About This File
Pelican Dropship - By Mid7night (Ben Harber) - Release 4 for X-Plane 10.2
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This is an update for the Pelican to work with X-Plane version 10.2 and later.
This is the famous UNSC Pelican Dropship from the video game series HALO. Specifically, this is the Pelican from Halo-3.
Special thanks must go first to my wife Natalie for putting up with me during this project - I couldn't do it without her. :-)
Also thanks to the following people for their help in development:
Sandy Barbour - Master Plugin Guru (basically fixed what I messed up and compiled Windows, Linux & 64-bit versions of the ThrottleSync plugin)
Karl Caswell (Winter) - Test Pilot
JD Congote G. (The Forerunner) - Model Geometry Extraction
Stephen Loftus - Model Geometry Extraction & Scale and reference information
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Features
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In the cockpit, you can control the following functions from the panel:
1. Ramp
2. Gear
3. Interior Lighting
4. Cargo Bay Lighting
5. Radio & GPS
6. Thrust Vector
7. Engine start and fuel
The main update on this Pelican that distinguishes it from the last version is the way the engines are modeled. Previously, I had to 'cheat' the engines a bit, and animate the wing-pods just to look appropriate. Not anymore!
Now ALL 8 engines are located and oriented realistically, and I have redefined the control scheme to be more realistic and manageable. You can still get into trouble, to be sure, so take it slow if this is your first VTOL excursion.
MAJOR Forward Flight Improvement: The Front Wing pods are now separately controlled by the Thrust-Vector command. All the wings and engines still vector and move with pitch/roll/yaw control inputs, but the rear wings no longer move when you command a general thrust-vector change.
This is INCREDIBLY useful for smoothing out and trimming in forward flight. Now, you essentially can use the thrust-vector control as a pitch-trim in forward cruising flight. Why not use the traditional trim inputs? Mostly because they're too slow, and are too generic and "overall" in their control. Moving the front wing using thrust vector controls is more direct and effective for this design.
Watch this video for some examples of how you might want to use the front wings to exhibit finer control in flight:
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Special instructions
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The Pelican comes with one crucial add-on: ThrottleSync Plugin. It IS 64-bit and Win/Lin/Mac compatible, thanks to Sandy Barbour!
The ThrottleSync plugin is ESSENTIAL to flying this Pelican. You will need two assignable throttles on your joystick: one for vertical thrust, the other for horizontal thrust.
Simply map one of your joystick's throttles to "throttle1" in X-Plane, and another to "throttle3". Throttle1 controls the vertical engines, while Throttle3 controls the horizontal ones, and the plugin takes care of syncing all the appropriate engines. You don't have to move the plugin anywhere, just leave it where it is in the aircraft folder.
Please send any questions or issues to Mid7night on the X-Plane.org forum site.
Enjoy the Pelican!
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Release Notes
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RELEASE 4 UPDATE: Fixed corrupted object. Added missing objects in main gear animation. (amazing what you find when you finally release something...) 
Added engine starter controls to cockpit. Changed horizontal-thrust engine indicators to be different from vertical-thrust indicators, making it easier to see what each engine is doing.
Added engine starter controls to cockpit. Changed horizontal-thrust engine indicators to be different from vertical-thrust indicators, making it easier to see what each engine is doing.
RELEASE 3: Corrupted object, replaced by R2
RELEASE 2 UPDATE: Fixed objects to work with 'interior' and exterior world lighting.
What's New in Version R4 See changelog
Released
- 032013: Initial Release of v10 update
- 032013: Minor update: Lighting
- 032113: Fixed corrupted object. Added missing objects in main gear animation. Added engine starter controls to cockpit. Changed horizontal-thrust engine indicators to be different from vertical-thrust indicators, making it easier to see what each engine is doing.
