Simming La Vida Loca

The Eaglesoft dream-team gathers to reproduce a dream aircraft.

Mr Roy Wilbanks, a random AOPA member, was the extremely lucky winner of the 2004 AOPA Win-A-Twin Sweepstakes. The prize: a heavily refurbished 1965 Twin Comanche featuring a completely updated avionics suite (Garmins GNS480, MX20, GTX330, Bendix King KI825, EDM 760 and Stec 55X George), overhauled engines and fuel plumbing, Hartzell propellers, new control yokes, a pimp-my-twin colour-shifting repaint, custom leather seating, LCD displays on the rear seats so passengers can watch movies, and plenty of fuel and multi-engine training. All of that, um, free. This “dream machine” would cost about a quarter of a million dollars, so did you feel lucky, Roy?

Not long after this event, FS legend Owen Hewitt found out Wilbanks was his neighbour, and so he had the brilliant idea of asking him to collaborate in reproducing his Piper in MSFS. Roy agreed and the project began. At the time Owen was designing for Dreamfleet, but later on the project was continued and finished by Eaglesoft when Owen switched houses. At Eaglesoft, a dream aeroplane was to be recreated by a dream team: Owen Hewitt (legendary modelling and textures), Bill Leaming (he knows a thing or two about gauges), Ed Wilson (gauges), Bobby Hayes (modelling and textures), Alex Metzger (reknown for his flight models) and Ron Hamilton at the helm. The end result is not only a must-have FS add-on, but a celebration of flight simulation, aviation, and teamwork. I asked Owen Hewitt to comment on the project.

Welcome, Owen. What can you tell about your experiences with Roy Wilbanks’ aircraft? Were you actually at the controls? How does she fly?
I have a little over fifty hours of right seat in Roy’s N204WT, and at least eighty or so in total with the aircraft. That much time allowed me to gather just about everything I ever wanted to know about the aircraft and how she behaves in flight. The flying was mostly up to Roy, as he had me operate the avionics most of the time and act as the navigator. My FS experience also provided a great foundation for operating the real-world Garmins GNS480 and MX20.

Regarding the flight model, Alex Metzger had requested very specific information about the characteristics of N204WT. I was able to gather all that data for him so he would have all the necessary elements to build a realistic and highly accurate flight model. Roy himself has tested the FS version of the TC extensively, and has commented many times on the uncanny reconstruction of his aircraft’s flight characteristics.

How was the project ported from Dreamfleet to Eaglesoft?
The aircraft model and textures are my original work. Lou Betti was to create the 2-D panel, 2-D views, and have some of his gauge programmers do the avionics, etc. Upon my joining Eaglesoft, Lou and I could not reach an agreement for the model to remain with Dreamfleet, so the project was incorporated by Eaglesoft from that point on. Any previous work by Lou was re-done, and Alex (a Dreamfleet team member who did the flight model) agreed to allow for his work to continue existing as Eaglesoft’s.

What is it like to collaborate with such a talented team like ESDG’s?
The folks at Eaglesoft are top-notch. From start to finish Ron Hamilton and his team assisted me to recreate N204WT as faithfully as possible.

I was responsible for the creation of the exterior and VC model, textures, and sound recording and mixing. Ed Wilson programmed a faithful replica of the Bendix/King KI 825 CDI and J.P. Instruments EDM-760. Bill Leaming programmed all the analogue gauges and was a tremendous help fashioning all the custom XML. Keith Giveans from Simflyer graciously provided the GNS480, MX20, and PMA8000. Ron did all the 2-D panel art and documentation. Bob Hayes painted additional enhancements to the base textures to give it that unique Eaglesoft look. And Bjørn Erik Henriksen provided two extra custom repaints for the FSX version. It was certainly a team effort that produced the most excellent results.

About the virtual aircraft, are you happy with the finished product? Was there anything you wanted but could not be included at this time?
From a model and texture perspective, this is my best work to date. I have learned a lot from my many years of model development, and I made sure to incorporate as much of that knowledge into this model, in order to maximize its performance within the simulator. The rest of the team did a very good job in their respective areas to make this an all-around great product. It brings to the table a little old and a little new. It is a 1965 airframe with a selection of the latest avionics on the market today. The nostalgia effect is certainly present, especially with the “retro” paint schemes we provide. I believe this project opens a niche that was completely disregarded up to this point.

I also really wanted a faithful representation of the GNS480 and MX20, so we are thankful to Keith Giveans for allowing us to use his Simflyer stack of avionics. Now Ron is currently planning to develop these as a custom set of Eaglesoft avionics, and offer them in a future update.

Thank you for your words and please keep it up, Owen.
Thanks Jarn! My pleasure talking about the Eaglesoft Twin Comanche!