Fokker F27
“Friendship” for Microsoft
FlightSimulator 2004.
Version 1.2
Thank you for downloading this package.
First of all a brief history of the type:
HISTORY:
The F27 was built by the manufacturer Fokker, which was well known for
its pre-WW2 designs and also during WW1 for its excellent fighters. After WW2
the factory was restarted and after a series of design studies the F27 was
built. Originally the type was intended to be a replacement of the immortal
Douglas DC-3.
A few innovations were implemented into the design. First of all the
engine type was chosen to be a turboprop, which is really a jet engine that has
a propeller attached to it. Rolls Royce had built the Dart engine that was
already in service on several English designs and had already somewhat proven
itself. The reason for choosing a turboprop over the piston engine was its
improved reliability and better thrust-to-weight-ratio.
Another innovation was the extensive use of bonded parts in the main
structure of the aircraft. Yes basically the aircraft is glued together! Born
out of necessity economical wise (it was cheaper to glue together several thin
parts than to machine one big part of aluminium), this method has some serious
advantages in that the structure is stronger and more durable than the
traditional riveted structures.
Also, for many non-structural parts light-weight composite materials
were chosen (think of wing-fuselage fairings and wing leading edges). All this
made a service life of 90.000 flight hours or cycles possible!! The nickname
“Friendship” was come up with following a competition under the employees of
Fokker. (The F28 got the name “Fellowship”).
The F27 prototype.
All in all a rather innovative design which had its ups and downs as far
as sales figures go.
Including the Fairchild built aircraft the counter stopped at 786,
making it the best sold civil turboprop in the western world. The type has been
built from 1955 until 1986 during which time a lot of improvements were made
such as different types of doors for cargo or paratroop dropping, lengthening
the fuselage and installing more powerful engines, to name but a few.
The
The versatility of the F27 is well known. It has seen use amongst others
as passenger transportation, maritime surveillance and enforcement, cargo haul,
paratrooper, ECM and fire bomber aircraft. The fact that even today some 200
F27’s are still in every day service, often under demanding conditions in
countries where maintenance is poor and runways unpaved, is a tribute to the
fact that the choices made at the time were the correct ones. In the mid
eighties, the need arose for a major update of the F27 with the arrival of some
strong competitors for manufacturers such as ATR and Canadair. This resulted in
the Fokker 50, from the outside it looks quite similar to the F27, but it is
really a completely different aircraft. It has modern (quiet) engines,
hydraulic systems as opposed to pneumatics and the avionics are state of the
art even today some 10 years after the last Fokker 50 was built with the demise
of Fokker which closed its doors in 1996. Bankruptcy was inevitable due to
economical circumstances and mismanagement.
THE
MODEL:
For every incarnation of Flight Simulator there was always a decent F27
available on the internet. However when FS2002 arrived, the supply ran out.
Especially since the sim had so much potential and a 3d design program was
included with FS2002 (Gmax), I decided to just do it myself. I had access to
real life F27’s and knew my way around computers, so how hard could it be???
Well, nearly 3 years later I have come up with a model that looks half
decent and is ready for release.
Gmax is a powerful program, but there is absolutely nothing straight
forward about it. So I had to learn from scratch. Unfortunately Microsoft
decided not to include a decent tutorial with the package so a lot of
investigation was at hand. Luckily there are some guru’s out there that offer a
lot of help via several forums on the internet. Without their help, I believe I
would have abandoned the project long ago.
In the mean time FS2004 came around, luckily the models are mostly
interchangeable, requiring only some minor modifications.
As it is now the model includes a rather rudimentary Virtual Cockpit,
which still needs some work but it is quite possible to perform an entire
flight for the VC only. As a matter of fact that’s all I do these days because
the experience is so much better from the VC.
The cabin is what it is, nothing fancy there. Of course that could also
be fixed but I felt it more important to release the aircraft in this
lifetime...
Also the exterior model may lack in some aspects, but I am happy with it
the way it is. If you should feel there are some things that need changing,
just drop me an email and maybe I will look into it. One thing I hope to fix in
the future are the cabin windows, they are not exactly
correctly positioned and there are no holes for them in the fuselage. This is a
modelling decision that was made because the fuselage distorted big time in Gmax when I tried to cut the window holes.
