New FS2004 Canberra WIP thread

[nazca_steve]

Hah! Nice one Bob, that is indeed the great Bill Holker model, and one of the repaints I did for it years ago. Presumably then he did the telescoping method Dave talked about, and it had some nice physics on the cable if I remember rightly too. I have to admit, until Dave mentioned that approach, I was utterly stumped as to how Bill got that cable to pay out without scaling

[Motormouse]

Thanks a lot, gents, it was a bugger mapping those belly stripes I can tell you, involving a fair bit of hair-pulling and some 1am sessions.

Pete, thanks for that inside info on towing; I will duly pay out only one of the targets, but ref the longer cable, if I have it hanging five miles back (as I've read), we'll never see the flipping thing! I'm taking some artistic liberty on this and leaving her where she is - makes for better screenshots.

Steve

Better make that 11 miles!!!
clicky----> http://ekco-radar.co.uk/gallery/picture ... ategory/21
just yanking your cable, as our transatlantic cousins say...it does indeed look the dogs' wotsits; the targets could be configured as either radar,visual or infra-red targets

ttfn

Pete

[Dev One]

As for the length of cable --- I can confirm that we flew on the Aberporth Range 30, 000 ft of cable towing a Low Level Height Keeper target.....
I think that Flight Refuelling with some of their special Falcons had winches that could take 45,000 ft using a very special cable. Certainly a compnay in the US of A had/has a winch with that capability! The reason for the great length is to try & make sure that the Canberra/Falcon is out of the safety trace of the missile before its fired!
BTW the cable is not a straight line, drag forces & the weight of the target make it a 'half catenery' if you understand - & the target sometimes will be off set to one side - never found the reason for that! Could have been aerodynamic effect on the twisted cable.
Keith

[Dev One]

BTW that link to the Flight Refuelling blurb is way out of date - I think the last Meteor U16 was built/converted back in the '60's!!!
And 60,000 ft of steel stepped cable - that was a dream - it just ain't strong enough, at least for a LLHKT at 300 Kts.
Keith

[nazca_steve]

Blimey, after telescoping out the cable even some 100 odd feet back was enough of a job for me last night, let alone 30,000 I'll see about adding some 'sag' to it and off setting a touch. Keith, were you a pilot or nav on Canberras - sounds like you might have some good stories or photos to share.

[Dev One]

My pseudonym was my call sign, but I was ground based in charge of development. Have you tried my Jindivik sim at classicbritishfiles.com? i am in (delayed ) progress making a 'flyable sim Meteor U16 - as opposed to Ricks AI version for the Llanbedr Project.
Good luck with the cable - I dodged out of that in my Jindi, In any case the towed body is not rigid with the aircraft, its some seconds later, depending on the cable length....
Keith

[SamRo]

http://shop.keypublishing.com/acatalog/fp_May_2010.html

referance....
Good artical on FRADU Canberras :-

"Life as a Target
The fascinating but largely unsung work of the Fleet Requirements Air Direction is described by Bill Simpson."
covers a not uncommon lighting stike on a Ruston target being towed buy a TT-18.

Just had a look at the pics over @ http://www.flyingstations.com/ very cool..
Also reading above posts guessing everyone has read "Targets Rolling"
Loveing the story regarding a deployment to scotland and a TT-18 suffering loss of an engine due to a bird stike and being asked to move its holding patteren when it was burning off fuel as its ESM emmisions were playing havoc with local TV sets lolololol
Again another mention of a Ruston target being stuck off the Rock!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Target-Rolling- ... 1857801369
p.s not shore why its £50 on amazon!!??? but ISBN is there.

[nazca_steve]

Nice one there, SamRo, fortunately us stateside bound Brits can still get Flypast at all good bookshops, albeit at inflated prices, so I will try to get that tomorrow. Sounds interesting stuff, and best of all there is a stripey Canberra on the cover Targets Rolling was also news to me, well, might have to put that Amazon gift card I got for my birthday to good use there.

[nazca_steve]

Hello all,

well the good news is I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the freeware release. The VC is 90% complete, just need to do the gauges now, and it should be ready for beta soonish. Here are a few screenies of what's to come, apart from the VC, that is (still needs more trimmings). I've managed to build in some new features of late, such working ejector seats and dropable (is that a word?) payloads.

[FlyTexas]

Beeeeautiful!!

Brian