The Mighty Howard II

***expat*** · July 27th, 2012, 02:35

The Swiss Air Force mountain airbases are amazing IRL as well as FS and of course best in FSX if you have it. Try also Saanen and my favorite, St Stephan, where they have a summer airshow and fly in Hunters and Vampires.

Willy - re AI, I see like me you make your own "designer" custom GA AI. I have a few traffic routes around selected favorite airports - nothing too extensive to save on FPS. I do it all manually using TTools rather than a package. You seem to have all the great classic aircraft absolutely everywhere you fly. How do you do that?

***Sunny9850*** · July 27th, 2012, 10:57

Not sure how Willi does it but one way is to visit CalClassic.com and download the AI traffic packages from there and the PropLiner world is your oyster.

http://www.calclassic.com/AIAircraft.htm

Be sure to read all the important read me instructions to get things running smoothly.

Cheers
Stefan

***Willy*** · July 27th, 2012, 13:58

The California Classics Propliner AI sets would be the quick, easy and accurate way to do it. They've used older version FS aircraft for AI and wrote up the flight plans based on flight time tables from the period. If I had to do it all over again, I'd just go that route.

As it was, I did things the hard way (as usual). I took the default AI flight plans and re-wrote them for every AI propliner I could find or convert. I did them one flight at a time using YRoute and Traffic Tools.

***Willy*** · July 28th, 2012, 01:27

Took off from Bern and headed on to Sion (LSGS). After stopping there for a few minutes (never shut the engines off), it was off again for Geneva (LSGG).

***KellyB*** · July 28th, 2012, 08:33

This is a great plane!! Just one question (so far...)

After landing safely and rolling, I applied brakes and got stood on my nose!

Is that normal for this plane? Or do I let her roll out to a near stop before applying brakes?

***Blackbird686*** · July 28th, 2012, 08:38

You have to be gentle with the brakes on the Howard... they are quite good

. After touchdown, back off the throttles and let the tail wheel touch down. Put the yoke in your lap, and tap the brakes gently until she slows down to about 30 MPH or so, then you can apply them as normal.

BB686

***KellyB*** · July 28th, 2012, 08:40

thanks. I'll give that a try.
Right after I repair the nose!

**Milton Shupe** · July 28th, 2012, 08:56

You may also not be aware that the tailwheel locks automatically when you pull the yoke back more than 3 degrees.

So when you have slowed to taxi speed, you will want to push the yoke forward to neutral or more to allow the tailwheel to castor for parking manuevers.

**Pablo1965** · July 28th, 2012, 10:35

Originally Posted by Milton Shupe

Great shots Willy. Thanks for sharing the adventures.

Well, if it were me, I'd head to the Africa coast, then up to Casablanca.

From there, since I prefer mountainous scenery, to Lisbon, then North to Spain following the Pyrenees across Spain catching Santillano, Santander, Bilbao, then on to the catch the French Alps,

Alternatively, from Lisbon, you could head East to Seville, then down to Malaga, then follow the coast up to Cartagena, Valencia, and Barcelona as you head to the French Mediterranean. :-)

....and proceed 100-150Nm to the SE over Italy and u are about to arrive direct to me on one bear.... (ZDA/LDZD)

***Willy*** · July 28th, 2012, 12:20

I've got a couple more stops to make on the Alps tour and I'm working on which way to go from there. I'm trying to go places that I don't usually go on these trips. Although if I do head north, a stop by Merc Air HQ will almost be mandatory.

***Willy*** · July 29th, 2012, 01:28

Left Geneva for St Crepin, France (LFNC). Nice flight through the mountains to finish up the Alps.

***Willy*** · July 29th, 2012, 01:34

Decided it was time to head on north, flying before dawn over France and the Channel to England. Which means a stop at the Merc Air HQ.

***KellyB*** · July 29th, 2012, 05:25

Originally Posted by Milton Shupe

You may also not be aware that the tailwheel locks automatically when you pull the yoke back more than 3 degrees.

So when you have slowed to taxi speed, you will want to push the yoke forward to neutral or more to allow the tailwheel to castor for parking manuevers.

That's also good to know. Thanks Milton for another great plane.

I have now landed a couple of times and avoided scraping my nose or flipping the aftmost passengers onto the ceiling!

***Willy*** · July 29th, 2012, 21:34

Took off from Rochford and headed on north to check out the Royal Navy at Scapa Flow. Ran into some overspeed issues enroute that I'm going to have to sort out, but I did catch the fleet in the harbor.

(Old fleet sailors like myself can't resist checking out a bunch of ships)