NAS Alameda, CA KNGZ for FSX

[gray eagle]

Don't know if and how this would be relevant to the beacon issue but some of the pictures of actual beacons look to be two sided and look to be very old.

Very interesting.....

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/details.aspx?PID=HT2913

 

[tgycgijoes]

Beacons

Hey Butch,

Very interesting. I am thinking of making a new air station over Blue Sky Scenery which really looks pretty good for ground cover and it's free to download. I downloaded and installed the four squares that cover the area of SFO and OAK. Woogy is also playing with ORBX he said that you can access the airfield bgl. We'll see what he comes up with. Thanks for this its cool. I used to fly out of Palwaukee (Chicago Executive) flying school in a Cessna 150 years ago and right by the road that bordered the airport was a tower with the beacon on top just like these. Have you ever seen an airport with two beacons? Did they move it from one place to the other? Food for thought. I can add the beacon onto a metal tower instead of on top of the control tower. I will look at this site more tomorrow after I do my programming for Thursday/Friday/Saturday for this week. I have contacted the National Archives for the airport chart and approach charts from their storage. Jeppsen only keeps the most current for legal reasons.

Richard

 

[Corvette99]

looks pretty good now that I got it in there right ! Keep up the good work !

 

[tgycgijoes]

NAS Alameda The Ongoing Project

Thank you for the support and encouragement from everyone. Its a lot of fun sharing. There will be another update later this week. As before keep posting your shots, comments or suggestions here.

 

[gray eagle]

Glad you enjoyed the link. I would like to see a picture of the metal tower you mentioned to know what building you had in mind for that beacon. That is a great idea to try to get some airport charts for that area. Maybe that will help sort things out.

-Butch

Hey Butch,

Very interesting. I am thinking of making a new air station over Blue Sky Scenery which really looks pretty good for ground cover and it's free to download. I downloaded and installed the four squares that cover the area of SFO and OAK. Woogy is also playing with ORBX he said that you can access the airfield bgl. We'll see what he comes up with. Thanks for this its cool. I used to fly out of Palwaukee (Chicago Executive) flying school in a Cessna 150 years ago and right by the road that bordered the airport was a tower with the beacon on top just like these. Have you ever seen an airport with two beacons? Did they move it from one place to the other? Food for thought. I can add the beacon onto a metal tower instead of on top of the control tower. I will look at this site more tomorrow after I do my programming for Thursday/Friday/Saturday for this week. I have contacted the National Archives for the airport chart and approach charts from their storage. Jeppsen only keeps the most current for legal reasons.

Richard

 

[gray eagle]

Beacon Pics of NAS Alameda

on top of the building - don't know which one.

This looks like a two light version - I would think a Mil version would be three lenses - white - white - green. Paint on beacon looks old and pealing so guess it is original.
Wonder if the seaplane guys went by this one or if they used one of their own?

 

[gray eagle]

Interesting data file for Alameda

http://www.geocaching.com/mark/datasheet.aspx?PID=HT2913

Excerpt from a data sheet from ^.


STATION DESCRIPTION
HT2913
HT2913''DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1953 (FAR)
HT2913''AT THE ALAMEDA NAVAL AIR STATION, ON THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF THE
HT2913''SOUTHERLY OF FOUR LARGE HANGARS, THE WESTERNMOST ROW OF HANGARS
HT2913''AT THE AIR STATION, ABOUT 1280 FEET NORTH OF THE CONTROL
HT2913''TOWER, AND ABOUT 80 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND ON TOP OF THE
HT2913''BUILDING. A 36-INCH DOUBLE-DRUM TYPE ROTATING BEACON, SHOWING
HT2913''WHITE ON ONE SIDE AND GREEN ON THE OTHER.


Buy the looks of things and dedctiption ^ looks like a two side beacon llght was used which goes contrary to use of three light beacon for Mil airports.

