Crop Duster's Association

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Pencil
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Pencil »

Col Hogan wrote:The idea for a release would be such that the "trigger" or "platform" would have to be
about 6 to 8 ft above the ground so the plane would not actually be at ground level
to let go of the spray.
As long as the 'spray' industry is height-adjustable, there shouldn't be any issue with this. The track attachment points can default to x feet above ground, and be adjustable from there.

What are you thinking about regarding the receiving platform? Would you need one? If the aircraft picks up the spray at the platform, then dumps it over the field, do you need anything more?
bdaneal
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by bdaneal »

Col Hogan wrote: Now for Ben, you would need a 1920 panel truck or flatbed that would serve as a delivery
vehicle from the mainline freight depot, let's say "Ben's Fertilizers" and have it run out
to the field to make the delivery to the "producer" platform.
1920s, so older than this? I think I could manage to do that. I think I'll pass on stick-shift simulation, though (that would probably take some major scripting).

Now, to find some Stearman plans.
Cheers,
Ben
Col Hogan
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Col Hogan »

Hey Guys

I know this may be an unneceesary question but, has anyone heard from Ish6 ?? :?:
I have sent a couple of PM's and e-mails but no answer. My guess is that he has
taken some Christmas leave and not told us he was going anywhere (Geeezz, why would he do that?) :roll:

Just wonderin'
Ken 8)
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
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Col Hogan
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Col Hogan »

Greetings and Happy New Year ! ! ! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas.
I'm moving on with the Crop Dusters and have a few comments and a cupola questions.
First of all, I am having trouble finding an industry track that can have a "dump" mode
that would be useful on this module. Especially one that could be about one half of
a board and that could be raised and lowered just a bit. Some of the BI Tracks in '04
are from the Built-in's and cannot be altered. All that I would have to do would be
to put in the words "height-range= ______" (whatever amount) and the industry would
move. Just cannot find one.

Curtis, would you still be interested in converting your small passenger platform by moving
the track outwards about 10 to 15 feet ? And having only a few sacks as products
that would be loadable from the "truck-side" ? A lot like Elvenor's Pitkin Station??
(I think . . . .)

I have included a cupola pictures as an update for you. I was able to convert the Hayshed
Industry to provide Sacksets of Nitrate by using Slugsmashers sacks and icon. If I release
it soon, I will notify the owner, Idiotbouy and tell him what's up. It actually works pretty
well using a flatcar and a loco. Don't know about the biplane pickup, yet.


Image This is the new Nitrate Ferilizer Shed Industry




Image This is the crop / field in question. Not an industry track long enough


Thanks for all of your input. Still doing research and conversions.

Ken 8)
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
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Pencil
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Pencil »

Yep, no problem. My visitors have left, and we're back from visiting other relatives. Hopefully, this week will be slow and I can pop out at least something you can test with :)

Edit: I spent some time in the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle this afternoon - they had a nice little airmail display. I got a couple pictures - hopefully enough to start another distraction....
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Pencil »

OK, I've started work on this. Just to be clear, you want two tracks; one being a road where trucks can drop off nitrate, and the other on the opposite side where aircraft can pick the nitrate up?
Col Hogan
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Col Hogan »

Curtis
That is exactly right. The roads/tracks would be changeable to the adjoining track.
One quick question - would this conversion be from a small or medium platform ?

This current picture indicates what I have been working on all day Sunday.
You may not believe this but I now have a Biplane that will tilt and bank during
flight and can also pick up the Nitrate sacks as a load. I had to remember that
Ian Manion (Vulcan) had some acft that had special scripts and I applied one of those
to my scenario. It works pretty good.
Also, that I have completely converted Idiotbouy's Hayshed industry to a Nitrate
shed that will produce sacksets every 30 seconds. I was amazed that when I finished
these that they worked okay.

Image I have indicated what the plane's load will be. Other loads are also available.

Still working on the small details.

Ken 8)
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
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Pencil
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Pencil »

Ken,

You quoted the KUID of the small platform, so that's what I was using. No problem if you want to use a larger platform; just let me know. I also got the biplane to tilt during flight, but the propeller doesn't follow the rest of the body :lol:. It works for a test aircraft, though.

Curtis
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Pencil »

OK, I got the nitrate dump to work:
smoke_test.jpg
smoke_test.jpg (36.6 KiB) Viewed 33350 times
The brown rectangle is a marker for where to drop the nitrate (and will not be visible in the released version); the smoke effect is attached to the aircraft. This consumes one unit of nitrate from the aircraft. The dump is height-adjustable from 0 to 30m.
The aircraft is an early version of a De Havilland DH-4.
Just a test, but so far, so good....
Col Hogan
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Col Hogan »

Hey Curtis
I did some checking and the Medium platform looks better because of the amounts of the
Nitrate sacks that may be used. The kuid I matched was 124060:28032:1 .
I would like to change to the medium platform please. Thankyou.

