Arado Ar196B – The single-float prototype

This is the well-known Arado Ar196 in a somewhat unusual configuration. The kriegsmarine workhorse has two bulky floats, right? Right -but Arado actually made prototypes with single and double floats. It's the Ar196A that went into production; of this Ar196B, shown in its prototype/civilan livery, only a few examples were made.

The build

The plane should be recognizable as an Arado, and is fairly detailed including a full cockpit interior. Features;

• Working canopy -you can fly around with your hair in the wind. Kind of.
• Folding wings
• A fully functional rear gunner’s station
• Functioning, retractable float rudder

Flying

The Arado is a very forgiving plane -takeoff and landing requires zero expertise.
You’ll notice that the plane starts in “stored” position, with its wings folded back. So the first thing to do is to deploy those of course –that’s a no-brainer. Don’t worry, you can still do air starts if you really need to; just don’t do air starts too close to the ground ;) :D
On takeoff, just go with something a bit over half flaps, and when you’re over 150 km/h just pitch up and yank the trim slider all the way down… that should do the trick. But remember it’s a floatplane; clearing the water is always the trickiest part. Landing is easier; throttle down to < 50%, lower your flaps and hit the water relatively horizontally, and you’re fine. Not much can go wrong. At anything below 70 km/h, you can lower your float rudder for steering; to come to a complete stop, wiggling the rudder is a trick that helps (a bit).
When flying, you have three cockpit views; the pilot’s forward view of course, and two views for the spotter/gunner position… one cam is more suitable to just look around, the other one is dedicated to operating the machine gun.

Armament

For a shipboard recon plane, the Ar196 was actually quite heavily armed; on top of its defensive rear gun, it also had a fixed forward-firing machine gun, a pair of 20 mm autocannons, and it could carry a couple of bombs. So, what’s installed?

• MG15 machine gun (7.92 mm) - the rear gunner has a single machine gun, installed on a special gun mount that allows him to swivel his MG to either side of the plane for a wider field of fire. It’s also healthier for your plane’s tail, if you get my meaning.

• MG17 machine gun (7.92 mm) - the pilot has a fixed machine gun, installed in the fuselage with a somewhat strange setup; the gun actually fires under the engine cover, and the bullets come out a hole at the front. Makes a lot more sense than, say, installing a pair of guns in the usual position. Ahem. In any case; the Arado is no fighter plane, but at least this gun allows it to take pot shots at other planes.

• MG-151 autocannons (20 mm) - these are the business end of the Arado. The 20 mm’s in each wing are heavy hitters, allowing the Ar196 to tackle heavy planes or light armoured vehicles and boats. Because of their position in the wings, the cannons are protected from splashing water by red plastic caps; these will automatically shred when the cannons are fired for the first time.

Controls

Standard controls, with VTOL down for flaps, Trim slider for trim.

Landing gear : this controls the folding wings, since there’s no landing gear anyway. First thing you do before takeoff: hit “G”…

AG1 : this will activate a gyroscope and disables the flight controls, allowing you to use the rear gunner’s MG-15 (control using pitch &yaw)
AG2 : swivels the gun mount of the rear MG-15 to either side of the plane.
AG3 : opens the canopy so you can let in some air (or seagull-shit, if it’s not your lucky day)
AG4 : lowers the float rudder to allow steering when in the water. It automatically retracts at higher speeds (70 km/h and up) though, when it's no longer safe to use. Anything over that speed is considered a straightforward takeoff run.
AG5 : toggles between pitch and roll trim. You shouldn’t need the roll trim really, but anyway… it’s there if you want it.
AG6 : not assigned
AG7 : toggle nav lights
AG8 : not assigned

Mods

I used one mod for the cockpit instruments; these look way better than anything self-made. The mode is not necessary to fly the plane, but it doesn make the cockpit look nicer -so it’s recommended.

Enjoy your flight!