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Eastern Airlines Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar V2.0
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USAGE

BAO's Flight Simulator Flight Shop is required to use this aircraft 
model.  Copy the L1011EA2.AIR file to your FS5 \PILOTS directory.  Copy 
all the L1011EA2.?AF files to your \TEXTURE directory.  


DESCRIPTION

This is release 2.0 of my Tristar FSFS model.  Some minor improvements in 
the visual model have been made; basically the cleanup of a few display 
glitches (there are still several left) and the addition of dihedral
to the horizontal stabilizer.  The major improvement in V2.0, however, is the 
incorporation of a vastly superior flight model courtesy of Mike Vidal.
Mike was kind enough to perform a comprehensive flight model upgrade that 
includes both performance and handling qualities enhancements.  Here's what 
he has to say about his work:
  
"I have tweaked the flight model and ... I like the way it flies; very solid.  
I am still getting a bit of stall warning when it is inappropriate, but I 
would suspect that it is a problem with the Flight Dynamics Model from BAO, 
and large heavy aircraft.

"The aircraft is now very stable, very nice handling.  I changed the Zero 
Lift Drag to .019; if not, you could never get the plane to reach .90M at 
altitude with full power.

"I have been able to rotate at 160Kias, climb to 190 before pulling up 1 
notch of flaps.  Continue to 220, and then retract to clean config.  Climb 
at 250Kias shows 2,000Fpm.  This would seem about right.

"Changed pitch moment by +2M, since the plane tended to hunt pitch a bit too
much. Increased elevator scalar to 5; at 3 it did not have enough pitch 
authority.

"Changed the engine parameters as follows:  Fuel consumption to 1.75 (if you
don't, it barely consumes fuel); Turbine scalar to .75, oil temp scalar to 
.75. This yields more realistic performance numbers.

"I moved the center of rotation down toward the wing, and forward of the mains 
10ft. By definition, the center of rotation is where all the weight lies.  
This stabilizes the aircraft on the ground and improves ground handling 
immensly, as well as improving the flight characteristics."

My own observations of the handling characteristics of L-1011 V2.0 confirm
Mike's assessment.  The controls are well harmonized between pitch and roll,
and the roll response and crispness is increased without losing that "big 
airplane" feel.  The biggest improvement I see, however, is the increase in 
directional stability Mike has achieved.  V1.0 was very poorly damped about 
the yaw axis, and this led to all kinds of problems on approach.  The incessant 
tail wagging, combined with the design eye position far forward of the center 
of rotation, gave the illusion of lateral motion that was merely yaw rate. This
made lineup on approach a difficult proposition.  The much stiffer directional
characteristics of V2.0 eliminate this illusion.  Yaw control power seems to be
reduced somewhat due to the increase in directional stability, but there is
plenty available to de-crab the airplane on round-out prior to touchdown in
a strong crosswind.  You still won't be able to horse it around too much on 
short final to fix a major lineup problem, but at least you'll know when you have
a lineup problem and when you don't.  Nosewheel steering on the ground is 
sufficient to turn the airplane around within the width of the runway.  I have 
yet to evaluated the engine out characteristics.

One thing to keep in mind on takeoff is that the airplane is set up at the
maximum takeoff weight of 430,000 lb.  Most airplanes at their max weight
must be treated carefully with strict observance of climb/accel/flap schedules.
Mike's comments on this point are accurate.  You can fly a departure without
sounding the stall warning horn (which sounds too far in advance of the actual 
stall) if you carefully fly the flap schedule he recommends above.

This airplane will do a watered down "Boeing bounce" if the sink rate at 
touchdown is too high.  I am sure this is a BAO bug and not an artifact of 
Mike's flight model.

All in all, I am very pleased with way the airplane flies now.  If you find
some tweaks that further improve the handling/performance, I would be pleased 
to hear from you.


ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

I am of course indebted to Mike Vidal for his time and efforts in making
the Tristar flyable.  I would also like to thank those of you who took
the time to provide feedback.  Your interest in my project has made it
very worthwhile.  I am also indebted to the thousands of passengers who
have patiently endured the porpoising and corkscrewing behavior of their 
flights in and out of the Atlanta area...


LIMITATIONS

This aircraft model is made available for the private use of Microsoft
Flight Simulator enthusiasts.  The original, unaltered archive file may 
be freely distributed and uploaded to BBS and FTP sites.  Under no 
circumstances may this model be packaged, bundled or otherwise sold for 
profit.

Copyright 1995  Brian Quayle.  All Rights Reserved.