 

[gray eagle]

Good info and pics on Alameda

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_Oakland.htm#alameda

An undated photo of NAS Alameda's control tower. I think that looks like a beacon on top center of the control tower.

A 2003 photo by Erick McCarthy looking south along the parking apron,

with the hangars & control tower of NAS Alameda visible on the left. This one I don't understand. Did they move the beacon after the base closed?

 

[tgycgijoes]

Rotating Beacon Tower

Every time you come up with something, it makes me more curious and I find out more things to do to the airport. I'm not upset, just kidding. I have not been able to find out when military airport started using the green-white-white code though I remember it as far back as 1968 when I started student pilot training with the Navy Flying club at Norfolk airport. I also used to drive from the parking lot adjacent to Pier 12 where America was berthed in port on taxiways of NAS Norfolk which had traffic lights controlled by the tower since civilian cars did not have radios to communicate with the tower, whenever any jets were taxiing. I haven't thought about that in a long time. I DO have printed out all the regulations for Navy airfieds from the Air Traffic Controllers Course which I have amongst every other pub from NAS Pensacola library for Navy Student Pilots downloaded on PDF. Here is an excerpt:


Location:Not less than 1,000 feet from the centerline or centerline extended from the nearest runway
Not more than 5,000 feet from the nearest point of the usable landing area, except if surrounding terrain restricts visibility of the beacon or beacon serves more than one airfield. When terrain obstructs viewing the beacon, distance
can be increased to no more than 2 miles.
Not in the line of sight from the control tower to approach zone of any runway or to within 75 feet vertically over any runway.
Located 750 feet or more from the control tower. The base must be at least 20 feet higher than the elevation of the floor of the tower cab.

Color Scheme: Lighted land military airport Alternating dual peaked (2 quick) white between green flashes
Lighted land civilian airport Alternating white and green
Lighted water airport Alternating white and yellow
Lighted heliport is alternating white green yellow

An identification or code beacon is required when the airport rotating beacon is more than 5,000 feet from the nearest runway or where the rotating beacon serves more than one airfield.
This beacon is a nonrotating flashing omnidirectional light visible 360 degrees. The identification or code beacon flashes a color-coded signal at approximately 40 flashes per minute. The signal is assigned a code of characters to identify a
particular airfield. The identification beacon shall be operated whenever the associated airport rotating beacon is operated.

I have to see if I can find a suitable tower for the beacon stock. I also saw that I have to find and locate on the airport 2 red/white checked water towers down by the carrier piers. Finally need to figure out how to place VASI (landing assist) lights for the runways. This is fun but it seems the work is never ending. Thank you for being a helper. Talk on ya later.

Richard

 

[gray eagle]

Hope that the links were of some help with some pictures of various buildings at the old Alameda airbase. Glad to help and was hoping that I would not be to pesky and annoying.\
Will your next revision eliminate the 2nd tower in V2.2 with the beacon located atop a different structure?

At old NAS Millington, the had the mill beacon atop a tall red/white checkered tower. When Brac 93 closed the base, it became a civilian run airfield and the old rusty tower was removed, a new civ
beacon light was placed on the top of the white control tower. I tried looking for Airport Diagrams for Alameda with none to be found. A few years ago they were probably
posted every where.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Hope that the links were of some help with some pictures of various buildings at the old Alameda airbase. Glad to help and was hoping that I would not be to pesky and annoying.\
Will your next revision eliminate the 2nd tower in V2.2 with the beacon located atop a different structure?

At old NAS Millington, the had the mill beacon atop a tall red/white checkered tower. When Brac 93 closed the base, it became a civilian run airfield and the old rusty tower was removed, a new civ
beacon light was placed on the top of the white control tower. I tried looking for Airport Diagrams for Alameda with none to be found. A few years ago they were probably
posted every where.

