The first production Travel Air B established such a good reputation in the First National (Ford) Air Tour in 1925 that the company sold 19 the same year. In 1928 the model B was designated the Model 2000. Orders increased until 1930, when Model 2000 production ceased, with 1,550 built. One of the classic aircraft of the late 1920s, the Travel Air 2000 replaced the aging Curtiss Jenny trainer that was fast becoming ragged due to its popularity on the barnstorming circuit. Designed with the local airport operator in mind, the rugged, all-purpose trainer was produced with a liquid-cooled, V-8 Curtiss OX-5 engine, one of the most economical and available due to the large military surpluses.

It is not surprising that the Travel Air was a good airplane considering that Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna, and Lloyd Stearman were all involved in its design and production. This resource of talent produced an aircraft that was known for reliability, ease of maintenance, and a delight to fly. With a range of 425 miles, barnstormers could hop passenger rides in and out of small fields all day. Notice the huge balanced ailerons giving the plane the nickname Old Elephant Ears.

Because of a superficial resemblance to Fokker D.VIIs, Travel Airs frequently represented Fokkers in the World War I flying films of the 1920s and 1930s, earning them the nickname "Wichita Fokker". In Canada the Travel Air was used for training and some charter work. One was used as a corporate aircraft by the Walter M. Lowney Co.

Bush pilots in Canada and Alaska discovered the ruggedness, load carrying ability, and dependability of the Travel Air, and it became the bush plane of choice for many.   Because of their classic design, many Model 2000s have been restored and are still flying. Nc8708 is flying today as Magic One, still thrilling people with their first ride in an open cockpit biplane!

This package includes the Travel Air as it appeared in the golden age of aviation and as it has been reincarnated in the modern era! Also included for fun is a drivable PT Cruiser as it turned out that  Rod Magner, owner of Magic One and I both drive silver PT Cruisers! You can even chase trains! The included flights will get you started and the furnished API files will allow you set up shop in your local neighborhood!  This package was developed with other neat packages in mind and there are links below to take you other sites where you can enhance your simming fun!

                                                           

INSTALLATION:
Installation is a matter of applying the inclosed installer to your fs2004 folder!   That extraction into your main fs2004 folder will install all your aircraft and scenery files! Please do not manually install this file as you might miss something and be unhappy with the results!

PLEASE READ THE REST OF THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE BOOTING UP SO YOU CAN PROPERLY ENJOY THE BARNSTORMING EXPERIENCE!!

PLEASE!!!! PRETTY PLEASE..;o))

After reading the rest of this document boot up and make sure your settings are as follows:

AUTOGEN: Recommend maximum but highest you can live with!
AI TRAFFIC: There is period GA  AI traffic including trains.  We run at 100% which fills the skies!  You should run traffic as high as your machine will allow as it really adds to the sim.

NOTE: It is recommended that you start with the flight " MAGIC ONE TEST FLIGHT" to become familiar with the modern Travel Air!
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AIRCRAFT OPERATION:
Please read the Checklists provided where appropriate before operating each aircraft to fully enjoy the included features!
If you desire, the virtual cockpit pan rate can be adjusted in your main fs9.cfg file from the default 400 to 900 which allows much faster more realistic panning using the hat switch. These aircraft have been designed so that 75% zoom should be used in the Virtual Cockpit.  I would highly recommend getting the great Active Camera program and setting head latency at 1.0 ! It has literally transformed our flightsimming and we couldn't fly with out it now!!!!! This package includes an ACV file that can be loaded after selecting one of the Travel Airs. The alternate view is from the passenger's viewpoint!    Note:  You must have the EMMA FIELD add on for the flight On Tour Emma Field Visit to work correctly!

Vitual Cockpit Operation: The virtual cockpit has been designed so that most functions can be accessed with the mouse It helps to have "tooltips" operational to become familiar with their use. Also printing out this text as a reference will make things easier. Most switches are fully clickable as well as the throttles, mixture levers etc.

In addition to the normal controls  "Hot Spots" have been assigned to perform certain functions:

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Radio/CD Player Operation

The  older version of Radio/CD player in the early TA models comes preloaded with several period AM radio broadcasts! The modern version plays Pavarotti when the am or fm buttons are selected. You can assign your own sounds by going to windowed mode and right clicking on the each button! If you experience poor flight sim performance when the Travel Airs are used it may be that your video card or operating system will not handle the radio/cd player. You can disable the radio/cd player by removing the radiocd4.gau and radiocd4o.gau files from your gauges folder!  The Radio/cd player has been generously provided by Rob Clark! Thank you Rob!

PLEASE use the Aircraft/Kneeboard/ Checklist and Reference HTMLs for specifications and a history of each aircraft!  Each item can be checked off by clicking the appropriate boxes.

