ThinkingManNeil
Members +

A year or so ago I was following the restoration of an SNJ-5C online that eventually got sold for a pretty penny over at Courtesy Aircraft. It had a tailhook as original equipment and the restoration team completely restored it and the associated mechanisms to a functional state. As I recall it had a rather plain, overall gloss sea blue paint scheme and no prop spinner, but that hook was functional which likely added to its final price... N.

You have to set the parking brake to get the wheel chocks... N.

Boy, she's a beauty! N.

Shift+1 brings up the options menu for Pitot Cover, Tailhook, Wheel Chocks & Pilot N.

OK, guys, thanks for the info. I kinda suspected as much. Odd that a pilot wouldn't be included that's visible in flight. I can see not necessarily doing it for large, multi-engine aircraft, but in small single engine aircraft, twins, or helos it sticks out like a sore thumb. N.

I think John noted in his thread about his updating the Wozza AT-6 FDE that he, too, had found both the Sky Unlimited and Alphasim/Virtavia Sixes a trifle underpowered, hence his modifications. I find the updated Wozza Texan to now be one of my "go to" aircraft in my hangar, and with the increasing number of great looking skins for her, well... N.

This'll be a definite "get" for me. Be nice if someone did the radial-engined PT-23, too... N.

You sure about that? I always thought it was John and Martha King... N.

Those last pics are pure art, Rick. John's gorgeous, polished natural metal scheme certainly lends itself to a host of possibilities. I recall back in the mid-1990's the CWH owned a T-6G that was in an attractive metal scheme with a deep green fuselage band and white and green wing bands as well as a green and white cowling and green prop spinner that I was lucky enough to ride in and occasionally fly. But it really came into it's own when they brought in a crew from Rolite Aircraft Aluminum Polish during an airshow and polished her up right. And the results were positively dazzling. I don't recall what the Canadian civil aviation registration marks were that it carried, but I always got a chuckle from a small decal that someone had applied to the white stripe in the port-side Stars-and-bars. It simply looked like a thin, rectangular oval slot with the words printed above it "Like a Ride?" and below, "Insert VISA, Mastercard, AmEx here". Here's a pic of the CWH AT-6G before her Rolite treatment... You'll have to imagine her polished up as I don't have a pic of that.

I've yet to jump to a digital SLR, but I'm sure the day will come eventually (for now I've got a little Olympus point & shoot that i was given for Christmas after the motor drive on my trusty old Pentax SF10 started making expensive grinding noise then finally died. the Olympus, though small, has a surprising number of features that I've yet to fully explore). What I love most about SLR photography the most is the vast flexibility that a broad choice of lenses gives you. The one thing that I wish DSLR's did, though, is be able to recreate the characteristics of any given, or at least a variety, of film stocks that are no longer in production or soon will be. i used to love shooting fireworks and landscapes with Fujichrome Velvia thanks to it's warm, saturated palette, but I avoided using it for shooting portraiture as the results were too ruddy. Kodachrome 64 was a great, all purpose slide film if you had good lighting and 25 was a superb film for landscapes. Then Ektachrome was different again - faster, usually - and Agfa apparently produced a very nice B & W 35mm slide film, but I never got the chance to try it out. It'd be nice if you could dial in a setting for Velvia, or Ektachrome, or Agfa, or Technical Pan 2415 without too much fussing. N.

Superb work John. Nothing short of fan-damn-tastic! N.

Great place for volcano watching. Arenal often puts on a good show... N.

OK, yeah, those. I could even see that for a Duck, but on a modern cat on a modern carrier? Makes more sense just to clear the deck and let her trundle off with a little grace and dignity...

No offense here and I'm sorry, but cat launching a biplane just looks...so...wrong :d N.

Definitely the Aeroprakt A22 Foxbat. V. Zhyhulskiy also did one for FS2004 over at AvSim that offers up wheeled, ski, and float versions. One thing that Zhyhulskiy's version features is a nicely rendered Dynon Shyview integrated glass flight data display. N.

Great vid. Especially nice to see the pilot, his crew chief, and his Mustang together again... N.

Looks a lot like the BD-10... N.

I'm looking forward to the Globe Swift and the Piper Tomahawk... N.