WIP: Flight Replicas Halifax

[Paul K]

Check your PMs Mike

I also have the following books, so if there's something you are interested in, I can go through them to see if there's anything relevant:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hull-Hell-Hali ... 0904597814

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Handley-Page-H ... 1906537062

[Paul K]

Mike, this might be of interest. The link comes via Ed Walters at Plane Design. Unfortunately, he has no other drawings or diagrams of the Halifax.

https://www.eflightmanuals.com/ITEM_EFM ... sp?mID=571

[mikecyul]

The eflight manual has been purchased, and there is indeed material in there that will help with the cargo version. Good stuff! Many thanks.

[Paul K]

Glad to hear it Mike. Ed can always be relied upon to come up with something.

[mikecyul]

Still a work-in-progress of course, with lots left to do, but in case you're interested in seeing how it's coming along so far (there are larger pics on the Flight Replicas Facebook page):

[Paul K]

My goodness, that is just lovely.

Mike, how far are you going to model the interior, going both forward and to the rear? The trouble with British bombers such as the Halifax etc, is that they have no transverse bulkheads to provide a 'cut-off' point, so to speak. Virtavia rigged a curtain forward of the navigator's position in their Avro Lincoln, which was as good a solution as any.

Any thoughts ?

[mikecyul]

The Halifax did have curtains between the individual crew work stations in the forward section of the aircraft (including one between the navigator and bombardier in the nose), and so if as pilot you lean over and peer down into the passageway, you'll see that the radio operators curtain is closed, as is the one leading forward to the navigator and bombardier's positions. Having curtains there is authentic (and necessary, as there won't be enough polygons available to suitably model other compartments). But leading rearwards, aft of the flight engineer's station behind the pilot, we're going to have to assume that the crew decided they didn't want light coming up front in case anyone brewed some tea in the centre section, and jury rigged a curtain sealing off the fuselage interior.

I will try to make it so that a little light leaks around the curtains, so you'll know your crew is hard at work at their individual jobs as you fly the aircraft.

The flight engineer's station will not be as detailed as the pilot's, as you have to play the flight engineer's role only briefly during startup and shutdown; it's main use to the sim pilot, once flying, will be to monitor the fuel levels, and there'll be a camera view to do that.

Mike

[simondix]

Any pics of the Halton yet?

[Paul K]

MIke, thanks very much for that - what you are doing sounds very satisfactory. I notice Aeroplane Heaven is modelling the nose section of their forthcoming Lancaster, but I think the Halifax is considerably more complex, what with the W/Op, navigator and bomb-aimer all below and forward of the pilot.

Will we be able to make the control column disappear?

Just one thing about the screenshots above - the night cockpit; would it be possible to brighten the needles and numerals on the dials and gauges a little ? Increase the contrast, maybe ? They seem a little indistinct to me, but that could be my monitor or eyesight

One more thing - I don't know whether you've seen this.Its one of those 360 degree tours of the inside of the Yorkshire Air Museum's Halifax.

http://yorkshireairmuseum.org/exhibits/ ... 0vr-tours/

[mikecyul]

Work on the Halton will begin when the Mk.III is complete. It'll be easier to modify a finished model.

Paul, yes, the control column disappears. The Halifax cockpit isn't particularly well laid out compared to other cockpits, and I imagine that perhaps even the real pilots found them a little awkward (and I think read somewhere that Halifax's didn't perform overly well on landing overshoots, with the explanation being controls and gauges that weren't intuitively placed for an emergency). The control column really blocks the view. At least Handley Page offset the master compass slightly!

Night views are pretty difficult to reproduce accurately in screenshots, which is why I didn't include any on the other websites. I think you'll find that once you are actually flying the Halifax at night, the illumination will be accurate and good enough. I've read often enough from pilots that the real night illumination in aircraft of this era, and even long after, was pretty poor compared to nowadays, and so perhaps we'll have to strain out eyes slightly as they did. There doesn't appear to be mention in the Manuals of UV lamps. If I turn the lights off in the room when flying in night mode, the red lighting actually looks a little too bright, but as you say, different monitors etc. will have their effect. Also, I imagine that perhaps you'd really want the least illumination possible when German nightfighters were about. Many cockpit lights on the RAF bombers even had covers that closed over them, and there may have to be one on that 'bomb doors fully shut' light....

And yes, thanks, I've taken the 360 tour a few times. It gives a really good feel for being in the aircraft. It would nice if more aircraft had those!

Mike