Getting Buffed.

[Sbob]

Finishing up the aircraft.cfg edits, find the [SMOKESYSTEM] section and replace it with:

=======================================================================
[SMOKESYSTEM]
smoke.0=-20.00,-7.50,-16.5, fx_hjg_dc9_smoke.fx
smoke.1=-20.00,-7.50, 16.5, fx_hjg_dc9_smoke.fx
=======================================================================

I use a "medium" smoke effect that's controlled by the panel folder (we'll get to that in a few) from HJG, https://simviation.com/hjg/downloads.htm

since Smoke is one of those personal decisions, use what you like.

Finishing up, find the [Views] section. I tweaked this a little so you're in the cabin of the plane, sweating over your whiz wheel, charts, and dividers. This view also makes it easier to taxi from the VC view. Make the following changes:

=====================================================================
[Views]
eyepoint=-1.1286, -1.85, 7.00
=====================================================================

 

[Sbob]

Panel and sounds. I've attached the panel folder I use for the T-43. Install is pretty basic but pay attention to the CAB file in my panel folder. The CAB file goes in your main FS9 Gauges folder. If you already have the Alpha/Virtavia B-1B installed, don't worry about the CAB file. We're only borrowing the main clock, which will also be used in the B-52. You may want to change the view from the 2D panel by hitting your minus (-) key.
Your ACS-GPS gauge is "tagged" to the GPS icon and can get dragged over the HSI. Place the GPS where you want it. You can also view the GPS from the VC by pressing <shift> 3. The numbers should update but you won't be able to manually change any settings.

Sounds are up to you. I would recommend one of the twin engine Turbojet sound files from HJG, make sure you download a version that includes thrust reversers.

EDIT- I forgot a "gauge". Grab "smokextrol.zip" and unzip the folder to your desktop. The whole folder is dropped into your main FS9 Gauges folder. I'm guessing most of us already have these Alphasim XML controller files installed but I included all of them in case you don't. Oops..

 

[zswobbie1]

Thanks, I'll give it a fly-by later today..

 

[ViperPilot2]

What Smoke effect is at the HJG Downloads page under Effects?

 

[Sbob]

I used the DC-9 smoke in the aircraft.cfg file edit. It isn't too heavy.

HJG Effects Files

But again, smoke is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

[Sbob]

Oh, you have an (optional) assignment for this weekend.
If you're out and about, try to find some of those mini legal pads (5'X7'/ 12X18) or mini composition books ( 4 1/2" X 3 1/4"/ 11.4 X 8.2).
The trick to getting consistent in the IR routes is knowing what you'll be getting into and where you can cheat.
Take some notes with each flight. How long does it take to taxi from your parking spot to the hammer heads at the end of the runway?
How much fuel do you need to run IR-141? How much is too much? Which airports/nav aids are near the IR route?
We'll get into how to take notes soon.

Also, you may find it really handy to snag one of those spiral-bound pads of lined index cards (3"X5"/7.62X12.70). You'll find that having your own Gross Weight vs Air Speed chart is super important once you get into the holding pattern and prepare to land. How much heading offset do you need for a cross-wind take off or landing (aka Crab) ? You may have flown an approach 100 times, but it happens, what the heck is the course setting and freq's for the radios? Having a nice stack of cheat sheets close to your flight controls makes things much easier.

Meanwhile, how are you doing with ACS-GPS and the T-43 install? We still have a couple of flights for the "T-37" before the real fun starts.

 

[ViperPilot2]

Oh, you have an (optional) assignment for this weekend.
If you're out and about, try to find some of those mini legal pads (5'X7'/ 12X18) or mini composition books ( 4 1/2" X 3 1/4"/ 11.4 X 8.2).
The trick to getting consistent in the IR routes is knowing what you'll be getting into and where you can cheat.
Take some notes with each flight. How long does it take to taxi from your parking spot to the hammer heads at the end of the runway?
How much fuel do you need to run IR-141? How much is too much? Which airports/nav aids are near the IR route?
We'll get into how to take notes soon.

Also, you may find it really handy to snag one of those spiral-bound pads of lined index cards (3"X5"/7.62X12.70). You'll find that having your own Gross Weight vs Air Speed chart is super important once you get into the holding pattern and prepare to land. How much heading offset do you need for a cross-wind take off or landing (aka Crab) ? You may have flown an approach 100 times, but it happens, what the heck is the course setting and freq's for the radios? Having a nice stack of cheat sheets close to your flight controls makes things much easier.

