2nd part promo - SNJ-4C and USS Monterey

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X_eidos2

Charter Member
Here's a sneak peak at the second part of the promo video for the SkyUnlimited FSX Texan/Harvard Vol2 which features the SNJ-4C and the USS Monterey.

http://www.vimeo.com/8753681

With help from Wozza, the sounds of the inertia starter have been added to this model.

Enjoy
 
A very nice video. I would say that the SNJ catching a hook was as soft as any landing I ever saw. Every hook landing is a controlled crash.
But that being as it may, for it to take off from only 400 foot of deck left to it, is hard to take. Even figuring 30 MPH hull speed, about 20 MPH, the SNJ would have attained in 400 feet, it would take a relative wind speed of 40 MPH in order to get airborne. Highly unlikely bunch of circumstances.
 
I'm tempted to say the animated pilots are in the super duper ultra realistic edition...but they're not.
The two pilots walking were animated in Poser and then imported into Carrara Pro and rendered over a background recorded in FSX. The pilot climbing into the cockpit was animated in Carrara Pro, ( a week's work getting it all set up). The gmax model of the SNJ was exported and loaded into Carrara Pro for the final render over a FSX background.

Well the NAVY must have figured out how to launch and recover the SNJ from the Monterey's deck, because the USS Monterey set a record for most landings in a day, 477.

To launch from the carrier in FSX you need to make sure you don't have a full fuel load and that there is at least some wind blowing over the flight deck. If you get too much wind the model rolls backwards. The ship model is moving at the ship's top speed of 31 knots. To make the movie I had the plane landing on the player controlled version of the ship. Regardless of how smooth the ship is sailing, the plane jumps around alot after landing on the player controlled ship and it is highly recommended to use
the AI versions that will be provided in the package. The AI carrier will have two versions for use with AICarriers, one with and one without the S-51 helicopter. A scenery file will be included to have the AI USS Monterey sailing up and down off the coast of Pensacola.
 
The LSO in the player controlled ship has all the motions that you see in the movie. The movement is controlled by: ailerons, elevator, and spoiler. But, alas, in the AI version he just goes through a random animation and there is no interaction between him and the player's aircraft when landing on the AI version of the ship. I built the LSO model first then discovered landing on a player controlled ship was doable-but no fun after landing. SkippyBing of British aircraft and ships fame says that he's working on a possible solution of working with AI ships and not to through away the model.

To make the movie I used the new version of the FSRecorder module for FSX.

I first recorded the ship sailing along for about 5 minutes. I had just applied a new tweak to the ship cfg file to get it to sail smoothly. I also knew that if you want a stable/landing surface, you can convert a recorded flight file to a text file, go in and strip out all the data in-between the start and finish of the flight and then convert it back to a flc file and you'll have a ship sailing along, perfectly smooth as well. I then recorded a flight of the helo flying plane guard. Getting a helo to show up in FSRecorder playback is a whole story unto itself and if people are interested in how it's done I'd recommend a visit to the FSRecorder forum. Last I recorded the SNJ landing on the carrier. Once a player controlled plane lands on a player controlled ship, the plane does not like to sit still. It starts bouncing around and rolling backwards regardless of what you do with the brakes. To hold position I had to keep the throttle up pretty high. I quickly raised the tail hook and taxied to the take-off position and quickly took-off. To film the movie I took advantage of the new feature in FSR that allows you to make many adjustments in how the recorder files are played back. By turning off the flight controls for the LSO on the ship model, I was able to move him to match the airplane's movement when filming the landing. To know when to move arms when looking backwards at the LSO I just had a small extra view window open in the upper right corner which got cropped out when editing the video.
 
All I know the laws of aerodynamics are the same for a SNJ as they are for a SB2C. In order to get off in 400 feet he would have to have a 40MPH wind blowing across the deck. At that much wind resistance the ship would not be able to go at it's flank speed of 31 knots. In fact we would go down wind to get up to flank speed and then turn into the wind. Since the Carrier is a planing hull, she would really lean when she turned.
The only way is to release the hook, turn around and take all of 600 feet, give her full flaps and hope to hell the ship is coming up on a wave instead of nosing in, when you ran out of deck..
Now 477 landings in one day is hard to believe. That's about one a minute for an eight hour duty shift without any lunch break.
I take it you guys haven't ever spent any Carrier time. We never miss our lunch break.
 
