BELL P-39D AIRACOBRA

The inspiration for this model comes from the Porsche 956/962 GTP racecar of the 1970's. I watched these cars at Watkins Glen when driven by Al Holbert and Derek Bell. With the bubble canopy, side doors, engine behind the driver, and the airscoop, all you have to do is add a set of wings and you have a P39. There is at least one P39 available but I am not sure if it is an original or based on the CFS model. It has much nicer paint than mine, but no interior detail, so I decided to do my own.

This model is meant to fly 100% from the VC. All control surfaces are animated, as are the stick, pedals, and engine controls. I have tried to add enough interior detail to make the VC enjoyable to use. It is based on pictures from several sources, whereas the 2D panels that are available are not representative of the real plane. There are pop up panels for electrical switches, radio stack, GPS, and a trim indicator is placed next to the trim wheel by the seat, so there is no need to use the 2D panel. You can toggle the pilot on/off when the master switch is on. Both doors open.

FLYING THE P39

All the information you need is contained in the Notes. The Checklists are baseD on a P39 flight manual but many of the items will not apply to flight simulation.

Go directly to the VC. Use shift-4 to bring up the switches needed for starting. Pan down to find the trim unit and set the trim for takeoff. When looking straight ahead, pan down slightly to see at least the tops of the manifold pressure gauge and tach so that you can set them for climb and cruise.

Now just go fly. Follow the procedures in Notes. Notice in the gunsight that there is a yellow rectangle. If you reduce to cruise power and hold the bottom line on the horizon, you should be able to trim for straight and level flight. For aerobatics you can do at least rolls and loops. Stall behavior is not modeled correctly so don't bother. For approach, it seems easier to come in high and use a lot of flaps in order to maintain visibility over the top of the panel. The plane will lose altitude quickly and you should try to get down to 100 mph or less before flaring. With a little practice you can make smooth landings

When the master switch is on, hit L to toggle the pilot on/off. Use shift-E to open the doors.

You will need a key or yoke button programmed for gear, flaps, and trim. Throttle, prop, and mixture controls are recommended instead of key strokes. A CH products USB yoke was used in development, but a joystick would probably be better for the flight controls.

CREDITS

Model: this model was created by myself using FSDS2. Many thanks to Avsim forum members for their help with animation, and especially Bill (n4gix) who taught me how to do the VC.

Panel: the panel.cfg file was originally made by Dan Griffin but I have extensively modified it by changing out some of the gauges and adding the VC. I removed Dan's panel bitmap because I could not locate him to get permission to use it. You will have to download it yourself as described in the Installation.

Gauges: I do not know for sure the source of the gauges. I believe they are standard CFS and are probably used by several different aircraft, so hopefully I have not used something that belongs to someone else. The carb air and amp gauges are from Fred Bantings' Beaver and are used with his permission.

Sounds: the original sounds were downloaded some time ago for a P40 and then used on other aircraft in CFS2. Several of the wav files were swapped around with CFS2 files to the point where I think only the engine sounds remained. I think the originals were done by Aaron Swindle, but I contacted him and he is not sure.

Textures: all of the textures were done by me, with the exception of the machine gun units on the VC panel. These were cut and pasted from the P40 with permission of Bruno Duffort. The paint scheme is a composite of numerous pictures from a P39 book, so it does not represent any particular squadron.

Air file: this is from the FS2002 Corsair. The cfg file was beat into submission until I got what I felt to be nimble handling but controllable and stable pitch so that you could fly the plane reasonably straight and level land it without hopping all over the place. The speeds are within reason but not exact. Handling descriptions from a P39 manual and a training video were used for guidance. The P39 is not a high performance fighter, compared to what came later, but is also not supposed to be difficult to fly as far as a fighter planes go, and I think I achieved this level of performance.

It is my intent to never claim credit for work that someone else has done. If I have used anything improperly, it is by mistake and I apologize in advance.

This airplane is freeware. Do anything you want with it for your own use. To upload any modifications or repaints, please ask first and give credit.

John L. Woodward
December 2002
[email protected]