Meanwhile, how are you doing with ACS-GPS and the T-43 install? We still have a couple of flights for the "T-37" before the real fun starts.

Yikes... was "IR-141" included as part of the Nav Lists file you provided, and was I supposed to install Nav? Hope I didn't miss something...

As an aside, I switched from the Intruder to the Canadair CT-114 Tutor; it looked to be a closer comparison to the T-37, C-22J and the Jet Provost than the Intruder.

I have all of the 'pieces' downloaded to put together the T-43 as per your suggestions except for installing "Nav".

 

[Sbob]

Nav30 had issues, unless you also have an install of FS2002.
Don't worry about it. I re-cooked this thread so you don't need it.
If you used my "manual install" of ACS-GPS, you should also have a fairly deep stack of IR flight plans for ACS-GPS.
IR-275 is the infamous "BUFF Ridge" in southern Nevada, btw.

I mentioned the Intruder because there are a LOT of them out there. You're right, the Tutor is a better stand-in.

 

[ViperPilot2]

Nav30 had issues, unless you also have an install of FS2002.
Don't worry about it. I re-cooked this thread so you don't need it.
If you used my "manual install" of ACS-GPS, you should also have a fairly deep stack of IR flight plans for ACS-GPS.
IR-275 is the infamous "BUFF Ridge" in southern Nevada, btw.

I mentioned the Intruder because there are a LOT of them out there. You're right, the Tutor is a better stand-in.

That was my thought as well. Glad I didn't forget anything! Maybe I should stick the ACS- GPS Gauge in the Tutor...

 

[Sbob]

You should be able to do it without too many hassles.

You can replace the stock GPS in the panel.cfg file by changing it like this:

[Window02]
Background_color=4,4,5
size_mm=126,134
render_3d_window=0
position=8
visible=0
ident=GPS_PANEL
gauge00=ACS.GPS98-V2, 0,0,126,134

Mostly copy/paste what's above. The title in blue MUST match the entry in [Window Titles] if you want to use the GPS icon on the 2D panel.

[Window Titles]
window00=Main Panel
window01=Radio Stack
Window02=GPS_PANEL
window03=Throttle Quadrant
window04=Overhead Panel
window05=Compass

The numbers in red should also match in the "size" line and the "gaugeXX=" line. Try to keep the same ratio between X and Y co-ords like I have them. This will avoid any distortions. Meaning, change the red numbers to 252 and 268 , etc. for higher resolution 2D panels. I don't recommend going any smaller than 126 X 134 or some data fields in the gauge may get messed up.

Your last two flights in the "T-37" will be a visual run between some land marks (I'll give you headings to fly) followed up by doing the same flight over with the GPS gauge in "free" mode (just follow the heading display) and coupled to the auto pilot. I want to do some basic "classroom time" to show you how to run the GPS programming panel and tell you how and when the GPS can get you in trouble before you do the final flight.

 

[Sbob]

Well, it time to wrap up flying the "T-37". Before that happens, you have one or two fini flights.
Use the previous post to add the ACS gauge to your "T-37" stand-in.
Timing isn't critical, but take off from Mather and fly on course 095. You should see a lake ahead of you, about 5 miles out.
Fly to the lake then turn to 300. You'll spot another lake about 15 miles away.
Once you get to the second lake, turn to 150 and look for a third lake off your nose.
Fly over the third lake then turn to 300. Depending on your scenery mesh, you should see the cooling towers of a nuke plant.
Fly over the towers then turn to 285. You'll see an airport (KSAC), but don't land there. Just prior to the airport, make your final turn to 360 and head back to Mather.

Exit FS and find the icon for ACS-GPS. It should be a red square with "AC Soft" in yellow letters. Click (or double click) the icon and the ACS data panel should load. If you used my manual install, you should see a bunch of waypoints in the lower right screen. High lite a waypoint and hit the DELETE button. There's only about 70 waypoints and ACS is pretty flexible (I think the max number of waypoints is 99).

Try clicking on any of the waypoints in the lower right screen. That waypoint should appear in the data screen on the left. Play around with the buttons.
Now, we need to add some waypoints from your previous flight around the lakes.

