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I'm gonna tel you all right now. If I get to be in any aircraft, your probobly gonna hafta teach me how to use all of this and stuff. By the way, do I need FSNav?

Hey...it wouldn't be Phu Bai without some of these...right? Right! Thought you'd agree....

Got the files this evening, and by the way Ascout, that thing on the outside of the AH-1s is a rear view mirror to check your 6. I've seen the real thing before. Fr8tycat the modifications that I did with your army OH-6 was put the air file and panel from the civillian version in it. Other than that it is unmodified. It flys great, and is in fact one of my favorite helos.

- RAF92_BattleHawk

I'm gonna tel you all right now. If I get to be in any aircraft, your probobly gonna hafta teach me how to use all of this and stuff. By the way, do I need FSNav?

Battlehawk.....despite how complex this looks, this is just the details of making a package, and you won't be needing to do anything fancy or difficult - just show up and fly the flight plan which will be on your GPS.....that's the beauty of it.

To get that accomplished we have to cover some areas but if you view them as just background discussion on making an easy-to-use flight package, that's all it is.

If you can download and install a file or two (self-installers), then start a flight at Da Nang Int'l airport with a Skyraider, load a flight plan, join multiplayer and take off with everyone else and fly the route shown on the GPS, then land, you've got it made. Just like a Com-C Sunday flight or flying online with your buds, which is what this is gonna be.

It's all about making it easy and like a regular flight. Don't let the cross-talk here get ya confoozed like us..

- RCAF_Wingnut

Got the files this evening, and by the way Ascout, that thing on the outside of the AH-1s is a rear view mirror to check your 6. I've seen the real thing before. Fr8tycat the modifications that I did with your army OH-6 was put the air file and panel from the civillian version in it. Other than that it is unmodified. It flys great, and is in fact one of my favorite helos.

Then you'll like Fr8ycat's official version of pretty much the same thing with a few more changes to boot......I just got done with the last bit he asked for BETA and it's uploaded for Fr8ycat's inspection, then hopefully you can have a crack at it and do that test-pilot thing you do so well...!

Hold the phone!

Phu Bai has been reinforced. Fixed some texture/hangar problems, too.

WOW!

How are frame rates with all that???

Stoopy, I flew the flight plan for the Helicopters tonight, and the only thing I saw was red smoke at the 2 LZs. I know you put fire and other effects in there but no can see. When I flew the two loops, the first waypoint was just that, nothing else there. I figured that's all they were supposed to be to set us up for a straight in run to Phu Bai without any detours. The second waypoints were the LZ's and they were preatty straight forward. I saw the smoke and made my landings. I flew back to the base then on to Danang for a final landing. I noticed at Phu Bai that there was a large LZ north of the field. Is that where we land or at the main base, or do we fly on to Danang without stopping? I look forward to the update on the base and the test flights of the new OH-6. I also have the UH-1 you suggested, and it's ok. I hate to say it, but Fr8dycats UH-1 is in my opinion a little better. I did noticed that Richards is only slightly less responsive than the other one. I also like the Missile launchers on one ofRichards versions. The sound file is not right in the first one. The interior sound is too quiet, and it throws me off when I fly it. I have an update sound file that includes a longer more accurate startup and more accurate run sounds, that I got from Hovercontrol recently. I noticed most of those old birds have a top end speed of around 100 - 110 knots, before you start getting the bounce from the rotors going overspeed. I have a feeling I will probably fly the OH-6 for the flight. It's a bit more responsive and maneuverable than the old UH-1's. I wish that AH-1S was from that period as I kind of like it too. Unfortunately, the gun is wrong for the aircraft of that time.

Ascout, I like what you've done with the base. In those piccies that you just posted, I noticed more revetments, and of a different type, parallel 55 gallon sand filled barrel walls. The ones I saw in the version you sent me, the revetments are L shaped concrete walls. I took another flight around the field and the SOG camp and radio intercept area, and the textures are ok for me, though the roofs of some of the hooches are a little light. They have the lines of corrigated metal, but are for the most part white. I also noticed that in the update you are working on that you have a few Chinooks. The pack you sent me doesn't. It has the Hueys and the C-130 and the C-7 Caribou. I did see the trucks, jeeps, and the M-113. I didn't see any fence line around the antenna, but I know that cleared area between the bunkers, surrounding the facility is supposed to have concertina wire and tanglefoot around it. I don't think anyone has created that yet for scenery makers.

Thanks Wingnut. On the helo flight plans, yes the waypoints for the ingress points to the LZ's are just that (which is why I should more properly define them as intersections) , and the LZ's are marked with smoke only - no other effects right now, I wasn't sure if I should make it hostile" or not. Can do, if needed, but I also thought that adding too much smoke effects in one area might impact FPS in multiplayer and make landings difficult.

The helos take off rom and make their landings at Phu Bai and don't progress to Da Nang when done.....the flight plan needed a second airport to route to (unless there's a way to make a flight plan begin and end at the same airport without first tricking it to think a second airport is involved) so that last leg is bogus, it's there so FS9 will load the flight plan.

The legs are roughly:
Phu Bai to Ruong Ruong Valley Ingress
Ruong Ruong Valley Ingress to Roung Roung Valley LZ (with smoke)
Roung Roung Valley LZ to Phu Bai
Phu Bai to A Shau Valley Ingress
A Shau Valley Ingress to A Shau Valley LZ (with smoke)
A Shau Valley LZ to Phu Bai
Done - do not proceed to Da Nang.

