FS2002 Douglas DC-3 Four Star Air Cargo N131FS
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Well, maybe just one more repaint ...
N131FS (C-47B-DK, 32920) of Four Star Aviation, St Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, operates with her sisters on regular cargo services in the Caribbean. No museum piece this lass, she's a working girl.
Four Star Air Cargo is the only scheduled, all cargo airline directly linking the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, San Juan, and Miami, since 1982. Four Star advertises "a reliable fleet of DC-3 cargo aircraft providing dependable, on-time service for all air cargo needs, including perishables and hazardous materials". They have interline agreements with major air cargo airlines such as American Airlines, Amerijet International, British Airways, Delta, Federal Express, Fine Air, Lufthansa, US Airways and others, providing a dependable and affordable worldwide air freight service.
Regular intineraries are between San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Croix and Tortola. Basic FS2002 flight plans for these Four Star scheduled flights are included in this package. To learn more about Four Star Air Cargo (Four Star Aviation), visit their own web site at:
www.fourstaraircargo.com/
Based on Jan Visser's legendary DC-3 model for FS2000, updated for FS2002, this model includes transparent cabin windows, nightlighting, 3D interior with opening cargo doors, boarding ladder, cargo both inside and outside the aircraft (at rest) and other details. Includes FS2002 lights fix by Paul Pridmore. Default panel and sound. Repaint by Mark Beaumont.
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INSTALLATION
Either:
Unzip DC3FSTAR.ZIP directly to your main FS2002 folder. The folder 'Douglas DC-3 Four Star Air Cargo N131FS' will be installed in your FS2002/AIRCRAFT/ folder.
The smoke file will go to FS2002/EFFECTS/.
Flight plans will go to FS2002/FLIGHTS/MYFLTS/. These are:
San Juan to St. Croix
San Juan to St. Thomas
San Juan to Tortola
St. Croix to San Juan
St. Croix to St. Thomas
St. Croix to Tortola
St. Thomas to San Juan
St. Thomas to St. Croix
St. Thomas to Tortola
Tortola to San Juan
Tortola to St. Croix
Tortola to St. Thomas
Or:
Unzip to a temporary folder and move the respective folders to your FS2002 directory manually. This way you can ensure that no file is unwittingly overwritten.
Whichever way you do it, your new aircraft will appear in your FS2002 aircraft selection menu under the manufacturer 'Douglas' type 'DC-3', variation 'Four Star Air Cargo N131FS'
No DC-3 sounds are included, but it is highly recommended that you replace the default file, which aliases to the C182, with realistic sounds. If this is not your first DC-3, then you may already have some; but otherwise, recommended are both those found on Trevor "Mr. DC3" Morson's site at www.douglasdc3.com (a must-visit site, particularly for this aircraft, in any case) or by sound guru Mike Hambly: search for the file DAKSND1.ZIP.
Or find it directly at: http://ftp.SurClaro.com/library/sendfile.php?DownloadID=12776.
Alternatively, if you have the MAAM R4D-6, those sounds will do nicely!
You will also wish to install a decent panel; again, if you are a DC-3 buff, you will have a couple by now! I have not installed one here to save filesize but I recommend:
1. The panel by Jorge 'Eko' Salas', which is excellent for most use; I included it in my Cathay Pacific upload CPABETSY.ZIP and you can find it separately too.
2. The panel on which Jorge's panel is based, by Samuel Linnell.
3. The panel included with the MAAM R4D-6, known to every flightsimmer I think. This is a spectacular and very complex panel.
4. The DC-3 panel by James Underwood, which has interesting internal and external views.
5. Pasquale Rinaldi's DC-3 panel for FS2002.
6. The panel, with gorgeous internal views, that shipped with the Dutch Dakota Association's PH-DDZ; it comes with a very comprehensive manual.
7. My own panel that shipped with DC3BUFFA.ZIP and DC3BUFF2.ZIP.
Whatever you do, get rid of those C182 default aliases! Fly DC-3!
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OPERATION:
To move the steps, close the cargo doors and move the pilots to the cockpit, hit SHIFT/L. This will turn on your navigation lights. Don't fly without them, or you'll find you have cargo flying in space!
Smoke can be activated by hitting the "I" key.
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CREDITS:
Jan Visser, for the original aircraft; together with Bill Rambow, Roy Chaffin and others, Jan remains on the leading edge of development within FS. This repaint is based on the model of the TDM Freighter. Most of the textures are Jan's. I simply configured her to Four Star standard and paint scheme, making sure also that she knew her way around the Caribbean.
The author of the smoke effect. I do not know who this is, but it is not a standard FS2002 effect.
Paul Pridmore for permission to use his FS2002 lights "fix" for the FS2000 model.
Anyone else whose work might be here that I am unaware of. All files here, other than my repaint work, have been uploaded previously in the public domain as freeware. If anything is here that shouldn't be, please let me know and I'll replace it.
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This package may not be redistributed or further modified without prior consent from ALL the authors listed in the credits. Each has their own policy for distribution and modification, so please ensure all are contacted. They can all be traced through the major flight simulation sites.