This set of waypoints conforms to the ACS data screen (IDENT, NAME, LAT, and LONG) Enter the letters and numbers, check if N, S, E, or W is set.

LK1 Lake #1 N 38 31 16 W 121 12 31
LK2 Lake #2 N 38 43 05 W 121 05 44
LK3 Lake #3 N 38 15 48 W 120 58 07
CT Cooling Towers N 38 20 40 W 121 07 10
KSAC NOT Your Airport N 38 30 41 W 121 29 16
KMHR Mather N 38 33 13 W 121 18 14

After you enter each waypoint, click the ADD button and the data should show up in the screen on the right.
Once you get used to it, this becomes almost second nature and its quick.
When you're finished, click the Load To GPS button followed by OK.

It should be noted that clicking the OK button will turn off the data entry screen.

That's it, your waypoints are now loaded into your GPS gauge.

Start FS again, load your "T-37" at Mather. Now, click the GPS icon on the 2D panel and gauge should appear.

WARNING- DO NOT CLICK THE TOP LINE ("ACS-GPS ver 2") OR YOUR SIM WILL PROBABLY FREEZE.

This is a hold-over from some older versions of Windows, just make sure to never touch that text.
Take a minute to hover over the data fields on the gauge. Find a place that isn't a hot spot and drag the gauge around on your 2D panel.
Click the GPS icon and the gauge disappears. Click the GPS icon and the gauge will show up where you last left it.

Place you mouse/pointer on the NAME text. Move your mouse to the left and click the text. It should now display the previous waypoint. Click to the right and the waypoint should update to the next in the list.

In the lower left corner of the gauge, you'll see the word STATUS. Click it, your auto pilot will turn on and the heading bug/heading hold will slave to the course that's displayed on the gauge. Click STATUS again and the gauge will de-couple from the auto pilot.
Note that the auto pilot and Heading Hold remain ON.
Turn off the auto pilot and take off. Try using the GPS in manual mode. You'll need to advance the way points by clicking on the NAME field of the gauge. Turn on the auto pilot and click STATUS again. Besides having the nose slew to correct heading, the waypoints will automatically advance as you get to each way point.

Play around and get used to using the gauge. This is the basic GPS set up we'll be using in the T-43 and B-52.

 

[Sbob]

I feel that now's the time to show you the plan for your T-43 training.
You'll still be based at Mather but I wanted to combine some things before you step up to the B-52.

Your first flight in the T-43 will be a fairly short trip. You'll take off from Mather and fly direct to Castle AFB.
Castle is (was) the home of B-52 crew training, so make sure you get a hair cut. While you're checking out Castle, people there will be checking you out for your first Crew experience.

It will be up to you to program your way points. Timing won't be that important but timing accuracy will get tighter as we progress.
After that it be back to Mather for some nuts-and-bolts tips on how to plan your flights, then we're going to start visiting other B-52 bases.
Ultimately, it will be your call to pick a base and a B-52 wing. I did my share of B-52 re-paints several years ago, so it will be a cool challenge to cover some more of the bomb wings if you want them. The T-43 training flights were starting to look fairly boring, so I got a brain storm of combining your Nav training while being able to check out some potential destinations for your B-52 career.

That brings up the topic of Scenery. The hay day of SAC's B-52 wings and bases was in the early to mid 1980's. FS9 was published in 2003. Somewhere in between, there was a thing known as "BRAC" (base re-alignment and closure) after the old Cold War ended. The good news is that most, if not all, of the old SAC bases are still in the game. The bad news is that a lot of them are pretty basic.

I've included a link for Dan French's rendition of Castle AFB (from AVSIM). This scenery is pretty complete and you also get stuff like AI traffic files and call signs for the bombers and tankers. Its your call if you install the scenery and AI or maybe just install the TUFF callsign and Dan's AFCAD BGL. If Castle looks like a potential home for your B-52 career, this is a pretty good scenery package.

https://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=castle+dan+french&CatID=root&Go=Search

MAIW has The Big Three bases for download. Barksdale (KBAD), Minot (KMNT) and Tinker (KTIC) AFBs. KBAD and KMNT are the current B-52 bases (with a long history of B-52 ops) while Tinker has been the "phase" repair base for B-52s for a long time. Again, its your call on which scenery you install, or how much of it. We'll get into the details of each base as we visit them.

