FSX Boeing 727-200 ADV

FSX Boeing 727-200 ADV. Seven repaints of five different operators for Thomas Ruth's FSX Boeing 727-200ADV. Operators depicted: First Air; Hughes Airwest; Kelowna Flightcraft; Northwest Airlines (1980s, 1990s); Republic Airlines (early, late). Includes customized bump, spec and light maps and a modified texture that eliminates the excessive reflection in the VC. By Bjoern Kesten.

Word wrap is your friend!

//Seven repaints for Thomas Ruth's Boeing 727-200ADV//

// Contents //

- Repaints for the B727-200ADV in seven different liveries of five different operators
- Modified lightmaps
- New bump maps for general use
- A new texture for eliminating excessive reflections in the VC
- Preview thumbnail and images
- This Readme

// Requirements //

1. FSX with SP2 or Acceleration

2. Tom Ruth's 727-200ADV

Install as specified by Tom in his Readme.

// About the repaints //

Hughes Airwest, Republic Airlines:
This is one and the same aircraft. This 727 started life at Hughes Airwest, the last great adventure of the aviation pioneer and madman Howard Hughes. After a fatal crash that cost the company a DC-9 and the US Navy a F-4B, Hughes Airwest adopted the very recognizable, smashingly yellow paint scheme under the premise of improving visibility of its planes in bad weather. Thus, the legendary "flying bananas" were born. Life for the "Top banana in the West" was to come to an end in 1980 though.
Looking to expand its already vast network in the eastern part of the United States, Republic Airlines eyeballed Hughes Airwests routes in the west. Republic, a product of the 1979 merger between North Central Airlines and Southern Airways thus purchased Hughes Airwest company. Subsequently, "Herman", the iconic stylized goose on the vertical stabilizer of North Central and Republic aircraft, found his way into the west and onto about a dozen 727s from Hughes Airwests fleet.
The "speedy bird", "blue goose" and whatever else ground and flight crews called North Central's aircraft, weren't to last long though. Burdened with a difficult integration of the former Airwest staff and Airwests debt in turbulent times for the aviation industry, Republic struggeled to keep itself in the game. A rebranding in 1985, which marked the end of the iconic goose logo and the emergence of a more serious, business-like paintscheme, didn't lead to success. Thus, in 1986, Republic airlines, after mere seven years of existence, sold out to...

Northwest Airlines:
...Nortwest Orient Airlines, who were looking for a domestic route system to feed their, primarily transpacific, route network. To emphasize the company's shifted and expanded focus, Northwest Orient dropped the "Orient" from its name and simply became "Nortwest Airlines". Yet again, 727s originally delivered to Hughes Airwest saw a new company name and paintscheme on their fuselages.
The aircraft depicted here, however, was ordered and delivered by Republic Airlines and thus did not see the "banana" paint scheme. But being a younger airframe, Northwest retired it in 2002, a time that saw the last 727s being withdrawn from mainline use.

First Air, Kelowna Flightcraft:
These two paints are exemplary of the fate of many former passenger 727s. After the mainline airlines found no more use for these three-engined, Jet-A slurping dinosaurs that required three men to operate, many of them got a life extension in countries with lower fuel prices or in the hands of charter or freight operators.
Kelowna Flightcraft, based in Kelowna, British Columbia flies under the banner of the Purolator courier service and hauls parcels and mail all around southern Canada. The aircraft depicted is one of about a dozen 727s operated by KF for Purolator, some even fitted with winglets, and wears Purolator's current livery.
First Air has a more exotic mission, namely hauling people and freight into northern Canada's remote cities and towns. Reliability and ruggedness is very important in these circumstances and thus, First Air can be seen operating lot of exotic equipment (HS 748s, L-100s(!), old 737s with gravel kits). Their 727s however, originally from Air Canada and fitting right in with their jurassic avionics, construction and engines, were put into storage in 2009. With ever increasing fuel costs, their return to the canadian skies is questionable at best.

The "description" line of this repaint contains a few more infos about the aircraft in question.
Heavy use of abbreviations commonly used in the airline business is made in it, so here's a short explanation:

d/d = delivery date
c/n = construction number (manufacturer)
l/n = line number (the n-th copy of this aircraft model off the line)
f/n = fleet name (aircraft name or number in operator's fleet)
wfu = withdrawn from use
cvtd = converted
r/g = registered

//Installation//

If you're only here for the reflection-eliminating (reflection.dds) texture, go and grab it from the "Texture.Shared" folder, copy it to where you need it.
(At least I made you download a few dozen megabytes. For a 65 KByte texture. Ha!)

