Spartan 7W Exective

By William Ortis (28 January 2006)

First off, you should know that the Spartan Executive has been around for a very long time. They were built in Tulsa, Oklahoma back in 1934. Spartan Aircraft Company had built only 34 of these aircraft. The airframe of the Executive was considered to be the first executive aircraft comprised of an all metal (aluminum) monocoque fuselage which featured a cantilever wing. The sleek aircraft was capable of speeds of nearly 200 mph. In those days, this made it the 'Lear Jet' of the era. Oil tycoons, famous executives and movie stars sought them out. To be seen in one, let alone be taken on various trips in such a craft was an 'ultimate luxury' for the wealthy in those days. Amazingly, about 22 are still flying, which goes to show you how well they were built!

       

The shape of the aircraft is something of which only one word has come to mind since I first discovered these over a year ago, and the word is simply 'majestic'. It encompasses the ship well. It is moderately sized, huge that is for a single engine four place aircraft. It has a set of lines in the side windows (shapes that is, to non-designers) that flows with the design and remind you of a large classic automobile of that era.

Upon glancing over the panel, you realise you are looking at a slightly 'high tech' aircraft for that period of history. The large panel sports some very fancy instrumentation. But then, when you take a closer look, you begin to notice the fine details. For instance, they all look as though they came from the same plane and not pieced together from various aircraft. Another feature is the simple color of the gauges, 'cream white' color on the black instrument faces. If you know anything of old era instruments, you know that the paint is a sort of greenish cream color of white. This is because they sometimes had an added material that aided them to glow, like in some watches, to help them to be seen better in the dark, an illuminescent paint, if you would. Amazingly, this color is almost dead on, and your subconscious (for you real pilots) notices this right off. Another bit of impressive craftsmanship in the instrumentation is the fuel gauge which comprises four readouts in the same instrument body. It is beautiful to look at and it is also featured as a pop-up window when you need to know your fuel levels fast.

When you finally pull your eyes away from the instrument panel and look around in the cabin, you notice its well appointed features. I can only say that it seems more like a little yacht inside rather then a plane (instrument panel excluded of course). The interior is exotic, sporting a beautiful tweed like material that is trimmed in aluminum and fine wood trim, and I may say, with a photo realism as well. The rear table is skinned with an exotic wood found in the dash boards of classic Jaguars. Interestingly, I knew that the table folded out some how, and couldn't find a way to activate it, but upon raising the gear and looking about the cabin while in flight, I discovered that the table unfolds into its 'up' position upon raising the landing gear! Very ingenious. Included in the animation where the table sets itself up is a wine glass and some cigarettes, all neatly appearing. In one of the texture packs I tried, there was a nice oil painting hanging on the rear bulkhead, with the bulkhead panel also being done in a fine wood. There are even a set of curtains that are fitted behind the front seats to isolate the passengers if they require a bit of privacy. How they were able to make the curtains appear so real is beyond me. They actually appear to be folded fabric!

       

When one cranks up the mighty Pratt and Whitney Wasp Jr, one hears the sounds such a beast of 450 HP would make. The sound of the engine is nothing like I have heard in the sim world. It is truly a work of art to make it this real. With it being in a stereo dual layer sound file, it features the most unique 'variations' within the RPM curve. For instance, the popping of the lower mid idle that occurs when you throttle down from cruise causes a true classic aircraft enthusiast to smile a grin large enough to touch your ears! Another unique characteristic that seems so real for this rare package is when you are 'spot plane mode' which is the loudest and best of the two, the engine at cruise setting has a very mild stereo 'echo' like feature which is a reality for the huge radials. Their sound would reverberate off 'anything', such as nearby foothills, buildings, houses, etc. So the sound has multi levels of crescendos within it throughout the RPM ranges. I am told this is the work of the awesome GeeBee air racer pack by Mike Hambly. He did a most awesome job in creating this sound package.

Now to tell you what it's like to fly this majestic bird! Start up of the huge Wasp reveals a large cloud of smoke that rises up after all the cylinders 'catch' their ignition. This 'smoke' effect is a true to life reality in starting these radial engines, being caused by some of the cylinders on the bottom collecting oil past their piston rings over night and thus they burn that oil upon start-up.