 

[Sbob]

Now is a good time to simulate some stuffy classroom time.

Imagine the classroom is hot, the AC is off, and you need to watch this:

It doesn't help that the O Club had a "wings and beers" or Mongolian Beef special going last night.

This is a pretty good look at why we use things like Nautical Miles (which is really more like a concept) and Zulu Time (which is much more practical). When I post panel mods, it isn't "because I said so", this is stuff I've nailed together over the years that works. At least, the USAF thinks so.

For the purposes of this thread:

Nautical Miles defines the distance between one set of lat/long co-ordinates and another set of lat/long co-ordinates.

Zulu Time is absolute. If you observe sunset while you're over some ocean and you know its 12:00 ZULU, you can make a pretty good ballpark guess about where you are. Why is that?

As an aside, there is also the concept of "SAC Time". SAC Time is measured relative to the location of Offut AFB, just south of Omaha, Nebraska.
If its between the hours of 1700 and 0800 (local), SAC Time, you're probably safe. At least, for now.

 

[Sbob]

One other topic to get out of our way is how Lat and Lon are displayed.
The conventional display is in Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (ie, DDD MM SS). This is the easiest concept to wrap your head around.
If you were at the Equator and you were ordered to march east to cover one second of distance, should you pack a lunch? No, one second works out to about 100 feet. What if the order was to march east to cover one minute? One minute equals 60 seconds, so 100 feet times 60 or 6,000 feet. Which brings up a cool co-incidence (more like a definition), one Nautical Mile (at the right location) could be defined as 6,080 linear feet. How about marching east to cover one degree? Bring a tent and a good pair of boots. Multiply those 6,000 feet by 60 and we end up with 360,000 feet or roughly 68 statute (land lubber) miles.

In Flight Sim, we rarely see lat and lon in the DDD MM SS format. In the built-in Map, we see the DDD MM.MMMM format. Which gives a kind of feel in terms of location but its mostly a guess. If you play around with scenery design or add air craft carrier locations to ARRCAB, you've probably seen the DDD.DDDD format, which is even more confusing.

Fear not, we can convert between formats without a lot of headaches.

When working with the DDD.DDDD format, its easiest to just create an example. Let's say we want to convert 48.5834 to DDD.MM.MMMM format.
Set the "48" aside. Now, multiply 0.5834 by 60 and we get 35.0040. Bring the 48 back and we get 48 35.0040, or DDD MM.MMMM format.

If we want to convert from DDD.DDDD to DDD MM SS format using the same example, we already have the degrees and minutes from above. Now, we just need to multiply the stuff to the right of the decimal point by 60 to get Seconds. So, .0040 times 60 equals 0.024. This is slightly tricky, its almost like I used 48.5834 on purpose. The final answer comes out as 48 Degrees, 35 Minutes, and 00 Seconds (plus a bit).

Recall that one second works out to something like 100 feet. By now, you've probably heard the word "Shack" in relation to dropping stuff on other stuff. In movies that mention a Shack, they always get it wrong. The Day After features a panic-ed missile tech yelling "They Shacked them!!" after the missiles launch. In this context, that means nothing.

A Shack is defined as a 25 foot by 25 foot square or a circle with a 12 and a half foot radius. If you're in an airplane that drops stuff on things (B-52), a Shack is almost impossible. Shacks DO happen, but its usually due to a slight mistake or an error in the equipment.
No kidding, imagine we take one of those cute, little, blue BDU practice bombs and replace the white marking powder with TNT.
All of a sudden, being able to hit a postage stamp really isn't that important.

 

[Sbob]

BTW, if it sounds like I'm dropping hints about you being able to drop bombs and hit what you were aiming at.....






Well, yeah.

This isn't "pew pew pew" stuff and you'll want to be able to observe/access your bomb run by looking over your shoulder.
The easiest way to do that (I'm not sure if we could even get TACVIEW to link with FS9) is to drop fx files at legit ground targets.

I tried coding a BDU practice bomb but it was a let down. There were issues with the "white puff" even showing up and, remember when I wanted you to try spotting small structures from 500 to 2,000 feet? Anything being close to "Scale" would be pretty much invisible.

