Classic British Flight Sim

Thanks Ian. I've been using a You Tube video for reference but as you can see, it needs work. I'll try to shorten the length and height a bit more. I'm definitely adding density though as Hobby suggested. On the topic, does anyone here know how to add sounds to an effect?

Steve,

You should be able to add sounds to an effect this is from the FSX SDK, but I don't think anything has changed effects wise from FS9, it goes at the end of the .fx file.

[sound]
looping Set to TRUE to loop the audio file. The file will be played for the lifetime of the particle. fx_Barnstorm.fx( Looping=FALSE )
fx_BilgePump.fx( Looping=TRUE )
minattenuationdistance The distance from the source of the sound, that the sound will no longer be heard, in meters.
fx_Barnstorm.fx( MinAttenuationDistance=300 )

filename The file should be placed in the Microsoft Flight Simulator X/sound folder.
fx_BilgePump.fx( fileName=BoatWaterLOOP.wav )

Alternatively you should be able to define a start up sound for the aircraft in the sounds.cfg, e.g. bang of the cartridge followed by the turbine running up etc.

Very nice, Skippy, I may well try both and see what works best. Ta very much for the code!

nazca_steve wrote:As for the sight measurements, that is actually taken from a photo I took of the sight from WV797 at the MAM, so unless they painted it incorrectly there, metric was indeed the unit in this particular case. Peter should chime in here as I am sure he will remember.

I never saw any wingspan scale marked in anything but feet...small spans at left and large spans at right...40 feet was at about 7 o'clock. The dipole switch on the left of the GGS was the electrical retraction switch and when operated the sight would retract forewards and downwards on the inclined ramps at the side. If the retraction failed then you could bang that "Emergency Retraction Knob" on the right and that would slam it down out of the way. If marked, then the RP mark on the wingspan scale was at half past 5 o'clock. The GGS recorder camera was another flat black box that sat on top of the sight, above the sight glass and looked vertically downwards into the sight...It had a fat electrical lead coming out of it on the left. This was an even greater vision obscuring box. Especially on the Venom and Vampire single seaters where the sight did not retract. The Meteors and Two Seat Vampires GGSs retracted down a ramp the same as the Seahawk.

BTW...on aircraft fitted with ejection seats and "Straight Sticks" the Press to Transmit switches were a button in the centre of the end of the throttle ranging twistgrip and it naturally fell under the left thumb. On the Vampires and early Venoms with no ejection seats the stick was a "Spade Grip" and the PTT switch was a flat spring loaded switch on the top of the spade handle and it was conveniently close to the right thumb. :flying:

EDIT...Looking closely at a photo, the Wingspan markings start at 9 o'clock with 25 feet then curve round and down to just before 6 o'clock with 30, 40, 50, and 60 feet...then just past 6 o'clock is 70 feet and the RP mark is just right of that then curving on up with 80, 90, 100, 110 feet 120, 140, and 160 feet...The 160 is at 3 o'clock and there is just a line with no number at 130 and 150 feet.

Great info there, Peter. I had seen the red button inset in the throttle handle and wondered what it was...by press to transmit I assume this is for radio transmissions? Regarding the unit of measurement on GGS it raises the question how and why WV797s sight is marked in metric...perhaps an email to the MAM could clarify.

Prees-to-transmit is correct Steve, for radio transmissions.

My guess is, that gunsight is an export (or locally modified) version of the correct sight for the aircraft. It's not an ex German/Dutch (or Indian) airframe is it?

Hi Steve

One of the comments that frequently appears in real life pilots' remarks about the Sea Hawk is that the view to the front was excellent, especially on the approach to landing. When the Sea Hawk was first introduced to service many pilots would have been used to peering over/round a big engine at the front - Sea Fury etc.

I wonder if it might be a good idea to make the default panel with the gunsight retracted allowing one to recreate that 'excellent view on approach' typical of that aircraft, in real life the pilot really could not be any nearer the nose of the aircraft unless he was legless! We don't want you always ending up 'in the drink/ogin' Steve.

Incorporating another window/keypress in the panel cfg would enable the gunsight to occupy its 'action stations' position enabling our 'aces' to be 'virtual aces' yet allow them to return safely in bad weather to the virtual wardroom for 'coffee.'

Having practiced approaches in the Sea Venom to Ark Royal and Karel Doorman (excellent working mirror landing aid and marshallers on KD) and had my share of into the the stern and over the side or bolters anything that can be done at this stage to improve the view for landing in the Sea Hawk would be appreciated.

I hope that this does not sound as if I am finding fault without having flown the aircraft, that is certainly not my intention.

Hmm, good theory, Trev, and may well be true. From my records, WV797 has always been a FAA machine, but it is possible the GGS was borrowed from a continental airframe after restoration. I will duly remove the 'metres' from my panel though.

On that note, and to respond to Hobby's suggestion, I will need help here. Despite Peter's excellent descriptions of the sight retraction, I still cannot picture how this looked in my mind, which is going to make it tricky to fix in the panel. Does anyone have a photo of one retracted, or perhaps could make a sketch (no matter how crude) demonstrating it? Then I'd be happy to amend it.

I originally made it this way for two reasons; a) that I was getting a black bar running at the bottom of my forward view if I positioned the panel too low, therefore needed to move it up, and b) that I didn't want to ''cut off' any more dials from the bottom of the panel. I'm all for viability though so will do what I can about the GGS. I'll see about view swapping on keystroke...probably simple technically, but all this is still new for me so you will have to be patient.

On another note, I tried both sound methods that Skippy suggested last night and neither worked, so will have to revisit that or abandon it completely.

p.s. thanks for confirming that, Rob.

Can you feature the sight as another seperate panel, so the main panel has a cut-out at the top and you select the sight by pushing (for example) shift/3 when in flight mode. Not really authentic, but is should be easy to do, well easier than making a VC :roll: