Latécoère 631 Flying Boat released !

[Javis]

I'd rather call it the Latecoere 631 DREAM Boat because that's what BlueMesh has made of it !

(btw, you'd better not use the accent grave and - aigu in the Latecoere name should you have a comment otherwise your post can't be edited in a possible reply. )

Just a short selection of the screenies i posted in the screenshots forum to start with. Particularly the interior detailing, both of the cockpit and passenger cabins, is about the best you can find in MSFS today. No time to check out this masterpiece of a ginormous flying boat yet, i bet i need all day to check out everything to get aquainted with this glamorous Mermaid, but Jonathan Beckett seems to love it too https://youtu.be/0MG5bD6LKJk

SAIL ON WITH FLYING COLORS !











Did i say it truly is utterly magnificent ??!!

It is everything you ever wanted of a flying boat in FS and much more !

If it floats your boat go and get it at Marketplace. For the ridiculous price of 9 euro that does not cover the cargo by a looong mile !

Cheers,
Captain Strait Foreward,
at your service.

[DennyA]

It’s wonderful.

More sinks per passenger than any other plane in history, I think.

[Twice43]

It certainly caught Jonathan Beckett's attention as evidenced by his enthusiastic initial YT review & flight.
Amazing level of detail.
6 radials to play with!

T43

[seawing]

Has anyone found a descent way to confige a throttle (I use TM Warthog) for the 6 engines? Or at least for the left and right engines to run together?
All I could do was to select either engines 1, 2, 3 and 4 or all together - both options are not particularily helpful to manoeuvre the boat around in a harbour...

Seawing

[dvj]

Stunning textures and modeling throughout! Not a single complaint here. Just need a French crew for it.

[DennyA]

There doesn’t seem to be a way to map engines 5 and 6 to throttle axes. So I had to set up a control config using the single “all engines” throttle axis. Which is a bummer because you need to use 1 and 6 to turn on the water. So I have to use the mouse to advance the 1/6 throttles when maneuvering on the water.

[lefty]

Well I've just about had it with this sim. I think it will shortly be junked, and back to FSX.

Bought the Latecoere, seemed like good value. But I will never know - it simply refuses to download. ('Failed Download' with no explanation of what that means.)

I have used all of the major sims - from FS98 onwards - including many of the combat ones, and have NEVER come across anything as user-unfriendly than MSFS. All that money on upgraded PC, fancy graphics card, etc, and I can barely get anything off the ground in this one.

[Twice43]

Well I've just about had it with this sim. I think it will shortly be junked, and back to FSX.

Bought the Latecoere, seemed like good value. But I will never know - it simply refuses to download. ('Failed Download' with no explanation of what that means.)

I have used all of the major sims - from FS98 onwards - including many of the combat ones, and have NEVER come across anything as user-unfriendly than MSFS. All that money on upgraded PC, fancy graphics card, etc, and I can barely get anything off the ground in this one.

Purchased on Marketplace?
Try logging into Marketplace Not As An Administrator, [Use Left click mouse to start MSFS]. That may free up the purchase for download
I find if I log in as an Administrator, the purchase always fails. Its a peculiarity of the Marketplace.
Also check if your Marketplace is greyed out. Mine is & it traces to 'something' taking the PC off line. I needed to go into General Settings/Data to bring it online again.
T43

[Tim-HH]

Bought the Latecoere, seemed like good value. But I will never know - it simply refuses to download. ('Failed Download' with no explanation of what that means.)

Unfortunately many people have this issue at the moment: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t...failing/597593

[lefty]

I appreciate, gentlemen, your kind assistance here.
After a wee false start, the download and installation went smoothly.
I'm glad to say that the Laté has now had its first test flight from Biscarosse and is absolutely beautiful.
Now to read the manual,,,(yes, I know !)

[Twice43]

Glad it unconstipated itself & you have not departed MSFS for parts unknown.
This may be telling you how to suck eggs, but a 29 page manual is located in a Documents folder within the aircraft file in One Store/? [Not Community, the other location for aircraft]
T43

[dvj]

More time on this offering today. Wow, what a great plane. What would I change for giggles and schmidts? Slower prop start up and more smoke. More water spray. Running tap water in the sinks. Wine in the glasses. French speaking radio operator. Don't miss the door on the flight deck that opens and takes you down the ladder to the passenger cabin. Brillient. -d

[jankees]

late lw (0001) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

late lw (0002) by JanKees Blom, on Flickr

the model is not quite correct, and there's quite a few distortions, so I'll hope you'll forgive me some inaccuracies...

[tommieboy]

With all of the flying boats that are available for MSFS, I'm hoping that the "Mighty" Martin Mars might someday make it into the lineup.

Tommy

[Ferry_vO]

Looks great, but how do you a) Start a flight from the water, and b) move around the cabins?

[FlameOut]

This is how I move to the shoreline & water:

Pick the airport you want to start from,

1. Hit the Y key to put MSFS into the slew mode, this will put you behind the aircraft if you are in external view.
2. Using the Keypad numbers or the arrows printed on the number buttons of the keypad
#2 will slew you backwards, #4 will slew to the left, # 6 will slew you to the right, # 8 will slew you forward, #1 will slew/turn you to the left, #3 wil/slew you to the right.
#7 and #9 will turn your aircraft over.