The flight dynamics are those that came with the panel package, because
some gauges rely on the flight dynamics for correct functioning. However, they
have been updated by Brian Horsey to fit my model
better.
As is the case with most aircraft, the F27 has evolved through several
different models (marks) during its lifetime.
These are the different Marks included in the package:
The
Mark 100:
The original F27, with a combi
door in the front that slides upwards and Rolls Royce Dart 6 engines. From the outside
this is visible by the rounded blades on the propellers.
The
Mark 200:
Basically the same aircraft, but with the more
powerful Rolls Royce Dart 7 engines fitted. This is visible by the
rectangular shape of the propeller blades.
The Mark 400.
This model has Dart 7 engines and a large cargo door in the front. The
model shown here also has pylon tanks fitted which in real life can hold some
900 litres of fuel each. This is not simulated in FS.
The maritime.
The maritime patrol version has a search radar
fitted below the fuselage and most of the times extra tanks in the centerwing and pylon tanks for the long range that is
needed for this type of operation. There was also a Maritime Enforcer version
which had armament fitted to stubwings on the
fuselage and extra pylons on the wing.
INSTALLATION:
Refer to the READMEFIRST file for the installation procedure.
SOUND:
By default the sound is aliased to the King Air 350. However, feel free
to browse through the major flight sim download sites
and do a search for “dart” engine sounds for FS2004. There are several decent
sound set available and installing them is a breeze.
USAGE:
The panel documentation is a MUST read, in order to operate the aircraft
properly. Otherwise you will not be able to start the engines for instance.
The Virtual Cockpit has some specific items.
TCAS:
I have made the package ready for the TCAS gauge made by Lee
Hetherington. This can be found at the major flightsim
download sites under the name of ilh_tcas_v4.zip. This gauge is highly
recommended especially if you have a lot of AI traffic, it really adds to the
experience.
For the gauge to appear in the F27, you need to edit the Panel.cfg file. This can be found in the Panel folder of
the aircraft and can be opened with Notepad. (example path
where the aircraft can be found: D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight
Simulator 9\Aircraft\Fokker F27\panel)
If you have opened it, scroll to this line:
//gauge28=ILH_TCAS!IVSI,409,592,91,92
gauge28=F.27!Vertical_Speed_Indicator,
409,597,89,88
and make it:
gauge28=ILH_TCAS!IVSI,409,592,91,92
//gauge28=F.27!Vertical_Speed_Indicator, 409,597,89,88
Further down you will find this line:
//Gauge78=ILH_TCAS!Logic, 0, 0, 1, 1,
You need to remove the //:
Gauge78=ILH_TCAS!Logic,
0, 0, 1, 1,
Even further down under the header [vcockpit01] you will find this line:
//gauge05=ILH_TCAS!IVSI,290,177,91,93
gauge05=F.27!Vertical_Speed_Indicator,
290,184,89 ,88
Again change it into:
gauge05=ILH_TCAS!IVSI,290,177,91,93
//gauge05=F.27!Vertical_Speed_Indicator, 290,184,89
,88
Save and exit the panel.cfg and fire up FlightSim to enjoy TCAS!!
It is most important that you
read the manual that is included in
this TCAS gauge, so that you know how to use it.
CREDITS:
I would have never gotten this far without the help of a lot of people.
A lot of credit goes to:
DISCLAIMER
These files are used at your own risk. They should not harm your computer in any way, but one never knows.
It has been tested on a wide variety of different systems with no problems encountered.
There is absolutely NO warranty or guarantee of any kind, expressed or implied, for any problems arising from the use of these files. This includes, but is not limited to, any hardware and/or software problems. All use of these files and its related files is at the user’s own risk.
Copyright and Distribution
--------------------------
This package is released as Freeware. Copyright Willem Bruijns. 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. Repaints are to be released
as "texture only" files.
- 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 2006 by Willem Bruijns. All Rights Reserved
Contact:
E-mail : kanogek@hotmail.com