Razbam a-7e fde

[CDR Storm]

Hello team,

I am a former A-7E Driver from VA-94 back around 1980. I flew at NAS Lemoore, CA and off the USS Lexington (CVT-16) and the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). I have been trying to fly the Razbam version of my plane. I have been frustrated with its performance. I am anxious to apply the Service packs I just found on this thread. I will let everyone know what I find out.

[Corvette99]

Hello team,

I am a former A-7E Driver from VA-94 back around 1980. I flew at NAS Lemoore, CA and off the USS Lexington (CVT-16) and the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). I have been trying to fly the Razbam version of my plane. I have been frustrated with its performance. I am anxious to apply the Service packs I just found on this thread. I will let everyone know what I find out.

Thank you for your service CDR ! Look forward to hearing your results.

[Navy Chief]

Hello team,

I am a former A-7E Driver from VA-94 back around 1980. I flew at NAS Lemoore, CA and off the USS Lexington (CVT-16) and the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63). I have been trying to fly the Razbam version of my plane. I have been frustrated with its performance. I am anxious to apply the Service packs I just found on this thread. I will let everyone know what I find out.

Another SOH member, Mike71, is a former A-7E driver (in addition to several other types). Always great to get input from those who actually flew these birds. One of the main reasons I got into flight simming was to be able to "fly" the aircraft I worked on; the Corsair II being one of them. NC

[dummy_74]

Hi Guys,

I know this is an old plane but i just recently got the A-7 and i have a problem with the HAF A-7H(both the normal paint and tiger paint) not showing up in the aircraft selection list.
Anyone an idea how to solve this?

thanks in advance

[expat]

Welcome aboard CDR Storm.

Seem to recall others may have done an improved FDE. Though I have only flown GA IRL I can tell the dynamics are just wrong and so the A-7 stays in the hangar.

Now if our good friend Mal998 is around he is also into USN aircraft of this period and is the one who could sort out the FDE.

[mal998]

Expat,
Funny you mentioned my name. I was just having a look-see at the A-7 yesterday. I might be able to do a bit of an upgrade but first I need to gather some material of the A-7 particulars. If you're willing, perhaps you can be my test pilot? Your thoughts...

mal

[fsafranek]

If anyone bothers to read this thread there is at least one improved FDE still attached to a post on the previous page. Might be more earlier.

But back to the original question about a couple versions not showing under Select Aircraft.
There could be several causes but I seriously doubt it is caused by the FDE.
Maybe a bad entry in the aircraft.cfg file where the aircraft are listed, but not the FDE.

dummy_74, are the two Hellenic versions default schemes or did you add one or both?

[Duckie]

CDR Storm's post re fde is over a year old - May 20 1 7.

[udidwht]

I was stationed at Lemoore back in late 80's - early 90-91. Worked AIMD/Sea-Op detachment 400 division (Jet engine mechanic). Worked on both the Hornet and the Corsair.

[dummy_74]

If anyone bothers to read this thread there is at least one improved FDE still attached to a post on the previous page. Might be more earlier.

But back to the original question about a couple versions not showing under Select Aircraft.
There could be several causes but I seriously doubt it is caused by the FDE.
Maybe a bad entry in the aircraft.cfg file where the aircraft are listed, but not the FDE.

dummy_74, are the two Hellenic versions default schemes or did you add one or both?

Hi, there both default schemes. But i found the problem. In the aircraft.cfg there was a panel=H entry. After deleting the H they did show up

Thanks for answering.

[dummy_74]

Expat,
Funny you mentioned my name. I was just having a look-see at the A-7 yesterday. I might be able to do a bit of an upgrade but first I need to gather some material of the A-7 particulars. If you're willing, perhaps you can be my test pilot? Your thoughts...

mal

Sounds great. Hopefully the twoseaters will get some attention too.

Edwin

[expat]

If you're willing, perhaps you can be my test pilot? Your thoughts..,.

Mal, I'd be honoured and happy to do some basic land and sea pattern tests - thanks. Travelling in Northern California right now and back home next week.

[mal998]

As fsafranek mentioned above, Henk did a modified FDE a while back and it's really good. I plugged it in yesterday and will tweak it a bit to increase stability and a few other bits and pieces, but generally speaking, it's a great improvement over the originals.

Also, I had rebuilt the entire aircraft.cfg for the 'A' model correcting the data in the [Airplane_Geometry] section and fuel tank locations and fills but had to back off because it adversely affected the load out application.

