Messerschmitt Me-163B Progress

**mike_cyul** · February 24th, 2014, 05:51

A small update, to let you know that progress is going well, and if all goes well it shouldn't be too much longer now. Have been working on the training side of things, which basically means having made a low-poly Messerschmitt Bf-110 tow plane for the 163 to take you up on practice flights. Before flying operationally, prospective 163 pilots would be taken up in an un-fueled aircraft to practice their approaches and landings. This was also used when ferrying the 163's to different airfields.

A few views of the towing underway. Unfortunately FSX does not appear to allow tow planes to retract their landing gear, but the 110 does if you happen to use it as a basic ai aircraft!

Mike

***Daube*** · February 24th, 2014, 06:11

Looking good ! Thanks for the update

***stovall*** · February 24th, 2014, 06:31

Good stuff Mike, I never knew that is how they trained the pilots or transferred the aircraft to other airfields. Having a low poly Destroyer along with the 163 sounds fantastic.

**Bomber_12th** · February 24th, 2014, 06:47

Excellent, Mike! How about coding the gear animation on the BF-110 to automatically raise/lower at a certain airspeed?

**bstolle** · February 24th, 2014, 06:52

Talking about training....new pilots had the 163 tanks only 30%-50% filled which resulted in much lower ceiling but at the same time in a much higher initial climb performance.

**Lionheart** · February 24th, 2014, 07:10

Very cool Mike, as always!!!

**mike_cyul** · February 24th, 2014, 07:13

Originally Posted by Bomber_12th

Excellent, Mike! How about coding the gear animation on the BF-110 to automatically raise/lower at a certain airspeed?

Thanks, John, yes, I thought of doing something like that, just want to make sure first that there aren't some conditions where the gear actually raises. Also too bad that ai towplanes only fly straight ahead, but using Thomas Murr's excellent tutorial you can actually steer the towplane to a certain degree. Always something new to learn.

***Daube*** · February 24th, 2014, 07:21

Mike, you might want to take a look at this page

http://lucas.sichardt.net/index.php?Seite=F-Schlepp

***huub vink*** · February 24th, 2014, 07:38

Beautiful as always Mike!

Cheers,
Huub

**mike_cyul** · February 24th, 2014, 08:07

Originally Posted by Daube

Mike, you might want to take a look at this page

http://lucas.sichardt.net/index.php?Seite=F-Schlepp

Excellent, thanks! Could be just what's needed.

**mike_cyul** · February 24th, 2014, 08:20

Originally Posted by bstolle

Talking about training....new pilots had the 163 tanks only 30%-50% filled which resulted in much lower ceiling but at the same time in a much higher initial climb performance.

Must have been quite the ride! Already pretty amazing with full tanks.

***Roger*** · February 24th, 2014, 09:02

Fantastic

**hairyspin** · February 24th, 2014, 10:38

It would be easy to think that frame around the armoured glass needs a few dozen more polys to smooth it off, but it actually looked like that. Good job, Mike!

**mike_cyul** · February 24th, 2014, 11:32

@Daube: Tested the F-Schlepp program, and it works really nicely. It does require some translation, but if it ends up being recommended for the 163, I can perhaps provide an english language guide to understanding what to do.

**Ian Warren** · February 24th, 2014, 12:14

Golly .. I'd rather be towed up in the Bat rather having all that yucky fuel in the back

***Daube*** · February 24th, 2014, 12:16

Glad you liked it. It was recently "discovered" by some guy who was asking for help with another similar program, named Aerotow.
Aerotow appeared in 2008, but it suffers from major problems with recent computers. It was not updated. That new one seems to be much better, but I couldn't try it, I have to reinstall FSX first.
I haven't tried it with P3D either.

**Ian Warren** · February 24th, 2014, 12:18

Originally Posted by mike_cyul

I can perhaps provide an english language guide to understanding what to do.

Some reason in New Zealand .. well maybe at NZFF, now called Ianglish

***Sundog*** · February 24th, 2014, 15:57

Nice! I always enjoyed flying those in Aces High. It was always fun to leave a little fuel and save a little ammo, so the planes who were waiting around your airfield could be in for a rude surprise.

I never knew they transferred them by towing them. I thought maybe they were trucked from base to base. I guess I had better get around to reading my Me-163 some day.

**Flyboy208** · February 24th, 2014, 19:29

Really looking forward to the end result .... looks fantastic so far Mike ! Mike

**mike_cyul** · February 24th, 2014, 19:53

Did some more tests tonight, with the Bf-110 and other aircraft, and and so far it appears that anything that FSX considers to be a tow plane is limited to three animations: flaps down (and staying down), prop (blurred) spinning, and hard-over rudder (if turning). FSX won't recognize any other animation, default or custom. I'll keep working on it, though.

On the other hand, the F-Schlepp program is a treat, and once you have your tow routine set up to suit your operations, your tow plane will execute those maneuvers each time you use a glider, without having to start F-Schlepp each time. (F-Schlepp does rewrite a part of the FSX.cfg, and so making a backup copy of the .cfg before use is, I think, wise.)

Mike

**YoYo** · February 24th, 2014, 22:36

Very good idea with trening mission because Me-163 was only for very short flight. So forget about long VFR...
Please do many mission as You can

for long adventure with Komet!

**mgchrist5** · February 25th, 2014, 01:42

Looking great, Mike! I'll definitely be in line for this one....

Just out of curiousity, what airfield are you using in the first picture; the one with the 163 being towed aloft?

**txnetcop** · February 25th, 2014, 04:25

WOW WOW WOW Mike ya did it again!
Ted

**mike_cyul** · February 25th, 2014, 05:35

Originally Posted by mgchrist5

Looking great, Mike! I'll definitely be in line for this one....

Just out of curiousity, what airfield are you using in the first picture; the one with the 163 being towed aloft?

The airfield is Dillingham X, by Bill Womack, plus photoreal island scenery (forget where it comes from - sorry). I don't think the Me-163B was ever tested by the Luftwaffe in Hawaii, but it's one of my favourite fields to fly from!

Mike