Hi from an ex-Waffu

[phixer]

Not known as Fisheads Peter.

What a pleasure it was finding this place. After the death of a machine running FS2002 I finally got around to installing the FS2004 that I had bought awhile ago, but ran out of disk space to install it due to all the graphic work I had done, on a new machine.

This is my second post here, my first was in the ArkRoyal Traps thread.

Having been an Airframes and Engines 'tiff on 892 Sqd'n I was interested to see what is going on with an Ark Royal project that somebody contacted me about a few years back. He wanted some pictures.

I have seen the thread about Ark Royal scenery files that were made available through Skysim and have visited their site but cannot see anything of that description. But did find the Sea Vixen – I shall order that pronto as I was on Sea Vixens for awhile in the mid 1960s with a spell on the old Vic' with 893. I was at Sea Vixen 50 some shots of which or on my web site (see profile).

I spent quite a bit of time on Hunters GA11 and T8 and am trying to find the source of those files generated on another thread here, also without luck. I once had a crude but nice to fly T8 (or7) from Alpha, I think, managed to put that down on the almost invisible (JustFlight) main runway at Lee-on-Solent. That without any instrumentation!

Many links in older threads seem to have died and folk such as Alpha Sim have dropped some models I had working in FS2002. Also that NAZCA Sea Hawk does not want to be found.

I had nice Seafire and Firefly FS2002 models from AH, can I install these into FS2004 (FS9)?

I had installed much add on scenary from JustFlight, all bar one are labelled as FS2002/FS2004. Will the JF Airports add on that is simply marked 2002 behave on FS2004?

Having been born and bred in Gloucester in the late 1940s and 1950s I was pleased to find a Meatbox and will be ordering the Javelin and Swordfish from Alpha shortly. I saw a T7 available but that link also went nowhere.

I would appreciate any help and intend to stick around.

[SkippyBing]

Phixer,

The Ark should be available at Avsim, try http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea ... &Go=Search, download all the FS 2004 files and then read the instructions. SeaKing55 is your best bet for sorting out any problems with the install as I don't actually have FS9 anymore which is why I built the FSX version!

What years were you on 893? My old man was with them for a bit and I even blagged a trip to the Sea VIxen 50th off the back of it!

For the Sea Hawk, try http://www.nazcastudios.com/sea-hawk/index.html it's still at beta stage at the moment.

[phixer]

Phixer,

What years were you on 893? My old man was with them for a bit and I even blagged a trip to the Sea VIxen 50th off the back of it!

Thanks for your help SkippyB, much appreciated.

I was on 893 as they re-equipped with the Mk2 and went on board for deck trials in May 66. I was still an under-training apprentice at that time out at Yeovilton for field training and somebody upstairs had the bright idea of sending us to sea - something of a novelty for AA App's at the time - but I had a fun time avoiding injury.

Had a few spells on 766 which was quite interesting in 1966 as there was even two of the first nine production with charging points in different places, the hybrid Mk1-Mk2 with in situ LOX pack, and a good old mix of FAW1 and FAW2. One had to become QS on each variant before one could take on the role of plane captain.

One thing WRT the Hunter model I noticed was remarks about tanks jettisoning when empty. The Hunters that arrived at Lee-on-Solent for us to modify had to leave with empty drops as the runway was to short otherwise. So such a flight could not be simulated. One of the GA11s that I fitted a Harley Light to in 1972 failed to get airborne because of, as it turned out, an ASI failure because of manufacturer's swarfe.

People were pointing fingers at me for awhile because it was alleged that there had been fuel in the drops. I was positive there wasn't because not only had I ensured that the drops were empty but had called a bowser over to suck out some internal fuel to bring down the take-off weight because what wind there had been was dropping whilst the pilot was en route from Yeovilton in the Clipper (Comm's Sea Devon).

[DaveG]

Hi Phixer, and welcome to the forum.

The Hunters you mentioned are mine, and can be downloaded from Avsim.com or flightsim.com
The T8 is in the trainers pack http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea ... &Go=Search

and the GA.11 in the 5th Hunter pack, http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Sea ... &Go=Search

You'll need an Avsim log-in to access these, but it's free.

[hobby]

Hi and welcome

The Hawker Sea Hawk has not yet been released but will be along shortly

To see what lies in store pick up the Sea Hawk thread in the forum section 'Developers Corner.' Steve has put in an excellent link to the whole of his Sea Hawk development project.

Also expected in the next few days is my own FS9 version of RAF Ford/HMS Peregrine airfield with a separate AI program circa Suez and onwards into the 1960s.

