Pete_SMS

Work on the exterior continued and here are a few screenshots showing more detail, like the doors, windows, the structure on the control surfaces, flap and aileron hinges, engine details and so on. Still lots of things missing, but I thought you might wanna see. ...and noooooo, this is not the final color of the aircraft, but I think it looks cool and highlights the detail Interior modelling will be next, but I am waiting for some nice info and material from a very famous seaplane company which is supporting. All this will make sure that everything will be as accurate as possible. Shouldn't take to long though, until I have it. Until then, work will continue on things that will be standard in every Beaver like the engine control levers, rudder pedals, cockpit oil refill and probably some exterior detail like door hinges and so on. Today, I also got my operating manual and the maintenance manual for the Pratt & Whitney R-985 engine. So lots of reading ahead as well, because I will use that info for my engine simulation plug-ins OK...enough talk for now.

I know, I know ... it is way too early and still a good amount of work ahead, but I couldn't resist to try a first export of the current mesh, after understanding how to work with the Blender export script

Hi, I just wanted to update this thread, since drop 3 and 4 of the 3D Buzz Blender 2.5x training has been released some time ago. The videos helped me a lot to get started with Blender, after I used 3ds Max for a good amount of time. You will find the videos here: Drop3 Drop4 The next suggestion is no freeware, but I wanted to share that info too. I think I even mentioned it above somewhere. When you are familiar with the interface and the modelling tools, I can highly recommend this training DVD. Vehicle Modelling Training DVD From my point of view you won't find any better training. It teaches you alot about setting up bigger projects, how to separate your model into different objects, how to block in the basic shapes, refining your mesh, keeping nice topology and mesh flow and so much more. Jonathan is an awesome instructor.

Thanks for the nice feedback! I will make sure that this aircraft will get all the respect it deserves.

As promised, here are some more shots of the Beaver. This time with the landing gear and water rudder added for the amphibious version.

Glad you like it so far. More screenshots later today.

Yes, one of my all time favorites as well. The flight model will not be easy, I agree, and it will require plug in coding. Good thing is that I can get input and feedback from a 5000+ hour Beaver pilot. It will be payware, due to all the work that will go into it.

That's correct and every cockpit is more or less unique. I will focus on a passenger and a cargo version.

Depends on what you mean with "both main window variants". No, there is no turbo Beaver planned yet. This would be a different aircraft, kind of, and no variant.

Thanks for the link, but I already have about anything you can buy for the Beaver. I also bought the deHavilland drawings and another set of blueprints, so that this model gets as accurate as possible.

You will see the amphibious version, probably a pure float version, a regular tire version and one with tundra tires. A ski version is not planned so far, but that doesn't mean that it will not be done. If everybody on this thread would like to have one, there is a good chance that there will be a ski version..

Hi everybody, This is the Work In Progress thread of the DHC-Beaver, developed by SoulMade Simulations. All future Work in Progress pictures will be presented here. I am really into bush flying, besides Warbirds, and therefore it was an easy choice to develop a great add-on for the world's greatest bush plane. The DHC-2 will feature: - an accurate and detailed visual representation of the aircraft - a 3D cockpit with all siwtches, lever, knobs working like in the real aircraft - an accurate flight model - custom systems simulation, by using plug-ins - custom sound by using plug-ins, and not just the engine. You will hear much more! - things I don't want to reveal yet I will talk about them, when the time is ready for it. I lately spent a small fortune on flight manuals, maintenance manuals, parts manuals, weight nan babalance manuals, you name it, in order to develop the most accurate simulation for this aircraft. Modelling started about a week ago and here are a few first shots, of a few evening of modelling. I hope you like them. Keep in mind, that these are very early shots and that detail is of course missing, but since things are progressing fast, you will see it very soon. Pete

Really sad news! He inspired me in a lot of ways and he will for sure be missed. One of my favorite quotes is: "Do what you love. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle!" If you haven't watched his famous Stanford graduation speech ... it is worth it.

Does it have 3D gauges and 3D needles/indicators or is it "just" a texture and flat? Can not see it clearly on the screenshots. The gauge itself looks 3D, but the inside looks like a flat texture.

Very nice!

