Hixon link, for anyone desperate enough to want it...

[IanP]

I'll post it again anyway, although I doubt anyone is massively interested... My incredibly default looking version of Hixon was uploaded last night - it can be found at http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/hixon/IJP_EGHX.zip

I hope both the people who are bored enough to download it have fun. :d

Ian P.

[Panther_99FS]

Thanks much Ian! :applause:

[olaf1924]

Thank-you Ian!

[CG_1976]

thank you Ian. do you have any plans for a RN or Royal Coast Guard scenery?

[IanP]

We don't have a military Coast Guard, in the same way that the US does... We have the "MCA" - Maritime and Coastguard Agency - who are just a co-ordination service for the most part. They use contracted civilian aircraft to provide rescue services, the RNLI for waterborne rescue and voluntary crews for coastal/cliff rescue. Most of our airborne search and rescue capability is currently provided by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force still and they tend to be two or three aircraft stationed at bases primarily used for other purposes (RAF Valley, RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Boulmer, RM Chivenor and RNAS Culdrose are the ones I can list off the top of my head).

The upshot of all that is that there are no Coastguard bases in the UK in the same way that there are for the USCG. If you download my Valley AFD file, that's the home station of a detachment 202 Squadron, RAF, who provide SAR using bright yellow Sea Kings, and a detachment of the Defence Helicopter Flying School, who provide SAR training using Bell 412 Griffons.

It doesn't look like that will be the case for much longer though. There's a document on the MCA website here (http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/uksar.pdf) (PDF) which basically says that the military SAR capability will be wound up, with the ageing Sea Kings replaced by privately funded helicopters and RAF/RN crews "made available". That's been on the cards for some time, so it wouldn't surprise me if the idiots that control the purse strings are actually going to do it.

In terms of the Royal Navy, the about three stations that are still active aren't badly presented in FS, although they could do with better AFD files. When you remember that there are more Admirals than ships in the Royal Navy and the majority of our ships can't handle aircraft, you start realising how little of a Fleet Air Arm is actually left!

Did you have anywhere in particular that you want me to do? :icon_lol::isadizzy:

I'm actually looking at doing a couple more mid-war stations that were closed a long time ago next, but if anyone has any specific requests, just remember that they won't be 100% accurate representations!

Ian P.

[Seaking055]

Hi Ian

Me, I would love to see RNAS Culdrose done for FSX. I spent 8 years there on and off in the 70's.

the Culdrose in FSX is pretty bad with trees all over the place.

Hoping........

[IanP]

Yeah, okay. I thought Culdrose was better than that. I don't have trees all over the place, even with the sliders maxed out, but it is somewhat boring. That's a SAR base and a Navy base, so might keep Tim happy too... :d

I'll take a look at Culdrose as soon as I get chance. Don't know when that will be, but it may well be the next one I do, as the basics are already in place unlike Tempsford, which I was going to do next, but will have to do from scratch.

Ian P.

[Nick C]

Thanks Ian, installed the scenery which is great. I just need you to make an appearance on-line so that I may ask about the AI.

Translation: Get out of bed you lazy git! :d

[Nick C]

I think this is the correct P-40 mentioned in the readme.

Great repaint Jan :applause:

[SkippyBing]

Lee-on-Solent and Portland are effectively Coast Guard bases, Portland more so, Lee having a Police Air Unit and I think a Catalina there as well. I think the only other CG base is Stornaway which is also a civilian airfield.

Reference the Ships/Admirals ratio, there are 41 Admirals and around 100 ships, of which 42 are major warships i.e. FF/DD, CVS, LPD, SS and SSBN that doesn't include the RFA which has a number of major aviation capable ships. Still be nice if we actually ordered some new one....

[CG_1976]

Any SAR base will keep me pleased for hours.:applause: The only SAR base i have in Europe is Slingo in Ireland.

[IanP]

This one is only a new AFD file to allow for some AI to appear, but if you get the MAIW "RAF Hawks" packages, convert them to FSX using AIFPC and add this, it'll give you a home base for RAF Air Sea Rescue.

Valley is home to a detachment of bright yellow Sea Kings in the real world. I used the Alphasim one ported in for a while, but don't have that installed at the moment. Chris Brisland did me a repaint of the Merlin into RAF SAR colours suitable for the station, but to the best of my knowledge hasn't released it.

The AFD is available from here:
http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/valley/EGOV_IJP_1_0.zip

Oh... and I'm definitely a glutton for punishment. The below was a couple of hours last night after I got very fed up of doing "proper work"... ;)

Cheers,

Ian P.