Helldiver said:
We never miss our lunch break.
Click to expand...

I sympathize with that even without carrier experience.

The promo video is great. I am much impressed with the work you have done with the ship even if the results aren't all that you would like.
 
That was p[retty cool, love the music. Nice to see someone else in the FS world that uses Carrara
 
Even figuring 30 MPH hull speed, about 20 MPH, the SNJ would have attained in 400 feet, it would take a relative wind speed of 40 MPH in order to get airborne.
Click to expand...

That's about 90mph which is a bit excessive, the SNJ stall speed is around 65mph so it'd be just achievable if you had 15mph wind over the deck. The hull speed of an Independence class carrier was ~31 knots which is 35mph so the SNJ shouldn't have too many snags getting off in that distance, especially if lightly loaded. An SB2C obviously would as it's a bigger heavier aircraft and I'm guessing the stall speed is a bit higher too.

We never miss our lunch break.
Click to expand...

Strange, would have thought the USN could have figured out a shift system for lunch so you could keep flying...
 
I found that there are three ways to have moving ships when making movies.

The quickest but least effective way is to use AICarriers. Advantages:easy to do, can be done anywhere at anytime, uses any ship configured to work with AICarrier utility, aircraft behaves properly after landing on AI ship. Disadvantage: ship moves independent of everything else. During playback of recorded flight ship will not be in same position. Filming must be done LIVE.

Second method: Have AI ship follow pre-made traffic route which is stored in scenery folder in Add-on Scenery folder. The process for making these traffic routes has been documented here on the SOH forum. Advantages: Aircraft landing on AI ships behave properly after landing. Ship sails smooth, doesn't rock around, ship will be in same place at same time. The recorder module doesn't record the position of AI ships but a work around has been published on their forum which gives results which are good enough for making movies. It's a 6 step process. In brief: During recording-A) pause FS B) save the flight in FS C) reload saved flight D) start recording flight using FSR. Save recorded flight. During playback E) load the saved flight F) start FSR playback. This process was developed for the first version of the recorder module but also works with the new version 2. Essentially what it is doing is getting the timing between AI objects co-ordinated. Disadvantage: Takes awhile to get everything set-up. Camera view from ship point of view not available.

Third method: Have ship movement recorded using the flight recorder. Advantages: Puts ship in exact position during playback and allows the playback of aircraft landing on carriers. Allows use of all camera views during playback. Disadvantages: Aircraft bounce around and roll backwards after landing on carriers. Ship wakes: If there are multiple ships being playbacked at the same time, only one ship will have a wake behind it. This was true in FSR v1, haven't checked to see if it's still a limit in FSR v2. Ships following a traffic route instead of a FSR "flight" will display any number of ship wakes.

Hope this helps
 
Here's a photo that I came across recently that offers a good comparison of the different carrier sizes. The carrier at the very top of the picture is a sister ship of the Monterey, the USS San Jacinto.

My ship, the USS Wabash AOR-5, was homeported at these very same piers during my time aboard, 1974-1978.

020632.jpg
 
Skippy, you forget that going against a 40 knot wind that 31 knots hull speed gets cut down to about 25 knots.
That 31 knots came down during it's shake down cruise when the hull was nice and clean, Add a couple of tons of barnicles and sea grass. it slows down a lot.
 
Yeah, but you wouldn't need a 40 knot wind, heck with a 40 knot wind and 25 knots hull speed you're getting 65kts over the deck which means an SNJ wouldn't need to be moving to get airborne! Ultimately to get a Harvard airborne you need a minimum of 65mph = 55kts air over the wing so even with a safety margin of 5 kts you're only asking for 20kts from the ship, 20 from the wind and 20 from the aircraft, after all it's not a heavily loaded bomber with a high wing loading.
 
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