Hi all, I would like to do a poll with respect to historic aircraft navigation and radio equipment. Most of the restored historic aircraft nowadays use modern retrofit radio and nav equipment, in order to be able to operate in a modern ATC world. However, this is not representing the old style navigation and communication anymore. Pilots, back in the days, did not have modern radios and nav equipment and more or less navigated by map, course and clock or used direction finders, where a needle was pointing to a radio station, giving a relative bearing. I personally would prefer old style nav and radio equipment and to fly like the pilots had to, back in the days. If I choose an historic aircraft, I would like it as authentic as possible. However, that might not be everybodies preference and therefore the poll. Important: I would like to get voices from people who really like to fly historc and iconic aircraft and who would like to see more of them in XP. Their voices are the most important for me.I know we have a lot of people here, who enjoy flying commercial and airline style with modern equipment, glass cockpits, autopilot, GPS and FMS. That is fully OK, but this question is then not for you guys, because I already know the answer. If you are also interested in historic and iconic aircraft, beside modern cockpits, vote for it. Edit: typo

J, where is you aircraft reference point located? Engine and prop location? Keep asking and posting. I am pretty sure your technical problems can be solved quickly.

Oh, the first solo. Remember mine as well....awesome feeling. Congratulations Oliver!

Good one Ben! Well, I am a die hard warbird fan and yes, there are errors in it already and it probably will be the classic story with heros and glory, but I will just lean back, relax and enjoy every minute of it.

First trailer of "Red Tails", a new movie from Lucasfilm, to be released in Jan 2012. I am really looking forward to it. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=80471

Great modelling!

Fully agree with Tom. Shape and airfoils are only pieces of the puzzle for a good flight model, and more or less only affect aircraft performance. Of course they have an effect on other areas, such as stability as well, but in order to get the "feel" right, one has to do much much more. Tom mentioned custom radii of gyration or cg location. This is very important to work at. I have seen freeware and payware aircraft, where these areas are left at default or just in the right ballpark, making the aircraft handle like a radio controlled aircraft. High roll rates, almost no lagging motion/intertia in roll, pitch or yaw, killing all the fun. Not placing and tuning the cg correctly can also create very weird and unrealistic behavior. For example, fly at a low speed and yank back the stick. Of course you wouldn't do that in the real aircraft, but I use this test often in order to see if the control power is realistic. Flying at low speed, close to stall speed, and yanking back the stick often results in AOAs of 40-50 deg or more, which is completely unrealistic. For some aircraft that might be correct, for most it is not. In real live, the aircraft elevator would not be in the position to create such a pitch up motion at low speed, due to low dynamic pressure and loss of control effectiveness at higher AOAs. This is often due to a wrong cg placement, a wrong pitch moment coefficient of the airfoil or a combination of both, but could be easily corrected. From my point of view, Planemaker is doing a pretty good job, but does not necessarily give you all the control you need for specific parts of the envelope, or if you really want to represent the personality of an aircraft with all its pros and cons. In order to go the extra mile, one needs to take care of it by coding plug-ins, which give much more control. However, you have to know what you are doing and you have to have the knowlege about what needs to be changed, tweaked or controlled dynamically via a plug-in, in order to create a certain effect or a certain behavior . For my aircraft, I am overriding the complete flight controls and big parts of the engine by a plug-in and I can basically re-create any effect or behavior I want to see or I want to be simulated. I can change control surface effectiveness, supercharger behavior, control surface buffeting, engine gyroscopic precession, engine corkscrewing slipstream, transsonic effects and much more on the fly and exactly how I want it. I more or less have full control. Does it sound cool? Yes! Is it easy to do? No. It's a lot of extra work, needs proper testing, creative out of the box thinking and hours and hours of research and coding. ...but it is also no black magic. Anybody could learn how to do it.

I don't agree with that. Not having the airfoil data does not mean that you can not create an accurate flight model. If you have performance data for the aircraft from a flight manual, information about the flight characteristics, stall speeds, V-n diagrams etc. you can come up with a pretty accurate flight model by reverse engineering. However, you have to have the knowledge and background to be able to do that and it takes a good amount of time. Even if you have the airfoil data, you have to become creative here and there to get it right, because X-Plane is no virtual wind tunnel and not everything is perfectly OK.

I really like it. Besides historic/iconic aircraft, I love bush flying. ...and the Otter can be had with analogue gauges, without fancy avionics

Great work as always Theo. Wow!