Custom Classics IX: Classic Grumman G-21A Goose
By Gene Davis (16 June 2004)
Introduction
n September of 1982 a
television show called Tales Of The Gold Monkey premiered. The show
followed the exploits of Jake Cutter, Sarah, Corky and Jake's one
eyed dog Jack. The four flew from one island to another, always
managing to find trouble in more ways than one. The center of this
show was Cutter's plane, a twin engine Grumman Goose. I remember the
show vividly, all of the exotic locations, watching in amazement as
this magnificent aircraft dodged island natives, avoided tangling
with Japanese fighters, landed in hostile waters and always managed
to survive the more than occasional engine fire. 1982 seems like
such a long time ago, but I remember watching this show and wishing
that I could live such a life. I think that is in the kid in all of
us, living as Indiana Jones or a Jake Cutter. Hearing the roar of
the engines and playing the television series theme song through the
plane's onboard radio takes you back to those simpler days, days
spent in the Bora Gora Bar and Hotel waiting for your next customer
to walk through the doors. What is your destination today? Will it be
occupied Japanese Islands or a quick run to Cargo Cult Island? You're
Jake Cutter this time, and only you know!
The Grumman Goose
The package includes eight variations of the Grumman Goose, all of which are nicely detailed. Jake Cutter's plane comes in two different liveries. One is with Jake's love interest, Sarah, and the other is with Corky, the story telling mechanic, and lastly Jack the dog laying on the seat in the passenger compartment of the plane. Clicking on each one of these characters will play a sound byte from the TV series, I thought that was a pretty nice touch. The other liveries are from real world aviation. They are Avalon Air, Chrysler Air, Southeast Skyways, JRF-2, JRF-2 Navy and the Peruvian Army Air Force. Each plane includes the characters from the show, regardless of what livery it is.Flying the Goose is a real treat! Bill Lyons has incorporated some nice effects into the overall design. When taking off from the water you not only get the water spray, but now Bill has added water condensation and splash effects to the front and side windows. And if that isn't enough there is switch to turn on a more realistic windshield, depicting limited visibility in flying in rough sea conditions.
The interior of the plane is beautiful! Moving throughout the aircraft really gives a real feel for what these planes represented. Originally designed for executive transport, the seats and the cabin were built for the comfort of its passengers. This is representative of the era and can really be noticed in the design of this package. The cockpit is typical of that era, but in the 1930's this plane was probably considered pretty advanced. You will find that flying it from the 2-D cockpit is really lacking, and to really experience the Goose you need to fly it from the virtual cockpit. Flying in virtual cockpit offers some nice treats. You will find that you can interact with Corky, Sarah or Jack. Sarah or Corky will hold up a map of the area that you are flying in, and the maps all list the necessary navigational aids for you to find your way around.
One of the things I remember from the television show was the excessive engine problems. This of course set up many of the plots for each show and guess what? Bill has included this effect in the model. Simply by hitting the "I" key, your left engine will smoke and burn. From the inside of the virtual cockpit you actually have reflections of the fire coming through the windows. This of course has no long lasting effect on the performance of the engine, but it's kind of fun to simulate an emergency and have to find a place to land.
The sounds used to depict the Goose are excellent. If you listen hard enough you can hear a faint rumble coming from the engines. This of course gives the overall sound a much throatier and realistic feel. Each character when clicked on will produce a sound byte from the television show. Corky tells you a story about one of those times, Sarah talks about opening a bottle of wine and Jack barks once for no and twice for yes. There is also an old AM radio, much like the ones in Bill's other packages, that will play a set of songs and an old radio show called Dark Shadows. If you want you can put in your own music CD and play it through this player as well.
