 with the gauge fix Seabee2. No other changes have been made.
This plane reflects the state of my knowledge and experience at this time- I would rather release it with all its imperfections instead of trying for perfection and never releasing it. I think it does look good from a distance and it handles and performs well, so I think you will like it as long as you won't expect it to be equal to professional standards. It has been created with FSDS and Aircraft Animator, textures with Paintshop Pro.
This Seabee is a true amphibian. You can taxi between land and water, and land and take off on either. The aircraft has been given a heavy feel in flight and is very stable once you get it trimmed. Water landings are very smooth. You can make a fairly good landing on land if you can leave the power on and touchdown level on the main wheels.
There is a virtual cockpit but it is not functional. It is a by-product of the modeling so I have tried to add enough to it so that you can use it for looking around and have some small amount of realism. Use .75 view magnification for both 2D and VC and you should be able to see external parts in the right places.
The real Seabee has hand operated hydraulic landing gear and flaps. In this one I added the C182 levers to make them useable. The Seabee water rudder does not extend as far as I know, but it seems in FS2002 that you have to extend the rudder (shift-w) in order to steer on water, so as a concession I added the lever from the C208 to the panel. Go easy on the rudder so you don't tip the plane over.
The aircraft has a basic radio stack (no instrument flying) and a gps, accessible by buttons on the panel. Checklists and ATC have to be brought up with keys or programmed buttons.
The textures unfortunately are not very good. Hopefully somebody will want to repaint it. Let me know if you want to.
CAUTIONS
This plane has been tested only on my own (far from state of the art) system with a CH Pro USB Flight Yoke and pedals. I don't know how it will work on other systems.
This plane has been designed only for FS2002 Pro. I would anticipate problems with the standard version, but you might be able to get it to work if you go through all the cfg files and check for missing gauges, effects, or sounds. Obtain or replace the missing item, or put // before the line to disable it.
INSTALLATION
1. Unzip the file outside of FS2002.
2. Move the entire "Republic Seabee" folder to FS2002/aircraft where all the other planes are.
3. Copy or move the contents of the gauge file into the FS2002 gauge file.
4. Refer to the checklists and notes for flying information.
CREDITS
The airplane is entirely my own creation.
Flight dynamics are from the default C182 and FSedit was used to extensively modify the cfg file.
The panel is by J. L. Stubbs and is used with his permission. It was originally designed for FS98. I had difficulties with some of the gauges so I have substituted default FS2002 gauges, switches, and levers in most places. The water rudder lever was added from the C208.
The sound file is from the C185 Floatplane and is used with permission from Aaron Swindle. I added the C208 splash sounds to it.
With two exceptions, the textures are my own. The texture applied to the VC panel is from J. L. Stubbs panel. The texture for the main wheels was made from a picture found on the internet. I don't recall the original source. The picture has been extensively altered, however.
The gauge file includes the original gauges from the J. L. Stubbs panel and I do not know the original source. Also, I made numerous substitutions while building this model and I may have mixed in some gauges from other sources. If you see anything that is your work, please let me know and I will make sure it gets credited or replaced.
NOTICE
This plane is Freeware, copyright 2002 by John L. Woodward. Generally, I have no objections to any non-commercial use being made of it, but please ask first and give credit. Be sure to acknowledge Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Swindle.
John L. Woodward
June 2002
jlwoodward@worldnet.att.net