Hey there partner,

I just finished removing that tower in the middle of the airfield because after what I just found in the Cultural Landscape Report which is one of my text and photo sources..."Along with constructing two new runways, the Control Tower instrumentation was improved allowing for instrumented landings. The new runways posed a problem because the east end of Runway 7-25 was not visible from the Control Tower. The solution was to build a secondary control tower (this is where I got confused) on the roof of seaplane hanger Building 20, to provide a partial view of the east end of the runway. This took place in 1952. Also saved all these beacon tower photos and will look for a beacon to install on top of the hanger. I believe that maybe the white beacon is programed to blink twice as it goes around which is why the beacon is only two lamps. I did a ton of beacon searching on the internet this past couple hours.

 

[TARPSBird]

Beacon atop what remains of NAS Glenview's Hangar One. Two lights, green and white. I grew up in Northbrook, IL next door to the base, saw it in operation every night. Beacons at Miramar and Whidbey Island were the same, never saw one at a NAS with three beams.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Seek and ye shall find...

After much as you know searching by us I have found the answer I believe of the illusive beacon tower. You have obviously photo evidence of it on top of the hanger and this shows it.

 

[gray eagle]

Wow, That is great news. I guess when we pool our investigative talents we can come up with some kind of solution. I must say that map is a great find. It looks like its location does support the picture
I posted earlier. So, with that said, and found, what kind of plans do you have on your next update - as far as tat beacon goes. Based on you map here, it looks like you could delete that 2nd tower
with your beacon on it as I don't see that here. Will the old one (the original one) remain? I'm betting yes and that you will add or locate the hanger/building and build a beacon on it. I'd almost bet
that the first control tower could get the heave ho as well and just leave the Admin Building.

NAS Alameda Operations Building

After much as you know searching by us I have found the answer I believe of the illusive beacon tower. You have obviously photo evidence of it on top of the hanger and this shows it.

 

[gray eagle]

Main Gate

When you really master this base how about a main gate? I think it was later changed to Alameda Point.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Updates???

Hey Butch,

I have already begun the updates by deleting that beacon. I have added the new control tower on top of the hanger and will add the same kind of control tower on the original building so that it looks like the photos until I can learn to design an exact one. I have plans for the Main Gate as my first Sketchup project since it is a simple building. I had Sketchup when it first came out a year or so ago but didn't have the project motivation like I now have with Alameda. I believe that it was named Alameda Point after the closure. I really appreciate all the photos. I thought I had everything but you have found so much more. We old guys need something to get up for...LOL. I have photos that it almost looked light blue but I guess that was the color film/sunshine. It is actually a light gray which is much easier to duplicate. I tried putting the tower frame structure on top of the hanger but in my travels someone else was trying to put a beacon on top of a structure not designed with the mdl to allow it. I tried changing the height and everything but ONLY the beacon will go on top of the hanger so I am going to take a little artistic license and place it on a small square building right alongside with the mdl to allow placement and then put the beacon on top. That will be enough for tonight since I have to go to the city tomorrow with my wife and won't be doing any work on the airport. I catch up on emails when I get home tomorrow evening.

Richard

 

[gray eagle]

VP 40 over Alameda

Thought I'd try a vintage seaplane flight over Alameda.

 

[tgycgijoes]

Really nice!

Thought I'd try a vintage seaplane flight over Alameda.

I notice that that stupid elusive tower is still on the corner. I started getting it last night and read in "scruffyduck" forum that sometimes if you don't remove the stock NGZ airport it will show things that appear not to belong. I already have removed that from NAWS in Scenery/Global/scenery or some other addon. I was not getting it if you remember. When I uploaded the four squares of Bluesky Scenery for California it started to appear. When I removed them no tower. What do you have in scenery that may be conflicting like that FSX Default NGZ AFCAD maybe? Almost got the beacon on top of the gridiron tower on Hanger 22 and the auxiliary control tower is ontop of Hanger 20. Tried them last night and they look good. I will proof them one more time and upload V2.4 later. Have a good dinner talk with you later. (My wife took us to Olive Garden...so full I think I'll skip dinner tonight, just drink lots of sweet tea, dying of thirst.)