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    NOTES:

MAGIC ONE BIPLANE RIDES

                    Rod Magner, owner and pilot of Magic One provided many detailed and wonderful pictures of his plane and hangar to help us capture the spirit of that fantastic plane! Please visit his website at www.magicair.com or better yet book a flight in Magic One which will be a experience you will never forget!

FSADDON ORCAS ISLAND SCENERY

        Richard Goldstein, author of the wonderful Orcas Island scenery addon has generously provided a revised scenery file that allows the detailed Orcas Island Biplane Works hangar to fit into his superb scenery! If you have that scenery installed please back up the file Orcas17.bgl found in the FSADDON/scenery folder and then unzip the file file OrcFSaddn.zip file directly into your main fs2004 folder. It will install the detailed hangar into the Orcas scenery. Although this package will work ok without the Orcas Addon scenery it is highly recommended that you check it out at www.fsaddon.com !!!!  The provided replacement file is copyrighted by Richard Goldstein and should not be used in any other manner or decompiled in any way! Thank you Richard!

MAGIC ONE DVDs

         Bill Schulz of the Cielo Company, creator and producer of "Electra! Queen
of the Aleutian Islands", is preparing a short 15-30 minute DVD digital
video film called "The Magic One of the San Juan Islands", which chronicles
a flight in the Travel Air with Rod Magner out of Orcas Island airport on a
crystal clear summer morning in the San Juans.

The short should be available by November, and a trailer in October. You can
visit www.flyelectra.com for details. The DVD will be provided at the cost
of materials...that is, the cost of the DVD's themselves and shipping. You
can contact Bill at wcschulz@cox.net if you would like to pre-order!

It looks to be spectacular!!                             
                                

NO RED BRAKE MESSAGES:
There is a little program included that eliminates the red brakes messages. Instructions are provided in the zip.

BRIGHT SUN:
There is a folder with replacement sun corona that makes the sky brighter and more realistic. Instructions are provided in the folder.

TRAIN SOUNDS

         If you would like the AI trains to sound like trains please back up the files ai_twinturbo01.wav and xaitwinturbo01.wav files found in your main sound folder and unzip the file train_sound.zip into your main fs2004 folder. Replace the backed up sounds if you are using modern AI and don't want the turbo props to sound like trains!

ORCAS ISLAND MESH

          If you have third party mesh that puts the Orcas Island airport in a hole you can install a simple mesh file that corrects that situation by unzipping the file OrcMesh.zip into your main fs2004 folder. It will cure most of the problems such as bumpy water etc.

SPLASH SCREEN

            There is a Magic One splash screen included if you would like to use it. Backup your dlgsplash.bmp found in the Uires folder and replace it with the one in splash1.zip

OLDER VIDEO CARDS

                      If you have not yet upgraded your video card and experience chrome plated instruments please unzip the file  TaOldVid.zip into your main fs2004 folder and it will remove the glass reflections.

CUSTOM SCENERY

There is included a folder containing several API files for those of you that are famliar with scenery making. One of the freeware scenery programs can be used to create your own Pepsi Tour, Davis Flying Carnival or Magic One Tour campsites at the airport of pasture of your choice so you can duplicate the vagabond barnstorming experience. When using the animated windsock both windsock1.api and windsock2.api must be added to the scenery!  Good travelling.:o)

           


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KEYBOARD COMMANDS:
If you do not want to use the mouse in the Vc or Main "Lite" panel view follow these keyboard commands:
Service Aircraft = Hold down shift and E briefly. Hatches will open.
Put Crew On Board= Push the / key...
Full Rich Mixture for Starting= Push Shift and Control and F4
Main Power Bus= Push Shift and M
Start Engine= Hold M and + keys till engines catch or Control-E
Adjust Trim= Use Home and End keys...


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CONCLUSION:
We hope you enjoy using these models as much as we did in creating them!! These models were built with FSDS2, the super building program from Louis Sinclair! Thanks to the Microsoft Flight Sim Team who did an outstanding job on Fs2004!

We owe a  very, very special thanks to Tom Constantine for all the hard work in making the neat AI traffic that makes our scenery come alive! Thanks much Tom!

Last but not least a super big thanks to Jim Nichols, GES who shared the old pictures of his Dad's plane and airport and has helped make that long ago golden time come alive for us in flight sim! Special thanks also to all the wonderful GES Guys who have suffered through all the beta testing and kept us going through the rough spots!

Please let us know what you like or don't like about this project so we can direct future efforts toward creating more realistic and enjoyable virtual flying experiences...:o))
Lynn and Bill Lyons
Custom Classic Aircraft
Support forum at The Old Hangar