Question on GreenGhost's Catapult

[Talos2005]

Hello, GreenGhost!

May I ask a question on your catapult under development?

Is it possible to launch an aircraft around 90 degrees left or right from lateral centerline of the ship?
I mean if we could simulate Kingfisher or Jake launching from a battleship or cruiser, it would be defenitely fun. Making (invisible)flight decks on warships is easy as shown on Usio's ships.

Looking forward to your suggestions.

Kind Regards,:wavey:

[GreenGhost]

Hi Talos..

The catapult effect is using FSUIPC and accelerates the aircraft along the axis of the aircraft. It is this aspect with the pitch of taildraggers that has caused most of my problems... as the aircraft would hop into the air before achieving enough "natural" thrust to maintain airspeed and as I stop any added acceleration as soon as it is off the ground - it would often drop back to earth.... but with some basic trigonometry and eventually realising the C sine function was using Radians not Degrees I finally resolved that last weekend and can now keep the aircraft "on the deck" until until has enough airspeed to fly.

So in answer to your question - we still have the limitation that the aircraft will spawn facing forward on the ship. I have found most aircraft (including seaplanes) you can rotate more or less in spot under normal power - and then they can be catapulted. Like my other gauge I have set "default" values - but also allow for a config file - so you can set the catapult acceleration from mild to wild depending on your launch platform.

Mmm suddenly thinks.... can access direction of aircraft in FSUIPC and should be able to manipulate that ..... rotating 90 degrees should be possible.... back to the FSUIPC doco... thanks for sparking the idea !

Otherwise - I am trying to put together some documentation and final testing.... (though a very busy week at work) before releasing to SOH community for opinions... so very very close... (until this new mod idea !! )

GG.

[Talos2005]

Thank you, GreenGhost!

I think we could use slew mode (Y key) to change the direction of an aircraft as well.
For example, Kingfisher on catapult deck of a battleship could be faced to the port or starboard side by slew mode.
After that, we could trigger launching key to let her fly in the air.

In this way, we could simulate non-flat top catapult launching.

I am looking forward to further developments.
Kingfisher launching from BB or CA is not so bad, is it, Bruce?

Kind Regards,:engel016:

[GreenGhost]

Talos,

Done some "quick and dirty" coding - and yep can alter the orientation of the plane after spawning ... so will modify my code and configs to allow an angle to be selected ....

Here is a swordfish spawned at Espiritu Santo at 349 degrees then rotated to 90 degrees....

(Hope you can see pictures... I'm still having problems)

GG

[Talos2005]

GreenGhost! Thank You, Danke, and Molto e molto Grazie!

Hagen, Was tust du, was tatest du! Che fai!!!!!!

Thank you so much for your expertise. Incredible!
So, I'll try to make invisible flight decks on cruisers by tweaking DP files.
Float Recon Aircraft is ready for launching.

Kind Regards,:ernae:

[crashaz]

OK if we can all agree on a standard angle on the catapults, would be glad to add this functionality to the new South Dakota and North Carolina battleship classes I am adding.


We need the standard so that all ship builders can follow and thus the planes always start in the same facing.

[bobhegf]

I got one for you,is there a way to get the plane out of the water and back onto the ship after it lands?It kind of gives you a bad feeling that you are not wanted after you land beside the ship you launched from and it keeps on going and all you can do wave at it.It kind of makes you want to:barf: .

[Collin]

I got one for you,is there a way to get the plane out of the water and back onto the ship after it lands?It kind of gives you a bad feeling that you are not wanted after you land beside the ship you launched from and it keeps on going and all you can do wave at it.It kind of makes you want to:barf: .

Wasn't there a Swordfish model with a HMS Nelson/Rodney that did all this? released some time ago.:pop4:

regards Collin:icon_lol:

[PSULLYKEYS]

Yes, there is a HMS Rodney/Swordfish catapult package available from the Ground Crew Site: http://www.groundcrewdesign.com/cfs2pack.htmIt works good. The file you want is swfrdn.zip See pix below.

Ground Crew also released Bismark and Prinz Eugan packages for use of the Stuart Green AR196. I never got them to work, but it got shelved when my hard drive crashed about 1 1/2 yrs ago........ I'll revist them again.

I also noted that when you fly near any of the GC cruisers (Brit or German) you get the landing signals and in mission builder these ships show up on the screen as aircraft carriers!;)

[Collin]

I also noted that when you fly near any of the GC cruisers (Brit or German) you get the landing signals and in mission builder these ships show up on the screen as aircraft carriers!;)

Thats because any ship capable of operating a Players aircraft has to have a platform in the ship.cfg file and be registered as a carrier in the dp and info.dat file to actually let the aircraft takeoff or land.:)

regards Collin:icon29:

[PSULLYKEYS]

:wavey: Thanks Colin, I had bits and pieces of how it worked - you put it all together.

I was able to fix the Bismark/Prinz Eugan Arado196 launch. The original Bismark mission was changed with a fix, which I found. The Arado needed an air file with WEP for the catapult launch, there are 2 air files for the 196. You must change them both.

I created a mission for the HMS Norfolk and the Swordfish Floatplane which I will post. Thumb attached. Happy Flying!

I noted you use the pint also in your signature, looks a bit light though, I prefer the brown......... Cheers!