[EgoR64]

:wavey:

Super work, Thanks IanP.

Thanks for Sharing !!

Many Cheers !! :ernae:

[Roger]

Thanks Ian:ernae:
I think it's UTX that's put a motorway through the middle!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/rogera/Hixon.jpg

[BASys]

Hi Folks


For Info -
The MoD and MCA together provide
a 24 hour military and civil SAR service for the UK SAR Region
from 12 bases around the UK.

MCGA
2x Sikorsky S92A - Sumburgh Airport (Shetland)
2x Sikorsky S92A - Stornoway (Isle of Lewis)
1x Augusta Westland 139 - Portland
2x Augusta Westland 139 - Lee-on-Solent

RAF
Sea Kings at -
Boulmer
Chivenor
Leconfield
Lossiemouth
Valley
Wattisham

RN
Sea Kings at -
Culdrose
Prestwick



Scenery -
Not wishing to stunt anyone's creativity, :d
just save yourselves some work reinventing the wheel(s).

Take a peek at the free FSX 'airport' sceneries already available -

UK2000 VFR Airfields DEMO (http://www.uk2000scenery.org/forum/index.php?topic=2818.0)
Includes Portland, (plus 6 others).

Compatible Freeware Airfield List - Updated 3.9.08 (http://www.horizonsimulation.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2761)
With links to airfield specific topics.
There's a nice looking Culdrose in there.

NB -
Some are better standards than others.
Include default exclusions.
All fit into GenX.
Most have mesh-blends, (no plateaus).
Some require addon libs.



HTH
ATB
Paul

[IanP]

There are some very nice sceneries available via the Horizon site for the Horizon photoscenery, that's the problem. There's no flatten and you get trees, roads, bushes, everywhere if you try and use them without it because people who develop specifically for photoscenery don't bother with exclude files. They don't need them.

I may have a look at just creating a flatten to go under the one for the photoscenery, but they also tend to be blended to go with the Horizon mesh, which again doesn't work unless you have the Horizon photoscenery.

Just as an aside, if you read that MCA policy document, it specifically says that military crews - i.e. not aircraft - will be doing ASR in the future and implies, as it is open to competitive tender, that the aircraft will be privatised. Don't expect to see those Sea Kings for long.

Edited to add: Roger: The road crossing the taxiway along the south edge is correct. It was there during the war and is still there now. I assume they must have closed the road when the airfield was active, although as there are only a couple of roads into and out of Hixon, the locals must have been mightily peeved about that. It is, indeed, put there by UTX.

I'm also told that on the default scenery, an inaccurately placed railway line which should run along the Western side actually cuts through a couple of the dispersals. If anyone complains, I may remove those dispersals for non-UTX or photoscenery users, but won't otherwise.

Edit 2: Many of those sceneries also use FS9 objects. Great if you aren't using DX10, or in many cases just SP2, but if you are using SP2 then those buildings don't work.

Ian P.

[BASys]

Hi Folks

Ian -
Agree with what you're saying. :d

There are probably issues with most
if not using GenX or VFR Real.

Though they're worth using as a template to create a derived version,
as they do contain runways/taxiways positioned as per IRL.



Copying the airport boundary from the default,
(and if required, repositioning),
will reinstate the autogen excludes.

There's been several discussions about not using FS9 libraries.
There may be issues with some objects in DX10,
though should be identified in the relevant airport thread.
There shouldn't be anything other than a minor FPS impact in SP2,
(as that's what's supposed to be used for GenX).

You can delete any problem objects, substituting FSX defaults.
Detect them by adding the following to your fsx.CFG [SCENERY] section
// Alert missing objects
MissingLibraryAlert=1



Sometimes it might just be easier to start from scratch. :d



re: SAR
Cheers.
Been following developments for the last 4 years,
as we'd a part created AI SAR set for ODG.



HTH
ATB
Paul

[Seaking055]

Many thanks Ian for taking Culdrose up, you can really get close with google earth now, a lot of changes have gone on since I was there.



This one is only a new AFD file to allow for some AI to appear, but if you get the MAIW "RAF Hawks" packages, convert them to FSX using AIFPC and add this, it'll give you a home base for RAF Air Sea Rescue.

Valley is home to a detachment of bright yellow Sea Kings in the real world. I used the Alphasim one ported in for a while, but don't have that installed at the moment. Chris Brisland did me a repaint of the Merlin into RAF SAR colours suitable for the station, but to the best of my knowledge hasn't released it.

