Isn't This Beautiful

[tgycgijoes]

The Fairey Swordfish

Well, today, March 6th highlights the Fairey Swordfish. You can still download it for free from the Bravo Zulu blog now that Flying Stations who created it is now gone. A big thumbs up to Bravo Zulu for saving this and all the other aircraft AND aircraft carriers from extinction. An added bonus for you period flat top flyers is the "PADDLES" gauge which CAN be added to other pre-FLOLS carrier aircraft if you know how to do it. I added it to the Aeroplane Heaven F3F Fighter flying on and off early pre-WWII Enterprise and also the Hornet and Yorktown squadrons. A really lot of fun. A note though to use it you HAVE to keep the Swordfish in your hanger even if you don't fly it. Here it is and the link to find it at Bravo Zulu's blog. I just downloaded and installed it to my desktop which is the way to go. Manually place the files where you want them according to the folders. The LSO is in the panel folder. Have a lot of fun with this iconic aircraft. You can download it from the link below:

https://bravozulu.blog/ This is the up to date blog including what they are up to for MSFS and P3D. So glad they did not stop at just FS9/FSX. Page down to the freeware for the Swordfish download. You can also download HMS Victorious to recreate the Fleet Air Arm 825 Squadron and see if you can locate and sink Bismarck.
https://www.flightsim.com/files/file/180141-fs2004fsx-german-wwii-battleships-bismarck-and-tirpitz/

Alphasim also created a really nice Swordfish package for FS2002/FS2004/CFS2. You can find it at Flightsim.com, Sinviation and the Virtavia freeware sites. Unfortunately it is not compatible with any sims beyond FS9. The model doesn't work properly and 3/4 of the gauges are FS98 gauges. If you are still flying FS9 you may want to try it out anyway. Alphasim had a very nice package for it "back in the day".

I just installed and tried out the Flying Stations Swordfish in P3D V4.5 and it works perfectly. All gauges are there no stuttering and now I just have to figure out how to do carrier ops in P3D V4.5. Any help would be most appreciated.

A

I

 

[tgycgijoes]

Another Interesting Addon

Today March 7th the calendar features the Vought F4U-7 Corsair that was supplied to the French Aeronavale for use in Indochina. It is the last of the Corsair line the final model, produced in December 1952 at the Dallas Texas plant ending a decade of production. I found the exact model and repaint for FSX Acceleration which I imagine should work in P3D all versions as well (don't know about V5). The author is Chris Evans. Here is the photo and also the link.https://www.fs-freeware.net/downloa...-fsx-acceleration-chance-vought-f4u-7-corsair I could not find this exact model and repaint anywhere else. Really nice weathering!

For the complete history of the French Aeronavale in Indochina you might like to visit the "Bent wing bird site: https://www.jdsf4u.be/type-of-plane-f4u

I also did a search and found that Mark Rooks created scenery for FS2004 for Indochina in 1962 with backdated AFCADS and proper marking of the runways and taxiways for the included airports that may work in FSX as well though beyond P3DV3 I'm not sure. Check it out with a Google search if you're interested. I'm not going to find ALL the links for you that would take away all the challenge and fun. LOL!!! You can find both of the French Aircraft Carriers that embarked the F4U-7 at the royal French Navy Site that has the fantastic TACAN up to date here: http://royalefrenchnavy.restauravia.fr/RFN-Navires.htm

 

[tgycgijoes]

Highlighting Today

I was privileged last year to be a part of the beta team for Golden Age Simulations testing today's "beautiful bird" The Stearman Speedmail. The entire G.A.S. team never fail to come up with unique aircraft, as unique as this calendar and the attention to detail is just superb. Right down to cranking the engine to start where it was done that way. They are all compatible with FSX, FSX(SE) and P3D and priced really reasonably. In addition when each one has been released there was a discount here offered to SOH members before being released to the rest of the flightsim community. Here is a shot of the Stearman Speedmail that I just loaded into P3D V4.5 which I did not have last January 2022 when I was on the beta test team. It's even more beautiful. This is taken at my custom 60J Airport which I just updated with the fence and signs also added this year at the REAL airport.

