I got my download right away when I used Paypal.
So I’d really like to get this aircraft as its a personal favorite however is my understanding correct - although it comes with some custom water runways there is currently no where to ‘park’ the aircraft and do cold/dark start ups? No docks or places to ‘tie down’ the aircraft? If that is true then disappointingly that’s a deal breaker for me. Hopefully some modders can assist..
I never had p3d version but a reviewer spawned on a land runway bordering water with under carriage down to get it cold and dark.Then drove it into water and removed the skid ( undercarriage up). The manual mentions water runway positions as well as runway but i have not been to all locations to double check them all for cold and dark locations.
I’m hoping to have a dock spot or two done over the next couple of days at Treasure Island, SF, CA. After that I’ll work on Hawaii and Wake Island and NYC, and then the rest once I get the dock parts I need figured out.
Won’t be much detail unless I can find good dock parts, I don’t have any part modeling skills. I am going to clean up the area around the hangars on Treasure Island a bit, they are pretty overgrown as is.
@XP12Fanboy so far I haven’t seen any dock spots at any of the runways. I imagine he has plans to in the future, so hopefully my mods become obsolete with more detailed offerings.
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Thanks. I agree that this does look an early access product but looks very promising.
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Have y’all watched “Across the Pacific” from PBS? I’ve been watching it on Amazon Prime.
Follows the history of Juan Trippe and Pan Am, really well done.
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That is a generic message. Orders are generally processed immediately, as confirmed by others.
Jerome
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You may see it as archaic, you might be surprised though just how much credit card fraud is around and how many dishonest purchases we have to deal with!
Jerome
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Any source of information to make a more educated purchase? Any videos on youtube? An online manual? Anything?
Was the plane already submitted to the marketplace and is now pending the review process?
And finally any advise on how to start cold and dark?
Theres a checklist with the manual.
Not seen any YT videos on how to operate MS version.There’s a p3d video from a user over a year old.
Dont know about marketplace - thought i saw a post saying it had been submitted but this may take a few weeks for approval.
A few notes:
- I made the mistake (not sure what I was thinking) to use credit card instead of paypal so had to wait several hours until it was manually processed. Those wishing to buy should get the code quickly if using paypal, but the whole process to obtain this plane is very “old school” (I like my planes old school but not the purchase process
- No in-game checklists (there are some in the manual but I expect this type of plane to have ingame checklists). Some of the “tooltips” for controls don’t work.
- Unable to start cold-and-dark (I see some workarounds mentioned above but haven’t tried), so maybe lack of water parking spots less of an issue at this point.
- Unable to get the gryoscope to work properly (i.e. will only fly straight and not adjust when I change heading). I did read the manual (which is cool - looks like they used pages from original manual).
- Seems slightly overpriced with its current functionality (e.g. compared to cheaper AN-225 which is miles ahead of this), so I would only recommend for those really interested in this aircraft (I was, so don’t regret purchase).
Definitely feels like early access but here are the positives:
- Looks and sounds great from outside.
- Seems to fly well and feels “heavy” as it should.
- Inside textures are more mixed in quality but the controls/gauges look clear and I love these huge planes with different engineering “stations” to visit in the spacious cockpit.
- Added water runways used by Clipper are a nice touch.
- I like the manuals which include history of the aircraft and vintage photos.
I hope the dev is active with updates/improvements.
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looked at screenshots but there was none of the interior, is any of the cabin modeled?
yes, earlier in this thread there are several photos of the passenger cabin. Very basic but it is modeled. I can’t figure out how to get there from the cockpit (door doesn’t open) so I have to drone in or mess with camera cfg files.
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ah thanks for the info. yeah for some reason a lot of the devs add an invisible wall for the camera which makes setting custom camera save point in the cabin very difficult. you can modify the camera.cfg for the default camera position by adding 20 points to one of the x,y,z axis which will move the camera outside the cockpit. you should then be able to pan into the cabin and save a custom camera point to recall.
i do this with most of my adons and it works well. just have to move the camera back into the cockpit after and save default camera position back to where it was
I am very thankful for this release - this plane is one of the few models seldomly released for any sim (like the C-46 or C-119).
I do have some issues:
Yaw and pitch authority seem to be way over done. Pulling the stick or kicking the rudder let’s the plane behave like an aerobatics aircraft. Somehow heft and weight/mass seems to be absent.
Tool tips are missing for a lot of parts around the cockpit and engineering stations.
External textures are too smooth - no dents and no wrinkles in the skin. The color itself is correct - no bare metal on the original aircraft due to corrosion protection.
Sounds are not bad but not great either. I am missing a Wwise sound set here. There - I said it.
Also, the engines from inside sound like sitting in a tiled bathroom.
I have problems with cold and dark start-ups. Maybe that’s on me, because I normally start on the nearest land based spot and plop the Clipper down in the water after that using a map add-on.
Cockpit is missing some minor negligible details, but overall is way too dark.
Personally, I‘d like to see more detail on the cockpit window frames and the ceiling (yes, I‘m picky - I know 
)
All b/w photos show medium bright walls and ceilings about the brightness of the leather chairs - maybe a tad brighter (different photography films used with taking b/w photos may depict wrong brightness levels - hard to judge and get the color right). There is a huge contrast between the dark window frames and instrument panels.
Every historical photo I have in my books or found on the web show the same kind of grey. My guess would be of a classic zinc chromate airplane green (and problems continue, because a classic zinc chromate color does not exist. There are tons of different opinions on what is the correct color of zinc chromate throughout the whole internet).
This text reads like I regret buying it, but that is not the case: One of my favorite planes literally landed in my sim and I am a happy grinch.
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Reading this makes me very worried about the Dash7…
Is it possible to land it tail low without bouncing?
Here are a couple of good recordings of real Clippers landing at 0:50 & 1:00.
When I tried replicating that it bounces forwards as soon as I touch the water (and continuous to bounce with the elevator in neutral position):
On takeoff I have a similar issue. If I try to lift of at the suggested 60-70 knots from the manual, it bounces heavily. It will only lift off by its own at around 110 mph.
I planned to release a video with it, however I don’t want to publish something that makes it look bad, especially if it is because of my lack of skill. (the clip above is set to private and should only be visible here)
Oh boy.
That’s not only a bounce, something is horribly wrong with the model to have such a reaction when it contacts water. This needs to be 100% in the model because with other seaplanes in MSFS this doesn’t happen, the Goose for example lands nicely over water.
I just noticed their P3D “Professional” version of the Clipper on the justflight site for $100US! It must have been incredibly detailed to command that kind of price, but I hope that means the expertise is there for lots of improvements. Don’t know the developer, though, and what their history is on frequent updates.
That’s what I’m worried about. I was hoping it was because I flared it a bit too much, but like you said the Goose behaves nicely, as does the Hercules.
But maybe there is something I did wrong or went wrong in the installation.