CVAN-65 FSX Freeware

[lazarus]

675506755167552675536755467555

One last ride, just for lulz.
Some folks like to change the conditions years after the fact, despite what the readme and usage notes of the file say. That's fine, sorry if I tromped on any ones crank, but only a little. I'm also a crappy mind reader, just ask my ex-wife. The old AS CVN-65 is pretty rough, too.
By way of apology, I'm taking a bite out of someones revenue stream.
Soon, turban-top CVAN-65 in her pre-1979 fit. Not bothering with elevators, still can't quite get those working, unless some enthusiast wants the elevator and has a good hack for that, PM Y.T. She'll have the rads, deflectors- the basic acceleration carrier load out. 5.5 mb, 3,5 mb/49K vertices in the collada. Not bad.
She'll also have a battle group- Long Beach, thinking about butching out Bainbridge, probably go with a gen one CGN-42, rather than the VLS ship, plane guards, and a pair of dynamic SSN's.
Price: FREE.
Timeline: seven days in, so soon.

[delta_lima]

Outstanding news!

Do you have any deck aircraft configs in mind, eg: CVW-14 in the early 70s, etc.?

Take your time - this will be worth waiting for!

dl

[RS]

Hi Lazarus,

what a wonderful idea to make the USS Enterprise and also this ship as part of a battle group containing the unique USS Long Beach cruiser.
I would like to assume you are making the most unique ship group ever will be made for FSX (and P3D?).


http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67573&stc=1

Have a lucky hand and a lot of fun to do this challenging job. Unfortunately I have no idea to bring life to the elevators. In any case I am sure a lot of folks will choose your work.

Greetings

RS

[RS]

Yes, it´s allowed to dream...

The only thing we need when Lazarus will launch the USS Enterprise... is a good state of art Vigilante...
I am missing this bird so much. When thinking on this carrier I must think on the Vigis too.
But the promising approach of VECTORSIMWORKS seems to have walked into the dark?

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67576&stc=1

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/103470-Vectorsimworks-Are-they-history

There a freeware bird available - but only with a merged cockpit of the Mitsubishi F1...
We have nice Skyhawks, the wonderful MILVIZ or SWS Navy Phantoms, the Sea King and...
...a lot of machines for FSX which have done their service on the USS Enterprise...

Let´s pray somebody comes down from the designer heaven on earth and give us a suberb Vigi....http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon26.gif


RS

[dogfish]

That is great news, looking foward to this. thank You.

[dogfish]

This just showed up at Warship models.com, Diarama by Kostas Katseas 1/1250 Scale.http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dio/task-force/SeaOrbit-1250-kk/index.htmhttp://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67589&stc=1

[tgycgijoes]

If you Google Search RA5C FSX NATIVE you will get a number of links to click starting with Rikoo and also Flyaway Simulation. They are conversions of the Alphasim 2004 payware then Virtavia freeware with conversion to FSX and a VC. There is also a thread here in the SOH about it.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=38&sort=d&page=2&pp=20

[lazarus]

Major texturing except flight deck coatings applied- trying to keep it down to 4-5 drawcalls. Reactors fueled, masts stepped, now the top hamper for the island to go on. hoping to have her in the water tonight. Unlike the current NNSB yard and PCU Ford goat rope, BuShips is still running the show here, were on time, and on budget:playful:
Who knows? I'm mulling over a HD commercial version, as well.:pirate: First thing first.
edit: Good model photos are the way to go. I'm using a huge load of large screen caps from the guy who did Dragons CVAN-65 3D prototype. So, a chinese copy of a chinese copy...and the Dragon model is, oh, je ne sais quoi...le monde juste.
67595675966759767598675996760067601

[RS]

If you Google Search RA5C FSX NATIVE you will get a number of links to click starting with Rikoo and also Flyaway Simulation. They are conversions of the Alphasim 2004 payware then Virtavia freeware with conversion to FSX and a VC. There is also a thread here in the SOH about it.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=38&sort=d&page=2&pp=20



Hi tgycgijoes

thank you for your tips. I have the Virtavia conversion of the Vigi on my harddisk. I´ve flew it once again yesterday evening. Ok - surely 100 percent better than no Vigi - and it is freeware - that means in generaal a "Big Thank you" to the designer of it. I am personally not able to create or to modify airplanes or sceneris in such a way.
But Flight dynamics as well as the cockpit don´t really convince me...