 

[tgycgijoes]

The North American B-25 Mitchell

There are a few B-25's available to download payware and freeware. The 91st Bomb Group (Virtual) recreates the famous Dolittle Raid just after WWII started for the United States every year which I have flown with them a few years ago when I was an active member. The first B-25 I ever owned was the MAAM-Sim "Briefing Time" for FS9. It is also available now in their store for FSX. I don't know if anyone has tried it in P3D any version though it will probably fly well in V1-2-3. There is also a freeware version created by Mike Stone and updated by Bob Chilico available at Flightsim.com and FS2000 but it is a simple version with no VC though updated to use in FSX. I do not know of any for Prepar3d V4 or certainly V5. The photo below was submitted to MAAM for their photo contest in 2006 and was the Grand Prize Winner Gunnar van der Meeren (aka skyhawk) Bergen, Norway

MAAM sim did a beautiful job of recreating this famous bomber that fought in all theatres in WII considering the technology back in 2005 and the computers we used then. Just imagine what a beautiful job someone could do now with all the new things that can be done in P3D and TacPack with it.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Today March 11

Today, I hope you enjoy these as much as I do sharing them, is the Curtiss Commando C-46. It was the largest and heaviest twin-engine aircraft to see service with the USAAF in World War II. It also was used by many airlines after the war. If you want to fly this in your sim, you have two choices: payware, Just Flight's C-46 package for FSX and P3D includes 19 paint schemes and provides military, cargo and civilian passenger variants of this classic cargo/transport aircraft with both military and civilian cockpit configurations which can be found in their store as well as other online vendors.

If you want an excellent freeware FS2004/FSX by Libardo Guzman, Tom Gibson and Greg Pepper, the complete package and adds can be found on this page of Simviation:
https://simviation.com/fsxvintage7.htm

 

[falcon409]

I opted for the freeware version as I wouldn't fly this type airplane enough to warrant spending what they want for the other version. The liveries that come with the model are nice (I like hi-res much better) and the modeling is nice as well given it's age. The interior is also better than others that come from the FS9 era but the gauges are bitten by the "fuzzies", especially the smaller gauges that are difficult to read without squinting and even then it doesn't improve much. Normally I can go into the panel cfg file and up the resolution for the VC gauges but in this case it doesn't matter. They were already pushed "up" from 1024x1024 to 2048x2048 but it doesn't change anything at all so don't bother. If I remember right Milton told me a long time ago that the gauge resolution is set in the model based on the size of the texture (which in this case is 1024), so even enlarging the texture doesn't change anything. I'll do some updated texturing in the VC at least and I'll probably keep the airplane in the active hangar for some longer flights. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[huub vink]

The 7 March French Corsair was not not done by Chris Evans, but the French Alpha Ciel Bleu team. The team consisted of Guy Hulin (Model, virtual cockpit and textures), Jean-Pierre Langer, Arne Bartels ( Panel and gauges) and Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, Benoit Dube ( Flight dynamics). Chris Evans just repacked the model for FSX, but the model is still the original FS9 model.

So the beautiful worn Aeronavale textures are done by Guy Hulin. The black and yellow ID stripes were for 'Operation Musketeer', aka the Suez Crisis of 1956. So this aircraft flew in Egypt instead of Korea.

I made this small note, as I think Alpha Ciel Bleu should get the credits for their beautiful work.

Cheers,
Huub

 

[tgycgijoes]

I Totally Agree

The 7 March French Corsair was not not done by Chris Evans, but the French Alpha Ciel Bleu team. The team consisted of Guy Hulin (Model, virtual cockpit and textures), Jean-Pierre Langer, Arne Bartels ( Panel and gauges) and Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, Benoit Dube ( Flight dynamics). Chris Evans just repacked the model for FSX, but the model is still the original FS9 model.

So the beautiful worn Aeronavale textures are done by Guy Hulin. The black and yellow ID stripes were for 'Operation Musketeer', aka the Suez Crisis of 1956. So this aircraft flew in Egypt instead of Korea.

I made this small note, as I think Alpha Ciel Bleu should get the credits for their beautiful work.

Cheers,
Huub

Thank you for updating this and I totally agree with you that credit should be given where it is due.

 

[AndyG43]

The 7 March French Corsair was not not done by Chris Evans, but the French Alpha Ciel Bleu team. The team consisted of Guy Hulin (Model, virtual cockpit and textures), Jean-Pierre Langer, Arne Bartels ( Panel and gauges) and Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, Benoit Dube ( Flight dynamics). Chris Evans just repacked the model for FSX, but the model is still the original FS9 model.

So the beautiful worn Aeronavale textures are done by Guy Hulin. The black and yellow ID stripes were for 'Operation Musketeer', aka the Suez Crisis of 1956. So this aircraft flew in Egypt instead of Korea.

I made this small note, as I think Alpha Ciel Bleu should get the credits for their beautiful work.

