This is a Work In Progress / Discussion Topic.
Some things shown here will inevitably change as the project progresses!
An old classic, brought back to life
It has been hinted numerous times now that we have been working on another aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Today, I’m excited to finally announce the Pietenpol Air Camper – currently in mid-development for MSFS 2024, and progressing nicely!
This project has been in the works for over 6 months now and has only come about due to the dedicated persistence of many of our testers, who wanted to see this aircraft in sim: red_baron17, MPTROLL, Jesse, LBR, and Av8trFord. Mykrode nor myself really knew much about the Air Camper beforehand, but gained a passion for it the more we researched, much like with the 1500R Sport!
I first approached Craig from Rara Avis Sims about the status of his Air Camper project in January, about a month before the release of the 1500R Sport. Of course, not all of these 6 months have been active development time either, as I stepped away for a few months to push my Limberlost Ranch scenery over the finish line. Though, with that project now done and released, the Piet has my full attention!
The Team
I am very lucky to get to work with my friends once again on this project! Having a team you can count on really helps drive a project in the right direction, especially when fueled by passion.
Mykrode has returned once again, providing a fantastic model and all of the paint and artwork to go along with it. Got Gravel has also been warmly welcomed aboard, contributing the flight model, as well as a lot of custom code and physics.
As for myself, I’m the one who knocks stitches everything together. That includes code, Wwise sounds, misc. model stuff, and everything in-between.
The Piet
Our rendition of the Pietenpol Air Camper has been built and improved upon based on all of the excellent feedback we received from the 1500R release. This will only be the second aircraft we have taken on as a team, but for those of you who have and still are enjoying the 1500R, the Air Camper is a good step up in quality all around – visuals, sounds, features, and physics!
Our Piet started from a single 3D scan of NX899DL, which was taken from a walk-around video at Oshkosh by community member and tester – red_baron17.
This scan, though definitely a bit rough around the edges, gave Mykrode a good sense of scale to base our model on. Whenever we get a chance to work with a 3D scan, we take it as it can make for a much more detailed and accurate model than just eyeballing a few photos alone.
To power the Piet, we decided to go with the Continental A-65 as opposed to the more classic Ford Model A engine. The A-65, as you can probably guess, provides 65 horsepower at full power. It’s also much easier to find information on, still being in service on many aircraft to this day. It also has the added benefit of not blocking most of your forward view with a large radiator, unlike on the Model A variant.
Being a more commonly used engine, this means we were also in luck for sounds!
Community member and tester Av8trFord went above and beyond for us, gaining access to a Piper Cub with an A-65 to run and record for the Piet’s sounds.
Although it’s not the same aircraft, the setup of the Cub actually made for a good neutral platform to record, as there wasn’t much prop or exhaust sound to clean up, which made processing the audio fairly simple. Now we are building on it with layers of detail, including prop, more throaty exhaust sounds, and of course much custom foley.
Release When?
We don’t slap release dates on our projects. Not even estimates until we are fairly certain we can actually make the release date.
The Air Camper is still very much a work in progress, with most of the remaining tasks still being sounds and code. Most of which falls on myself to complete. So, all I can say for now is it will be ready when we and our testers are happy with it!
Being a 2024 native aircraft, there are still some large tasks I need to figure my way through. Most of that comes from the need to understand how the new 2024 EX1 code works. What it can and can’t do, as there are some differences (comparing to 2020 templates).
As the coding begins to come together, I’ll dive more into features at a later date, but for now enjoy all of these fresh screenshots, picked right from the vine this morning!
Thanks for following along with our project! I look forward to diving more into features in a future post!
