Screenshots WALL : Tack up your pictures!

[AADX]

Wow. ... just wow.

prays for one day x-plane has seaspray particle effects kicked up from downwash and surface disturbance.. that's all that's left. and poetry stage snaps for the transom renaming.

[aquila1004]

It actually does a little bit, but just from the engine exhaust. In real life there would be spray from the wing downwash as well. (There are a couple of ekranoplan videos on YouTube that show what they really look like.) I mostly wish terrain-following mode worked a little more smoothly, Austin obviously never meant for us to be flying at 10' AGL!
I usually give names to the ones I particularly like. Sometimes they get a whole custom paint job (like my two round-the-world planes), usually I just paint the name and tail number onto the existing scheme. It really adds to the feeling of what you call "virtual ownership."
In other news, I'm working on a CSL of this one right now. Should be ready to go before too long.


TH

[AADX]

yeah, I had gotten fairly annoyed when I wrote out longhand very intricate WIG guidelines and stuff for the SEAWING and then Austin changed the system invalidating every word.

the wigs can be done with manual trim, I think, but moreover I end up using VVI mode on 000 rate to get it down into low IGE. real-wx tends to upset that fragile balance. TERR 20-40 does pretty well.

I'm far beyond tired fighting with austin's ap rates. get tuned, xp changes, get tuned, xp changes, repeat repeat repeat. and what used to be perfectly fine, later fails to be strong enough, or loose enough.. when default rate works tolerably.. that's what we get. in lieu of that, usually sens, gain and authority are boosted to let the system have more direct effect. you can try your hand at ap rates on the fly, from the advanced menu I think. ends up being six and one half dozen of another. One instance tuning the 135 for ap handling in turbulence.. got it to hang on through medium turb.. but that was too aggressive for calm air and it flapped.

reflects back on the battlecruiser size wig. hehe. is measured in cruise ship tonnage, I think I have it drafted at 600' long, w/ 4 or 6x 767-777 engines, I forget. flying island. and in sexy svelte form. higher shoulder mounted wings so that while at rest in the water, the under wing area is a shaded alcove and the recreation & tender docks are on the sides, under the wings.. as it sits that high out of the water due to sheer size.

[aquila1004]

With you on the autopilot changes, I'm perpetually having trouble with autopilot on anything that wasn't made in the very latest version of X-Plane. (The Lear 25 has an autopilot oscillation in cruise that I just assumed was Austin's fault, not yours. It's mostly just annoying so I've never complained about it.) Sounds like you and I have pretty much settled on the same solutions to flying the ekranoplans, I usually use VVI mode or TERR. ALT mode works as well, as long as real weather is turned off because it crashes whenever the baro pressure changes. Of course in real life these things would have custom-built autopilots using radar (or maybe laser rangefinders) to maintain altitude with a lot more precision than X-Plane can manage.

Love the idea of a "cruise ship" ekranoplan! Might not be too ridiculous in the real world, too; some of the Soviet ones were REALLY big and the Boeing Pelican concept would, if I recall, be the biggest heavier-than-air aircraft ever built.


And just to stay on topic:

Bell 206 at the X-Plane.org Bermuda fly-in last Sunday. (Incidentally, one of your CSL's did get used there, somebody was in a PA-28.)


TH

[AADX]

To put some scale on this, the airport pictured in the surrounding area, is Great Falls International, terminal, parking lot, airliners on the ramp, cars, etc. This beast DOES fly, and flies as docile as a 150. 4x 777 engines. 400' hull length, 440-450' overall. Weight taken from factual # published for a similar relative size cruise liner.

450' length BattleCruiser Ekranoplan Concept

SK_450.jpg (19.75 KiB) Viewed 1589 times

and a similar but in between concept design between "Seaking" at 125' and the above at 450'. the below originally drawn for the 600' length, but that's actually just too gigantic to fly, esp considering it would be rather dense with as lightweight materials possible.

250' length Cruisr Ekranoplan Concept

SK_250.jpg (18.11 KiB) Viewed 1589 times

[aquila1004]

Very nice! Would love to see development of either of those, or both. Let me know if there's anything I can do, I've always liked the ekranoplans. The 737, and the cars in the parking lot, really put it in perspective!



TH

[aquila1004]

Another one of the Sea King, this time off the Alaskan panhandle heading for Vancouver.


TH

[capnsully]

[quote="AADX"]To put some scale on this, the airport pictured in the surrounding area, is Great Falls International, terminal, parking lot, airliners on the ramp, cars, etc. This beast DOES fly, and flies as docile as a 150. 4x 777 engines. 400' hull length, 440-450' overall. Weight taken from factual # published for a similar relative size cruise liner.

screenshot_1b.jpg

looks promising Jason, will assist my bragging rights at one of the .org or VATSIM meets! Imagine the look on the controller's faces when this baby approaches "centre, request landing on runways 23L AND 23r!!!'

'Behemoth125, land wherever u bloody want to!'

[AADX]

LOL. that's funny.

[aquila1004]

Cherokee 140 descending into L'Aquila, Italy. Particularly fun approach because L'Aquila is in the middle of the Apennines, surrounded on all sides by high mountains.


TH