Cheers,
Huub

That particular Corsair is an airworthy survivor although, sadly, no longer in that wonderfully evocative scheme. She was a staple on the airshow scene back in the mid-80s, saw her flying at both Biggin Hill and Duxford, an awesome sight AND sound. The joy of this hobby is that I can still have her on the circuit in both FS9 and FSX!

https://randallmalmstrom.wordpress.com/2020/05/31/vought-f4u-7-f4u-4b-bu-no-133722/

 

[falcon409]

The Alpha Bleu Ciel Corsair was the very first airplane I downloaded when I started FS9 way back when. Really liked the blue VC light!! Later the Alpha Jet became another of their models that I picked up and still fly today. Both excellent models!

 

[tgycgijoes]

Spartan Executive By One Of Our Won

Milton Shupe designed this with Scott Thomas, and Urs Burkhardt. Originally created for FS9, In May, 2017 it was converted to a native FSX aircraft. You can download it at Flightsim.com.
https://www.flightsim.com/files/file/192028-fsx-spartan-7w-executive/ The Spartan 7W Executive is a monoplane aircraft that was produced by the Spartan Aircraft Company during the late 1930's. The aircraft features an all metal fuselage as well as a retractable undercarriage. It was popular with affluent buyers worldwide. There are a number of repaints online for it. Only 36 of them were ever built making it quite rare.

 

[Mike71]

I had the FSX download for FSX-SE. Later I copied it into P3D4.5 to test it - It worked, including the VC! All the gauges are xml --. A truly elegant airplane, lovely modeling and a blast to fly.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Just Copied

I had the FSX download for FSX-SE. Later I copied it into P3D4.5 to test it - It worked, including the VC! All the gauges are xml --. A truly elegant airplane, lovely modeling and a blast to fly.

Just copied the FSX version without any mods, cool. I am looking forward to flying it and am trying to get info for a repaint of the Polaris Flight Academy in 1941 at War Eagle Field. I got all fired up by the article. I also downloaded two articles online of how to fly a REAL Spartan Executive by the pilot who wrote the articles. Looking forward to putting them in practice. I just might do a lot of practice in a Cessna C140 like he did first. If a real pilot of 35 years says that is needed I think I will take his word for it.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Cessna AT-17 (UC-78) Bobcat

The AT-8, AT-17, C-78, UC-78 and Crane were military versions of the commercial Cessna T-50 light transport. The Cessna Airplane Company first produced the wood and tubular steel, fabric-covered T-50 in 1939 for the civilian market, as a lightweight and lower cost twin for personal use where larger aircraft such as the Beechcraft Model 18 would be too expensive. A low-wing cantilever monoplane, it featured retractable main landing gear and trailing edge wing flaps, both electrically actuated via chain-driven screws. The retracted main landing gear left some of the wheels extended below the engine nacelle for emergency wheel-up landings. The wing structure was built around laminated spruce spar beams, truss-style spruce and plywood ribs, and plywood wing leading edges and wing tips. The fixed tailwheel is not steerable, but can be locked straight. The Curtiss Reed metal fixed-pitch propellers were soon replaced with Hamilton Standard 2B-20-213 hydraulically-actuated, constant-speed, non-featherable propellers. Power was provided by two 225 hp (168 kW) Jacobs L-4MB engines rated at 245 hp (183 kW) for takeoff. Production began in December 1939 (courtesy Wikipedia)

We now have Milviz version for free which used to be payware over at ORBX and also a very large (52MB) package with both wheels and floats at FS2000. It was converted to FSX(A) from the Alphasim. Flightsim and Avsim only had repaints for the Milviz that I found.

https://www.fs2000.org/2009/01/30/fsxacceleration-cessna-t-50-bobcat/

 

[tgycgijoes]

And NOW...

Happy St. Patrick's Day to ya'all! This morning when I peeled off yesterday's calendar sheet I discovered the Brunner-Winkle Bird. The elegance of this beautiful biplane makes it stand out and you can find it NOW at Golden Age Simulations thanks to SPAD54 and his team of designers. https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr...ons.com//RK=2/RS=m2m5CQBBjvop1xanvF8dqEAR9Ak-

Some 200 of the B-W Birds were built you can check out photos on his website like this one:

 

[tgycgijoes]

Time For Some New Additions

I hope that you are all enjoying me sharing these. Saturday/Sunday was the Stearman N2S, Fleet Model 10 which is a very familiar airplane to flight simmers. Dave Ekert did it for FS2K first and then updated it to FS9 which is the first one I flew back in the day. Ed Akridge with permission converted to FSX Native including the super Eagle Field Scenery:
I have shared this in my Hawthorne Flying School scenery with Dave's permission as an AI Aircraft with flight plans. Dave is a very generous flight sim designer always willing to share his work. Next it was converted to native P3D V4 by Eagle Rotorcraft.
Golden Age Simulations addition which is what prompted me to create Hawthorne when I was beta testing it for them. Vertigo Studios also has three payware versions.

