Virtual Patriots Dev Team - What We're All About

I figured that since there has been more progress on the L-39 module in the past few weeks, I would take this opportunity to give you a little more background on the project as well as the people who are working to bring this aircraft to life in Digital Combat Simulator and why we chose this aircraft.

The Team

The Virtual Patriots started back in late 2008 as a 2 ship demonstration team that aimed to emulate the real Patriots Jet Team based in Byron, California. Over the next year in 2009 we established a full team and recognition with the real team, who were so welcoming to the idea of what we were all about and decided that a merger between the real and virtual teams would be a great benefit to both sides. So we became an official part of the Patriots, a virtual aspect that would represent the team to a larger audience around the world, as well as aid in planning sponsorships and developing a new show routine that would be performed during actual airshows on the west coast by the actual pilots themselves! In 2011, the partnership between the actuals and virtuals took to the next level, as we had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put all of the skills we had honed over the years to the ultimate test - flying the actual jets on a ferry flight from Reno back to our home base in Byron. The experience left a big impression on us and furthered our passion for what we do, and this left us wanting to better the experience of flying our demo virtually and improve the overall accuracy of our show.

The mod development team for DCS: L-39 includes 2 3D modelers, 3 coders, 10 qualified L-39 pilots and a wide range of L-39 maintainers and experts, including legendary L-39 guru Ed Daley.We have access to at least 8 L-39s as well that we can use for details in 3D modeling, avionics operation, and flight testing (from the qualified pilots, of course).

Why An L-39?

The Patriots fly the Aero Vodochody L-39C Albatros, a tandem-seat jet trainer which has become very successful in the airshow and racing business. Naturally since this is the aircraft we fly it was the first choice for a DCS module. However, as we began to plan out our objectives for the project, we realized just how important an aircraft like this could be in the world of DCS. A tandem-seat jet trainer aircraft with the capabilities of ground attack (and possibly dual-player cockpit control way in the future) would provide a great stepping stone for newcomers to this sim franchise to cut their teeth on before moving into the bigger, more complex aircraft that are being developed for DCS. Furthermore, once completed, this module would be set up in L-39 simulators at the newly-created Patriots Jet Team Foundation, teaching the next generation of pilots about aviation.

How Detailed Will It Be?

It's really to early to say at this moment. We are planning to model every system to the highest level of detail that we can, processing power is the limit. A full avionics suite with real life behind the gauges and aircraft systems, not just an "effect" to simulate a working system. The ZA variant will of course also have a fully-modeled weapons system and armament. The visuals also will not disappoint, as some of you have seen in the past few days. We were lucky to have DGambo from the ED team help us in getting a new mesh for the L-39C, the bases of the L-39ZA that is in DCS World. Using this, we aim to push the visuals even further and truly represent the aircraft faithfully in 3D. The cockpit is still in a very early stage and is not ready to be revealed yet. Once it is up to a level that we are comfortable with, we will showcase it as well along with regular updates from that point. Regarding the flight dynamics, we are using ED's new External Flight Model API that allows us to faithfully recreate the performance of the L-39 in DCS. It is still being tuned, and some areas of the FM aren't functional yet, but the possibilities are virtually limitless with what we can achieve with EFM.

Updates will be posted regularly on the forums in the topics that we already have open, and once we have work in progress shots of the internal cockpit to display we should have our own subforum to make things a lot more tidier.

External Model Updates

Flight Model & System Updates

Regards,

Blaze

Nice intro Blaze, keep up the good work i getting excited to see the L-39. And euh where to throw my money too (better you guys then my wife =))

Thx ...;)

Guys, I'm really looking forward to flying your L-39 in virtual sky!