Stephen Posted November 3, 2020 Report Share Posted November 3, 2020 Aircraft Addon : Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter Adventure Pack by Thranda Design This year 2020 in early June, Thranda Design released their amazing Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter, a modern (if you can call the 1960's modern) bush aircraft with a utility bias. Excellent it is, but being a versatile utility aircraft then there is the need for options to cater for the aircraft's multi-role capabilities, and here it is in the "Adventure Pack". This Adventure Pack is an addon, so yes you will currently need the Thranda PC-6 Turbo Porter aircraft to use it. Installation notes are important here, so we will cover them first. First an important note!, to install you have to have the latest v1.2 version of the aircraft, if not you will get a startup conflict, followed by a nasty crash to desktop (CTD). Download and unzip the Adventure Package, then select and merge the elements into the original PC-6 folder... .... note if you use a Mac then make sure you do a clean Merge or Copy and Paste as some files overlap... when starting up you will need to authorise both aircraft (Original and Adventure Pack) with two separate keys, if correct you should have both aircraft (Wheels and Amphibian) present for selection on the Flight Configuration panel. Options There are various options to configure the aircraft for it's role, these include; Amphibian Floats, Ski's, Bush Tyres (Tunda) and Mud Flaps. Amphibian Floats Floats are always a big attraction for flying bush aircraft, and you will not be disappointed with the quality ones presented here... Not only is the shaping really, really good, then so is the hull riveting. It is this extraordinary detail of the fittings that stands out here, front support wheels and struts are excellent, pontoons to aircraft supports are also realistic with tension wires... ... the pontoon undercarriage (retractable) is high quality as well, with every nut and and bolt well rendered, The undercarriage (and front struts) are raised or lowered via a panel on the instrument panel. (Note, there is feature on this aircraft in that you can custom design your own instrument panel, so the location shown here of the location of the Gear Panel may be placed or located anywhere on the instrument panel). But the highlight are the twin rear rudders that can be raised or lowered into the water, note the springs and wires that move with the tilting action. The rudder action is controlled by a selection on the new "Misc" tab on the pull-out menu, centre left of your screen. (you can also use the beautifully crafted lever on the side of the pilot's seat). Other menu options include wing ladders, again expertly crafted, and the choice of short or long passenger windows. There is a nifty "Slew" tool to over-ride the X-Plane physics, that allows you to control the docking of the aircraft, just move (slowly) the crosshair to manoeuvre the aircraft to your wishes, and a very good tool it is as well. Overall the Amphibian Floats are an excellent addition, and look very, very nice in operation. Skis With the merged Adventure Pack, the wheeled version menu is changed as well. You now have the selection of Skis on the same "Misc" menu. Ski quality and design is again exceptional, with no ordinary straight planks here, they are all highly realistic. Bush (Tundra) Tyres and Mud Flaps Another option is for the larger Bush tyres or "Tundra" tyres, the over-sized wheels also come with another option of having "Mud Flaps" attached (The mud flaps can be used on both the Normal and Tundra tyre options). Bush tyre and flap detail is again very, very good and highly realistic, even the connection of the Mud-Flaps to the wheel assembly is done with perfection with bolts... you can't ask for more. Note; on the wheels version there are the same options for the long passenger window, and a "Coming Soon" to note "Synthetic Vision". Garmin G1000 Glass Cockpit The Turbo Porter now also comes with a G1000 two-display Glass Cockpit. It is the standard Laminar default G1000 setup, but it is still another nice feature to have. Note there is no Autopilot panel set on either of these displays, but I suppose you could adding the S-TEC 55x which is available under the panel options, and a secondary note in that there is also the EFD 1000 which is a self-contained multi-function digital display which is also available as an option instead of the G1000 layout... the G1000 option is found and selectable in the Dynamic Panel feature. PBR Metal and Rough(ness) Thranda has a unique feature on their aircraft, and that is the ability to design your own livery, or "Dynamic Liveries. Dynamic Liveries are covered in depth in the release review: Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter by Thranda Design In the Adventure Pack, there has been two additions to the Dynamic Liveries tool in the options to adjust the PBR (Physically Based Rendering) effects, this is the Metal (Metalness) and the Rough(ness) of the panels. The PBR effects require a bit of experimentation to get the right look and feel that you require, but you also learn of how Metalness is used in X-Plane to get the right lighting realism effect, the process is a little slow in experimenting (reloading) but your patience is rewarded.... clever though. One surprise that is missing on the Adventure Package is there is still no "Cargo"? option, in removing the seats and adding in freight, hopefully the option is still on the "to do" list. Skydivers! It wouldn't be a Dan Klaue project without something totally mindblowingly original, and here he does not disappoint again.... Skydivers! Selection