Free FSX: https://simviation.com/1/download-file?file=fsx_native_stearman.zip&fileId=57096
Free P3D: https://simviation.com/1/download-file?file=DEERSStearmanP3DV4.zip&fileId=59775
Payware: https://goldenagesimulations.com/product/stearman-pt-n2s/
Payware: https://vertigostudios.co.uk/pt17/

Today's calendar is the Grumman F8F Bearcat. The Bearcat arrived too late for service in WWII but it played an important role in Indochina where it was used by both the French Armee de lAir and the Royal Thai Air Force. A Thai Bearcat is on display at the Royal Thai Air Force Museum in Bangkok. The Vertigo Studios is really well done and our own Milton Shupe converted the Alpha Bleu Ciel to native FSX. Here are some links to Bearcats:

Vertigo Studios (payware): https://vertigostudios.co.uk/f8f/
Warbirds Library: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?action=jump&catid=37&id=22704

 

[K5083]

I have been enjoying this thread and it has reminded me to take some old favorites back up for a spin, most recently the Spartan.

Just a comment from your March 10 post. There is a free B-25 by Withers & Chaffin that went through a series of conversions and works in P3D at least through v4, I fly it fairly often.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?linkid=24535&catid=220

Though it is pretty good, it's crazy that there hasn't been an all-new B-25 for any sim since the FS2004 or early FSX days, and AFAIK nobody has even announced one under development for MSFS.

August

 

[tgycgijoes]

Just My Observation

I have been enjoying this thread and it has reminded me to take some old favorites back up for a spin, most recently the Spartan.

Just a comment from your March 10 post. There is a free B-25 by Withers & Chaffin that went through a series of conversions and works in P3D at least through v4, I fly it fairly often.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?linkid=24535&catid=220

Though it is pretty good, it's crazy that there hasn't been an all-new B-25 for any sim since the FS2004 or early FSX days, and AFAIK nobody has even announced one under development for MSFS.

August

I think that is because the interest by most of the new flight simmers especially MSFS is not in warbirds. My friend and I helped beta test the Flight Replicas B-24 Liberator and Virtavia updated theirs for FSX from the Alphasim one of FS2004. We created a VA for the 461st Bomb Group in Italy and couldn't get more than a couple of pilots interested in flying missions. Closed it down at the end of the year. It's a ton of work. Lots of repaints were done for it. You can still buy it online. It is really authentically done and a great model.

Just my opinion but that is why no new B-25's on the scene or in the future plans.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Another Day And Another

Well, today the 22nd of March finds the calendar highlighting the de Havilland Moth Minor. The de Havilland DH.94 Moth Minor was a 1930s British two-seat tourer/trainer aircraft built by de Havilland at Hatfield Aerodrome, England. With the start of the second world war production of the Moth Minor was moved to de Havilland Australia at Bankstown Aerodrome, Australia (courtesy Wiki)

I checked out Avsim and Simviation with no luck and then Goggle discovered it at FS2000 so here is the link and a photo
https://www.fs2000.org/2008/11/25/fs2004fsx-dehavilland-94-moth-minor/.

Golden Age Simulations has a Moth Package but the Moth Minor is not included in their freeware section.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Hawker Sea Fury

Well, I'm posting pretty late but I didn't want to let this slip by. There are two freeware links for the Sea Fury:

FSX/P3D v3,v4,v5 Hawker Sea Fury singleseater FSX/P3D v3,v4,v5 Hawker Sea Fury singleseater. The Hawker Sea Fury is a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and one of the fastest production single seat piston-engined aircraft ever built. Includes models with and without droptanks. Four variants. Upgraded Native FSX/P3D mdls by A.F.Scrub https://www.flightsim.com/files/file/209772-fsxp3d-v3v4v5-hawker-sea-fury-singleseater/ You can also find the two seat trainer version at Flightsim. com as well.

Then there is the payware now free version from Flying Stations now archived at Bravo Zulu blog: https://bravozulu.blog/2020/04/15/sea-fury/ And HERE SHE IS!