Everyone else:

1. Drop the repaint folders in your 727-200ADV's installation folder.
(Most probably [FSX root folder]\SimObjects\Airplanes\Tom_B727-200ADV)

2. Open the 727-200ADV's aircraft.cfg and locate the last of the "[fltsim]" entries.

3. Add the following lines after that:

[fltsim.xx]
title=Boeing 727-2M7 Republic Early ADVA
sim=tom727
model=200ADVpax
panel=
sound=
texture=Republic_Early
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id=N721RW
atc_airline=REPUBLIC
atc_flight_number=58
ui_manufacturer="Boeing"
ui_type="727-2M7ADV"
ui_variation="Republic Airlines (1980s)"
ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner"
ui_createdby="Thomas Ruth"
description=D/d 05/27/1976, c/n 21200, l/n 1206 \n Hughes Airwest 05/76-10/80, f/n "721", "Spirit Of Gamma" \n Republic Airlines 10/1980-10/1986, f/n "761" \n livery period ca. 1981-1986
atc_parking_types=GATE
atc_parking_codes=RW,REP,NWA,DAL

[fltsim.xx]
title=Boeing 727-2M7 Republic Late ADVA
sim=tom727
model=200ADVpax
panel=
sound=
texture=Republic_Late
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id=N721RW
atc_airline=REPUBLIC
atc_flight_number=58
ui_manufacturer="Boeing"
ui_type="727-2M7ADV"
ui_variation="Republic Airlines (1986)"
ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner"
ui_createdby="Thomas Ruth"
description=D/d 05/27/1976, c/n 21200, l/n 1206 \n Hughes Airwest 05/76-10/80, f/n "721", "Spirit Of Gamma" \n Republic Airlines 10/1980-10/1986, f/n "761" \n livery period ca. mid-1986
atc_parking_types=GATE
atc_parking_codes=RW,REP,NWA,DAL

[fltsim.xx]
title=Boeing 727-2M7 Hughes Airwest ADVA
sim=tom727
model=200ADVpax
panel=
sound=
texture=HughesAirwest
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id=N721RW
atc_airline=HUGHES AIR
atc_flight_number=122
ui_manufacturer="Boeing"
ui_type="727-2M7ADV"
ui_variation="Hughes Airwest"
ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner"
ui_createdby="Thomas Ruth"
description=D/d 05/27/1976, c/n 21200, l/n 1206 \n Hughes Airwest 05/76-10/80, f/n "721", "Spirit Of Gamma" \n livery period ca. 1976-1979
atc_parking_types=GATE
atc_parking_codes=RW,REP,NWA,DAL

[fltsim.xx]
title=Boeing 727-2S7 Northwest Airlines 1980s ADVA
sim=tom727
model=200ADVpax
panel=
sound=
texture=Northwest_1980s
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id=N718RC
atc_airline=Northwest
atc_flight_number=2184
ui_manufacturer="Boeing"
ui_type="727-2S7ADV"
ui_variation="Northwest Airlines (1980s)"
ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner"
ui_createdby="Thomas Ruth"
description=D/d 8/18/1980, c/n 22344, l/n 1654 \n Republic Airlines 09/80-10/86, f/n "718" \n Northwest Airlines, f/n "2714" \n livery period ca. 1988-1991
atc_parking_types=GATE
atc_parking_codes=NWA,DAL

[fltsim.xx]
title=Boeing 727-2S7 Northwest Airlines 1990s ADVA STG3 EFLP
sim=tom727
model=200ADVpax
panel=
sound=
texture=Northwest_1990s
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id=N718RC
atc_airline=Northwest
atc_flight_number=1872
ui_manufacturer="Boeing"
ui_type="727-2S7ADV"
ui_variation="Northwest Airlines (1990s)"
ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner"
ui_createdby="Thomas Ruth"
description=D/d 8/18/1980, c/n 22344, l/n 1654 \n Republic Airlines 09/80-10/86, f/n "718" \n Northwest Airlines, f/n "2714" \n livery period ca. 1997-2002
atc_parking_types=GATE
atc_parking_codes=NWA,DAL

