Golden Eagles Squadron

By Andrew Herd (10 May 2002)

Yep, until a few weeks ago, wherever you sat two air file developers down, conversation was pretty certain to turn to the final frontier of Flight Simulation and the technical challenges involved in designing a realistic balloon sim. Those of you who are tuned into the forums will be aware of the terrible battles that have been fought out between the big developers over this contested area. Threads have been posted, grown, killed and gone all in the space of a mere half hour, such have been the passions at work. At least one major industry figure is on record as having stated that a balloon add-on for FS was impossible using conventional programming technology. I guess he must be rueing the day he made that comment, because here we have the indisputable proof that not only has a dedicated team cracked the problem of designing a balloon flight envelope, they have delivered a stunning package which installs no less than a dozen balloons and two practice flights. Rumor has it that Microsoft are offering the team six figure salaries to come and work on campus.

The package comes as a kit with easily repainted textures which allow users to customize their own balloons - anyone who isn't sure how to do this should read Robert McCarthy's repainting tutorial (TUTORIA2.ZIP), though there is guidance in the package itself. The team's idea is that this will allow on-line virtual balloon meets and competitions, but the balloons are perfect for solo flights and if you load one it makes an excellent screen saver. While this may not suit speed fiends, balloons surely are beautiful to watch if you choose the right area for a flight.

After a 2.5 Mb download, installation involves decompressing a zip into your the main FS2002 folder. As long as you have directory recursion checked, this should place all the files in the correct places.

Next, you have to read the manual...

FS2002 isn't the obvious home for a virtual balloon package, for obvious reasons. Hot air balloons are very different to aeroplanes, relying on burners to generate the heat which makes the balloon rise; a rip vent at the apex of the balloon which allows hot air to escape; and side vents which allow rotation of the balloon. Otherwise, power is provided by the wind and balloonists pay close attention to metars (aviation weather reports) which allow them to work out which level they need to fly at. Ballooning would be virtually impossible were it not for a thing called coriolis force which causes the wind to veer as height increases, and given that FS2002 is capable of generating upper level winds, anyone with an FS2002 metar decoder can exploit the wind to go where they want. And if you don't want to go as far as using real weather, you can always set up your own winds.

The controls are extremely simple. In a real balloon, the flow of propane to the burners is carefully controlled to generate heat and lift. The temperature of the envelope is monitored by use of a thermistor gauge on the instrument panel, while the rip vent is controlled by the F5 and F8 keys. The rudder pedals rotate the balloon, and that is it.

The manual gives a good description of how to launch a balloon; which was where I had my only problem with the package. My advice is that if you can't ascend, load any other aircraft, start the engine and then reload a balloon. Just preflight is it a good idea to check the wind sock to determine surface wind direction and strength and then you close the rip vent by hitting F8 and and slowly increase the envelope temperature using the throttle untill the thermistor registers 90 degrees centigrade. Hang on tight now, because you should lift off and begin to climb at a stately 100 fpm. Gradually increasing the throttle will give you maximum burn and raise the temp to 100 degrees C, allowing you to achieve a giddy 300 fpm. Once you are up to altitude, you can control your ascent by backing off some on the throttle.

As the manual points out, ballooning is the ultimate VFR experience and it is surprising that no-one has ever thought of it before for FS. Apart from an excellent virtual cockpit, there are some neat features; for example the basket floats so daredevils can "drag" lakes and do all the other stuff that real balloonists get their kicks from. Do a dusk flight and you can admire the envelope glowing when a burn is in progress; and if you hit the "i" key you can drop fireworks over the side. Finally, there is the beautiful Irina and a bottle of champagne in the basket. A friend swears he joined the mile-high club in a balloon, now I know why.

Bill Lyons told me that, "Using Roger Wilco it is fun for two or more to meet and just explore a new area together while conversing on the radios! Sort of like holding a chat session in the sky." Certainly the package makes it possible to host a balloon gathering or compete with other balloonists in events. While I'm not certain that VATSIM controllers will be too happy about the idea of people filing balloon flight plans, "Teesside Approach, this is Cameron 056 overhead Scotch Corner at 05, expect zone boundary in four hours, assuming the wind doesn't change..." it doesn't take much imagination to see the possibilities. Plus, there is always that champagne.

