This Flight Simulator 2002 aircraft was produced with Abacus FS
Design Studio, Aircraft Animator, SDLEdit, and Paint Shop Pro.
Installation:
Extract the contents of the main zip file S39CNYAM.zip into FS2002's Aircraft folder. This should create a structure something like the following:
- c:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\FS2002
--- Aircraft
----- Sikorsky S-39C New York American
-------- Model
-------- Panel
-------- Sound
-------- Texture
-------- Gauges
Copy the gauges to the FS2002\gauges folder. If you already have the gauges, you don't have to replace them.
Once these files are extracted, Flight Simulator should exhibit a new entry under Aircraft/Select Aircraft on the menu bar:
Manufacturer: Sikorsky
Model: S-39C "Amphibion" NC14326
This model is an amphibian in FS2002. It can fly from land or from water. If handled carefully, it can land on water, drop the landing gear in the water and hop onto land. It was extensively modified from an FS2000 model of NC52V.
Features of this S-39:
-Virtual cockpit and passenger cabin. You can move back from the pilot seat to the passenger seat using Ctrl-Enter, and return using Ctrl-Backspace. You can move to the co-pilot's seat using Ctrl-Shift-Enter, and return using Ctrl-Shift-Backspace. You can sit higher using Shift-Enter, and return using Shift-Backspace.
-Top cabin doors, side steps, and baggage hatches open with F8 and close with F5 (the flap keys). The S-39 had no flaps, so I used that control.
-Pilot's arms move the control yoke with the elevator movements. Pilot's feet move the rudder pedals with the rudder movements.
-Small icons by the panel light switches allow the display of a GPS window, an autopilot window, the ATC window, and the Map View window.
-Round black throttle and mixture knobs are just bitmaps, and the actual controls are located at the bottom right of the panel.
-What are those red things hanging from the ceiling of the passenger cabin? They are grab ropes, with a wooden bead and a red tassel on the end.
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Sound.
To save space, this model comes with a sound.cfg file that points to a default sound package.
-If you can, download one of the nice radial packages available. I like the nice Gee Bee sounds by Mike Hambly of Blue Arrow. That file can be found on SurClaro as gbsnz.zip (2.2 megabytes).
-Or there is the R-985 file wasprsnz.zip (1.1 megabytes) by Aaron Swindle of Skysong Soundworks, also available on SurClaro.
-Or if you have already downloaded one of the nice DeHavilland Beavers, you can alias the S-39 to that plane's sound file, since it uses an R-985 engine. For example, if you have a 'Beaver_F' folder in your 'aircraft' folder of FS2002, then in your S-39's 'sound' folder, change the sound.cfg file to look like this:
[fltsim]
alias=Beaver_F\sound
;alias=c182\sound
This points the S-39 to the Beaver's sound folder, and disables the reference to the default Cessna sound folder.
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Modifications done for FS2002 for this model:
- Aircraft.cfg was altered to include [contact points] of type 4, which are floats.
- .air file was modified to increase parasite drag, and increase low-speed propellor efficiency. This was to allow takeoff from water without a headwind. Many add-on amphibians seem to get 'stuck' in the water after coming to a stop, and the solution seems to be tinkering with propellor efficiency at low speed.
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Known issues:
- Overpowered. This is because the propellor settings in the .air file had to be modified.
- Landing gear retract motion has a disconnect between the shock strut and the main axle during the middle of the motion, but they come together at the end.
- Sits a little low in the water. This is to cause the wake to appear on taxiing. You can change the [contact points] settings of point.4, point.5 and point.6 from -3.67 to a greater negative number if you want the plane to sit higher.
- Some flicker in textures with FS2002, in close-up views, where parts overlap.
- Outside Air Temperature Gauge doesn't work. At least it is in the right position on the S-39 panel.
- FS2002 night textures. Virtual cockpit instruments do not show up at night. Various discussion groups were consulted, and no one has a fix for this yet. Several people say that the instruments show up if there is external light, such as the moon, and the instrument panel is facing that direction. I haven't seen that work very well.
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The panel bitmap and cockpit views are original, based on photos taken at the New England Air Museum on 6/26/01. I want to acknowledge the help of Director George Damato and volunteer Connie Lachendro at the museum (New England Air Museum, Bradley InternationalAirport, Windsor Locks, CT 06096 -- (860)-623-3305 -- staff@neam.org). Mr. Lachendro took time away from a B-29 restoration to provide me with access and information about the S-39B NC803W at the museum. He was the restoration crew chief on the S-39 project.
Gauges named Stearman, Vega, and Brab are, I believe, by Brian Costick and J.L.Stubbs.
I consulted many tutorials in building this model. David Eckert provides tutorials on almost every facet of FSDS development at www.daviator.com. Jerry Beckwith explains .air file parameters at the 714th flight test center. Tom Goodrick explains flight dynamics at http://www.flightsimdownloads.com/pub/FlightDynamics.pdf. Marcelo Canovas Vera and Felix J Rodriguez explain how to make a prop disk at http://www.freeflightdesign.com. Erick Cantu provided helpful textures in aluminum.zip. Mike Crosthwaite's SDLEdit tutorials made it possible to animate linear motions such as sliding hatches. J.P. Amodea provided the excellent tutorial on making a Virtual Cockpit. I have also had design advice from Eliezer Rice and Pete Peterson.
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The Sikorsky S-39C NC14326 was built in 1934, the 21st of 23 S-39's. The S-39 "Amphibion" was intended to be a private sportsman's plane, a scaled-down version of Sikorsky's very successful S-38 twin-engined airliner which served Pan American and other airlines.
The Depression reduced the private market for the fairly expensive S-39 (around $20,000). NC14326 was originally designated NR-1933, as the "Chicago Progress" for an unknown owner, who may or may not have taken possession. It was later re-worked, re-designated NC-14326 and bought by the New York American newspaper. There is no explanation for the unusual NR registration number, or the non-standard NC-14326 designation. In 1932 the New York American was a morning paper and the Evening Journal was the evening paper. They later merged to become the Journal-American. The New York American bought NC-14326 as a replacement for their S-39 NC-53V, which was sunk in a bay in North Carolina by a drunken fisherman's boat in 1933. This S-39 is likely the one used in carrying news film from the Lindbergh kidnapping trial (1935) from the Flemington, New Jersey golf course to the newspaper's office in New York City. The pilot for both NC-53V and NC-14326 was Bill Cleveland, and a frequent passenger was aviation editor George Carroll. They flew NC-14326, often with a cameraman, out of a base at North Beach, which is now LaGuardia. Bill Cleveland left shortly before the demise of NC-14326. It was destroyed in a crash in August 1936 on a flight from New York to Saratoga, after hitting a storm near Coxsackie. Pilot and mechanic perished.
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This model is freeware. The gauges are copyrighted and are the property of the gauge designers.
All comments and suggestions welcome.
E-mail: george_diemer@msn.com