Click on Images



If I can improve upon Henk's good work I will get it tested and then if acceptable I wlll post it.

[dummy_74]

Hi Mal 998,

Thanks for looking into the A-7's. I also have the updated FDE from Henk and they are really an improvement. Only for the two-seat variant i can not find updated FDE's. And i'm not into tweaking aircraft cfg's myself.
Waiting patiently on what you come up with

Best regards,

Edwin

[henrystreet]

If I can improve upon Henk's good work I will get it tested and then if acceptable I wlll post it.

Mal,

Would love to get a copy.

Thanks

[warchild]

Well, I'm a bit confused..
You see, the A-7 is a strike aircraft. It drops bombs. Its not made to maneuver. You dont really have wings either. With as much anhedral as they have and the flaps in the back, you have a parachute. Only this parachute, you ride on top of. I never could get it to trap. Glad to know it does.. Apologies if i messed up the engine..Tried gettting it all correct, but I'm no engineer, and my health was already getting bad when i did it. Hope i got some things right though, and hoipe you guys like it..
Pam..

[mal998]

If there are still A-7 drivers hanging around SOH it would be great to hear some feedback once we get the modified files uploaded. Maybe that way we can get her handling a little closer to the real world experience.

[Victory103]

I'll give it a try as I was spending more time in FSX with the SLUF looking to get the Beta Tacpack model further along. I had the previous FDE update, but I'm about to move the model to P3Dv4 and continue work. In FSX, I seemed to spend more time looking at the TOT to not roast the motor than actually flying it. I felt it might be slightly too fast with all the bomb drag when loaded if modeled correctly, that's with me throttled back to get that TOT in check. I'm actually okay with Ctrl-E starts, I like "fat-fingering" my low level flightplan into the INS more anyway.

[PhantomP]

If there are still A-7 drivers hanging around SOH it would be great to hear some feedback once we get the modified files uploaded. Maybe that way we can get her handling a little closer to the real world experience.

I have the pack 3 the two seat trainers will the new FDE work with this model?

[PRB]

I was an A-7E wrench turner, so I have no idea if this one flies right or not, lol. I have some facebook buddies who were A-7E pilots in my squadron, but none of them are flight simmers. I always enjoyed this plane. I like the fact that you can't just bang the control stick against the stops left, right, forward and aft, and you can't just leave the throttle at 100% all day long.

[expat]

Mal and I have been chatting off line about this one. Dusted her off and brought her out of the hangar into P3Dv4. Looks and flies well. Yes, Henk did a much improved FDE and trapped her on the Midway and Oriskany without too much fuss. There are loads of repaints, many by some of the very best painters around. Neither of us however have had any luck with getting the load out UI and gauge - the ASCU - to work in P3Dv4.

[docjohnson]

There's a Tacpack mod that fixes some of the issues, but if you're not concerned with actual weapons delivery, there are a couple of things you have to do to get the A-7 payload manager to work in P3D v4.

The instructions I was given was in a P3D post, basically what they said was: With the proper lines added to dll.xml, the load configurator works on Razbam A-7s. Tanks need to be de-fuelled before they can be removed and weight needs to be added manually for the added stored.

This is the XML code that needs to go into the dll.xml:

<launch.addon>
<name>A7 Ordnance Weight Manager</name>
<disabled>False</disabled>
<manualload>False</manualload>
<path>X:\<P3D Install Path/Root>\Addon Modules\A7_Ordnance_Mngr.dll</path> <- need to change this line to be path specific for your PC.
<dllstartname>module_init</dllstartname>
<dllstopname>module_deinit</dllstopname>
</launch.addon>

I know it works,


...PM me if you have any trouble.

[DaveWG]

That load manager dll will not work in P3dv4. The XML part of the load manager works OK, so you may see the stores appear, but you won't see any weight added to the payload.

[PhantomTweak]

That load manager dll will not work in P3dv4. The XML part of the load manager works OK, so you may see the stores appear, but you won't see any weight added to the payload.

Docjohnson did say in his post that:

and weight needs to be added manually for the added stores.

probably in the Fuel and Payload menu.

Does that help?
Pat☺

[DaveWG]

I know, I was pointing out that there was no point in adding the dll entry to the dll.xml as it won't work in v4.
The loadout gauge could be modified to use xmltools or TacPack to add the weight relatively easily.