So, you'll be getting an fx file that does a pretty good job resembling something in the 500 LB to 2,000 LB range with "workable but crude" ballistics. Meaning, its a lot easier to miss. Still, I'll show you how to set up a bomb run so you can consistently score a Hit from 2,000 to 30,000 feet. I've done it, so can you.

I'll also be including something.. larger. Its up to you if you want to play around with it. It's a B61 "silver bullet" free fall nuke. Neat 3D model, big flash, bigger mushroom cloud and the whole idea behind dropping it was to practice post-drop evasion maneuvers.

 

[ViperPilot2]

I'll be in the deep freeze here until next Tuesday, so the next five days will be a good time to complete more of the 'T-37' practice flights, figure out the ACS-GPS Gauge and get the T-43 put together. And maybe figure out which one of the Bomber bases I'm going to use for my 'home' Base...

With regards to "Shack"... didn't "Bob" yell "Shack" when "Maverick" hit the Ventilation Grate for the Nuclear stockpile with his GBU-24's in
Top Gun: Maverick?

 

[Sbob]

You're in the deep freeze? How you think I have all this time to run this thread?

Funny true story time (a requisite for military training).
Back in the early to mid 1980's, I was busting my ### in college to earn a BS degree in Electrical Engineering.
By 1986, my parole date was drawing near where I could tell the rest of the world to kiss my ### while I bought my new Bimmer and a swank condo with a fireplace. Hey, it was the 80's.

The trouble was, the industry I was aching to join was starting to deal with these new computers that could fit on your desk. And, they had NO clue how to deal with them. The interviews I could line up almost always had folks in the waiting room looking for an entry level job, while they already had 5-10 years of experience. That was NOT good.

So, I started talking to recruiters for the Air Force and the Navy. The Air Force was "darned glad to meet me" and, that was about it. I had an engineering degree with a survivor's GPA. If I had majored in Art Appreciation, that GPA would have been more desirable.
My Navy recruiter was super cool. He told me straight up that if I wanted to go to Officer's School (OCS in the Navy), it could mean a wait of at least 18 months assuming I lined up enough sponsors in the (US) House and Senate. If, however, I enlisted and kept my nose clean it was very possible that the CO of my first ship could write the orders to send me to OCS. Plus, there was a small matter of the Navy paying off my student loans as soon as I stuck my right hand in the air.



It turned out that my recruiter was darned near clairvoyant, but I'm jumping ahead of the story.

So, its February of 1987 and I'm off to RTC Great Lakes (I promise, this is where Top Gun comes into play). I meet another guy in my boot camp company who legally changed his last name to Maverick before he enlisted. "Did you see Top Gun?" he asks. "No, I saw Ice Station Zebra". Which was true, when I was a little kid my grandparents took me to one of the big movie theatres in NYC to see the first run of Zebra. Which was why I volunteered for submarine duty before I volunteered to join the Navy.

 

[Sbob]

Its time to take our first road trip in the T-43.

We'll be heading down to Castle for a couple of days so pack a spare uniform of "working blues", some Civvies and a good pair of casual shoes.
Before all of that, we need to do some flight planning. Flight planning is FUN.

If you found one of those spiral bound index card pads, its good time to start your AFB cheat notes.
Using a pen and a straight edge/ruler, draw two lines across the card so you get a block of three lines.
You can fine-tune your AFB blocks over time but I'll show you an example of how I did mine:
__________________________________________________________________
MINOT KMIB N 48 24 54 W 101 21 26
1,666 ft 13,200 X 300 Pat- 2,130
29/11 | 295/115 | 109.90 / 109.90 | 114.90 | XXX | TACAN______

First line- Name of the Base, ICAO, LAT and LON (DDD MM SS)
Second line- Runway ALT, Runway dimensions, Pattern ALT
Third line- Runway names, Runway headings, ILS, NAV2 VOR, NDB, Approach type.
"Hard data" should be written in pen. You also have spare room to pencil-in any notes.

How you write this stuff down is up to you.
Imagine you have to divert from where you planned to land to somewhere else.
Being able to find this info FAST and in a form you'll recognize is what's important.