[fltsim.xx]
title=Boeing 727-233ADV(F) FirstAir ADVA STG3 EFLP
sim=tom727
model=200ADVcargo
panel=
sound=
texture=FirstAir
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id=C-GXFA
atc_airline=FIRST AIR
atc_flight_number=414
ui_manufacturer="Boeing"
ui_type="727-233ADV(F)"
ui_variation="FirstAir"
ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner"
ui_createdby="Thomas Ruth"
description=D/d 3/13/1975, c/n 20938, l/n 1105 \n Air Canada C-GAAG, wfu 12/90 \n cvtd (F), d/d 11/94, reg C-GXFA, to First Air, f/n "XFA" \n stored 2009
atc_parking_types=CARGO, RAMP
atc_parking_codes=FAB

[fltsim.xx]
title=Boeing 727-227ADV(F) Kelowna Flightcraft ADVA STG3
sim=tom727
model=200ADVcargo
panel=
sound=
texture=KelownaFlightcraft
kb_checklists=
kb_reference=
atc_id=C-GNKF
atc_airline=FLIGHTCRAFT
atc_flight_number=288
ui_manufacturer="Boeing"
ui_type="727-227ADV(F)"
ui_variation="Kelowna Flightcraft"
ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner"
ui_createdby="Thomas Ruth"
description=D/d 4/19/1974, c/n 20839, l/n 1031 \n Braniff, PeoplExpress, Pan Am, etc... \n cvtd (F), d/d 4/96, reg C-GNKF, to Kelowna Flightcraft, f/n "726" \n Active
atc_parking_types=CARGO, RAMP
atc_parking_codes=KFA

4. Get the newly added [fltsim.x] entry into numerical sequence with the ones already present
in the aircraft.cfg.
E.g. if the last entry prior to adding these repaints was [fltsim.5], you'd have to continue
this entry as [fltsim.6]. Save the aircraft.cfg before closing it.

5. You're done. Now go flying.

// More //

If you want strobe lights on the 727, add these lines at the end of the [LIGHTS] section of the aircraft.cfg.

light.7 = 2, -27.00, -53.25, 0.50, fx_strobeh,
light.8 = 2, -27.00, 53.25, 0.50, fx_strobeh,

They are not affected by the flexing of the wings, however, so they might look a bit misplaced in certain situations.

Here's a modified part "[WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE]" section for the aircraft.cfg that should make loading the plane easier. Just replace the original lines in Tom's .cfg.

station_load.0 = 510.0, 47.5, 0.0, 0.0 //Weight (lbs), longitudinal, lateral, vertical positions from datum (feet)
station_load.1 = 510.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 //Weight (lbs), longitudinal, lateral, vertical positions from datum (feet)
station_load.2 = 2300.0, 18.6, 0.0, 0.0 //Weight (lbs), longitudinal, lateral, vertical positions from datum (feet)
station_load.3 = 2300.0, 3.6, 0.0, 0.0 //Weight (lbs), longitudinal, lateral, vertical positions from datum (feet)
station_load.4 = 2300.0, -21.4, 0.0, 0.0 //Weight (lbs), longitudinal, lateral, vertical positions from datum (feet)
station_load.5 = 2760.0, 26.3, 0.0, 0.0 //Weight (lbs), longitudinal, lateral, vertical positions from datum (feet)
station_load.6 = 2500.0, -18.1, 0.0, 0.0 //Weight (lbs), longitudinal, lateral, vertical positions from datum (feet)

// "63*170" = Maximum payload of 63 pax at 170lbs (average each)
// F = Front section; M = Mid section; A = Aft section

station_name.0 = "Cockpit Crew"
station_name.1 = "Cabin Crew"
station_name.2 = "F Pax (63*170)"
station_name.3 = "M Pax (63*170)"
station_name.4 = "A Pax (63*170)"
station_name.5 = "F Bag (95*35)"
station_name.6 = "A Bag (95*35)"

// Note //

Should these paints NOT show up in FSX properly, a safe way to fix this would EITHER be adapting the paths in the included texture.cfgs for these paints so that it points to folders of working paints OR copying all texture files from one of Tom's default paints into the repaint folder WITHOUT overwriting something!

Also, check the aircraft.cfg entry for this paint for correctly specified FOLDER NAMES in the "model=" and "texture=" lines.

// Disclaimer //

If something goes wrong during installation of these files, your PC won't blow up. The worst that can happen is you not seeing the paint properly in FSX.
I'm only human, have my 727s organized in a different way and can't think of every possible combination of folder names and paths.
So despite fairly detailed installation instructions above, it doesn't mean that you won't have to THINK when doing everything add-on related for FSX. It's neither rocket science nor Apple. Stay frosty (keep the "logic" portion of your brain running) and you'll be safe!

// Credits //

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