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Just wondering how I get a fully functioning carrier to go with my Tomcat. And do the Carriers that come with the game have cats, arrestor wires?

I honestly don't have a clue. I believe there are some payware addons you can look up.

which carriers do you have? And do you have the abacus arrestor cable program which will catapualt and trap you back on board?

and here's some pics of us actually landing...



and just before a 4 aircraft launch...



we even have LHD Class Helicoptor Assault Carriers



or we can go back in time and become Japanese for the day and fly off the Shokaku




or have the latest advanced MV-22




so if your looking to learn about Carrier Operations, my price/hour are reasonable.....

YIKES..i just realized you were taking about fsx...i don't use it because of it's limitations,but some of our members do, i'll get the answers for you and report back...sorry....

Talk about teasin' someone!

ROFLMAO..... great post Bulldog...lol

Indeed!!! May not be exactly the right sim but what an answer!!!!

Hey Bulldog, I hope you don't mind (and please do share whatever answers you get) but this whole thing made me very curious and I found the following:

First, there's this FSX AI Carrier Package at AvSim that has a WHOLE BUNCH of carrier groups scattered aorund the world....these are actual, moving, landable carriers, so actually finding them is not always so easy because they're roamin' around (with escorts)! Fortunately, the author privides a Google Earth KML file that shows their location and courses, looks like they prowl around in circular routes and one of em is just south of the KORS Pigsty, actually if you depart NAS Whidbey Island (KNUW) and head south-ish then east-ish or west-ish you may find 'em:

library.avsim.net/esea...DLID=96551

On top of that, there's this gauge package for tailhook-enabled aircraft...I haven't tried this but the description has me quite interested:

library.avsim.net/esea...DLID=98408

Not sure what your cup o'tea is but the Alpha Bleu Ciel F4U-7 Corsair by Guy Hulin & Co. absolutely ROCKS in FS2004 and fully compatible with FSX as well!!!

FS2004 ABC F4U-7 Corsair
library.avsim.net/esea...DLID=53725

There's an important update for it and a few extra paints too:

Update for ABC Corsair:
library.avsim.net/esea...DLID=54424

Plus some US repaints and others worth getting:

Repaints for ABC Corsair:
library.avsim.net/esea...DLID=54290

library.avsim.net/esea...DLID=56728

library.avsim.net/esea...DLID=67722

Gotta try the gauge package next to enable arrestor wires but the AI package Carrier group is VERY good! The wake in the photos is real and not just painted water as in FS9 and such. After you land, your plane needs the parking brakes kept on to stay "stuck" to the deck of the moving carrier (one nosegear-equipped aircraft I tried kept "bouncing" back on it's tail due to the unexpected forward movement of the deck, another reason to fly taildragger props), and it's pretty cool to look off to the side and see water and coastlines going by. And if you press the slew key, be prepared for the carrier to keep moving forward on ya....pretty slick!!!











Woulda caught the 3-wire if I'd have had working arrestor cables I betya!



But had to stand on the brakes instead....



Takeoff with a forward wind due to carrier movement was no problemo...

Well, not to yammer on about it but I checked out that gauge package at the second link above and I gotta say it's pretty cool!!

The only downside is that (for either FSX or FS9) you have to edit the panel.cfg and aircraft.cfg for each plane you want to use this with, but the instructons are pretty good about telling you exactly what to do.

Even works in FSX although with the moving carriers, the arrestor wires are "global" which means they'll be present whereever your tailhook touches the ground (making it impossible, really, to "bolter"). In FS9 they're placed at specific locations on the static carriers, becuase those don't move.

Even so, it's way wicked, you get great sound effects when you slam the deck, hear the cables tighten, and it pulls you back a little bit. Then the cable is released and it even automatically retracts your tailhook for ya, so you don't forget it & take off with the thing hangin down like I did in my last Corsair shot above...

Here's a shot as I slammed onto the deck ...





The cat shot works great as well (parking break trigers the catapult shoe, then spool up your engines and when they reach power it releases you - BAM!!!!





Also a pretty cool effect included for creating the visible shockwave effect as you pass through Mach 1, with one of the ost impressive "BOOOOM" sounds I've heard.....makes it a ton of fun to go tearing around scaring the locals and timing the sonic boom for right when you pass overhead...





Need me a good F-14 though, since this one I downloaded to try out doesn't have one single gauge that works in FSX......any suggestions on a good (freeware) one??

Well don't everybody start hootin' and hollern' all at once....what, did I talk too much.... again!?

Tough! Got one more cool thing to show ya's.....go grab yerself this thing right hyarrrrrr....

FSX Driveable Carrier:
library.avsim.net/esea...LID=109192

...and you'll have yourself a driveable aircraft carrier which means....yep, you go into multiplayer, and with your fancy jet aeroplanes with tailhooks or whatever (and the COP3 gauges installed as above)....you go do carrier traps and cat launches in multiplayer! As long as someone is willin' to stay on board and drive that carrier around!

