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Diamond Da 20 Freeware

F

Ferox

Messages
37
Country
germany
Hello everyone, at first I would very like to say hi to everyone, I am from germany and happy having gone under the flightsim developers. As I had bought a few Add-ons like the Aerosoft Twin Otter, the Airbus and the pmdg 777 and 737 I noticed that, although these Planes certainly are done very good, there are a few Planes, mainly the Embraer Regional jets (145) , and many GA Planes that aren´t available on the market, neither as payware nor as freeware. So what I am trying to do is maybe build a few planes myself(and maybe publish them later if I feel I did a good job). But as my experience with all that stuff is rather theoretical, I thought I may sign up here in order to both get good advise and maybe new ideas.
So what I am planning to do is as a start building a basic Diamond Da 20 (based on helijahs model),
at which I will:
-Do a repaint (That will be the easiest part I guess)
-Flight dynamics(Ground effect)
(If you know a good tool for that or a tutorial I would be glad if you tell me)
-Do a bit of texturing work (mainly for the cockpit seats, the yokes and the floor)
(If I encounter any problems it would be cool if you could help me)
-Do a bump mapping for the outside model(I think I can do this alone)
-And now the interesting part:
-On the outside improve the Pitot, and the cooler
-Add light models
-On the outside do light effects which look more like a light cone
(I think i need 3d lighting for the ground, haven´t found a lot on the web until now)
-On the inside do threedimensional instruments
(sadly i´ve got no idea how to do this, if you can help me out that would be great)
-As many planes including the ones of the flying club I know have a Gps mounted on the panel or the window side with a suction pad, I would try to model one, texture it, and put the default gps500 (or my own, would be cool) on it with 3d buttons.
Airplane-GPS.jpg

-Also do different vc panels with full instrumentation(left right)
-semi glass cockpit with the gps like on this one:
Soloy_vc_ready2-667x384.jpg


(I think it has got to do with the panel.cfg, maybe I need help on that)
-An older seat version and a new seat
Diamond-DA-20-0311b.jpg

-Maybe, as I don´t know how to get them, a new soundset.
-Do a in-Simulator menu allowing to customize the aircraft.
(If anybody knows where you can get them for free, feel free to post it)
-And at last when I´m done post my work on avsim or so.

- I think as this will be more of a hobby I would expect it to take at least half a year, but as I will have gotten knowledge then I think I can then try to build another one from scratch.


Thanks a lot for reading!(Got quite longer than I intended:yikes:)
After all this a few early screenshots.
57eMQ36.png

n82b1cY.png

1VYcB3M.png

Note that the instruments are blender textures and no gauges.
 
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Looking good! If you need any reference photos just ask. I am a partial owner of a DA-20A1 (PH-FLK and PH-FLP). Keep it up!
 
At the moment maybe from the side and some close ups of the beacons , landing lights and the nav lights, anyways good to have you in the boat.
P.S. is the nose wheel directly steered or by braking?
 
PaulJC said:
The nosewheel is free-castoring so differential braking is used to steer.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

There are no beacon lights on this aircraft. You use the strobes to warn other people and aircraft that you are about to start the engine. The next time I go flying I'll make detailled photos for you!

Which specific model are you developing btw?
 
I would start off with the DV20-A1 and DA20-A1, and as the other models mostly vary in rear windows, engines and a Glass cockpit I would say later the Katana 100, as I currently don´t know how complicated programming a glass cockpit is, I am currently not sure wether I will do that.
And if you could, maybe a few pictures of the panel and wheels(especially brakes) as whole and in detail would also be great.
Thank you for your support!
 
No problem! I'm not sure when I will be flying again, because I'm in Poland for my ATPL classes right now. I'll be flying home in 1.5 week or something. But I need the hours so I'll plan a flight shortly after my return ;)
 
Wow, ATPL class sounds good to me.

Anyways, I have started modelling the front closer, are the Wheel fairings, the wheels, the light and the exhaust about right in proportions?
LOtALEk.png

x3R0pxM.png

Note that the "dirty" wing comes from the blender rendering, there is no light from that side
 
My Katana doesn't have wheelfairings fitted sadly, so I can't comment on those ;) The exhaust looks a bit thick to me, but I can't see it good enough.
 
No problem, as far as I understood it is fairly easy to "switch" them on and off, more interesting would be the physical part.
On the Cessna 206 I´ve flown you aren´t allowed to land on grass strips with fairings on(which is hard to simulate I think), and it´s a bit heavier.(But it will matter more on a light plane right?)
 
For light aircraft it isn't required to remove them, or at least not that I know of. I visit grass strips on a regular basis, but I always see VLA's (like the Katana) Cessna's, Pipers you name it, with fearings.
 
Thank you for the tip, as you see I´m still learning, looks a lot better as it isn´t so focused like the spot light.
 
The wingtip lights include the strobe (white) lights in a clear housing in the center of the main housing, as can be seen from your picture of the real aircraft. Although this picture is from the Liberty XL2, the light is identical to those used on the SR20/22 aircraft and the Diamond DA20:
tPBu5.jpg

Here is a picture of a 2007 Cirrus SR20:
tPC3n.jpg
 
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Looking good. It would be a good idea to get the model into the sim as it is likely that you will find many issues upon doing so. It's easier to fix them as you go as opposed to discovering that you have a mess at the end. ;)

Here's everything you could want for the tip lights...http://www.whelen.com/install/141/14112.pdf
 
Hey, great find Bob! I wish I'd had that back when I was doing the modeling on the Liberty, DA series and the Cirrus series! :cool:
 
As I am not sure, if a material is transparent in blender it will be transparent in fsx, right?
 
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