Putting the aircraft track away from the platform enough to clear the wingspan, then plus
a foot or two would be perfect. Now then having the vehicle drive-up track would be pretty
close but not sure exactly. Probably using the SG trackage to have greatest clearance.
I'm thinking that Ben will come up with a suitable delivery truck for the set-up.
Ben, if that delivery truck had "Ed's Crop Dusting Service" on the side, well...then........
that would be just plain perfect. I want to come up with the same sort-of decal for the side of
the plane so it could show ownership.

I love the marker for the Nitrate drop and of course the smoke effect makes it just better.
Now, would I suppose that if we put several markers overlapping in a row, it would represent
the length of the field ? OR if the markers could come in available lengths (?)

To make the plane bank and tilt from the older .GS files, I found them in the Helicopter folder
from Vulcan and used the tags in the Bi-Plane config. I do want to change some of the values to
insure the plane banks a little more even at a slow speed. Would your GS files from the
De Havilland show any differences ??

Ken 8)
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
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thegrindre
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by thegrindre »

WOW! Guys, lookin' gooooood... :D

I believe the planes are either sub contracted out or owned by the farmer and not the delivery service. Just my two cents worth of knowledge.
Rick
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Pencil
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Pencil »

Col Hogan wrote:Hey Curtis
I did some checking and the Medium platform looks better because of the amounts of the
Nitrate sacks that may be used. The kuid I matched was 124060:28032:1 .
I would like to change to the medium platform please. Thankyou.
No problem - I can make it any size we require - it doesn't have to use an existing platform.
Col Hogan wrote: Putting the aircraft track away from the platform enough to clear the wingspan, then plus
a foot or two would be perfect. Now then having the vehicle drive-up track would be pretty
close but not sure exactly. Probably using the SG trackage to have greatest clearance.
I currently have the transfer platform set for the DH-4's wingspan - it's a bit wider than the Pup. Once we have a truck, I can adjust the road track to fit. One thing I did do is to set the air track attachment points below ground, so the aircraft's wheels actually touch the ground.
Col Hogan wrote: Now, would I suppose that if we put several markers overlapping in a row, it would represent
the length of the field ? OR if the markers could come in available lengths (?)
Using multiple markers would be the easiest, if that works for you? That would also somewhat match the consumption of nitrate to the size of the field.
Col Hogan wrote: To make the plane bank and tilt from the older .GS files, I found them in the Helicopter folder
from Vulcan and used the tags in the Bi-Plane config. I do want to change some of the values to
insure the plane banks a little more even at a slow speed. Would your GS files from the
De Havilland show any differences ??
Yep, I increased the roll value for the DeHavilland. When I was playing with the Pup, I increased it even more - perhaps as high as -15... (I think the DH-4 is currently using -10)
Col Hogan
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Col Hogan »

Hi Curtis

I've been playing with the numbers on the roll & pitch to see what works best on the
ground and airborne. This picture is not exactly right. I had to PAUSE the movement
to keep it true because if you 'STOP' the movement in progress, it sets itself upright
according to the .GS rule, which is also listed below.

If someone has their's coming out of a hangar at break-neck speed of 10 mph, they may
break a wingtip. I'm still working on the right combination. However, there is another
option to this scenario - don't have a taxi-way included with the module ! ! ! ! hehehe

Generally, the numbers are real close for the pitch and roll and we should not see any
grief from it. We'll just have a big circle and folks can take it from there.

Here they are -

Image OUCH ! ! !




Image
GS Rule for Roll & Pitch is near the bottom. Still a WIP.


I've gotten to the field with a cupola product dumps but haven't worked on it hard enough just yet.
I have a 4-day weekend and I think I'll have it worked out by Monday.


Ken 8)

PS - I also changed your Class from Aircraft to Helicopter . That might be the culprit.
I'll go back and look again and make the change if necessary. The helicopter might be
to sensitive for this application.
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
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Pencil
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by Pencil »

Looking good!
Class means nothing except it needs to match the class name in the config.txt.
thegrindre
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Re: Crop Duster's Association

Post by thegrindre »

All this is extremely interesting. Very well done, so far, guys.
I'm looking forward to giving it all a try, once it's released. Will you mind If I add it to my route when I release that?

:D
Rick
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Creating in 3D Canvas Pro
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