Flight Simulator Guide / Downloads / Aircraft List / Project Open Sky Airbus A340-300

Project Open Sky Airbus A340-300 FREEWARE

Project Open Sky, is a freeware aircraft developer group that has been around for some time. They developed many aircraft models for FS2002 and FS2004, mostly Boeing aircraft. This Airbus A340-300 is a fine aircraft and it does represent the A340-300 well. Each package contains the effect files, the wingview models and vc models. A 2D panel is not included, neither are the gauges for the virtual cockpit. The orginal file that contains a panel and the gauges needed for the virtual cockpit seems hard to find, but there is one here: WSPilots.com A340 panel (by Pasquale Rinaldi) All usual animations are present, like fully animated control surfaces, dynamic flexing wings that respond to turbulence, thrust reversers that open fully on idle reverser thrust, drooping ailerons and elevators when engines are shut off, reflective cockpit windows, crash effects, dynamic shine, and much more. There are however a few problems with this aircraft model. There is a minor bug in the contact points configuration: it makes the aircraft look like that there are a few flat tires on one side. Fortunally, it is quite simple to correct it. Open the aircraft.cfg file with a text editor like notepad and search for this: [contact_points] Then, look for the entry that starts with "//point.3=" Just remove the "//" and save the file. During the takeoff, initial climb, final approach and landing phases of flight, you have to be careful with the stabilizer trim. The trim function is quite fast, which can result in extreme up or down movements of the nose. Also, the stabilizer trim is not animated, so it's not visible in the spotview or towerview. The rudder works, but the effect is insufficient, especially in conditions with strong crosswind - the aircraft keeps drifting off the runway. And finally, the main landing gear is sinking into the runway when landing. This is a common problem in FS2004 for a main landing gear sets with four-wheel bogies or more. In this case the result is realistic behaviour of the landing gear, but the lower wheels sink into the ground first.

Panel [?] : Yes Compatibility [?] : FS2004 Virtual Cockpit [?] : Yes Wingflex [?] : Yes, gear compression/lift based Wingview [?] : Yes Landing gear behaviour [?] : Realistic, but sinking into runway Sound [?] : No Rudder effectiveness [?] : Insufficient Download locations : Project Open Sky website Panel & gauges : WSPilots.com A340 panel (by Pasquale Rinaldi) Liveries : Project Open Sky website AVSIM Library (search in Flight Simulator 2004 - Aircraft Repaints, Textures and Modifications)