When you are about 50-100ft. offshore, hit the F1 key and hold to lower safely to the water (you may several feet above the water) this will prevent a crash! If you crash, hit the Y key again and press and hold the F4 key to give yourself some altitude, then F1 and hold to settle back down to the water.
Now go back inside the aircraft and click on the clipboard to set up the buoy and anchors, the floating dock, and the little tugboat to tow you away from the shoreline. You'll need a good nautical mile to get airborne!



To move around in the VC or Cabin, see if this video helps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sme-tin0cIQ&t=5s

You can also use those "fixed views"

Left Ctrl + 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, -, =

Here is a link to FSX/P3D water runways, these may not exist in MSFS 2020 and they are almost all in the U.S.A. They could be in lakes or on rivers.

https://vdocuments.net/fsx-water-runwayspdf.html?page=1

here is another link to download:

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downlo...water-runways/

AVSIM 3 pages of discussion link says NO water runways are in MSFS data base:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/5...water-runways/

-Don

[Ferry_vO]

Thanks for the help, appreciate it!

I found one water runway near Vancouver so far. If I turn off all other airports on the map using the filter, the water strips are still very hard to locate. I'll try the slew method next time.

Tracked down the same video on how to move through an aircraft yesterday, but for some reason I can move left and right and up and down, but not forward or backwards for some reason.. Tried a lot of buttons on the keyboard, mouse, joystick and controller, but no success so far..

[Tom Clayton]

Try Page Up/Down. Those work for me, but I can't remember if they're default or something I set. Barring that, use your mouse to turn you view sideways, then use the left/right arrows to move. Sideways movement when already facing sideways will result in forward/back in relation to the aircraft.

[lefty]

Have been using the water runway at Biscarosse (the Late's home) and it works a treat. First FS2020 prop that I haven't had throttle problems with, and flies/lands a treat.

[FlameOut]

I did forget to say that coming out of slew mode will kill the engines ===>>>> Ctrl + E ....

When I use the above video link to walk around the VC and passenger cabin, my looking left or right will always snap back to the forward view and the same when I click on the right mouse button and hold to pan/scan.
I think something has been changed in the code since that video was made or I'm not doing it right. I believe some folks use that drone camera function.
Don't forget to open the hatch that is on the floor of the rear cabin and of course the pilot's sleeping berth down low in front under the instrument panel.

Screenshot (3557) by Donald McCann, on Flickr

Some of the bulkheads, and steps down below are "hard coded" watch your head and your step. You'll have to go around or up to step over them.


@ lefty,

I have a Honeycomb Alpha & Bravo unit that only has internal software for 4 engines, I have to push engine # 5 and #6 by hand in the VC.

The boys over at Honeycomb should have thought about: "6 turning & 4 burning." and now that MSFS VOLOCOPTER VOLOCITY with 16 engines.

The Hughes H4 has 8 engines but is internally coded to run on a 4-engine throttle set up so it is paired 2 engines per throttle lever right out of the box.

[Ferry_vO]

Thanks for the tips guys; really helpful!

(Even though I can still only walk like a crab through the cabin.. )

[Javis]

Thanks for the tips guys; really helpful!

(Even though I can still only walk like a crab through the cabin.. )

I have FS Realistic to walk around anywhere i like but it doesn't seem as nice and smooth as what twotonemurphy is using while he does a preview of the JF F-28. No clue of what exactly he uses here. I don't see any of the kind of 'shimmering' i see during walk around the Latecoere cabins with FS Realistic (or anywhere else for that matter).

Anyone knows what exactly twotonemurphy is using here to walk around the F-28 ?

https://youtu.be/PwznCqPHV-w?t=629

Seems like that's what you want, Ferry. Seems like i want it too.

Edit: scratch that, been out of practise for a while (in the middle of a move) but i just read he uses MSFS Drone mode to view the F-28 here. I guess he must've hooked it up to a Gamepad or something. I remember having done that too a while ago and it's the way to go, i.e. walk, alright. Try that Ferry.

[FlameOut]

I'm giving this old girl another bump. Leaving San Fransico Bay and arriving in Honolulu Hawaii.

Screenshot (3594) by Donald McCann, on Flickr

Screenshot (3597) by Donald McCann, on Flickr

Screenshot (3598) by Donald McCann, on Flickr

Screenshot (3599) by Donald McCann, on Flickr


I overshot my landing and ended up perilously close to the breakwater and had to be towed back to our berthing area on Kahanamoku Beach, just past that point jutting out straight ahead, the group of trees just offshore out in the bay.

Screenshot (3571) by Donald McCann, on Flickr


We finally made it to our berthing area next to the blue awning covered peer that is the launching point for Atlantis Submarines at Waikiki. Our passengers are all booked at the Rainbow Tower.

Screenshot (3576) by Donald McCann, on Flickr


Screenshot (3578) by Donald McCann, on Flickr

I know someone here at the SOH taught us how to enter Latitude & Longitude coordinates from Google maps and input them into MSFS search window, Thanks for doing that but I just can't remember who it was. Copy & paste these for the approximate berthing area :

21.280673654988995, -157.83881598822097

I can hear Isreal "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole angelic voice singing now!

I hope y'all enjoyed the screenies, it was an all-day trip.

- Don

[grunau_baby]

Even though I only manage scenic short hops I find myself coming back to the Latécoère. I simply like to watch it fly (and float).

Somewhere over Brittany

[dvj]

I could not agree more. It's in my top 5 of aircraft out of all of the current offerings.