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I am a biplane addict


Tailgunner

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- and this beauty is my latest old-timer. RAF Gloster Gladiator, from FSAddon.

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[img width=933 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280335215.jpg

[img width=933 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280324724.jpg

[img width=933 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280315555.jpg

[img width=975 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280297349.jpg

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It doesn't bite, John. And you get to play with the four Brownings. No bullets, true, but great effects. I've wanted a Gladiator ever since my Dad took me to the Hendon air show and we watched an RAF trlo perform faultless aerobatics while their wings were linked with tape. Maybe the Red Arrows could copy...

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Hey Peter, I just read Peters review (too many Peters !! ) .

When asking about the flaps I meant are they working in the flight model , not in a mechanical sense. Sorry , I should have been more precise .

Apparently they do not work . This model flys the same and the cockpit looks the the same as Icarus - odd .  If it looks like it , tastes like it , flys like it ........you can guess what I reckon . At least the skins are different.

There  is an airfile mod that has been given in screenshot section sometime back to fix the flaps . Maybe search "Gladiator" . If no luck pm me and I'll email you one

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I meant in the flight model sense, Alan. Maybe not a big effect, but they do produce a result. For me, anyway. The fix I'd really like is for over-sensitive brakes when landing taildraggers. Even with careful brake lever pumping, this one and my Luscombe are eager to tip over on to their props at the slightest chance.

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This model flys the same and the cockpit looks the the same as Icarus - odd

For what it may be worth, although I don't yet have this model I have read the manual. First of all, there IS a manual (!), and secondly, the manual suggests that the cockpit is significantly more functional than the Icarus one. I also think it (the cockpit) looks better, at least from the pix. When I get around to the plane I hope to review it alongside my Icarus Gladiator video.

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Look forward to that Mark, in paticular the difference in flight modeling. The colouring of the panel and instruments do look the same as each other and makes me wonder if they have been created by the same person , although the fuselarge does look a little leaner or longer than the Icarus version from memory.

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This model flys the same and the cockpit looks the the same as Icarus - odd .  If it looks like it , tastes like it , flys like it ........you can guess what I reckon . At least the skins are different.

Okay, now I have this model and from a single short flight I will offer my first impressions. The cockpit is absolutely not the same as the Icarus one, although they are clearly both modelled on the same aircraft, which I think it the Shuttleworth Collection's MkI and currently the only airworthy Gladiator in the world. It is immediately clear that the panels, guages, cockpit fittings, gunsight, and the default eyepoints, etc., etc. are all very different. I have to say that the Icarus cockpit is much cleaner and the guages clearer, and I find the FSA ones are kind of shimmery and indistinct. (Just to be clear, I'm not talking about the animation that wobbles the centre panel, I'm seeing something much more basic about all the guages.) I'm not sure how guages are created in FSX so someone might help me out here, but I wonder if this is a transparency issue as it's somewhat akin to effects I have seen in ported FS9 aircraft (such as the Robert Sanderson Stearman duster discussed around here recently). Of course this may also be some interaction with my own video settings or something  like that, so I have drawn no conclusions other than that this is not the Icarus model.

As for the flight model, again I can only report first impressions. The Icarus Gladiator is almost impossible to take off, with what I believe are absurdly exaggerated torque and gyroscopic effects, even at reduced power settings. I say this having seen the Shuttleworth Gladiator fly on three occasions since I reviewed the Icarus package, and it really doesn't look like any such handful in real life. (Although I am sure it had a more skilled pilot than I would ever aspire to be!) The FSA Gladiator, in contrast, takes off about as you would expect of any large radial-engined single, with significant but manageable use of the rudder required. Incidentally, I still believe that both aircraft model their torque and gyro forces in the wrong direction - the prop spins anti-clockwise, so shouldn't torque / gyro precession / p-factor effects be clockwise (right)? (However, as both are the same I am wondering if I have got this wrong...)

Apart from that, I note that the FSA flaps do seem to have a drag effect, though I haven't quantified this because I got very confused about how to read the Gladiator's airspeed indicator! This is probably why I reported the stall speed as 70kts in my Icarus review (I may have been reading the wrong scale). I did manage to land it first time, and with flaps it seems to come down a lot easier than the Icarus one, which is more like a helium balloon unless you close the throttle all the way and give it prodigious amounts of side-slipping!

Anyway, that's all for now. More as it happens.

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Mark:  "Shimmery and indistinct gauges" Not necessarily. Have a look at my screenshots.

How are your brakes? - my only criticism of the aircraft is that mine are over-sensitive and can make the landing run somewhat fraught. Otherwise I'm very happy with it. That said, some ammunition would be useful.

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Mark:  "Shimmery and indistinct gauges" Not necessarily. Have a look at my screenshots.

How are your brakes? - my only criticism of the aircraft is that mine are over-sensitive and can make the landing run somewhat fraught. Otherwise I'm very happy with it. That said, some ammunition would be useful.

My brakes work fine (Saitek pedals), very controllable. Here's a picture of my guages. This seems to be something to do with the reflections or the glass effect of the guage faces. Something appears very low-res and blocky.

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Point taken. Does indeed look like reflections. My brake problem possibly down to using stick trigger lever - no room under desk for pedals!

Well francois has now replied on the support forum to say the speckling I can see isn't universal, so it does seem that something's wrong for me. Regarding the brakes, I guess your problem is not having analogue control. What do the brake pressure guages do when you press the button on your joystick? Mine move smoothly and proportionally with the toe brakes.

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Comparing cockpits .

You know I am not at all convinced with the Icarus model . I get about -6 to -4 boost  at all settings and hows the prop pitch supposed to work work with what looks like a fixed pitch. Obviously it is not , if not then it seems to be ineffective on the most part, hardly makes a difference at most settings.  How does the FSA one react ? as what you would expect  ?  Maybe this is insufficient modeling or Im about to learn something about the Gladiator and its power plant.

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