The AFD is available from here:
http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/valley/EGOV_IJP_1_0.zip

Oh... and I'm definitely a glutton for punishment. The below was a couple of hours last night after I got very fed up of doing "proper work"... ;)

Cheers,

Ian P.

[IanP]

I think my previous post came across rather harsher than intended... Sorry. This happens when your entire website just went "stuffedup.com". :banghead:

It's all down at the moment so none of the files are available. I'll get something back up ASAP and re-upload the airport files, hopefully with a front page that will actually tell you what's there this time (which is why I had to clear the entire site - the base packages won't install to a non-empty directory structure....)

What I have found, although I've not tested them in DX10, is an entire library of FSX hangars, which I have used to redo Cosford already to an extent (the Cold War Exhibition building is still missing and is unlikely to appear in this version!) so I'll do some more testing with them and report back results.

Ian P.

[CG_1976]

AIFPC, Were do i find that tool?

[IanP]

I believe I got it from Avsim, although I can't find it there now.

Post #57 has a working link on this thread: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4746&page=3

Ian P.

[CG_1976]

Got it thanks, Now what can help me scan aircraft in FSX to use for Ai. I ahve a few SAR Ac's and HC's to use but i need to know how to put them into the AC text.

[IanP]

You have to add them manually - or use AI Flight Planner, available from Avsim, in which case you don't need AIFPC, as AI Flight Planner can save directly into FSX format.

I used AIFP to do the Wellingtons and one random DC-3 for Hixon and it didn't take very long at all - that was starting from scratch, not basing the file on an existing one.

Edit: Re-reading your post, it sounds like you want to just scan your aircraft directory, pick them and have them fly as AI. It doesn't work that way. You can create random flight plans for your traffic using the SDK, but they will be truly random. Otherwise you have to build your own flightplans for specific aircraft to/from specific places. You can do that in Lee Swordy's TrafficTools format and convert them using AIFPC, or can build them in AI Flight Planner. You can also do them through the SDK if you want, but any way you choose to build flightplans, they will not just happen - you have to create them.

Ian P.

[BASys]

Hi Folks


I think my previous post came across rather harsher than intended... Sorry.
This happens when your entire website just went "stuffedup.com". :banghead:
Ian -
No worries whatsoever,
you made perfectly valid points. :d

Also appreciate your website frustration.
Glad to see you're up & running again.

Do like some of those mountain headers.
Are they Marinelli/Drupal defaults ?

ATB
Paul

[CG_1976]

Thank you Ian. Actually i just got Trnasload Virtual's Coast Guard AI into FSX useing exsiting fs9 bgls and converting useing AIFPC. Worked like a charm and now with fsx blg ai i getting better fps.

[IanP]

Do like some of those mountain headers.
Are they Marinelli/Drupal defaults ?

They are indeed... so's the grumpy cat!

The pics will all change over time, it's just a series of jpg images in a folder with a php "rotate" script so I'll replace them with more appropriate images. I'm not entirely sure they're from Marinelli itself, as there are a number of sub-themes under it, but I might keep some mountains and the cat amongst the FS ones I create. :d

I've just fixed the glitch that you can't see attached files unless you are logged in, so Hixon is now really available again.

I replaced the hangars at Hixon last night with those from the library I found on Flightsim.com, but didn't have chance to test it. The ones I've put in at Cosford look a lot better, though.

Update: I've uploaded a version of Hixon with Ted Andrews's RAF Hangars to http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk - further information is on the page. Please feel free to poke, prod, then complain back here when it doesn't work properly, so I can see what I need to fix! ;)

Have fun!

Cheers,

Ian P.

[Pultacatt]

Don't forget RNAS Gannet, as it was up until the late 90's when I left the fair shores of Scotland. They had a SAR contingent there, not sure if they still do as I am sure Gannet was on the list of closures.

Now what would be really cool is a scenery of HMNB Faslane complete with Vanguard Boomers and MCMV's... Illustrious and Ark Royal would often come in for a visit as well as the Fleet Replenishment ships etc. At the risk of being accosted by HM Secret Services I could provide a few pics. :)

P.S. Coulport and Faslane has Helo Pads. :jump:

[SkippyBing]

Pultacatt,
There's still an RN SAR flight based at Prestwick (Gannet) but there's not much of an RN base there as such now, just a couple of hangars and a two story admin building. All the married quarters etc. have been disposed of. Certainly a change from the days when it had a full Pinger squadron, the SAR flight etc. etc. I may have had the full tour from an ex-Sea King Observer recently!

