AMPHIBIAN AREA-51's FLYING TRIANGLE the TR-3B (Tactical Reconnaissance type 3B) ASTRA LOCUST
used by the Government/Military for purposes of information gathering (spying) and special missions since the mid 1980's. Yep, believe it or not.


I N S T A L L A T I O N



0 - This TR-3B package has been extensively tested, tuned and engineered. It contains no viruses or any other harmful elements whatsoever. The only danger is that you may learn more about this super secret TR-3B that is manufactured at Area-51 in Dreamland and that is housed in Scotland on a secret base. Yes, this is no science fiction, this is real stuff, America's most top secret aircraft of all times :-)

1 - Unzip the file in any directory and move the directory TR-3B to the FS2002/Aircraft directory.

* * * Do NOT - I repeat *NOT* - use the FS2002 IMPORT function to import the craft, otherwise the aircraft.cfg file will be messed up and the TR-3B will not fly the way it should ! * * *

2 - Copy the gauges from the TR3B/Gauges directory to the new FS2002/gauges/TR3B subdirectory. Do not copy the gauges in the Gauges directory, just copy the entire GAUGES directory /TR3B into the FS2002?GAUGES directory. In this way none of your existing gauges will be overwritten and the TR-3B knows where to find the gauges.

3 - Backup your FS2002/Effects directory first, in case you don't like the newly provided effects. Copy all the effects from the TR-3B/Effects directory to the FS2002/Effects directory

4 - Copy all the textures from the TR-3B/Effects/Texture directory to the FS2002/Effects/Texture directory of FS2002. Do NOT overwrite existing texture files (most of them you should normally already have)

5 - Copy the FSSound.dll from the MODULE directory into the FS2002/MODULES directory.

6 - For FS2002 Pro : Do NOT use the FS2002 Pro Aircraft Editor to import this craft in FS2002 Pro, otherwise the aircraft.cfg file gets overwritten, and the ALiens in Area-51 won't be happy with that. If you did that all the same, then delete the generated aircraft.cfg and replace that file with the 'aircraft.cfg' provided here

7 - Copy the FSUIPC.DLL from TR-3B/fsuipc in the FS2002/Modules folder. Do not overwrite if you have a newer version. This DLL is needed to run the AiMAP. Without this DLL, the AiMAP Radar will not function properly

8 - Copy the files from the TR-3B/WAV subdirectory into the FS2002/Sounds directory. Some sounds are for the cabin announcements, operated from the 10 panel cabin announcement switches at the center console, and the others are for the TR-3B engines, flaps and gear.


9 - After installation, the FS2002 directory structure of this aircraft is :

FS2002/aircraft/TR-3B/ --- this contains the flight dynamics and the documentation
/model --- this contains the visual model
/model.1
/model.2
/panel --- this contains the flight deck bridge panel
/sound --- this contains the interior and exterior engine sounds
/texture --- this contains the shiny metallic fuselage texture
/texture.1
/texture.2

The files in the /wav directory must be copied into the /fs2002/sounds directory
The file in the /module directory must be copied into the /fs2002/wav directory
The directory /tr3b (contains the gauges) to be copied into /fs2002/gauges/
so the structure will be /fs2002/gauges/tr3b/




10 - Now you can fly this exotic TR-3B that has been kept secret for nearly 2 decennia.

Start FS2002 and menu select the craft from Area-51 / TR-3B / Astra. Instead of the grand purple Astra, you can also select the blue Locust ot the white Hellas version, or the lightweight speedy Prototype attacker. Engage the Kneeboard to read, study and understand the flight operations. Please note that this aircraft is NOT a conventional plane, so you should go though ALL the documentation first ! If you have Harrier experience, it will be a lot easier to fly this craft.

Stay within G-limits and Mach speeds relative to altitudes, and you won't get into trouble.




K N O W N P R O B L E M S

1 - If your soundcard stutters, here is the remedy :

a) First install DirectX8.1 or DirectX9.0
b) Only then (re)install your sound card driver, using the driver that you already have
c) That's it. Problem gone. Do a) and b) in that order , so first a) and then b) !


2 - If the craft rocks and bumps a lot even below Mach 2, like having excessive turbulence, your FS2002.CFG (in the Flight Sim root directory) needs a small change. Here goes :


[Weather]
TurbulenceScale=1.000000

must be changed into :

[Weather]
TurbulenceScale=0.200000

This reduces the exaggerated default FS2002 turbulence for all aircrafts. But you should not exceed Mach 2 at low altitude

3 - Also, please keep in mind that at Overspeed at low altitudes, the craft may be subject to buffetting, so keep under Mach 2.1 and under 18G at low altitudes. Over FL700 the G-forces should not exceed 5 otherwise you get into a spin. On the water you can speedboat up to Mach 1.5, but be very careful taking turns then. May the force be with you and enjoy this TR-3B.

4 - If your computer has less than 1Ghz/512Ram/32mbVideo , then your frame rates may slow down. Best you can do is to fly the blue TR-3B Locust because the texture takes less memory.





C R E D I T S


George Philip Birney, Western Europe
http://www.PastPresentFuture.info
xeophibeta@tiscali.nl


Special very special thanks to Edgar Fouche who worked in and escaped from Area-51, the Author of the book 'Alien Rapture', who holds legal copyright for the TR-3B model. His web-sites : www.mindsurfing.com and www.fixmylife.com

Special thanks to Milan Lisner from Czech Republic, who edited, textured, resized and exported the 3DS/gMAX model to DLL. His web-sites : http://mlk-airbase.wz.cz (in English language) and www.flightsim.persikop.cz (in Czech language)

You are always welcome to post any good evaluation :-) Feel free to contact me at mail@pastpresentfuture.info