CUSTOM CLASSICS IX

THE CLASSIC GRUMMAN GOOSE The Grumman G-21 Amphibian Goose is a light amphibian transport plane, originally built by Grumman in 1937. It has a wingspan of 50'10", and a length of 39'7".The Grumman Goose was originally designed to fulfill a most unique role. The Goose was thought to be the perfect method of transport for Manhattan millionaires to fly to Miami. The potential of the Goose was soon recognized to be beyond that of a weekend luxury flyer, and rapidly it became the utility plane of choice for several air services. Because of its amphibious nature, generous interior space, and rugged construction which enabled the Goose to go just about anywhere it was quickly adopted by the Coast Guard as a rescue plane. Only 345 of these legendary planes were constructed. The factory engines on the Goose were the reliable Pratt & Whitney 450 horsepower radial "Wasp Jr's". The engines on a Goose have been known to ingest water, ice, and smoke without failing to produce takeoff power. The high mounted wings keep the engines out of the water and spray during amphibious maneuvers. To compensate for this unusual placement, and to minimize the cabling necessary to operate the engines and flaps, the throttle and several other key controls are mounted on the ceiling of the cockpit. The pilot sits on the left, operating the yoke with the left hand, the throttles, trim and flaps with the right hand. The most incredible thing about the Goose is the amount of interior size it has. The aircraft was designed with luxury in mind. Generous allowances were made for various amenities such as an onboard bar and closet / toilet in the 39 foot long cabin. The hull design of the Goose had many innovative design characteristics. It was known for its efficiency and reliability - two traits that have helped it become a classic amphibian aircraft. But its modern, aerodynamic profile also caught many an aviator's eye and helped cement its reputation as a classic. Even today the 67-year-old design has a distinctive air of modernity about it. Nonetheless, the Goose first entered production in 1937, and the last one was built in 1945. Not surprisingly, a number of them are still in service around the world today and can be found in the Caribbean or in Canada, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest, where amphibious planes are still the most convenient way to get around. The 51st G-21 was the second of a lot of four that was ordered by Peru. Manufactured in 1938, N327 holds the unique distinction of being the oldest flying Goose in existance. Darrell Terry flew it from Boeing Field in Seattle to Juneau, AK in 1974 where it was operated by Southeast Skyways. During 1982 and 1983, N327 appeared on TV as "Cutter's Goose" in ABC's "Tales of the Gold Monkey." It was eventually sold to James Templeton and later to Jim Chrysler who operated Chrysler Air in Washington and N327 was given a blue and yellow paint scheme. You are the current owner of N327! This package portrays N327 in each of its various roles and adds some fun with scenery and adventures based on the Tales of the Gold Monkey! There are 25 challenging flights to test your Goose piloting skills! If you become a "Gold Monkiac" like us you'll want to get the DVD set available at Gold Monkey.com! Very reasonable and entertaining for any Goose lover! Cups, hats, T shirts and other Cutters Goose accessories are available at the Cutters Goose store INSTALLATION: Installation is a matter of using the inclosed installer to put the needed files into your main fs2004 folder! That extraction into your main fs2004 folder will install all your aircraft and scenery files! Please do not manually install this file as you might miss something and be unhappy with the results! If you have previous Custom Classics pacakges you might see some overwriting of some files which it is ok to permit. PLEASE READ THE REST OF THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE BOOTING UP SO YOU CAN PROPERLY ENJOY THE CLASSIC GOOSE!! PLEASE!!!! PRETTY PLEASE..;o)) After reading the rest of this document boot up and make sure your settings are as follows: AUTOGEN: Recommend maximum but highest you can live with! AI TRAFFIC: There is commercial, period GA and military AI traffic included. We run at 100% which fills the skies You should run traffic as high as your machine will allow as it really adds to the sim. The radio chatter and visual effects make the sim come alive. NOTE: Since there is Trans Pacific default commercial traffic you might see an occasional 747 fly over head! ( NOTE: If you use Classic Wings 4 then you might see a Connie or a DC-4 fly over..;o)) If you want to avoid this then you can temporarily move the main default traffic file, traffic030528.bgl to a temporary storage folder and back when flying elsewhere. NOTE: It is recommended that you start with the flight "Cutters Goose Test Flight" to become familiar with the Goose! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AIRCRAFT OPERATION: Please read the Checklists provided where appropriate before operating each aircraft to fully enjoy the included features! If you desire, the virtual cockpit pan rate can be adjusted in your main fs9.cfg file from the default 400 to 900 which allows much faster more realistic panning using the hat switch. These aircraft have been designed so that 75% zoom should be used in the Virtual Cockpit. I would highly recommend getting the great Active Camera program and setting head latency at 1.0 ! It has literally transformed our flightsimming and we couldn't fly with out it now!!!!! Vitual Cockpit Operation: The virtual cockpit has been designed so that most functions can be accessed with the mouse It helps to have "tooltips" operational to become familiar with their use. Also printing out this text as a reference will make things easier. Most switches are fully clickable as well as the throttles, mixture levers etc. In addition to the normal controls "Hot Spots" have been assigned to perform certain functions: Special note must be made about weather! The "Rain Effects" on the virtual cockpit windows are selectable as desired. Clicking on the + hotspot will add more realistic rain effects and the - hotspot will turn them off if desired. The wiper will clear the pilots windscreen. Icing will occur on the aircraft whenever the outside air temperature drops below freezing whether because of winter freezing conditions or temperature drop at higher altitude. Use the Deice button to remove the ice! Jack's good eye will produce a "yes" bark! His patch will produce a "no" bark! A "lite" 2D panel is included for those who prefer not to fly in the virtual cockpit! NOTES! 1.If you are using an older video card and experience "Chrome Plated" gauges unzip the included file G21gaufx.zip into your main fs2004 folder and it will overwrite the gauge reflections with clear glass. 2. The Autopilot built into the virtual cockpit will switch off when viewing the Map or activating some other functions. The beep will remind you to turn it back on. This is the nature of this type of gauge and we apologize for the inconvenience! If you can't live with this you can deactivate the VC Autopilot by placing an X in the panel.cfg as follows: [Vcockpit05] Background_color=0,0,0 size_mm=256,256 visible=0 pixel_size=512,512s texture=$pan5 gauge00=Xautopilot, 0,128,128,128 gauge01=goose_vor2,128,128,128,128 gauge02=goose!turn_and_bank, 128,0,128,128 gauge03=goose!clock, 0,0,128,128 You can then use the default autopilot found at Shift/2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AM Radio/CD Player Operation The AM Radio radio comes preloaded with several period AM radio broadcasts! If you experience poor flight sim performance when the Goose is used it may be that your video card or operating system will not handle the radio/cd player. You can disable the radio/cd player by using Notepad to open the Panel.cfg in the G21 Panel folder and placing an X in front of the gauge name as shown below: [Vcockpit11] Background_color=0,0,0 size_mm=256,256 visible=0 pixel_size=256,256s texture=$pan11 gauge00=Xradcdgs!radiocd, 0,128,128,128 PLEASE use the Aircraft/Kneeboard/ Checklist and Reference HTMLs for specifications and a history of each aircraft! Each item can be checked off by clicking the appropriate boxes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BONUS SCENERY ADDONS in CUSTOM CLASSICS EXTRAS NO RED BRAKE MESSAGES: There is a little program included that eliminates the red brakes messages. Instructions are provided in the zip. BRIGHT SUN: There is a folder with replacement sun corona that makes the sky brighter and more realistic. Instructions are provided in the folder. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEYBOARD COMMANDS: If you do not want to use the mouse in the Vc or Main "Lite" panel view follow these keyboard commands: Service Aircraft = Hold down shift and E briefly. Hatches will open. Put Crew On Board= Push the / key... Full Rich Mixture for Starting= Push Shift and Control and F4 Main Power Bus= Push Shift and M Start Engine= Hold M and + keys till engines catch or Control-E Adjust Trim= Use Home and End keys... Flaps= Use F5 thru F8 keys or flaps buttons on joystick. Gear=Use G key ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONCLUSION: We hope you enjoy using these models as much as we did in creating them!! These models were built with FSDS2, the super building program from Louis Sinclair! We owe a big thank you to Rob Clark for letting us incorporate his neat am radio/cd player gauge into the virtual cockpit views! Thanks Rob! We owe a very, very special thanks to Tom Constantine for all the hard work in making the neat AI traffic that makes our scenery come alive! Thanks much Tom! Last but not least thanks to the GES Guys who have suffered through all the beta testing! Please let us know what you like or don't like about this project so we can direct future efforts toward creating more realistic and enjoyable virtual flying experiences...:o)) Lynn and Bill Lyons Custom Classic Aircraft Support Forum at The Old Hangar