Laos 1968 Air America scenery

apollon01 said:
Nice info! (y)

This is what I've got:

LZ on top of the hill to the east of the Tacan site

View attachment 175913
Source: https://www.limasite85.com/fall-of-lima-site-85

View attachment 175912
Source: https://www.historynet.com/lima-site-85/

Airstrip down at the foothill to the west of the mountain

View attachment 175914
Source: https://www.limasite85.com/do-chi-ben-document
The image above depicts also the heli LZ to the east of Tacan

View attachment 175915
Source: https://www.limasite85.com/installation-of-trn-17-tacan

View attachment 175916
Source: https://www.geocities.ws/koratmahknut/warinlaos/Lima85/phouphathi.jpg linked from this website https://www.geocities.ws/koratmahknut/warinlaos/Lima85/adoptmia.htm

My scenery includes only the LZ on top of the hill and the airstrip down to the west of the mountain as I believed I had enough info to re-create them as per historically relevant info.

I did not include the earlier airstrip 34/16 at the ridge to the south-east of the Tacan as at the time when I was working on the scenery I did not have the last image above and therefore little to confirm its existence.

Unlike you :) which makes me happy to see you are working on it.

I hope the info above is useful in case you have not seen it yet.
Click to expand...


OK. So I checked a lot of sources and think I have the location now. Confusion: there was a Landing Zone (for helicopters) which was on the ridge, and a Landing Strip at 4.5k ft roughly in line with the ridge (<- this is the main clue, because it is 1000 ft below the airfield which I created. the orientation and length matches though). The LZ is not mentioned in the CIA documentation. Maybe this is because the installation fell before an updated next Air Field Facilitiy booklet was released. So they just left it out.

The official STOL site was carved out of the mountain. And it is still visible today, with some imagination. There are also some hints that there was another staging field nearby, an a valley, but I have research this deeper.

Another thing - they did not have GPS back then. So coordinates mentioned in the original documentations were quite rough. But the runway orientations were rather acccurate, and the minimal length. As well as the elevation.

We will get there!

Cheers,
Mark
 
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I think I got the location now. Hint from the litarature: 20mins hike to the top. "Carved out of the mountain side" and "below the ridge". Documents: Elevation (4500ft, matches perfectly), runway orientation and length. And cues from todays satellite or aerial imagery.

It is steep, and will be a challenge to land on.

Cheers,
Mark

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OK, I think I have a good version of the strip now.

It is short, steep and very demanding to land on (like in the Air America movie, first flight with the Porter). The top area is small. Be sure to go into reverse at the right time. BUT: Never come to an early halt at the slope. You'll not going to make it. If you have an easterly crosswind - PRAY.

:)











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Working on L11 Pakse, a famous airfield at the shores of the Mekong near the Boloven Plateau. A major Air America and Raven airfield. Made some new typical aircraft revetments in Blender. Way to go!1250410_20260109165327_1.pngCheers,
Mark
 

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I had some procrastinating going on with tackling the famous LS-20A Long Tieng airfield because it is so complex. I have re-read a lot of literature now and also checked all original photos I could get my hands on and now have a basic setup for it. I check the airfield under different lighting conditions and perspectives and think I got the right feeling now. One of the main problems is to regress the scenery back to it's time, so there are a lot of custom made 3d objects (around 40) like the tower, Gen. Vang Paos Villa, the buddhist temple his wife donated, and the refugee shacks all over the place. Also the karst rock formations like Skyline Ridge and the infamous Vertical Speed Brake. I made custom 3d obejcts for that in Blender. Also got rid of the numerous TIN "skyscrapers" the sim feeds into the scenery. Here is a first look! Morning and evening screenshots.

Way to go, I think it will take a few weeks to get it right from now.

Cheers,

Mark
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LS20a Long Tieng had three interesting locations around its perimeter.
  1. Kings Palace + howitzers
  2. A Thai artillery compound on the south western western ridgeline
  3. Another Thai arty compound on the eastern ridge ("Skyline Ridge"). This also was where the TACAN was located.
Today I made the Kings Palace, which was built for the King of Laos to retreat to when the climate got too hot in Luang Prabang. It was small and when the hostilities mounted, a little M-105 howitzer battery was stationed there, facing the east ridge.

I made a dedicated scenery object for the Kings Palace in Blender.

Cheers,
Mark

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Today I did a lot of terraforming - adjustment of the digital elevation model - along the runway of LS20a to get the slope right, which is a bit ardous. But I think I got it now. Second task was creating the karst ridges and placing them according to old photos. looks quite good now. I also made the Hmong air force apron with the T-28 fighter bombers.
Good thing is now - it is as dangerous as it was. The profile of the runway is with multiple slopes, so when you land you do not see the end of the runway, as with starting. You only can land/start in one direction, regardless of wind directions. No propblem for the Porter or other small aircraft, but C-130 / C-47 / C-46 and the C-123-K (which we do not have, unfortunately), it was rather challenging.
On FB in a historical group I am in touch with people who have been there/done that and they give me advice to make it look right, so I hope this will be the best rendition of this famous place that can be done.
That's that for the day
🙂
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I plan to make a separate trail scenery after that, with HCM trails, convoys, truck parks, relevant POIs and even ground fire (FX only, of course)!
The vehicles and weapons are already in the libraries.
Got most of the POIs bookmarked in Google Earth. But that will take some time from now on.
I look very much forward to the A26 :)

Cheers,
Mark
 
I have gotten some great input from guys who have actuallly been there and now have a treasure trove of historical photos and comments. So I was able to locate the old CIA/Air America quarters of LS20a and also how the compound of General Vang Pao's villa looked like. I hope they keep it coming, because I want this to look in the sim as real as it can get!
Last shot is a look from the balcony of VPs villa, on a cold morning, facing the strip. I made the villa in Blender, custom object.