And for some reason whenever I'm on a ship going to Faslane we end up at the NATO fueling jetty at Loch Long(?) which is miles from Faslane, which is at the edge of nowhere to begin with!

[Pultacatt]

Skippy, is that the Jetty near Glen Mallon or the refuelling berth round the corner from Coulport?

Geez I drove past there one day on my way to Arrochar and it went dark... Looked to the left and there was Ark Royal sitting proudly, even though they (Illustrious and Ark Royal) are tiny compared to the American Carriers it was still an awesome sight, when she / they would come into Fassers or Rosythe they never looked quite so big.

Its a shame about Gannet, was in and out of there about 3 or 4 times a week during the very late 90's and early 2000's. Is the Gannet still on the pedestal there?

[SkippyBing]

The one up past Coulport, if you look on Google Earth it's got Fort Vic or Fort George alongside. It is very strange taking a warship up there as you're not used to being so close to land and the water being so deep you can literally get within meters of the shore and still have 30+ meters of water.

I think the Gannet is still there, it's not on the airport side of the site so I didn't see it, but I'm sure there was a Navy News article about it being cleaned or something not that long ago. It's a bit odd Gannet being downgraded as the need for an ASW capability to protect Faslane is still there, perhaps more so these days.

[BASys]

Hi Folks

Skippy -
? Finnart Oil Terminal ?

ATB
Paul

[IanP]

Can I steal my thread back for long enough to say "Good Grief, Culdrose has too many helipads!!!" :isadizzy:

I'm still working on it.

Edited to add pics - still more work to do here, including a lot more helipads and getting rid of the default flattens. Unfortunately, because I've increased the size of the default airport flatten so much, there is a pronounced plateau effect in some places. I'm not going to fix that right now. My knowledge and skills aren't up to it.

Ian P.

[SkippyBing]

Ian,

Veering dangerously back towards the topic, Culdrose is sprawled over the ridge line of the Lizard Peninsula, with fairly sharp drop offs at either end, especially towards the Helford. Because of this I think you'd be hard pushed to avoid the plateau effect no matter how Jedi you are with ADE.
Also! The helipads you've put south of the main runway don't exist! That area is 750 and FRADU fixed wing parking*, 771, 820 and 824 are on the two dispersals West of the North/South runway so those areas will have helipads, although not many because Merlins aren't small.

If you've got any questions on the layout at CU or VL I can probably answer them or know someone who can.

*Technically FRADU also receives visiting aircraft so helicopters can land there, but there aren't any H marked on the ground.

[IanP]

The terrain blending would be SBuilderX, not ADE. Although I know roughly how to do it, it's more a case of spending hours making the blend look good and I really don't have the time right now.

Regarding where I've put helipads, I've put one everywhere (on the aprons so far - the other two are covered in them as well) that there's a circle painted on the ground. They're not marked with 'H', but they are very definitely there on the overhead shots - is it possible that they could be old ones which have sort of been erased, like you can still see the difference in colour between old road markings and the road?

Ian P.

[SkippyBing]

is it possible that they could be old ones which have sort of been erased

Ian that's most likely, they may not actually have been erased, they just aren't used anymore. I know the FRADU pizza hut style building used to be 771 before they moved, and from that I'd guess one of the Sea King Pinger squadrons was there before that.
Forgot to say because of where CU is there's actually quite a bump in the middle of the main East/West runway which will increase the scenery blend problem, maybe FSXI will let us drape runways over the terrain rather than flattening it!

[IanP]

How many fixed wing parking spots do you want down there and of what size? I think there are eight or nine 10m spots at the moment, which the MAIW Hawks fill instantly so I was going to sneak some in somewhere else anyway.

Contoured runways would be much appreciated in FSXI, if anyone from ACES reads this... I'm still getting told off for my attempts to blend in Little Snoring, which don't work on all the various meshes available. ;)

Ian P.

[maguireted]

Wonderfull scenery , thank-you very much . Regards Anna

[SkippyBing]

How many fixed wing parking spots do you want down there and of what size?

I think FRADU have around 6-8 spots on the Western half of that dispersal, with 750 having around 10 on the Eastern half (i.e. where you have them in ADE a couple of posts up). They're marked up for Jetstreams so I'd say the ones you have so far are probably about right.

[IanP]

The parking spots I've marked in ADE for the Eastern side are painted on the ground, so I've done them exactly as they are on Google/Virtual Earth photos - they're 10m, the Jetstream needs 8m (15.9m wingspan) according to Jane's, so I'll leave them as they are.