Here's a complete list of my DC-3 repaints for FS2002 to date, available at SurClaro.com, SurClaro and Simviation.com, or directly from my own site at www.swiremariners.com/dc3.html:
Cathay Pacific 'Betsy' VR-HDB (2) CPABETSY.ZIP (includes panel by Jorge Salas)
Cathay Pacific 'Betsy' Cargo *CPABETSY2.ZIP (only at www.swiremariners.com\cxkaitak.html)
Cathay Pacific 'Nikki' VR-HDA CPANIKKI.ZIP
Ansett MAL VH-MAL ('Betsy') *DC3ANSOC.ZIP
Ansett PNG VH-MAL ('Betsy') DC3ANSNC.ZIP
Airlines of NSW 'Viewmaster' (P&Ws) DC3ANSW.ZIP
Bush Pilots Airways VH-MAL ('Betsy') *DC3BPA.ZIP
Air Queensland VH-MAL ('Betsy') *DC3AQAC.ZIP
BBA Cargo VH-BAB *DC3BBA.ZIP
BOAC G-AGHE DC3BOAC2.ZIP
Dan-Air G-AMPP DC3DAN.ZIP
American Airlines N21798 DC3AAFK.ZIP
Lambair CF-CBJ DC3LAMB.ZIP
Air Vietnam XV-NIA DC3VIET.ZIP, DC3VIET2.ZIP (includes flight plans)
Bahamas Airways VP-BBU DC3BAHAM.ZIP
Delta Air Lines NC28341 DC3DELTA.ZIP
Swiss Air Lines HB-IRN DC3SWISS.ZIP
C-47 BBMF ZA947, Aces High N147DC C47RAF2.ZIP
C-47 USAAF 41-18385 C47BETSY.ZIP
All the above will benefit from the recommended upgrade DC3AIR.ZIP. The following uploads already have this upgrade:
Ansett ANA 'Cargomaster' DC3ANSCA.ZIP
Airlines of NSW 'Viewmaster' (Wrights) DC3ANSW2.ZIP
BEA 'Pionair' G-AHCZ DC3BEAPI.ZIP
Qantas VH-EDC DC3QNTAS.ZIP
Cambrian Airways G-AGHM, G-AHCZ DC3CAMB2.ZIP, DC3CAMUP.ZIP
Air France 'Aeropostale' F-BAIF DC3AIRFR.ZIP
Mandated Airlines (PNG) VH-MAL DC3MANDA.ZIP
Air Atlantique G-AMRA DC3ATLAN.ZIP
Canadian Air Force RESCUE (CC-129) 12905 DC3CAFRS.ZIP
C-47 Canadian AF 'Canucks Unlimited' C47CAFCU.ZIP
Ozark Air Lines N763A DC3OZARK.ZIP
Nordair CF-HTH DC3NORDA.ZIP
Caribair N8011E DC3CARIB.ZIP
Buffalo Airways C-GPNR, C-GWIR, C-FLFR *DC3BUFFA.ZIP, DC3BUFF2.ZIP, DC3BUFF3.ZIP (includes panel)
South Pacific Airways of NZ ZK-BYD DC3SPANZ.ZIP
New Zealand National Airways Corp ZK-AWP DC3NZNAC.ZIP
Royal New Zealand Air Force NZ3551 DC3RNZAF.ZIP (includes flightplans)
1st Austrian DC-3 Dakota Club OE-LBC DC3ADAKC.ZIP
BKS Air Transport Limited G-AMSH DC3BKS.ZIP
Philippine Air Lines PI-C128 DC3PAL.ZIP
Trans-Canada Air Lines CF-TEB DC3TCAL.zIP
'Norman Gunston' VH-SBO DC3NORM.ZIP
ARCO N596AR DC3ARCO.ZIP
Four Star Air Cargo N131FS DC3FSTAR.ZIP
Those aircraft with a * before the Zipfile name will benefit from the small texture update DC3TAILS.ZIP.
These repaints started with a long-overdue paint of the legendary "Betsy" for my own use, later shared; this led to paints of her other liveries in her long career, and the others simply caught my eye or were interesting requests.
Like everyone else, I await Jan Visser's GMAX bird with keen anticipation. What with that and a default DC-3 in FS2004, all DC-3 fans have some excitement ahead! I shall not be doing many repaints of the default DC-3 for FS2004 - to date, I have uploaded only a new "Betsy" as DC3K4CX.ZIP and a paint template kit as DC3PAINT..ZIP - but may wield the occasional brush on Jan's model in due course.
All the above aircraft fly well enough in FS2004 and all animations, lights etc. work with the exception of the propellor axes, prop circles and props at rest. There seems to be no way around this, regrettably (thanks, MS!), but it's actually not too annoying if you spend most of your time in the cockpit! We must move on, I know; but like many others, FS2002 will remain on my hard drive for some time to come. I have too much invested in it, and I love these DC-3s. It will be some time before a collection as comprehensive as that above is produced for FS2004, but it will happen, of course.
To those who have asked for repaints I've never got to - Eastern, United, North East, Mohawk and KLM, to name but a few - forgive me. I can't get to them all, but I greatly appreciate your support and interest. I encourage you, however, to look closely at the Visser GMAX DC-3 when it arrives; it will spawn a host of repaints and I know Jan to have prepared quite a few himself already.
So until then, thank you for downloading my repaints for FS2002. I have made many new and very special friends through this work. Of the aircraft above, at least five of their original pilots have been in touch, and I have had more mail about the DC-3 than any other aircraft with which I've been involved.
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Visit my own FS pages at:
www.swiremariners.com/dc3.html DC-3s
www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html Cathay Pacific
www.swiremariners.com/reds.html The Red Arrows and more
to find lots to interest you for FS2002 and next, FS2004.