The manual gives plenty of advice on how to get into virtual ballooning, including where to get hold of Roger Wilco. The basic idea is to set up a flight and then email it to all the participants; when the meet is actually held the host initiates the multiplayer session in FS2002 and Roger Wilco. Bill's idea is that groups of balloonists could schedule regular meets with the duties rotating to provide a variety of scenarios and competitions - as he says, if you are patient, it could be a lot of fun.

Eleven of the twelve balloons are painted, the last one coming with a plain white texture which can be decorated any way you want. The way the textures are set up, three types of scheme are possible, although the colors are only limited by your own imagination. The basic textures are 256x256x256 bmp files which can be edited in any paint program, but they can be increased to 512x512x256 and quality hounds can use any size square texture they want as long as it is in 16 or 32 bit format. There is even a pilot face included and if you follow the examples provided you can put yourself in the balloon - personally I'm keeping the girl.

The flight model is probably very good, although it takes time to get into it. Certainly approaches lack the excitement of doing a flapless in a jet fighter, but on the other hand, since nothing happens very quickly and engine management is a cinch, you have plenty of time to sort things out. This isn't to say that some work isn't needed; for some reason I couldn't get the thrust reversers to operate and taxiing is a bitch. You might think that the low Vmax and the poor rate of climb would make trouble for beginners, but no way could I make this baby stall and spiral dives seem to be impossible, so my verdict is that the balloons are pretty safe as long as you watch out for mountains and keep your hands off Irina.

The Golden Eagles Squadron are a bunch of flightsim artists who joined up to keep what they describe as "low key fun freeware" alive in FS, the emphasis being on classic and vintage aircraft. As a group they already have a substantial track record and according the balloon readme the package is one of many they will be releasing in the coming months, which sounds like good news to me.

I keep meaning to review Bill's Bobcat, so I might as well put a plug in for it here. According to Bill, "I grew up watching Sky King and have always loved his original Bobcat. I corresponded with Bobcat owners and they provided a lot of info which really helped. Of course JL Stubbs' great panel helped too." That has to be the understatement of the year - in my view the Bobcat is an FS classic and since it has had surprisingly little exposure, I'm going to tag it and other Golden Eagles work on to the end of this piece to give you an idea of what they are all about.

The Bobcat distinguished itself as being one of the first freeware add-ons for FS2002 to feature a virtual cockpit and it attracted a great deal of attention from designers because of that. Sure, it isn't the last word in sophistication, but there is a trade-off between speed and complexity in VC design and one of the great strengths of this little Cessna is that it doesn't nail the fluidity of FS2002. The wheeled version is one of the few taildraggers available for this version of the sim and it is such a quirky little plane that you almost owe it to yourself to download it.

The Bobcat belongs to that golden age of aviation which began in the thirties and was terminated so abruptly by the Second World War. Built of wood, tubular steel and covered in fabric, it was originally designed for the civilian market, although it did sterling service during the conflict, with nearly 5000 being ordered for the USAAF, whose pilots affectionately dubbed it the "bamboo bomber". Many B17 and B-24 pilots started their careers in one of these planes, but its lasting fame dates to the "Sky King" series, a popular TV program during the fifties. After the war, many aircraft were demilitarised and went on to serve in a variety of capacities, including commuter airlines, although I would hazard a guess that the quality of the passenger experience was a little rough. The military version of the Bobact was powered by Jacobs R-755-9s, cranking out 245 hp a side, which let it cruise at 150 kias, but this belies the stately handling of the plane, which made a virtue of deliberate handling. One or two examples still survive, not least the Collings Foundation's UC-78, which was restored in the late 90's. This aircraft won a 1998 Grand Champion Warbird award at Oshkosh and is available for airshows and events on the East Coast for the 2002 season and beyond, so if you ask your local organiser you might get to see it for real.

Bill and JL chose to model a civilian T-50 Bobcat, with Jacobs L-4MB 225hp air cooled radials, which cruises at 140 and is flat out at 160. This is a neat and characterful FS design, with a host of nice touches that go together to make for something much more atmospheric than the average showroom clean add-on. The modelling is in FSDS and I would just love to see it redone in G-Max.