The fires and Willy Pete are up north at Khe Sanh, effects for the fixed-wing flight.

Not sure what part of the base to assemble/land at, it's a good question and we can make a little map of the base outlining areas to use, and make it part of the briefing. Since Ascout is putting it together he may already have a place in mind, and we'll need a place for the Skyraiders to park at when they land at Phu Bai also at the end of the mission.

- RCAF_Wingnut

Ascout, I like what you've done with the base. In those piccies that you just posted, I noticed more revetments, and of a different type, parallel 55 gallon sand filled barrel walls. The ones I saw in the version you sent me, the revetments are L shaped concrete walls. I took another flight around the field and the SOG camp and radio intercept area, and the textures are ok for me, though the roofs of some of the hooches are a little light. They have the lines of corrigated metal, but are for the most part white. I also noticed that in the update you are working on that you have a few Chinooks. The pack you sent me doesn't. It has the Hueys and the C-130 and the C-7 Caribou. I did see the trucks, jeeps, and the M-113. I didn't see any fence line around the antenna, but I know that cleared area between the bunkers, surrounding the facility is supposed to have concertina wire and tanglefoot around it. I don't think anyone has created that yet for scenery makers.

Yeah, this is another update based on just-downloaded macros from Al. My "revetments" in the one you now have are actually "buildings"....Al's are a package of revetments that I didn't have before yesterday...the Chinooks either. I changed some buildings and some other things. Al's barracks and hangars have corrugated metal roofs that look almost white from many angles in daylight. Textures are, in fact, there...as you noted. This is worth it, I think, for the barrels and the sandbags (that you you haven't seen yet).

He has wire, but the installation at the radio intercept station is large and I don't want to burden the frames with so small a detail. We won't be walking or driving around in this. Phu Bai itself was surprisingly sparse on wire, unlike more remote combat bases. I'm gonna' skip the wire in favor of beaucoup revetments and static aircraft. It's just a choice.

- JG300-Stoopy

Not sure what part of the base to assemble/land at, it's a good question and we can make a little map of the base outlining areas to use, and make it part of the briefing. Since Ascout is putting it together he may already have a place in mind, and we'll need a place for the Skyraiders to park at when they land at Phu Bai also at the end of the mission.

Whilst Skyraiders didn't normally operate from Phu Bai, operational necessity forces us to adapt to accomodate the fixed-wing guys. There is (as can be seen in the screenie above this post) a Skyraider being led by a Jeep to an area between revetment arrays on the north side of the runway. Fixed wing at Phu Bai usually used the south side (like the C-130 pictured, but I'm making an exception to accomodate the scenery design. There should be room to manuver a Skyraider on the apron there going around that guy.

I have in mind to have the helo's assemble at the extreme west side of the apron on the north side of the runway nearest the MACV-SOG camp. You can use the revetments if you wish, they are now "crash resistant".

We should find a use for somebody in a Chinook in here somewhere...as we get further along with this, and the scenery/package is available, I'd suggest an announcement to some or all of the guys at Hovercontrol...especially the "Blues Brothers" and some others that I suspect might be interested...maybe I'll just post a linky to this thread now to get folks thinking about it.

Very cool.

And Wingnut, on the routing for the helo's: The routes more or less conform to lines and points drawn on an original operational map, but that being said, we could alter them somewhat and even add a couple extra waypoints on the way from Phu Bai to the Ingress points, or even form the LZ's back to Phu Bai, as the terrain calls for.

We do have to make some compromises to keep the helo flights in synch timing-wise with the fixed wing, so we don't want to extend the helo flights to be much longer in total than they are now, but some added points along the way to navigate down valleys or between peaks or whatever could be good.

If you care to offer some suggestions for specific coordinates for additional waypoints that don't extend the flight legs too much, maybe by doing any "scouting" in the area and copying the cordinates down, I would be overjoyed to use your input! Keep in mind I did most of that work on my laptop and without the SEA terrain mesh...and also I have no practical experience in the subject matter at all anyway so it's all a big SWAG on my end anyways.

- RCAF_Wingnut

Got the files this evening, and by the way Ascout, that thing on the outside of the AH-1s is a rear view mirror to check your 6. I've seen the real thing before. Fr8tycat the modifications that I did with your army OH-6 was put the air file and panel from the civillian version in it. Other than that it is unmodified. It flys great, and is in fact one of my favorite helos.

Then I know you'll really like the update. It's the civy model and flight characteristics with the gunners, minigun and Army textures added. There were a couple of small changes I did to the original Army model when I made the Civy vers. and wanted to carry those over on this updated Army vers. plus a added a wire with some "willie pete" cans hanging in front of the gunner.

Thanks for the kind words on the UH1. You know it's been quite a while since I've flown it (kinda hooked on the loach) and I guess it really isn't that bad. Also forgot that it came with different variants. But like I said earlier for this first time out we should probably stick to 1 uh1 model (DB's). We'll work on making the option available for future missions once we get all the quirks worked out.

By the way the download for BETA testing it (fr8ycat's new U.S. Army OH-6a) is available and Wingnut, you have a PM

As always, one or two more testers don't hurt, so anyone else interested in BETA testing it can PM me or fr8ycat and we'll getya a link, sound like a deal?

Where can I get the goodies ??


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