Just be careful if ya spawn in midair.....she's a tad nose-heavy......



Installation is easy - you could say it basically just "drops right in" to FSX (SimObjects/Boats folder)....get it? (snort snort) Get it??



..she makes about 30 knots or so, which is plenty for sailin' around, YARRRRRRR.....



Don't handle too good, which means you don't have to worry about her turnin' to tight away from ya on final. Speaking of final, here she is turnin' hard a-starboard to make runway 16 at the Pigsty.....



Rats, missed again!!! Well, makes a nice taxiway extension at least!



HEY ASCOUT!!! I gotta park my boat here for a while until I get the trailer for 'er welded up......don't nobody go near the galley I mean it!!!!

LMFAO......priceless Stoop.......

Gives a new meaning to 'land class'...lol

Interesting stuff

Does the drivable carrier have a cockpit?

Does this mean you could make almost any drivable vehicle?

Could a "vehicle" be a human?

I like the way the carrier is rolling in a hard turn.. does it pitch and roll

New model of "Hornet" needed for another Doolittle raid I think

I asked about humans because I really would like to see the gap between FPS and sims get closer..
Sorta get woken in the barracks and then into the briefing room.. jump in the truck and out to your B17 on the pad... etc etc

Sly

Those are some spankin' good question. Sly. here's what I know FWIW.....

No cockpit in the carrier, but migod it doesn't seem to need one. Anyway, I bet this is easily fixed by adding a default panel and viewpoint, or even creating a custom view in FSX that should put you on the bridge. Was gonna play with it but couldn't get to it yet.

Driveable vehicles - oh heck yeah, they've been around and even in FS9 there's cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, ships, tanks, mopeds, even "flyable" flocks of geese and eagles. Stuff that goes underwater is probably not possible, I haven't seen any submarines or whales or other fishes.

I haven't seen a "human" vehicle yet but that's a wicked idea, a scale Elvis with animated arms and legs would be wicked cool. In the Active Camera addon for FS9, they do have an "EXternal Pilot" view option that lets you "walk around" on the ground and investigate all kinds of things, very cool for doing detail work (I use it for repaints) and checking color blends etc on hard-to-see part of the aircraft. You even hear footsteps when you're walking around, it's just that you're invisible.

LOL.....funny you should ask, the first time out with the carrier I tried to see if I could get it to pitch fore and aft, and with certain joystick movements it seems you can, it just has so little "elevator authority" that it's hard to do. Fun way to mess with your buddies trying to land on it in multiplayer, I bet

And I was also gonna look for another few carriers from FS9 (WWII era) to see if they could be adapted in a similar fashion, I'm betting they can. Need something more authentic for that Corsair to operate from.....

Hi Stoop

Somebody somewhere possibly still has CV8 Hornet that I did for FS9... Its not movable and doesn't pitch or roll... but you can get 12 B25's on deck (and take off)'

Unfortunately I lost all my stuff when my rig was stolen.. Fled, Bush or Kit may have it

Sly

OK....

THIS, I SWEAR, is the last bit I'll yak about as far as FSX and functional carriers go....in this thread, I mean.......

Check it out: The FSX "Accelleration" add-on release is coming out on Oct 23rd. from Microsoft. Apart from all the stuff you're already hearing about, (Online Air Racing, new planes, missions, performance updates, etc) there's also a vague tidbit buried in the release details about functional carriers (plus, Sling Loads and working Hoists for helos!!!).

So to find out more I went to AVSIM and - yes, in the middle of one of the usually very long and somewhat messy threads - asked about it, and got this response:

- Stoopy

>This is excellent news and thank you. One question if you
>can, I have been trying to confirm Accelleration features (not
>SP2 necessarily) and with specific regard to the functional
>carrier. Does this mean now having arrestor cables for
>tailhook-equipped aircraft *and* a working catapult?
>
>Oddly, just can't find much out there on the web by Googling
>lately. But very stoked about that specific possibility as
>well as the helo slingloads and hoists...for $30 you can't
>beat it!!!!!!

Yes and yes.

I got the opportunity to run the carrier mission with a few real Hornet pilots at Reno, and it's great. Lower the launch bar, attach to the catapult and go, then run the pattern, lower the tailhook, and snag one of the cables.

Of course, it's the hardest thing I've ever done in Flight Sim, but so much fun.


Brian G.
Forum Administrator
Microsoft MVP - PC Games
www.notasenator.com/blog

So - Battlehawk - in addition to the stuff above, there you have a complete answer from the guy who's seen it and done it. At the end of this month all you gotta do is buy "FSX Accelleration" for $30 and you'll get what you wanted plus a TON of cool stuff more PLUS some performance enhancements and fixes. No downloads, no editing .CFG files, just fly and s;am 'er on the deck. I'll wager there's a working ILS to serve as a "meatball" so you can do it at night in a storm.....and I can pick you up with the hoist on the helo if ya go in the drink!

That's like, about a buck a day to save up for, so start tucking away some loose change from your lunch money bud!