And than you see pictures like this...

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67640&stc=1


Ok... it´s allowed to dream.

Many greetings RS

[RS]

If you Google Search <em>RA5C FSX NATIVE you will get a number of links to click starting with Rikoo and also Flyaway Simulation. They are conversions of the Alphasim 2004 payware then Virtavia freeware with conversion to FSX and a VC. There is also a thread here in the SOH about it.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=38&amp;sort=d&amp;page=2&amp;pp=20" target="_blank">http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=38&amp;sort=d&amp;page=2&amp;pp=20</a><br>
</em><br>
<br><br>Hi tgycgijoes<br><br>thank you for your tips. I have the Virtavia conversion of the Vigi on my harddisk. I´ve flew it once again yesterday evening. Ok - surely 100 percent better than no Vigi - and it is freeware - that means in general a "Big Thank you" to the designer of it. I am personally not able to create or to modify airplanes or sceneries in such a way.<br>But Flight dynamics as well as the cockpit don´t really convince me...<br><br>And than you see pictures&nbsp; like this...&nbsp;<br><br><img src="http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67640&amp;stc=1" attachmentid="67640" alt="" id="vbattach_67640" class="previewthumb"><br><br><br>Ok... it´s allowed to dream.<br><br>Many greetings RS<br><br><br><br>&nbsp;<br><br>

[lazarus]

A-5 https://simviation.com/1/download-file?file=NorthAmericanRA-5C_X_V2.6.zip&fileId=51669

Island details. Flight deck textures in the graphics editor. BPDMS, directors and wires to go, then a few rails, bollards. Close.

67653

[kl791]

A-5 https://simviation.com/1/download-file?file=NorthAmericanRA-5C_X_V2.6.zip&fileId=51669

Island details. Flight deck textures in the graphics editor. BPDMS, directors and wires to go, then a few rails, bollards. Close.

67653

Fantastic to see you do this! I was in China the last two weeks with no access to sim-outhouse so this came as a nice surprise.
Henrik

[lazarus]

67746

67747677486774967750

Hey, Henrik. Good time to be out of that neck of the woods. Scary place, PRC. It's like looking into the future.
And, do you have your bet down in nuke 'em bingo? India or IROP? :jump:

CVAN-65 test shot, assembly and initial sim run trial.

No cats, no wires active yet, so it's bolters, helio's and stuff with huge brakes...
rads, deflectors in animation
Assembly textures, mapping pretty much settled. Basic material settings.
BPDMS, rails, bollards, bits, other boat doofer to go.
Hangar deck?
6.27 mb, 47k and change vertices, 13 total textures-21.4mb total file size.
Great FPS.
trying to keep the whole shebang under 8Mb/55K vertice
Look it over if you're so inclined- texture holes, proportions, glaring fumduckers??? Now's the time...
I suppose I should bang in a hangar deck?

[kl791]

67746

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67747&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67748&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67749&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67750&stc=1

Hey, Henrik. Good time to be out of that neck of the woods. Scary place, PRC. It's like looking into the future.
And, do you have your bet down in nuke 'em bingo? India or IROP? :jump:

CVAN-65 test shot, assembly and initial sim run trial.

No cats, no wires active yet, so it's bolters, helio's and stuff with huge brakes...
rads, deflectors in animation
Assembly textures, mapping pretty much settled. Basic material settings.
BPDMS, rails, bollards, bits, other boat doofer to go.
Hangar deck?
6.27 mb, 47k and change vertices, 13 total textures-21.4mb total file size.
Great FPS.
trying to keep the whole shebang under 8Mb/55K vertice
Look it over if you're so inclined- texture holes, proportions, glaring fumduckers??? Now's the time...
I suppose I should bang in a hangar deck?

Orwell couldn't have imagined how well they do it... I'm really looking forward to your final model... we need to do an retro AI Ship package...

[RS]

Hi Lazarus

First launch of your new old "Big E" in my FSX... great progress!

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67759&stc=1


I will enjoy to see the next steps of your project...