Once you pick a "home" base, its a good idea to also include a couple of Divert airports.
I flew out of Fairchild for quite a while so I also placed some data for Grant County and Mountain Home AFB just below my Fairchild data.
Finding those 10,000 X 300 foot runways for the B-52 can be a challenge. Its better to have them written down, just in case.
Finding the pattern altitude (as FS defines it) is pretty easy.
Start AFCAD2 (by now we should ALL have it installed) and load your airport.
Highlight the main runway by clicking on it. You want the actual runway and not the center line.
Right-click on the runway and select Properties. The Runway Properties box should open up. Look on the left side of the data about halfway down and you'll see the Pattern Altitude (as defined by FS). Sneaky, huh?

So, back to our flight planning from KMHR to KMER...

 

[Sbob]

Let's get some concepts out of the way.
Most flight planners include two waypoints, Top Of Climb and Top Of Descent in every flight plan.
While these are two waypoints that look REALLY important, the truth is that we really don't need them and they are just going to get us in trouble.

Instead, try this:
Suppose we're tooling along at 5,000 feet and we want to climb to 20,000 feet using our auto pilot.
We punch in the new altitude and the A/P also gives us a RATE OF CLIMB as we start going up.
You ALREADY have all the data you need. Its sitting there right in front of you.
We know we want to climb 15,000 feet and the A/P is going to do that at (let's say) 1,500 feet per minute.
How long (in minutes) will it take to do that? Some quick math tells us it will take ten minutes.

Now, work the problem in reverse.
You're at 20,000 feet and you want to enter a pattern at 2,000 feet that is half an hour away.
You need to descend 18,000 feet at 1,500 FPM. That works out to 12 minutes. Half an hour minus 12 minutes gives us 18 minutes, so we'll start our descent in 18 minutes. Notice that we don't care about changing airspeed, or changing density of the air, winds aloft, or LAT and LON.
Your clock is the ONE thing that stays constant, USE IT.

Since we're so fixated on that clock, its important to know that your flight plan STARTS at the exact moment that the landing gear leaves the ground. Take a couple of minutes to figure out why that is. We don't have enough control to know how long it will take to get the engines started in our parking spot, contact Ground, follow their instructions, and move the plane past the hammer head and lined up on the runway. We can "ballpark" how much time it will take but we won't know for sure. Likewise, we can have a fairly good idea of how long it will take to get the plane rolling and up to take-off speed. We'll also have a pretty good idea of how long it will take to get from take off speed to pattern speed, then to climbing speed, and finally cruising speed. How do we get that pretty good idea? Practice. FS doesn't charge you $100 an hour to just goof around. Get a good feel for how long it takes to start and taxi the T-43 so its lined up for take-off. Add in some "fudge factor" to account for AI traffic and winds. What if Ground directs you to the other end of the runway? Keep in mind that from now on, we won't be flying fighters. These are big aircraft with big wings and tails. No one in the Air Force gets grounded because they cooled their heels in the hammer head for several minutes.

One other neat concept is your Pattern Speed. Pattern Altitude will vary for each base, but for speed I use a concept called "Bachelor's Standard". The next time you're in the frozen foods isle, grab one of those "just heat and eat" entrees. The directions will tell you to pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees then chuck the food in for 35 minutes. Its the same deal with air planes. Pattern Speed is almost ALWAYS 150 knots.

 

[Sbob]

OK, now we need to understand how ACS-GPS will screw you over.
The gauge and the program behind it are VERY good. There is, however, a precision error in two of the displays.

To understand what's going on, take a sheet of paper and draw a straight line with some tick marks.
Below the tick marks, label them 3, 2, 1, and 0.
Above the tick marks, label them 2, 1, 0, and a blank.

It should look like this:

.....2...............1.............0...0.....0<turn>
---|---------|------- |------- |
.....3...............2............1..............0

This is the easiest way to visualize the ACS-GPS precision error in your "time-to-go" and "distance" displays.
The top line is what ACS will display. The bottom line is what's really going on.
Left on its own, ACS will get you to within one second of LAT and LON (actually, better than that).
What it tells you will always be off by one minute (time) and one nautical mile.

This is what I call "add one". Once you're used to it, it isn't a big deal. Just get used to adding a one to the TTG and DIST displays.
Another way to think of this is the reason why I call ACS the "Hey, NAV..?" gauge. It takes time for the pilot to call the NAV and the NAV to answer.