of the skydiver feature is on the Menu under "Misc", when you turn the selection on you will get ten skydivers sitting in the aircraft, it is a quite a tight squeeze. It is very important your Baro pressure is set, so the pop-up panel is set at the same altitude. Then it is the takeoff and the long, long climb up to altitude and I recommend 800fpm... "oh Hi!" Note the "Open Right Rear Door" alert... the difference of the weight of a full load of skydivers on the aircraft is very evident, and I like door closed as I climb up... when you open the right rear door you get this huge load of wind noise and a far higher volume, "I love it". On the pop-up panel it shows you your ten skydivers, their smoke colours left and the choice to either "Stay With Plane" or "Join (the) Skydivers"... There is a minimum Skydiver altitude recommended, but I would double that height if you want more fun, here I aimed for 6000ft.... Press the Spacebar and out of the door they go... Their descent altitude is shown for each Skydiver, and the smoke colour shows you which skydiver they are... Now it's your turn! Select "Join Skydivers" and press the Spacebar... once "Jumped" you get additional key commands (shortcuts)... you can move the camera to the Previous or Next (C - Shift C), open the Chute (E), control your speed W (fast) or S (slow), Toggle Smoke (X) and (Q) to Release Bindings.... Two inputs are however the best fun in Right (A) or Left (D), which allow you to turn or twist in the air. You can change to any falling Skydiver you want to by selecting the Skydiver on the menu and his altitude is noted on the large altimeter. And yes it is a lot of fun.... and visually very clever if you have all ten Skydivers in the air at once.... I did find the feature a bit buggy currently (no freefalling), but the idea is very clever. Original PC-6 release review is here; Aircraft Review : Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter by Thranda Design _________________________ Summary After the release of the exceptional Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter from Thranda Design in June 2020, it was announced of an addon package, and here it is in the "Adventure Pack" for the aircraft. The package include; Amphibian Floats, Ice Skis, Bush (Tundra) Tyres, Mud Flaps, Ladders and Short or Long Windows. The G1000 avionics ( Laminar default) is also now available in the excellent "Dynamic Panel" tool and PBR Metal and Rough(ness) options have also been added to the "Dynamic Livery" tool. Highlight is the clever "Skydiver" feature, with ten Skydivers that you can jump out of your aircraft or join and control their descent to the ground. Highly original with smoke effects and keyboard commands. Oddly the much wanted Cargo (freight) option was not included? (It is available on the Thranda Kodiak). Messy authorisation with two keys required. Quality and detail on the new options (features) is second to none, all items are highly realistic and masterful in detail, as you would expect from Thranda. You asked for it, and now it is here in options for the PC-6 Turbo Porter, yes the aircraft was versatile before, but now you can expand your flying into far more rugged territory, say water, Ice and unpaved runways, that is what you wanted, that is what you got.... overall brilliant! _______________________________ Yes! the Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter Adventure Pack by Thranda Design is NOW available from the X-Plane.Org Store here : Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter Adventure Pack Price is US$16.50 The Adventure Pack is an expansion of the Thranda PC-6, which is required first. Features of the Adventure Pack: Amphibian floats With separate gear control panel Bush tires with their own aerodynamic and ground handling physics Skis for Glacier Operations Articulating Skis that follow the ground Mud flaps select them on /off on all versions G1000 panel Part of the Panel Presets PBR Painting via real-time livery editor Larger door windows to allow skydivers A new livery Requirements The Thranda PC-6 is required for the Adventure Pack. This is NOT a standalone aircraft Download Size: 480 MB Current and Review version 1.2 (October 24th 2020) _______________________________________________________________________ Installation and documents: Download is 479mb. A merge of both Aircraft and Adventure Pack files is required (see above), note the updated v1.2 is required for installation. Two Installation keys are also required on start up and is supplied with the purchased download file (and the original Aircraft key). Documents supplied are: ChangeLog.txt Thranda Pilatus PC6 Joystick Settings.pdf Thranda PC6 Expansion Pack Manual.pdf Thranda Pilatus PC6 Graphics Settings XP11.pdf X-Plane G430 Manual.pdf X-Plane G530 Manual.pdf Thranda PC6 Documentation v1_2.pdf Thranda PC6 Documentation.pdf A Blank Livery (PNG) of four files are provided for painting. Checklists and loads of Performance graphs are provided in the manual. ______________________________________________________________________ Aircraft Review by Stephen Dutton 4th November 2020 Copyright©2020 : X-Plane Reviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this preview are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 32 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 8Gb - Samsung Evo 1TB SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.50r3 Addons: Saitek x56 Rhino Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Skunkcrafts Updater (required) Scenery or Aircraft - CZST - Stewart by Beti-x (X-Plane.OrgStore) - US$25.80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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