Google Earth shows 9 little rectangles, which I can treat as parking spots, over on the Western side of that Apron, where Virtual Earth shows three Hawks parked, so I'll put those in. I suspect, from experience, that the MAIW Hawks will overrun the other end as well, though!

Thanks Anna, but I'm just using other peoples' tools and models... All I'm doing is sticking things where sattelite photos tell me to! ;)

Ian P.

[SkippyBing]

Ian, that sounds about right. Not sure where MAIW think the RN is getting all the Hawks from, I think they've only got about 8 max at CU!

[IanP]

More questions - sorry! Over on the Westernmost large apron, east of the 07 threshold, are an absolute mass of helicopter circles - 16 x 24m, 8 x 30m with 14m inner circles. Which of those should I be including? Because they overlap, FS won't be able to draw them all if I place them.

I've now got 6 x 10m parking spots by the R30 threshold, 9 x 6m parking spots by the 36 threshold, 11 x 30m helipad on the central apron, I'm not even counting the ones on the Northern apron. There are lots. There's no way I can place start points on all of them, FS would throw a fit, so I was going to put one helo parking spot per apron - one for the SAR spots right up next to the Northernmost hangar, one for the apron below that, North of the R30 threshold, one between FRADU/750, then one for each of the other two large aprons, somewhere in the middle of each. Sound reasonable?

Edit: I lied. But good grief, it's a mess. The Hawks don't like my 6m parking spots, either, and are insisting on using the 750 ones, so I need to work on that.

Ian P.

[maguireted]

Thanks Anna, but I'm just using other peoples' tools and models... All I'm doing is sticking things where sattelite photos tell me to!

Herr IanP it is nice to do it! Regards Anna

[SkippyBing]

Ian, that sounds like a plan. The South Western dispersal probably only has around 8x30m spots for 824's Merlins, the Middle Southern dispersal has around 4x30m spots on the Northern half for 820 and another 3 on the Southern half for 771 (I know because my cabin in the mess was just across the road and I'd get woken up at silly hours when they were scrambled).
Annoyingly I don't have my nav bag to hand as I've got a copy of the Southern UK TAPS in it with more accurate information.

[IanP]

It would probably look a lot neater if I took all the 24m ones off that Western apron, so I'll just leave the 8 x 30m ones there. The other piece of good news is that there's only a slight error with the 'awks and they're happy on 7m parking spots - indeed preferring them to the 10m ones. There are apparently 8 FRADU Hawks in the MAIW pack and they're all happily now living where I want them. The "tusks" of tarmac pointing into the apron I don't seem to be able to do much about right now, but will have another go, to see if I can put in some intermediate taxi points to reduce, if not remove, them.

I don't suppose anyone around here has seen/done a FRADU repaint for the Skysim Hawk, have they?

Next thing I need to work on is getting rid of the default flatten, I think.

Ian P.

[SkippyBing]

Ian, Rick P did a FRADU repaint of the Hawk, there's a link somewhere at CBFSim.org, try here http://www.cbfsim.org/cbfsim/cbfsBB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14528
Looking good so far!

[Pultacatt]

Can I steal my thread back

My bad, apologies. :redf:

[IanP]

My bad, apologies. :redf:

That's quite alright. I really don't mind... :)

Thanks SkippyBing - I've got the Hawk repaint, although haven't installed it yet. The other thing I have, courtesy of Mr C. "Eagleskinner" Brisland, Esq. is a 771RNAS SAR livery for the Acceleration EH101 Merlin. He gave me permission to host that last night, so when I get chance I'll package it up and upload it to the Culdrose page. I was also considering making a couple of helipads available to the AI and putting a couple of SAR aircraft in to fly off to various places on an irregular basis.

Question... Where do they live these days? Looking at Google Earth and Virtual Earth, both show them up at the top of the NE apron, but that's dated 2001 according to GE.

Ian P.

Edit: Ooh! "gavinc" edited this post... The time machine came to life again. ;)

[SkippyBing]

Ian,
771 are now on the middle of the Southern dispersals, adjacent to the 36 threshold with 820 on the Northern half. I'm not sure when they moved, or indeed if they were ever permanently at the NE corner as that's where 849 have been for ages.

[IanP]

Thanks - I'll try putting a couple of parking spots and some taxiway links down there, see if I can convince helicopters to move more than the Hawks do. I might have to try repainting the Merlin into a low vis grey scheme myself to put a few in for other Squadrons. LoViz isn't really Chris's scene - he'd find a Tiger Stripe one and repaint that instead! :icon_lol:

Ian P.