 

[gray eagle]

Here is contents of the alameda V2.2 scenery folder

What I would like to see or learn is to add static aircraft and either they just sit there or move per flight plan. Been looking at what it takes to do this
I think ADE can add Static aircraft from a collection of library objects that contain aircraft or add them from what you have in FSX (don't know how that is done)

Interesting link/discussion about that very thing:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?64407-FSX-Static-Aircraft-Library-Released

I don't think that the static aircraft library link mentioned ^ is active.


Olive gardens use to treat you like family - now they say family is at olive gardens -

I notice that that stupid elusive tower is still on the corner. I started getting it last night and read in "scruffyduck" forum that sometimes if you don't remove the stock NGZ airport it will show things that appear not to belong. I already have removed that from NAWS in Scenery/Global/scenery or some other addon. I was not getting it if you remember. When I uploaded the four squares of Bluesky Scenery for California it started to appear. When I removed them no tower. What do you have in scenery that may be conflicting like that FSX Default NGZ AFCAD maybe? Almost got the beacon on top of the gridiron tower on Hanger 22 and the auxiliary control tower is ontop of Hanger 20. Tried them last night and they look good. I will proof them one more time and upload V2.4 later. Have a good dinner talk with you later. (My wife took us to Olive Garden...so full I think I'll skip dinner tonight, just drink lots of sweet tea, dying of thirst.)

 

[tgycgijoes]

Adding static aircraft?

Here is contents of the alameda V2.2 scenery folder

What I would like to see of learn how to do is to add static aircraft and either just sit there or move per flight plan. Been looking at what it takes to do this
I think ADE can add Static aircraft from a collection of library objects that contain aircraft or add them from what you have in FSX (don't know how that is done)

Interesting link/discussion about that very thing:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?64407-FSX-Static-Aircraft-Library-Released

I don't think that the static aircraft library link mentioned ^ is active.


Olive gardens use to treat you like family - now they say family is at olive gardens -

We had great service AND a great lunch. Onto the important flightsim stuff, LOL. To add an aircraft static model, (just did it to be sure it works) you open up ADE. Click the Lists tab. Click models. You should have the CVA-64 in that list at least I do because I created the object. If you don't no matter. Click ADD. Find where you have an aircraft folder of the one you want to make a static model. Open up the model file and click the xxx.mdl file. I used the PBM and put it in the seaplane lagoon since it is not an amphibian. Close the list. Put the mouse cursor where you want the aircraft. Right click ADD then left click model the list will open and select the one you want and watch the little yellow dot appear. You can do this to any FSX aircraft addon or stock. These aircraft will just sit there because they are static items.

To have aircraft that will taxi, takeoff and return to land is a whole different ball of yarn. That takes creating or downloading ai aircraft and creating flight plans for them with AIFP (AI Flight Planner) which is a free program that you can find and download. It uses Lee Swordy's Traffic Tools. I have only done this so far in FS9 but I believe its pretty much the same process just different parameters to have it work in FSX. When it works it is really a lot of fun to watch happen. In FS9 I had a USAAF Flight School field with BT-13 aircraft both flying and ai and could actually follow the ai to the runway and takeoff with them. Really neat. Been about 4 years since I did that. To get our amphibians to taxi into the lagoon and takeoff will take me creating taxi patterns into the lagoon from the parking spots. Which is doable. Since I just downloaded an 89MB model of the HU-16 Albatross that will be on the schedule of things to do. I also found out that airfields have at least one (Alameda had 2) magnetic compass calibration pads. I think that I am going to make the compass object my first sketchup project since it is very simple. I downloaded the real spec's for it. Can you see if you can find out where on the airfield they were? Otherwise we will pick 2 logical spots from the Navy docs I have which should be acceptable. Maybe somebody reading our threads who was stationed at Alameda knows where they were.