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This ones for you Ted

O

O-1Driver

Charter Member 2011
For a long time Ted and James have patiently waited for TOW to materialize. These are just a few things that Ted has asked for and I think you guys will be blown away by "The Other War"
when it is finally released

A HE-219 of the I/NJG night fighter wing makes an approach in to Venlo in 1943 using the Lorenz system. the airfield lights are all new low intensity and cannot be seen beyond the airfield boundary. the Lorenz system is also low intensity and the player will be guided to the beacons and final approach course by an "approach plate" with headings, altitudes, time and distance. You will fly the approach just like the German pilots did. The new airfield lights are particle effect not muzzle flash and can be made any intensity and will have a timer to shut off after the player departs. They will be set to reactivate after a pre-determined delay.

O-1View attachment 32740View attachment 32741
 
TOW

I flew around a bit last night and the airfield lighting was very cool. The way it is done, not nearly as bright as FSX is great. TOW will be fun only if you turn off the labels, turn down your screen's contrast, use the tack display that models forward radar, and you eat carrots!
 
The TOW environment won't appeal to everyone. The missions will require more detailed study of the briefings and understanding the approach plates in order to locate the airfield and land.

The Lorenz system used a primary string of lights lined up with the runway with cross lights set at intervals based on runway length and approach obstructions. The cross lights tell the pilot how high he should be at that point and the distance to the airfield. The Airfield runway lights are low intensity and will only become visible at the end of the Lorenz approach.

The Lorenz approach lights are also dim and can only be found by flying the approach instructions provided for the beacon in use that evening based on winds and runway in use. The approach plate will provide specific heading, altitude and time to fly to intercept the Lorenz approach lights.

To complicate matters the lights were many times turned off while the night fighter was on approach when enemy aircraft arrived in the area. The Lorenz approach lights will be set on a timer which will turn them off after they have been on for 12 minutes. They will stay off for three minutes before reactivating. If the lights go out while you are on approach you will be required to fly the published missed approach and return to the outer marker beacon where you will start a new approach.

An enemy aircraft in the area would not be able to locate the airfield even if they saw the visual beacon unless they had the approach plate for that beacon.

The Germans would change the colors of the beacons and also use mobile beacons to confuse Allied Night Fighters.

The mission will require you to takeoff and fly to the navigational beacon determined by your ground controller that will put you in to the best position to intercept the bomber stream. Once you arrive at the nav beacon you will orbit and await the ground controller instructions of heading altitude and time to merge with the bomber stream based on their radar track. The RAF would use different routes each night and also false or decoy streams.

After engaging the enemy bombers you will proceed to a new nav beacon selected that evening to help you avoid HOT areas of AA and known locations of enemy night fighters. Upon arriving at the homeward bound nav beacon you will then proceed to the outer marker beacon near the airfield where you will pull up the approach plate for that beacon and fly the published altitude, heading, speed and time to pickup the Lorenz approach lights. at the end of the Lorenz lights you should be able to see the low intensity runway lights and land visually. At any time during the approach if you lose contact with the Lorenz approach lights you will have to do a missed approach.

If you are too high you will not be able to see the approach lights as they have a range limit in place. You can fly directly above them at 1500 ft and never see them.

The only major problems you may run in to are weather with low ceilings and a chance that RAF night fighters will be waiting at some of the beacons as they did to intercept the German night fighters.

You will have to fly these missions with no labels but TAC will be permitted. There will be no way points for your final approach from the outer marker, you will have to use your approach plate to get home.

All in all pretty much a milk run......but then missions across the channel open up a whole new can of worms.

We will also be throwing in some Allied missions where you will fly to the German beacons in the hope of making an intercept. You will land in England using the Drem lighting system.

Does this sound like fun guys, if so you may want to brush up on your instrument skills.

Best Regards,
O-1
 
I forgot to add that a pilot knee board that you can strap to your leg comes in handy for these missions. You can print out and attach the approach plate to the knee board for reference.

If you don't have one you can make one with cardboard and duct tape.:ernae:

O-1
 
Yes this is Wild, I have been allowed to play with this, and it does require you to beable to fly without having a warp point to fly to..
It is a Great new item from the Men at ETO..Does require you to fly the bird..And is a ball..
BRAVO to the Masters for this one..
:salute: :salute: :salute:
 
This sounds mentally very challenging - very up my street! I used to stare at the squares of blackness in ronnybengt's screenshots a couple of years back and stare, and stare, but still I saw naught, but with this new rig I have something to look forward to.

Might take a break from gmax for this! :jump:
 
hairyspin said:
This sounds mentally very challenging - very up my street! I used to stare at the squares of blackness in ronnybengt's screenshots a couple of years back and stare, and stare, but still I saw naught, but with this new rig I have something to look forward to.

Might take a break from gmax for this! :jump:
Click to expand...

Yes it is a challenge, It is bending my furry little brain..:icon_eek:

And building a mission for this is a really a challenge, that is a ball for me..
I like NEW and I really like a challenge that requires me to think it over..AND OVER AND OVER..
It is a truly new way of doing missions and this really gets me going..
Thanks to the Masters for this..

:salute: :salute: :salute: :salute:
 
View attachment 32789Guy's,

Here is the cheap knee board I use. You can probably make something yourself that will work just as well but you will need something to write on and keep track of headings and other approach data. If all else fails you can always tape the approach plate to the PC monitor.

PS: a stopwatch is also helpful to time the approach. If it says four minutes at 120mph and 8 minutes later you have not seen the Lorenz approach lights something is wrong, either you are on the wrong heading, altitude or the lights have been turned off.

O-1
 
Heads Up

James and I have been working with Steve and others to make a stand alone TOW. The new game will have all of what you see plus all the planes we have made for night fighting, radar stations and search light belts. New flak and other stuff. This game will be optimized for night missions from both sides including German attacks on England. The number of night fighter planes on both sides is about 50 or so.

Other goodies - the range of all the aircraft weapons will be limited to 100-150 meters (AI) to mimic the actual distances of the attacks. May sound like an advantage to the attackers but if you get too close and are fired upon it is all but guaranteed that you'll be floating down. Also, there will be HE, AP, and Incendiary rounds. While not great, there is a difference in the damage inflicted. There should also be a set of new NJG airfields to replace the inaccurate ones in use, such as Venlo that was a major base with three runways of 75-100 meter width and about 1800 meters in length.

While we will not have NDB we will have something else that will be very cool. It will take while to put it all together so just wait and see.

Pauke Pauke
 
Owen is helping me build some test missions so we can put some of the new stuff and concepts in to a mission setting to see if they are viable and work as advertised. If all works well in our testing maybe we can release the test pack as an early teaser for TOW to give you a taste of it.

As Ted stated the airfields will have to be updated and there is a lot more coming and his future release date is unknown.

One thing is for sure when Ted and James do release TOW it will be different than anything currently out there. i am glad to see them stick with it as CFS3 needs a new infusion of stuff to keep it alive and interesting for all of us.

Best Regards,
O-1
 
Uh-huh, carrots... yep and duct tape... okay...

...sounds really cool_____ only wish CFS3's 'at night' didn't obliterate those bitchin' nightfighter textures... not much optical candy in the pitch. ...:icon_eek:-more carrots!!--aah, that's better:cool:
 
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