If you go to the 'key commands' section of FS9 you will find a command 'release drop tanks.' I have that command rigged to 'Shift+d' on my FS9 setup. When you press those keys a short ribbon message appears at the top of the screen 'drop tanks armed' a second press on that key combination results in a message 'Drop tanks released.' In FS9 these tanks, unless specially modelled and coded do not drop with that key combination but on the second press all the remaining fuel in those drop tanks does disappear from both the table of fuel contents and the gross fuel table and gross weight is reduced by the corresponding weight in fuel. So it is possible to imitate a Hunter taking off from a short runway with empty drop tanks while still having drop tanks (empty of fuel), if so modelled, attached to the wings. It was quite by accident that I discovered that key command in FS9.

That keypress double command is useful for reducing the Gross weight towards the max landing weight on short flights.

[RobDob]

Hi Phixer

What part of Gloucester are you from? I've been living in Gloucester for the past 10 years for work. Originally from Farnborough. (Sorry if this is off topic, feel free to delete if required Mods.)

Cheers

Rob

[phixer]

Hi and welcome

The Hawker Sea Hawk has not yet been released but will be along shortly

Thanks for that hobby I will certainly look forward to that.

Also expected in the next few days is my own FS9 version of RAF Ford/HMS Peregrine airfield with a separate AI program circa Suez and onwards into the 1960s.

Now that is worth a look.

There was an astonishing variety of aircraft types and units that operated from Ford over its history from WW1 to when it closed in the 1950s. I recently produced a piece on Ford and worked out tables (using Excel but since the death of my last computer I will attempt to load into Open Office, I had converted these to graphic files for easier publishing in a journal) of Aircraft types, the units that operated them with dates. I used Ken Delve's 'The Military Airfields of Britain: Southern England' and the Air-Britain 'The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm' by the late Ray Sturtivant and Theo Ballance as sources. I could send you copies of these tables by email if you like. I guess you would prefer a spreadsheet versions.

Also sited there was one of the two timing cameras that snapped the runs of the FD2 during its successful world airspeed record attempt.

The closure, some say, was hastened by the excessive noise of the Scimitars on the trials unit there now that would be a cool aircraft type to operate from Ford.

Thanks for your tips on the Hunter files.

The Vixen is now ordered as a boxed version. My internet connection has a nasty habit of dropping out (good old oversubscribed Virgin Media) which could cause problems with purchased downloads. I am going to have to give this a try with some Alpha files before long though. As it is I copy all posts into a text editor having lost too many because the connection fails and it is a right PITA to have to type all over again.

[nazca_steve]

Welcome indeed, Phixer, and thanks again for posting that cracking traps video. I showed it to my 2 1/2 year old daughter this weekend, and she gave the last pilot a round of applause when he finally trapped. Yes, the indoctrination has already started!

Glad to hear you are sticking around - hopefully there will be plenty of FAA-based additions in 2009 to keep waffus happy. On that note, I am aiming to release the Sea Hawk by this weekend. Yes, I said it, and have now promptly jinxed myself. Either way, whenever it is released I am sure it will find a good home in Hobby's Ford airfield.

Happy flying till then.

[sketchy74]

Hi Phixer,

Great to see you on the Forum and cool to hear your were on the Vic in the Mid 60's

Like Skippy's my Father was also on the Vic then based out of Sembawang on 814 with the Yellow tops.

Best,

Sketchy

[phixer]

Hi Phixer, and welcome to the forum.

The Hunters you mentioned are mine, and can be downloaded from Avsim.com or flightsim.com

Good stuff.

I am having a go with those right now.

Now I hope you don't mind me asking but, given that RN GA11s and T8s had cartridge starters, is it possible to have black cartridge smoke blast out under the belly on an engine start? The exhaust was just a few inches away from the fuel vent (forward and offset to port IIRC) which was the cause of some dismay when a CPO began a test start without ensuring that the waste fuel bin had been moved away, this caused a most interesting start. By the look of pic's the shortly to arrive ShiteHawk (sorry SeaHawk ;-) ) has this feature. I remember even now the pain of strained shoulder joints whilst unloading and re-loading those triple-breeches with those oversized shotgun cartridges!

I just love it that the GA11 is XE685 - I fitted the Harley light in that one (the lens mount skin was painted red in those days), amongst quite a few others. I also did XE689 which came to me as a PR10 (that was on the aircaft doc's) and I first had to revert her to GA standard by removing camera mounts, filling in the camera ports with patches and manufacturing a ballast weight structure to hang on the front bulkhead. Always worried me that ballst weight structure. Hawkers sent us some of their original T-section steel - which was surprisingly commercial grade. But it was so rusted that by the time it was machined down, I only used a sample being doubtfull before starting, their were still deep pits of corrosion. So I found some suitable equivalent from a Southampton roofing company and had the batch cleared by NAML.

Sorry if this is going off topic, thought you would find it of interest.