Many Greetings

RS

[lazarus]

67980
I approve of vintage ships. Is that stuff from the 1970's?
Vintage: I was behind a bloke at a filling station in kanadastan last month ( Where is puking emoticon? ) Guy says '200 bucks on pump X.' I start laughing. Tell the guy that I didn't think I paid $200 for my first three cars all together. And they weren't really ****ty cars, just old beaters.
200 clams probably wasn't a full tank, either.
Chumps. What do you do? Can't shoot everybody...
Had some technical issues to overcome with wandering texture mapping - a new and exciting bug - and getting one and two cats working. The front cats don't like it if the start points are much more than 55' forward of center, for future reference.
Rads, 4 cats, 4 wires, 4 JBD's, coded effects that turn off when it quits moving. Textures coming, still low-rez deck, but stuff is marked out so I can see what goes where. Material setting applied, still no night maps, as an orgy of GIMP is soon. Now that I've all the merges and attaches worked out, got stuff working, its back in for some minor post trials work on the stbd fwd sponson, some placarding at a higher rez, then Tilly and some deck clutter.
Any idea's about deck apes? Anyway, there she is to date, coming along nicely.
6798167982679836798467985

[kl791]

67980
I approve of vintage ships. Is that stuff from the 1970's?
Vintage: I was behind a bloke at a filling station in kanadastan last month ( Where is puking emoticon? ) Guy says '200 bucks on pump X.' I start laughing. Tell the guy that I didn't think I paid $200 for my first three cars all together. And they weren't really ****ty cars, just old beaters.
200 clams probably wasn't a full tank, either.
Chumps. What do you do? Can't shoot everybody...
Had some technical issues to overcome with wandering texture mapping - a new and exciting bug - and getting one and two cats working. The front cats don't like it if the start points are much more than 55' forward of center, for future reference.
Rads, 4 cats, 4 wires, 4 JBD's, coded effects that turn off when it quits moving. Textures coming, still low-rez deck, but stuff is marked out so I can see what goes where. Material setting applied, still no night maps, as an orgy of GIMP is soon. Now that I've all the merges and attaches worked out, got stuff working, its back in for some minor post trials work on the stbd fwd sponson, some placarding at a higher rez, then Tilly and some deck clutter.
Any idea's about deck apes? Anyway, there she is to date, coming along nicely.
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67981&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67982&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67983&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67984&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67985&stc=1

Looking good... I have always been a fan of the slim line of USS Long Beach - the couple fits nicely together.

[lazarus]

Enterprise, Long Beach and the Viggie. That was the Atomic Navy.

68086
6808768088680896809068091680926809368094
I think that's got her nailed down, new sponsons and whatnot, went after texture fumduckers, upped the size of the deck textures, did a quick clean up. That fixes up the jaggies, looks better.
Fiddled with material settings, brightens things up. On to some clutter for the roof and Bainbridge. So this has the Big E, Long Beach, re-frobbed AI SH-3, Skipjack and Sturgeon SSN's, and the RF-4 for trials. The subs dive, though Sturgeon needs some prodding. You have to go buzz the boat until they get annoyed and submerge. Other boats need no prodding, why the sturgeon is special, I don't know. Same animation and tags, should behave the same way.

[DC1973]

Enterprise, Long Beach and the Viggie. That was the Atomic Navy.

Awesome!! :applause:

[gray eagle]

Where are the subs? Looking at the parameters for them, it looks like they are about seven times further from the Long Beach.

unit.4=USS_Trepang(SSN-674), -8400,8540 <<<<< Where is this in relation to the Long Beach, aft, forward, abeam?

unit.5=USS_SSN-590_Sculpin_D, 8400, 8540

Tried screening for them - they must be quite a ways from the carrier -

Didn't see the attached Viggie. Maybe that was to go in aircraft folder?

https://i.postimg.cc/xjwx9Yw7/cv65.jpg

[lazarus]

The passionate pachyderm was parked after coming aboard, nothing attached to the ship yet. The boats are left and right of the formation, ahead of the E and 'Beach, about four miles. Use the radar. The sturgeon will likely be on the surface until you buzz it a couple of times, Skipjack will be submerged if you're moving.

[RS]

Hi Lazarus

thank you so much...great progress!

...preparing the 180 degree turn before my first landing with a Vigi....
(...yes - the second one was very successful...http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon28.gif)

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=68125&stc=1

Many greetings

RS

[lazarus]

The Ball takes a bit of fiddling to get it all working and positioned. Seems to plant you on the right part of the deck. The lens needs to move back about another 15-18 feet on the final model.
Never happy unless I'm doing ten things at once... Tilly and the mules await texture, which awaits figuring out that the deck crash tenders are Oshkosh MB5 500 gal tenders, and locating a stash of pictures with enough scale cues to compensate for measurements. Bainbridge has been resistant to decent drawings in her DLGN, pre '77, CGN days, so it's been eyeball what I can find and lots of squinting at photos...so far, so good, so what...As Bainbridge was essentially a nuclear Leahy, is also not far to the conventional DLG/CG's from here.
6813268133

[lazarus]

68263

DLGN-25 'Billy B'test shot. 6800 polygon's.
682646826568266

[kl791]

68263

DLGN-25 'Billy B'test shot. 6800 polygon's.
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=68264&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=68265&stc=1http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=68266&stc=1

Nice model :D Thanks

[p14u2nv]

lazarus thank you very much for sharing these ships, they are simply outstanding and make an excellent addition to the fleet!.

[RS]

Hi Lazarus

.... once again a big "Thank you" for the ships! The work of such guys like you or Cimogt , kl791 or many others makes it possible that FSX has reached such a long life cyle time... which is still far from being ended.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/attachment.php?attachmentid=68303&stc=1


Many greetings

RS

[lazarus]

Passed the smoke test, then?
I just did the initial export on the general release ( crosses fingers ) 'E', added another 500 kb of deck floodlights and the last few catwalks. Looks like what it's supposed to, frame rates seem to be staying up. I'm just debating if its worth trimming 3-4K poly's out of long beach's hull, or if it's best to leave sleeping logs butter their own beds.

[lazarus]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/192Iohe1n5zNCh7ZBmo8E2NaY0cPiWpGk/view?usp=sharing


Oi, lads. I'm working up light maps for the final-graphics! Feh! In the mean time, give this a run, see how it goes, uncover any problems.
Latest versions, CVAN-65, CGN-9, DLGN-25, dynamic Skipjacks, helios, and some smeg to fly off. I'm getting great FPS on my 25 watt rig.

[lazarus]

One thing I am hard up for are deck monkeys. Been playing around with that package of RAF erks, not so great.
Does any one have USN flight deck crew avaliable to share? Gary was using some.

[kl791]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/192Iohe1n5zNCh7ZBmo8E2NaY0cPiWpGk/view?usp=sharing


Oi, lads. I'm working up light maps for the final-graphics! Feh! In the mean time, give this a run, see how it goes, uncover any problems.
Latest versions, CVAN-65, CGN-9, DLGN-25, dynamic Skipjacks, helios, and some smeg to fly off. I'm getting great FPS on my 25 watt rig.

Just had a look at it in MCX - no time for testing today, but it looks great and not too heavy :D Will fit nicely with the classics I'm working on.

[lazarus]

It's not too bad- 7.5 Mb or so. I was having a long and acrimonious debate with meself over re-drawing the hull. I could probably trim a few Mb out. But, 16,666 (all those sixes must mean something!) is acceptable for the subject matter.

[dogfish]

Thank You very much.

[lazarus]

My pleasure, though the origins were somewhat less than alturistic:a1310: Yea, I'an I a rough old cobb...It's getting on towards finished.
I was getting an intermittent derp on cat activation with the AS RA-5C. I'm not certain if I did something to the aircraft cfg, or if it's a problem with the points on the boat. Any issues, do let me know. It was a bit of a beast getting all the cats working. The cats in FSXA seem to be highly sensitive to the distance from centroid, which is why the centre point is quite far forward.
I'm also interested in the performance of the Fresnel lens. I think the physical model of the MLS needs a bit more twist outboard. Near as I can tell, the ball flys you down to an OK threewire. I don't think I was getting skewed by observational bias - Eg: bunting over the wire.
It's a bit of a lash-up, as this thing was coded around a Nimitz deck.
Wring her out some, and let me know if it needs some adjusting

[gp183601]

One thing I am hard up for are deck monkeys. Been playing around with that package of RAF erks, not so great.
Does any one have USN flight deck crew avaliable to share? Gary was using some.

Just back from a business trip-give me a day or two I’ll download your model and knock up a couple of representative flight crew placements you can use.

I’ve got my own lot which is RN but could be retextured to USN, and javiers crew which I use but give credit to him.

[lazarus]

Thanks, mate. That would be excellent! I was hoping I'd smoke you out.

[TARPSBird]

I was getting an intermittent derp on cat activation with the AS RA-5C. I'm not certain if I did something to the aircraft cfg, or if it's a problem with the points on the boat. Any issues, do let me know. It was a bit of a beast getting all the cats working. The cats in FSXA seem to be highly sensitive to the distance from centroid, which is why the centre point is quite far forward.
The Mirror Landing System "meatball" lights were working fine for me over the weekend. I'm not the world's best Tailhooker. :biggrin-new: I often get an early wave-off for coming in too low, then I go high and walk the ball down. The MLS gave me the lights I expected. Catching a wire went well with all the planes I flew aboard. Catapult operation caused me problems, however. When I hit Shift+I to connect to the cat shuttle some of my planes bucked up and down several times and then rolled backwards without connecting to the cat. If this sounds similar to your "derp" incident with the AS RA-5C, then I got it too. If it happened on the bow cats it also happened on the waist cats. Just thought you'd like some feedback. I've always thought cat operation was the biggest problem with FSX carrier ops.

[lazarus]

Yup, that's the one. Sometimes from hooking up with the park brake set, sometimes without, sometimes I'd have to hold down brakes to get a hook up.
Weird. It just cropped up out of the blue. Thanks for the confirm. I'll diddle with the points. In the mean time, try various brake combinations, eventually, it'll hook up.

[lazarus]

G'day, lads. All the cat problems seem to be sorted. Trapped and shot just about everything in the inventory with out problems.
Updated deck clutter, Gary whomped up a set of Thrawn's deck crews, and that makes all the difference. I also slid a set of cat shuttles in place to ease spotting for hook-up.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]73664[ATTACH=CONFIG]
I'll leave this here for a few days. Into the texture editing and release version. I'll be doing some mods and tune up of the 3D model, and a fresh export in a few days, so any thing that needs fixing up, now is the time to sound off.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ltMAJNV4OKMzFl4MkA_HBA4WMUnGNd53

[expat]

Looks good Laz!

Now tell me, could not help but spot the parked Vigi in the background - how did you get the wings to fold without the rudder also folding - if my eyes see correctly!

[gray eagle]

Any plans with populating the documents folder with "Stuff". Right now, nothing there.

Any plans adding any additional surface escorts i.e. DD's DLG's etc ?

For now, looks like a DLG and two sewer pipes.

[lazarus]

Looks good Laz!

Now tell me, could not help but spot the parked Vigi in the background - how did you get the wings to fold without the rudder also folding - if my eyes see correctly!

I ran the A-5 through MCX, locked the animations like that, and changed the texture names on one machine so the serials and modex numbers can be changed. You'll note that both of the parked A-5's have different numbers than each other and the user aircraft. I can U/L those if any one wants those. I did try changing the tail fold animation tag on the A-5 so that the tail could be left unfolded. Alas, the animation scrambled.

Grey Eagle; in the aiCarriers folder there is a cfg file for aiC that has formations set with all the stuff in the upload. Drop that into your Aicarriers conf'd folder, you'll have options for Big E, Showboat, Billy B, helios and SSN's. The SSN's, once underweigh, submerge to periscope depth, and are 8-10 miles ahead, and 5 miles or so left and right of track. They show on traffic radar2, and will surface when the stop command is selected, or; the sharp-eye'd may spot the periscope, though they leave a very small wake. I skipped a detailed explanation for now. But, the cfg is thus:

Title=CVAN-65_Enterprise
Unit.0-USS_CVAN-65_Enterprise,0,0
unit.1-USS_CVAN-65_Enterprise_deckstuff1,0,0

Long Beach has the same set up. I had to put railings and small bits on another model to get it through the compiler. You'll see it in the provided aicarriers cfg file.

The deck park is compiled into a model mirroring the deck height and geometry, set up as a ship with the same speed, the centre point is obviously coincident with the carrier. The carrier position and deckstuff positions must be the same numbers.
That's it.

...'Any plans adding any additional surface escorts i.e. DD's DLG's etc ? '...
CVAN, DLGN, CGN, SSN's, and equipment...Nine New models in this pack. Dude! I'm not a machine! But, someday. Right now, I'd like to get a mountain of crap off and uploaded; if life will co-operate, and quit throwing plagues, famines, locusts, commies, jack-booted fascists, cancers, Comanchero's, deaths, detonations, insurrections, CFIT's, wolves, Raskolnik's, jihadi's and hasasins at me - frequently all at once! - I might achieve some winnage.

[TARPSBird]

Lazarus, my flight deck guys are missing their textures. The other "deckstuff" looks OK.

[lazarus]

Whpus...I mean, hwsup...damn...WHUPS. I jammed the models into the container in the upload folder, and forgot textures. But, I'd forget the beytsim's if they weren't welded on...I'm was about to post a new flight deck texture in a 'mo, anyway.
Give me twenty minutes to bring the blood caffeine/nicotine/THC levels up to minimum life support level, and perform the daily vermin interdiction-by-fire, I'll pack up mods/corrections.
Cats working? Thanks for the eyes on.

[lazarus]

Replace your texture folders for 'E' and deckstuff. Much more painting to be done, but the deck looks better. Needs more dirt, though.

73683

[lazarus]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nAwnyROOoPbNsBHc-16_ixTzoXYCpk5P


Can't attach a screen cap-Board total unfeature. Weird. Switched VPN routing, fixed. Very odd.

73687736887368973690

The deck looks a bit...better? Much less sterile, anyway. needs more dirt. Isn't Dino's War Hoover luverly? 5 traps, ball fly's right to a centerline three wire every time, though the lens needs moving. Did a low and high approach, off axis approach, it waves off when it should. I also have to look at the tag for the shooter...move the BPDMS pepperboxes on to the deck clutter model so we can get away with one boat model for pre and post '72, maybe an early and late '60's deck park, add a HUP pre '63, a shuddering ishthouse for post '63...something like that. Map the shuttles at a way higher resolution. What else?

[expat]

Looks great! Like the idea of early and late 60's deck parks. Maybe also what she had during the Cuban missile crisis (though I think she had A-5 Vigi bombers, not the RA-5C back then).

[TARPSBird]

Looks great! Like the idea of early and late 60's deck parks. Maybe also what she had during the Cuban missile crisis (though I think she had A-5 Vigi bombers, not the RA-5C back then).
No Vigi's aboard during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The bomber Vigi's came aboard with VAH-7 the following year. Photo recce in 1962 would've been provided by a detachment of RF-8A's from VFP-62. I much prefer the 1960's/70's aircraft assortments vs present-day with just bunches of Hornets and some E-2's and C-2's.

[expat]

No Vigi's aboard during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The bomber Vigi's came aboard with VAH-7 the following year.

Hmm. One source I found agrees it was not until 1963 https://www.navysite.de/cvn/cvn65deploy.htm

But then I also found this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/skyhawkpc/15243835090 Perhaps trials?

[expat]

And this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/skyhawkpc/8671670593/

Whatever the year - not sure it's important - nice photos of a beautiful aircraft!

[lazarus]

According to Miller, VAH-7 stood to at Sanford with 4 A3J-1's on 27 Jan 1962, a full complement of 12 aircraft deployed to the Med and joined Enterprise in Aug 1962.
Oct 1962 orbat for Enterprise's airgroup equipment was F-4's, F-8's, A-1's, A3J's, A-4's, Willy Fud's and HUP's.
I've also dig up a recently declassified strategic orbat for oct-dec 1962 which is fascinating.
We should have squeezed the trigger. Despite the Fat Boy's bellicose shoe-pounding, Khrushchev was un-happy with the fellow travellers in Cuba, who he viewed as unstable and unreliable. He also went into it scared, against his 'better judgement', if such a thing exists for communists.
The US had a 4-1 advantage over the soviets in all nuclear systems. Most tellingly, the reaction time for soviet forces, even at their highest readiness, was close on order 12-24 hours for many strategic systems. The biggest single immediate threat to CONUS was the RDS-6 tactical gravity bombs in Cuba.
Turkey and europe would have been smeared. It is likely that some expendable beaten zones on the eastern seaboard might have been 're-organized', and Florida may have had some supplementary craters installed. May have. ADC was as thick as flies on a falafel stand around the quarantine, large numbers of TAC assets were in position to interdict any strikes coming from cuba.
The Warsaw pact, Cuba, the Soviet Union, and surprisingly, the PRC, would have ceased to exist as polities with in twelve hours. The Moscow complex alone was targeted by some 300 high kiloton and multi megaton weapons.
We should have shot. Western civilization would have decisively owned total victory, communism in russia, china AND THE EU would be blowing in the wind, now and forever, at low cost (DC-POOF-meh) to CONUS, and we'd not have the existential threat to Western Civilization that the PRC and EUSSR poses today.
Crap. I might have went to far.
Anyway, we can speculate, and that golden moment is long gone.

[Bjoern]

I just flipped off (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Flip%20Off) an innocent computer screen. Good work!

[expat]

I've also dig up a recently declassified strategic orbat for oct-dec 1962 which is fascinating.

Lazarus, leaving aside Armageddon, (you have seen Dr Strangleove (see below) and know the theory of MAD), interested to know what you found - what was the Order of Battle at the time of the crisis, i.e., what were the cv deployments and squadrons?

[lazarus]

I just flipped off (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Flip%20Off) an innocent computer screen. Good work!
Top kek. Understand, there are large dollops of splenetic humours to hose down all sides of this bit o' history. The transcripts from DC, Kremlin, Havana are all alarming. Then and now. The hair-raising disconnectedness, WAG intelligence estimates, paranoia, Castro and C3I inertia at the top had all of the decision makers way behind the curve, or right out of the loop. Then and now.
The A-5 is a perfect capsule example. 1955 proposal, 1958 first flight, service entry 1962, and discarded from it's design role by 1964. I have to sit down and calculate what the price on that sucker per pound is, adjusted for inflation. It's not all wasted, of course. The accumulated skill capital out of all of it more than offset the dollar value.
The Navy had no requirement for the A-5, until one was written for N.A.A, because it was super sexy, there was an H-bomb in the middle somewhere, and it needed a giant boat under it, which made Admirals happy. But really, ship-board strategic bombers never worked well as as bombers. The super carrier is an enormously powerful, persistent, flexible, tough and expensive warship that has affected most aspects of the planets maritime and political thinking. It has also created a culture of risk aversion in command-level thinking. All because nobody involved really knew what they were doing. Nuclear planning and doctrine is even worse, though at least the yields have come down with CEP's.
Can't say that brain trust has improved in quality, and the operational environment, all 8 billion monkeys of it, has become much hotter.
All any of us can do is react, which starts you out in a positive feedback loop, which always ends badly.
In practical terms, I see no resolution. We are what we are, and this is the best we've got.

[lazarus]

The surface quarantine line was established at 2PM GMT on October 24, 1962, as an arc 500 miles from Cape Maysi, Cuba. That range was chosen to be out of range of the Soviet IL-28 bombers based in Cuba.
The initial line was to be kept by 12 destroyers from the Second Fleet’s Task Force 136, a task force established specifically to implement the quarantine. In addition, the aircraft carrier USS Essex formed the foundation of an anti-submarine warfare carrier group, supplemented by ASW squadrons based in Bermuda and Puerto Rico. By the time the quarantine was finally lifted, the quarantine line had involved an at least Essex and ?Bennington?, two cruisers, 22 destroyers, and two guided missile frigates on two quarantine lines, “Walnut” and “Chestnut.”
Enterprise and Independence groups operated east of Florida. USN and RCN surface and air ran ASW and recce operations well out into the Atlantic.
Gitmo, PR, Key West were jammed full, Marine amphibious forces Atlantic was in there. Florida was out of ramp space, and SAC had B-47's parked on any airport that could land one. It was a big show.
Literally, a coin toss away from some hairy going down.

[TARPSBird]

According to Miller, VAH-7 stood to at Sanford with 4 A3J-1's on 27 Jan 1962, a full complement of 12 aircraft deployed to the Med and joined Enterprise in Aug 1962.
Oct 1962 orbat for Enterprise's airgroup equipment was F-4's, F-8's, A-1's, A3J's, A-4's, Willy Fud's and HUP's.

VAH-7 was in fact onboard Enterprise for their maiden voyage to the Med and probably during the Missile Crisis as well, so I stand corrected from my previous post. Squadron strength was 12 jets... I wonder how many stayed aboard during regular ops. Even for a big ship like the Enterprise 12 Vigi's would take up a lot of deck space.

[lazarus]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=19UDQdqi7JgeFd4FpmhmghrihMml-v6LP

That's a couple of monographs on the naval operations and ORBAT. The second CVS was Randolph, not Bennington. It seems likely that Enterprise's A3J's were put ashore in favour of more A-4's and A-1,s, as Independence sent her A-3's ashore in exchange for more light attack.

Model wise- I have a nice FOXTROT ready(GOLFS, HOTELS, JULIET'S, ECHO'S,NOVEMBERS, WHISKEYS - all redone and diving). Some diving GUPPYS, RCN units, Gun Gearings, a so-so VN FRAM Gearing. DDG-4's can be had, there are a couple of freighters in Henrick's AI packages that are dead ringers for soviet-era freighters. Klaus has the gun cruisers out, and I've done the Albany's, don't know if any of those were around.
Aircraft are covered fairly well, down to Seabats and Trackers. I'd love to puzzle out the rest of the F-4's, those guy's are really uncooperative though.
So it's fairly easy to mount a FSX 1962 boogaloo.

[Bjoern]

...

I take the flip back if the last seven sentences were poorly veiled sarcasm. If not, I raise the ante to two flips.

A first strike on Cuba would have most likely killed my parents and their assorted family, because unlike the average bored-as-bollocks armchair general in his comfy air conditioned, fortified TAC, SAC, FAG, DEW, MEW, SLEW and SAGE, GAGE, WAGE protected office in the backwater of a continent filled with mostly nothing, East and West Germany were each one densely populated bullseye for anything with a blast radius larger than a cherry bomb in the arsenal of the opposing side.

So list all the ORBATs, plans and equipment down to the last maintenance item all you want, but avoid the bloody rest.

[lazarus]

I would have ceased to exist as well. My entire life's been spent in one bulls eye or another. Cashing in the chips was always no more than 90 minutes back, so I'an I are pretty indifferent. They can only kill me once. People also keep mistaking Governance with Politics. I am also guessing people are mostly unfamiliar with the History of Errors as applied to Games Theory, and plotting the frequently grizzly outcomes.
'62 was a weird node. I'm still not certain which way we were lucky, or not. Mathematically speaking, we've got to an interesting place again, where the total mega-tonnage has been falling dramatically as high accuracy delivery systems become cheap and easy, and the requirement for an expensive Hydrogen weapon to ensure a high SKP vanishes. Even Iran can field long range weapons accurate enough to hold hard targets at risk with conventional or sub kiloton warheads. Cheap accuracy turned out to be the crucial value, and nobody expected it. It is possible to conduct pre-emptive counter force strikes with conventional weapons; off the shelf and cheap as the line between tactical and strategic grade weapons vanishes. This has driven the nuclear use threshold down. It's very analogous to '62 where the players with the large nuclear investments were in a 'use it or lose it corner' with otherwise non-peer actors enabled by near-peer actors.
Also, the misanthropic sperg-engineer in me says 'Yeah! Cool! Twist that key, lets see what happens!'. I totally get why Teller once did the math for multi-gigaton Arbitrarily Large Staged Devices.

But back to the boat.

[lazarus]

Basic light maps. Yet more work is required, but the hard part is mercifully over with. I. Loathe. Graphics. I have to run some LMs for the deck stuff, but those are just a red night light glow. Add to your enterprise texture folder, yes to overwrite. Looks aright in preview. Still may be too bright once in sim, and the glow forward needs some adjusting. Honestly, I rarely ever night fly the sim. Have y'all noticed that FSX does crappy night? FS8 does night better than FSX. Go figure. I think it's just that the night maps all need brightness cut by about 60%, but who in the heck want's to run million 6 textures through editor.
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