The virtual cockpit is half the reason for downloading the plane, seen here on approach to Naji Chehabeddine's freeware BFU North. Given that the T-50 isn't exactly overpowered, short final here in a crosswind makes for some interesting footwork, but the VC is good enough to let you do a proper wing-low approach, although the flight model seems slightly allergic to side-slipping. The cockpit is a tour-de-force and introduces several ideas that I can't recall seeing on an FS plane before. Chief among these is the ageing on the perspex, which saw better days many years ago and gave me an urge to get out there with a cloth and give the whole thing a good clean up. Quite why this slight fogging of the forward view should seem so important I have no idea, except that it is exactly how old planes get to be and you just know that the virtual seat you are sitting on is split and that all the springs have gone. I have slightly lowered the POV here, but you can pan right around with a hat control and enjoy the panel, which lacks anything smacking of modern instrumentation and is all the better for it. If you haven't downloaded this one, go right ahead and do so, because you are missing a treat - besides, if you stick with FS for as long as I have, you will be able to impress your friends by recalling that you first saw this plane way back in '02 when it was still in version one and no-one had heard of it.

If you tire of the balloons and the Bobcat, then you can always have a go at the ultimate classic, Paul Beardsley's 1903 Wright Flyer. Although Paul says that an improved air file is in the works, this one definitely has the feel of the original and if you get too slow, the plane mushes and simulates the first stall pretty convincingly. A question arises about how slow too slow is here, because the difference between flat out and stopped is small enough I wouldn't want to gamble on it, but here, if you want something to race those balloons with, is the ideal plane.

The first flight was made in December 17, 1903, which makes this review particularly timely as we are rapidly approaching the centennial of our hobby. The date will fall on a Wednesday and I have a plan to take the day off and get myself airborne in memory of the Wrights.

The Flyer was powered by a 4-cylinder, 12-horse engine and though I guess everyone is familiar with the story, it was built in sections in the back room of the brother's cycle shop at 1127 West Third, Dayton. The completed rig was shipped to Kitty Hawk where on December 14, Wilbur won a coin toss and made the first attempt to fly. He stalled on take-off, the result being some minor damage. I have always wondered about this incident, because if Wilbur got the plane high enough to damage it in a stall, surely he was flying it? Whatever. After making repairs Orville took to the controls and at 10:35 a.m., he flew for 12 seconds, a journey that covered only 120 feet, but which passed into the imagination of all mankind. I guess he would have understood the remark my father once made, after I had soloed for the first time, "Now you can understand why the skylarks sing." So if you want to get a little glimmer of understanding of what that first flight involved, just go ahead and download this one.

OK, lets see what else we got here from these Golden Eagles people. We have a couple of sceneries by John Williams and Ray Yarnell, both appropriate to balloons, tail draggers, Bill's Jaguar XK-120 and Jo LoGrosso's 1942 Indian 4 motorcycle (no kidding). There is also a superb Goodyear Blimp, again by Bill, featuring the sort of fully fitted panelled interior that you just don't find on modern passenger aircraft any more.

Looking a bit further around the site, we find a 1906 Ellehammer by Joe LoGrasso which looks a real scream, though I couldn't try it out because the link was broken. Think of a hundred year old hang glider and you are in the ball park. There is a Cannibal Queen/Curtis Jenny package that didn't quite light my fire and Bill's award-winning Canuck 80 Canadian light bushplane, which comes in float and wheeled versions. This features a rather less polished virtual cockpit than the Bobcat and reveals that the owner of the plane uses the same egg timer on his flights as I do. Truly, this is taildragger heaven.

And that, as they say, is that. As neat a collection of FS freeware as you could expect to find anywhere in this world of ours, maintained by a team which has remained independent, although most of the files can be found on sites like FlightSim.Com. As usual, I am struck dumb by appreciation of the dedication which must have been involved in getting this collection designed, tested and posted, all without any thought of commercial gain, and by a bunch of guys who obviously care passionately about the future of flight simulation. Groups like this, unassuming people who go their own way but give generously, are the very bedrock of our hobby. Golden Eagles, I salute you all.