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United Airlines
Douglas DC-8 Super 62 Version 1.3
By Dee Waldron
DC-8 Project Team

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15 January 2001
This model is for FS2000 only.

Special thanks to  John Keane, who passed on a lot of good technical info on United's -62.

This is a pretty good model of the DC-8-62 series!
There is a good description of the DC-8 series at Project Freewares website.
The -62 series DC-8's were upgraded versions of the -50 series, with a small fuselage extension and slightly longer wings with larger fuel capacity. Not as large as her bigger brothers, the stretch-eights -61 and -63. The -62 typically carried 180 pax with a flight crew of 3 and a cabin crew of 4 to 5. Series -62's wore the colors of air carriers all over the world, including Braniff Airlines, SwissAir, SAS and Japan Airlines.

United Airlines was one of the bigger operators of the DC-8 model, having several different versions in their fleet. United modified several of their -62's to -62H's. These had an increase gross weight and United used them for non-stop New York JFK to Honolulu Hawii! But the first oil crunch of the early 1970's brought an end to the DC-8 production in favor of larger more fuel economical airliners, like the DC-10. DC-8's still fly on today as freight haulers and some still carry pax charters.

This airframe, originally registered as N8971U, was sold to CammaCorp, and upgraded to a -72 series with CFM-56 engines.
It was later sold to ARAMCO and re registered as N728A. It remains in service today.

Credits:
Kim Simmelink: The original FSFS designer of this model.
Dee Waldron: AF99 model, including animation
Michael Verlin: FS2k Flight Dynamics modeling.
Yannick Charland: Night Lighting

This aircraft was designed by the DC-8 Project Team
Please visit our website at http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/dc8_team.

Installation
If everything goes right, this should be easy. I spend a lot of time working on these zip file structures to ensure easy installation.
After unzipping the dc862ual.zip package, you should have:
1. DC862.TXT     this text file
2. and a folder named dc862ual

Inside the dc862ual folder are all the goodies to make this airplane work with FS2000. The tree structure of dc862ual should be preserved from unzipping when using WinZip, so all you need to do is copy the UALDC862 folder into your FS2k\Aircraft folder. Now you're finished.

This model has working landing lights (lamps only). Animation includes all of the primary and secondary control surfaces, and the landing gear. Landing gear includes all working door details.
Please note that the DC-8 has no spoilers or leading edge slats. The engine fan animation is the best I could do, considering the large size and complexity of the MDL.

FS2k Considerations
This airplane uses a true FS2k flight model by Michael Verlin. Its recommended that you use a  true FS2k instrument panel. Although the FS Converter panel will work, we recommend Olav Roennigen's DC-8 panel, upgraded for FS2k by Michael Verlin. It can be downloaded for free at places like Flightsim.com and Avsim.com. 
As far as night lighting in FS2k is concerned, besides the nav lights, landing light lamps and anti-collision lights, the cabin/cockpit windows will light up at night and the wing root landing lights will "splash" on the fuselage side when switched on at night.

Flying the DC-8
We are still learning to fly the DC-8 ourselves! Planning is everything with this airplane. You must stay ahead of it!
The landing gear has a very long wheel base and a narrow wheel track. Ground handling isn't to difficult though if you plan ahead. In tight areas, slow down!
At MTOW, set the flaps to 15 degrees, a little nose up trim and increase the power to 100% N1. Expect the airplane to roll about 8000 to 9000 ft before reaching Vr (about 145 kts). DO NOT PULL THE NOSE UP STEEPLY. You'll hit the tail! At V2 and positive rate of climb, gear up and look for a target speed of about 180 kts and climb 2200 ft/min. As you clean up the flaps during your climb, the airspeed will increase quickly. You will have to reduce power quite a lot to keep from breaking the 250 kt speed limit below 10,000 ft. Power managment is a full time job with the DC-8.
It hand flys quite nice, but autopilot operation is preferred above 10,000 ft and 250 kts.
Plan well ahead for your descent! Reduce power to flight-idle and start trimming the nose up to bleed the speed down to 250 kts indicated. Drop in 1 notch of flaps, then start your descent. Monitor power and airspeed closely. Maintain 250 kts down to 10,000 ft. If you get into airspeed trouble, use the landing gear to slow down!
Approach (Vref) with full flaps and 155 kts max (150 best). The airplane should hold a nose down attitude during approach. Pull the power levers all the way back to the flight idle gate as you over fly the fence and start trimming the nose level. Hold her level and let her settle in. After all 3 gear are firmly on the ground, reverse thrust and brakes. Expect the landing roll to be about 5000 to 6000 ft. This is not an airplane for small airports!

Numbers out of the book:
Max Taxi Weight: 338,000 lbs
Max Takeoff Weight: 355,000 lbs
Max Landing Weight: 240,000 lbs
Operating Empty Weight: 153,200 lbs
Max Zero Fuel Weight: 195,000 lbs
Max Payload: 41,800 lbs
Max Seating Capacity: 189
Max Cargo Volume: 1,615 cubic feet
Usable Fuel: 24,275 gallons

Sharing experience
As you gain experience flying this airplane, please edit the pop-up checklist. And later when you've come up with good numbers and procedures, please send the checklist back and share it with us. We want to post updated checklists, AIR files and other stuff at our website for other sim flyers. So please check back to the NEA DC-8 page often for updated checklists, AIR files, panel recomendations and such.
Flying this great airliner will be a lot more fun if everyone shares their experience.

Legal Stuff
This aircraft is Freeware. It is provided for your personal enjoyment.
Under no circumstances is this aircraft, textures, or derivatives made from this collection of files to be sold for profit in any way, shape or form. You are free to repaint this model as you wish, but credit for the aircraft and flight dynamics should be duly noted.
You may upload your finished model to any free site on the internet that does not charge to download it.

The copyright of the original FSFS model belongs to:
Kim Simmelink
ksimmel@execpc.com

The copyright of this AF99 model belongs to:
Dee Waldron
e-mail: 71124.3643@compuserve.com

The copyright of the Flight Dynamics belongs to:
Michael Verlin
e-mail: mverlin@tampabay.rr.com