Flying Challenge coming soon....

[GarryJSmith]

Hi Good Simmers,

Still tinkering furiously for the Ford Tri-Motor Project - currently working on the last of the Vega repaints - 5 more released the other day and 3 still in the pipeline - Plus 6 more Flamingo liveries to be created.

But the exciting thing is some new FORD Scenery for Switzerland. - something really very different.

I am always experimenting with ideas on how to make an airfield interesting for the simmers out there, and the other night, very late/early morning actually, I got an idea - something totally out of left field. How about a "Bunkered" airfield - not some skimpy little bunkers for the aircraft but an airfield within a big mountain.

Very easily thought of but putting it all together was a very interesting perturbation and a real exercise for my novice sim 3D model making experience. But after some very arduous "tinkering" it is now all coming together well.

Some pictures for you - click to enlarge.



The landing tunnel to Runway 18 is about a thousand feet long and a real challenge to hold the aircraft steady all the way through it to achieve a successful landing.

Still some fine tuning and testing of this "unique" airfield but hopefully she will be ready for you to test your flying skills by the weekend.

Yes you can get a Ford Tri-Motor down the tunnel

Regards and happy simming

Garry J. Smith and Edward C. Moore - your hard working Ford Tri-Motor Team.

[edmoore235]

Garry,

Great but your mad as a HATTER!! It can be done but O boy is it tough! The detail within the mountain is fantastic, just like I thought the Swiss might do....... very intesting layout and wonderful details in the buildings and inner wall
construction....it looks real or how it would have to be done to hold up the mountain. Another WOW project Mate. Thanks.

Ed

[aeromed202]

On another thread I was reminded of some fun sceneries which included a hangar inside a mountain too. Can't wait to give this one a try. To me these are some of the things FS was made for, in a fictitious way of course. Might I go a little further and suggest a circular runway? One was built in I think Albuquerque in the 50's. it worked great except for access problems.
Attachment 64016Attachment 64017

[edmoore235]

Here are a few pictures: Enjoy the view from inside the mountain, btw: the runways are in the tunnels!!

[GarryJSmith]

Just to clear it up a little as this is a very unique airfield.

Runway 18/36 is in the first tunnel leading out from the "internal airfield" - To land on runway 18 you have to come through a slanted tunnel in the back of the mountain. Angle is very precise and room is tight for a Ford Tri-Motor.

The overall concept is to have the look and feel of an entire airfield installation inside of a massive cave within the mountain - with one easy runway across the face of the mountain and one hard runway through the mountain.

The hard runway can be used in either direction - you can even choose to take off and try to fly through the tunnel in the rear of the Cave or just straight out through the tunnel at the front. And of course you can challenge yourself by landing through the tunnel at the rear of the Cave.

If you have a closer look at the internal picture Ed posted you will get the gist of it all.

If you want to really challenge yourself - have crash detect turned ON - and try and get through the angled tunnel at the back of the Cave in a Ford Tri-Motor.


Should have this all ready for release by Friday night.

Yes I agree with you aeromed202 - though many simmers are deadly serious about simming I have always believed that there should be a fun side as well, not necessarily a "game" but at least to have some entertainment and challenge values scattered here and there to simply add an enjoyment value to the program.

Regards

[GarryJSmith]

Hi Good People,

The Switzerland scenery has been released and is now available on the Scenery Page of the Ford Tri-Motor web site.

http://www.ford-tri-motor.net

Feel free to pop on over to the site and grab this scenery for some fun and challenging flying.

Regards and happy simming.

Garry J. Smith and Edward C. Moore - your Ford Tri-Motor project team.

[Hurricane91]

Dang! That is really wild. Thanks for a very spectacular scenery.
(Hey Mickey, warm up the Silver Dart...)

[napamule]

Ha. I installed it in FSX and it looks 'ok' except there are lots of trees everywhere (inside, in tunnels, on taxi ways). I guess I better install it in FS9 in order to enjoy it. I turned down scenery and auto-gen to very sparse but it still put trees everywhere. My fault. Nice looking walls and cieling (rock solid-hehe). Well I still had a nice day of flying around inside cave. It's huge. But, you need a bigger hangar door somewhere if you're going to build Ford Tri-Motor planes in there (ha).
Chuck B
Napamule

[GarryJSmith]

In FS2004 there is very few "autogen" items in the area chosen for the Switzerland Mountain scenery.

Therefore I did not have to use any Excludes for the area. However, if by some small chance some FS2004 users might encounter "autogen" issues with the scenery I will do a very quick fix and exclude the area involved.

Update will be released within the hour.

Regards

From Feedback by other FS2004 users including Edward - the autogen objects for that area do not cause any problems with this scenery - as this entire suite is designed for FS2004 use and not intended for FSX use I have reverted to the original files without excludes - not necessary and therefore not worthy of the additional processing in the AFX AFCAD file.

[edmoore235]

Gee whiz, no extra trees in my FS2004 sim. Works perfect. No need for an EXCLUDE here. My sliders are all the way HARD RIGHT and all of them (smile).
Thanks for all your hard work Garry, just the best ever Mate.

Ed

[napamule]

Ha. The reason I mentioned I installed in FSX is because it is almost useable as is. I made a mistake. Did not install in FSX intentionally. Sorry. It is very good work. As an aside, the FSX install shows a lot of buildings inside the cave. Miltitary style barracks (1940-1960?). And other mil buildings, even though I did not install the KORS-ORCA or the Ford-Factory scenery. Only the Ford-Switzerland scenery.

In FS9 there are no 'stray' trees and only the power plant and another building, plus the welcome sign. Bare bone. Of course the trees and the buildings do 'grow' in the wrong places in FSX. Not in FS9. It's clean. Lots of room. No 'FPS' issues, either (locked at 24, getting 25 (hehe)). I have sliders maxed too (i7 2600K 3.8 Ghz). But I did not install any of the AI at all, so don't know anything about parked airplanes in or outside of cave, or FPS issues then. But it appears fps friendly. And is fun to have-thanks Mr Smith.
Chuck B
Napamule

[edmoore235]

OK, Greetings ALL;

The below text is at the top of the SCENERY page, you will enjoy the scenery as designed if you have it and the Ford Airport Dearborn, MI installed.

These scenery packages are designed specifically for FS2004

Untested with FSX. The scenery packs are designed to accommodate all of the Textures and Scenery Objects in the Principle (KORS-ORCA) Scenery and all of the subordinate scenery packs use the Objects and Textures from the Principle. Each Scenery Pack contains the relevant scenery and the relevant AI aircraft. Some of the subordinate packs will contain scenery objects and textures unique to that pack - such as New Zealand space port objects and textures.

Yes there are in fact AI repaints and flightplans in the scenery download. They appear in parking spaces and at set times taxi and take off from the base. You really need to do a complete install in order
to enjoy all of Garry's outstanding work.

Ed

[edmoore235]

OK, Garry did a small tweak for me and has allowed me to share it with others. If you want the TWEAK bgl just send me a PM. See pictures
below:


Simply rename blimp.bgl to blimp.off to remove Ford blimp, blimp mast and the large blimp hangar. Enjoy.

Ed