From Juneau Alaska To The Marivella Island Chain
The Classic Goose comes with some real nice scenery and allows you to recreate flights from the original television series. The island chain in which the show took place is located in the south Pacific, circa 1930 and is called the Marivellas. The package comes with six islands that you can explore, each one having different themes that were particular to the television episodes. The islands are as follows: Bora Gora, Baku, Tanaga, Tori Hado, Matuka, Kenaru Islands. For example, Bora Gora was the centerpiece for the television series, it was where Jake Cutter called home. Therefore while docked in the lagoon you will see Jake Cutter's Air Service building and just behind that is the Gold Monkey Bar And Hotel, two main hangouts for the show's characters. Oh, and you see Sarah pacing back and forth on the dock waiting impatiently as ever. Another example is the Island of Baku; this is where the mysterious Gold Monkey is said to be kept by island natives. The only problem is, you need to find it from the air before the volcano erupts. Another puts you in Japanese occupied territory, where you will see Japanese patrol ships, military airfields and fighter patrols.If flying around in the fictional world of the Gold Monkey is not your bag of tea, than perhaps you would prefer flying anywhere from Alaska, the California Coast, the Peruvian jungles to Cuba. There is so much to look at in this package that it is really hard to get it all in this review. From what I have seen each area has some sort of added scenery, whether it be a small shack at the foot of a lake or added buildings in a seaport to German U-Boats on patrol.
Flights
Classic Goose comes packed with 26 pre-set flights, 15 of them are real world flights and 10 of them are based in the Gold Monkey world. I am usually not one to spend a lot of time with pre-set flights, simply because I like setting up my own world for my flightsim experience. But, with Classic Goose these set flights really allow you to experience this package in its entirety.One of the flights puts you on Great Harbor Cay on December 5, 1945 in the Navy version of the Goose. Your flight briefing tells you that a flight of five torpedo bombers has disappeared somewhere near the Bermuda Triangle. Your instructions are to take off and fly towards Castaway Cay Islands and look for these bombers. You are also instructed to investigate strange happenings near this particular island. I flew the distance and it was a rather timely flight, but it was really fun scanning the ocean and watching for anything that might be out of the ordinary. Now, I didn't find anything and plan on making another return flight there just to see what I may have missed.
Another pre set flight puts you in Cutter's Goose in the Harbor of Bora Gora and a report has been made that a DC-3 has disappeared or crashed on Cargo Cult Island. After a lengthy ocean crossing, Cargo Cult Island looms in the distance. My immediate decision was to make a low level pass along the shore line to look for the downed plane. After circling the island twice I was unable to locate it. Now, Cargo Cult goes from sea level to roughly 1400 feet, so I had to turn back out to sea and get some altitude. Coming back in towards the island I circled the top of it and was able to pick out the outline of the downed DC-3. Upon a quick examination of the surrounding terrain I made out an area flat enough to land near the wreck. Mind you this involved picking an area that was not covered with trees. Landing was relatively easy and I was able to get pretty close to the wreck site. Now came the fun part, taking off! Turning the plane around I knew that I would just follow the same path that I landed on, but there is also a 1400 foot cliff there. Throttles at full and flaps two 2, I released my brakes and the plane lumbered forward. As I reached about 60 MPH, I still had enough area for takeoff, so I thought! Nearing the cliff I didn't notice the small hill in front of me on landing. Now, in real life this would probably wreck the plane and you would go tumbling down the side of the cliff, but this is Tales of the Gold Monkey! Hitting the hill caused the plane to drop to about 50 MPH, but as land gave way to air the plane lurched forward and using gravity as my runway, the Goose gained enough speed to regain control and I was able to put her into level flight and head back to Bora Gora. Now, I was also playing the theme song for Gold Monkey on the aircraft intercom when I did this, and that just added to the Goose experience!
For those of you lucky enough to own the Golden Hawaii package by Bill Lyons and the Pilot's Boeing 314 Clipper add-on, you can make the overnight run from Hawaii to Bora Gora. The Clipper was always something that I really enjoyed on Tales of The Gold Monkey, it represented an era of flight that has long since gone and to see it land in the television show was magnificent. Now, if you don't own the Clipper from Pilot's you can still see an AI version of the Clipper provided in the Classic Goose package, where you have the opportunity to escort her into Bora Gora.
Conclusion
Bill Lyons Classic Goose is a must for anyone that enjoys this era of
aviation. The level of quality put into this package and the sheer
attention to detail is incredible! I can't tell you how much I enjoy
this add-on, it brings out the adventure and imagination we all had as
kids and allows you to experience flight simulator in a new light,
the light of an adventurer known as Jake Cutter. The price for this
package is only $12.50, and if you really want to compliment this, be
sure to buy the Golden Hawaii Package as well. This package, and the
Golden Hawaii add-on gets a definitive 5 out of 5 stars from me, I
truly love Bill's work. Thank you Bill!
Gene Davis
GeneDavis101@hotmail.com