I begin to taxi out to takeoff and immediately notice that the aircraft is set-up for 'brake-steering', which in reality is the correct way. However, being a pilot and a sim pilot as well, I think the reality version of brake-steering is easier then in Flight Simulator. So I immediately went into the config file for the Spartan and went to change it to a steerable tailwheel. I noticed though that Milton had beat me to it. He has a 'backup' for the steerable tailwheel already there, waiting for you to 'write' it 'active' in the config. (Simply remove the two '//' symbols from the top 'Contact Point' entry string header and place them on the second one down to switch the tail wheel steering modes). Thanks Milton for that added detail. I then reboot my flight scene to get my 'steerable tailwheel' working and again start off to taxi to the active in my new, shiny Spartan Executive.

       

As I am taxiing along, I begin scanning the slightly complex panel and come across some icons I have not seen before. One labled 'TO' near the top of the panel actually lowers the entire panel half way down and your vision over the panel of the horizon in front of you suddenly comes into view, even on the ground with the nose pointing skyward. Another nice effect on the panel is the 'magnifying glass' icon which calls up the primary instruments, making them into a 'larger view' pop-up. Very nice for people with small monitors.

I reach the active and pull out onto the runway. I push the throttle in to the hilt and the massive radial makes a lion's roar as it comes to life. I begin rolling down the runway in this large beast. The tail rises automatically and as the ship accelerates through 90 knots, I pull back on the yoke and the giant single engine Executive lifts cleanly away from the runway, just as Milton explains in the ReadMe. I then climb to about 3000 feet and throttle back. The engine sings the most awesome song as I do this, reminding me of a ride back in my childhood in a Beech Staggerwing, popping and humming along. Surprisingly, I am already doing a good clip at nearly 190 knots. I have the throttle adjusted back to bring the manifold pressure (MP) down to 30 lbs. (too much and you can cook the manifolds). One of the wild features of such aircraft fitted with the Pratt and Whitney model is that the engine sounded like it was idling, but your airspeed registered speeds of near 200 knots. It was the same with the Staggerwing I was in.

I begin my pattern over Deer Valley airport and then look for the autopilot. This autopilot system that Milton has created is a 'switch on/switch off' version which is a simple system to manage. Just come to the altitude you desire and click on the AP, then select the ALT switch of the AP to 'on' and your altitude is then locked in. With your autopilot heading selector, just locate your heading instrument that has a small aircraft imprint on it around the bottom left of the moderately sized panel to see what setting your heading is against its compass backer and adjust as needed for your required heading.

       

The plane handles amazingly well. The ReadMe asks that you set trim for take-off, as well as for landing, even calling out exact amounts, which is quite nice. She is a heavy bird and your speed transitions from 200 knots to under 100 knots moderately effect lift and trim. Thus you will need to trim a few times to keep her from using too much control yoke.

On my pattern, I begin my turn onto final for runway 7 right. I line up the runway and throttle down to idle. (The sound the engine makes as she goes to idle is just too cool). I also notice she is slightly speeding up, which is proper for such a bird. (For those unfamiliar with aerodynamics of flight, it is similar to a car moving down a hill on a road, which will naturally gain speed). I drop the gear and note the slight nose down effect as well as a speed drop. Next, a notch of flaps, followed by another. The airspeed of the huge Spartan begins to drop as her nose tries to come up from the lift of the flaps. I give her some trim so she is back to being balanced again. (The air file is superbly engineered, and I say that with candor as it was truly 'engineered' with such polish to reflect such realistic flight characteristics of such a plane of weight, size, and power).

I am on a good approach and the controls of the Executive are gentle on me, but I quickly catch sight that my speed had slipped well under 80 knots, so I push the throttle back in to bring my speed up. I cross the threshold of the runway where the desert ends and begin my flare. She makes me think she is huge by the way she reacts slowly as I bring her down. Not even a bounce! Very nicely done.

I taxi over to the main visitor tie-downs near the tower and shut her down. The sun is going down in the Arizona skies. I open the door and take some long looks of the very well done exterior with the 3D like rivet texturing and the very stylish windows. Man. What an impressive plane!

Thanks Milton Shupe, Scott Thomas and Urs Burkhardt for such an incredible aircraft. Your talents and abilities are awesome. The hours of intense work to perfect this model must be staggering. I salute the team that put this 'majestic' aircraft together.

William Ortis
Lionheart Creations Ltd.
http://www.lionheartcreations.com
william@lionheartcreations.com

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