Virtual Airlines. DC3 Airways

 Just as a short interlude between the next leg of Alan Cobham's African adventure. I mentioned how the FSX platform can provide a doorway to many real life historic events. For example, a little while ago I became particularly interested in the 1948 /'49 Berlin Airlift having become engrossed in various books and articles, it was then really interesting to fly the legs in the sim as realistically as possible. Much of the navigation radio and waypoint system has been modelled by very clever third party enthusiasts in FSX and other platforms, enabling us to enjoy a great deal of authenticity in the flying, but also the planning stage.

Along with the Calclassic website, this DC3 Airways site has a considerable amount of files and members with great experience (often in real world operations), to allow the past to come alive and, ironically, become a "living history" event in your own home.

Here is a link to: https://dc3airways.net/ and to Calclassic http://www.calclassic.com/

It is important to say that by downloading the aircraft available through these sites you are most likely to experience very realistic flight characteristics. Sometimes the model may not look as crisp and detailed as the creations from the professional companies, but because there is such a wealth of real world knowledge here, the experience input by members counts for a great deal as far as realistic flight and handling is concerned. Combine this with very realistic weather effects from the integration of live current weather updates and navigation that is exactly as the real world and you have a very thorough aviation workout, should you choose.

In the video I have just downloaded this DC3 Airways aircraft and this is my first trial ready for my assessment  by a DCA administrator; once I have everything working and I am up to scratch! As you can see I have work to do :). Although I didn't show it in the short clip, the cockpit is just as detailed and operational as the outside view.

I have not flown a real world DC 3 / C47, but I did fly in one at Air Atlantique / Atlantic Flight Training here in the UK. It does behave in the sim as I imagined. 

Albeit having a single engine, I think the closest real world aircraft to the DC3 that I have very briefly flown in circuits at Kemble UK, is the AN2 Antonov, that was very surprisingly heavy and of course very slow all-round, especially in roll. But on the other hand you felt that the aeroplane uncannily knew what to do in each stage of the circuit. There is a brilliantly authentic AN2 in FSX, I am sure we will be doing something with that in the future on this blog.

Now back to the DC3 circuits! I can see issues already, I have not switched nav lights or landing lights and cowl flaps are wide open too... I have a real world policy to avoid flying with anyone that does not use a checklist on a complex aircraft... point taken, time to print those checklists.