HNAC A310-222 Base Package for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002
Copyright (C) 2003 Harald Nehring
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Version History
---------------
V1 - March 4, 2003, initial release
Overview
--------
The A310 first began life as the A300B10, one of a number of projected
developments and derivatives of Airbus' original A300B airliner.
Initially designed to serve short and medium range high-volume routes,
the A310 is mostly used for medium and long range flights today. 255
planes have been built and delivered so far, production has basically
stopped now, except a few freighters being delivered from time to time.
While based on the larger A300, the A310 introduced a number of major
changes. The fuselage was shortened by 13 frames compared to the A300B,
reducing seating to around 200 to 230 passengers and a new higher aspect
ratio wing of smaller span and area was developed. New and smaller
horizontal tail surfaces, fly-by-wire outboard spoilers and a two crew
EFIS flightdeck were incorporated, while the engine pylons were common
to suit both engine options.
The first flight of the A310 occurred on April 3 1982, after the program
was launched in July 1978. Service entry was with Lufthansa in April
1983.
The A310-222, equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7R4E1 engines, was one
of the earlier models with no wingtip fences compared to the later -204
and -300 models. A number of -222s where built, most of them flying as
converted -222(F) freighters with Federal Express today.
Features
--------
This model is my first flight simulation plane development. The 3D model
is created with discreet's GMAX software, textures are painted with
Jasc's Paint Shop Pro. A number of GMAX/FS2002 features are included:
+ Moving elevator, elevator trim (yes, the whole horizontal stabilizer
moves), rudder, aileron, flaps, slats, spoilers, spoileron.
+ FS2002 style turning nose wheel, only turns when the plane is moving
on the ground.
+ FS2002 navigation, beacon, strobe, landing and taxi lights.
+ Reflective textures with light maps.
+ Transparent cockpit windows.
+ 2-stage rolling wheels.
+ Retracting gear with tilting main gear bogies.
+ 3-stage rotating engine fan.
+ Deploying thrust reversers (press F2 after touchdown).
+ Working suspension.
+ Specular reflections
- No virtual cockpit so far.
Model Installation
------------------
Unzip the distribution archive into your FS2002\aircraft folder, making
sure to preserve the directory structure. The aircraft is then available
as "Airbus/A310-222" in the airplane selection dialog of FS2002.
If you want to use Tom Dennis' A300 panel for this plane, check the
section on "Recommended Panels" below.
Flying the A310-222
-------------------
The flight model that combines the A310's "heavy" feeling with the
proverbial good-natured handling of the original. Make sure to set
elevator trim around 6-8 notches up for takeoff and rotate at 135-
145kts, depending on takeoff weight.
Climb out at around 2,500 fpm and <250kts IAS below 10,000ft. Above
10,000 continue climb with 310kts IAS (you will have to reduce climb
rate for a moment to gather speed). Adjust climb rate to keep 310kts.
At M0.76 switch to hold Mach speed, accelerate to M0.80 at cruising
altitude.
The A310 uses a combination of Krueger flap, leading-edge slat,
trailing-edge flap and flaperons as high-lift devices. They are modeled
as separate flap sets and operate as follows:
Lever position ! Krueger flaps ! Slats ! Flaperon ! Flaps ! VFE
---------------+---------------+-------+----------+-------+--------
1 ! full ! 15° ! 5° ! 0° ! 245kts
2 ! full ! 15° ! 5° ! 15° ! 210kts
3 ! full ! 20° ! 5° ! 20° ! 195kts
4 ! full ! 30° ! 5° ! 40° ! 180kts
Due to the way the standard Microsoft flap gauge works the first lever
position isn't shown. Always check the flap lever for the correct
position, otherwise you're flying around with slats extended.
A310-222 Operational Data
-------------------------
Engines..........: 2 x PW JT9D-7R4E1
Max. cont. thrust: 47,500 lbs
MTOW.............: 313,050 lbs
MLW..............: 261,247 lbs
ZFW..............: 239,201 lbs
Cruise speed.....: M0.80
Max. altitude....: 41,000 ft
Operational range: 3,650 nm
Vmo/Mmo..........: 360kts/.84M
(340kts with less than 2t fuel in outer tanks)
Gear extension...: 270kts
Gear retraction..: 270kts
Tanks............: outboard: 2 x 989.5 US gal
inboard.: 2 x 3,692 US gal
center..: 5,194 US gal
total...: 14,557 US gal
Liveries
--------
This base package includes the Airbus Industries demonstrator livery,
the textures are located in the texture.AIB folder. Future liveries for
the A310-222 will be distributed as texture sets only, going into
equally named folders (texture.[ICAO airline code]). This will reduce
download sizes significantly.
Repaints
--------
Repaints of this aircraft are welcome, as long as the result is released
as freeware with the same license as layed down below and proper credit
is given to the original authors. A paint kit with layered Photoshop
files will be made available via well-known flight simulation portals.
It will be hard to repaint without the kit, as this model uses non-
planar mapping for most of the fuselage. This has the advantage of non-
distorted textures on the top and bottom of the fuselage, but the
disadvantage of some curved horizontal lines at the nose and aft
sections.
Recommended Panels
------------------
Hopefully Paul Golding (http://www.paul.golding.btinternet.co.uk/) will
finish his FS2002 panel for the A300-600/A310 at some time. In the
meantime, I recommend to use Tom Dennis' A300 panel (a30022k.zip) or
Matt Richards' A310 panel (310pnlv1.1.zip).
To make the taxi light switch available for Tom's panel I've included a
little update (td_panel_upd.zip) to add the switch. Extract it into the
folder with Toms original panel and let it overwrite "panel.cfg" and
"overhead.bmp".
Recommended Sound
-----------------
For the best A310 sound available get "snda-300.zip" from Scott Schar.
It's for FS2000, but works fine in FS2002 and gives you the typical
heavy turbofan sound of an Airbus wide-body airliner. A modified
sound.cfg is provided in the sound folder, for reduced cockpit noise.
Credits
-------
Thanks to Frank Weiss for his hard work on the flight dynamics.
Thanks to Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW) for the Type Certification Data
Sheets (TDC) of the FAA for engine parameters.
Thanks to Martin Juengel for his thorough testing.
License
-------
This aircraft is released as Freeware. Copyright Harald Nehring. As
freeware you are permitted to distribute this archive subject to the
following conditions:
- The archive must be distributed without modification to the contents
of the archive. Redistributing this archive with any files added,
removed or modified is prohibited.
- The inclusion of any individual file from this archive in another
archive without the prior permission of the author is prohibited.
This means, for example, that you may not upload an archive that uses
our visual or flight models with your own aircraft or include it in a
package containing a panel or aircraft sounds without first obtaining
the authors' permission.
- No charge may be made for this archive other than that to cover the
cost of its distribution. If a fee is charged it must be made clear
to the purchaser that the archive is freeware and that the fee is to
cover the distributor's costs of providing the archive.
- The authors' rights and wishes concerning this archive must be
respected.
Copyright 2003 by Harald Nehring. All Rights Reserved.
Contact Information
-------------------
Harald Nehring, mailto:harald.nehring@web.de
Frank Weiss, mailto:ReinfriedWeiss@lycos.de