Cheers,
mark


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Awesome work Mark. This scenery will be a landmark accomplishment when completed. My home base was South Vietnam (Binh Thuy AB) but your scenery gives me and others an opportunity to see and experience another part of SE Asia we knew about and heard about. Thanks for your efforts!
 
The Hmong T-28 flight line on LS-20A and other sites were very prominent back then, and so were their pilots and their sacrifice. So I put a little more effort in that.

Didier (lagaffe), if you read this, I ported some of my simobjects from P3D over to MSFS. These are:

MK-82 bomb (non-retarding)
BLU-27 Nape canisters with and without fins
LAU-3 Rocket pods in 4 configurations
SU-14 Bomblet dispenser

These were also used on the A26-K - if you want them for the aircraft, you can contact me :) I'd be happy to share them.

Cheers,
Mark
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Our A-7 Corsair II's loaded up with Mk82s with retarding fins. I've watched them unrep these and chuck the packing frames over the side off of the elevators. Tons of them literally. I would guess that they've all turned to powdered rust by now 58 years later. When I recall the memories like youse guys that were there it both seems a lifetime ago and like the day before yesterday. I imagine that our dads or granddads felt that way. In 1970 when I returned from 'Nam, I went back to model building but this time not plastic but wooden scratchbuilt. My father served aboard USS Barnegat, AVP-10 patrolling the Panama Canal Zone against U-boats. I got a copy of the General Booklet Of Plans from BuShips. It was a Christmas present for him and he treasured it. He pointed out all kind of things to me.

Anyway, it wasn't until 15 years later that I saw an issue of Sea Classics magazine and an article about Subic Bay in 1970 with a nest of WHEC High Endurance Cutters, ex-AVP's. I was so disappointed not to have known they were there and I could have gone aboard one like my dad served aboard. Subic Bay was by then closed and abandoned by the Navy. Cubi Point NAS became a Philippine Airport. I discovered that the O'club was moved to Pensacola Navy Air Museum. Going to get there one of these days "If The Lord tarries". Ya all have a good night. Looking forward to this release and flying my C-46 I just got from the MSFS Marketplace yesterday along with the free Air America repaint. Has anyone migrated Ant's T-28D Trojan from Prepar3D?
 
tgycgijoes said:
Our A-7 Corsair II's loaded up with Mk82s with retarding fins. I've watched them unrep these and chuck the packing frames over the side off of the elevators. Tons of them literally. I would guess that they've all turned to powdered rust by now 58 years later. When I recall the memories like youse guys that were there it both seems a lifetime ago and like the day before yesterday. I imagine that our dads or granddads felt that way. In 1970 when I returned from 'Nam, I went back to model building but this time not plastic but wooden scratchbuilt. My father served aboard USS Barnegat, AVP-10 patrolling the Panama Canal Zone against U-boats. I got a copy of the General Booklet Of Plans from BuShips. It was a Christmas present for him and he treasured it. He pointed out all kind of things to me.

Anyway, it wasn't until 15 years later that I saw an issue of Sea Classics magazine and an article about Subic Bay in 1970 with a nest of WHEC High Endurance Cutters, ex-AVP's. I was so disappointed not to have known they were there and I could have gone aboard one like my dad served aboard. Subic Bay was by then closed and abandoned by the Navy. Cubi Point NAS became a Philippine Airport. I discovered that the O'club was moved to Pensacola Navy Air Museum. Going to get there one of these days "If The Lord tarries". Ya all have a good night. Looking forward to this release and flying my C-46 I just got from the MSFS Marketplace yesterday along with the free Air America repaint. Has anyone migrated Ant's T-28D Trojan from Prepar3D?
Click to expand...
Great stuff! Thank you for sharing this.

I loved Ants T-28 in P3D. I do not know of any conversions to MSFS, and I would think that they are not easy to port because of the system depth they had. I check his website frequently because he announced that the T-28x models are next in dev for MSFS, but so far no other news. Deep down I also wish a dev would pick up the C-123K Provider, which was heavily used during this time and there are a couple of great auto biographies written by pilots who flew them. These books, among many others by Ravens and Air America / CASI Pilots, are the drivers for my scenery efforts.

Re Subic Bay: yes, it is an international Airport now. Another historical airfield on Luzon is WW2 era Floridablanca, which is inland, a bit to the north. Our good friend Tom Stovall and I recreated it for P3D a few moons ago. The airfield (airport) is still existing today. And of course the massive Clark Airbase / Airport, which is a few miles farther up to the north. Lot of history there!

Cheers,
Mark
 
Anthony (Ant's Simulations) is precisely in the process of creating a T-28 for MSFS so if you wait a little longer you will be able to benefit from it.
If you want to have images of the plane being created, here is a link:

www.fsdeveloper.com

MSFS20 - North American T-28 Trojan

Using some technical drawings for modeling. AircorpsLibrary has drawings (and manuals) for about 70, mostly WWII, aircraft so if you are looking for some drawings for your next project it may be worth a look to see if they have anything.
www.fsdeveloper.com www.fsdeveloper.com
 
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