PV-1 Vega Ventura Released for FS9 and FSX

Nice shots expat :)

I am not slighting Mick BTW; it's an obvious question and hint worth noting.

I do have my plate full though for the next year with the Mallards to finish and the A-20 Havocs waiting in the wings (and been waiting for 2 years).

If I do any more modeling after that, it will likely be to revisit some of my older products.
 
Milton Shupe said:
I understand the FSX part.

As to cost, we invest 1200-1600 hours to get a project out over 8-16 months; not sure how to value that but I am certain its over $24. :)
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I'm sure $24 is a fair price, but I don't fly enough to justify the cost of payware no matter how fair the price. I bought a bunch of payware planes back in the days of FS2002, and I never flew most of them before FS9 came along and I found that many of them weren't compatible with it, and they wound up getting deleted without eve being flown. Same with scenery - there's plenty of payware scenery that interests me and is surely worth its cost, but it makes no sense for me to invest in something I'd hardly ever use, if ever at all.

But the real issue is FSX. I couldn't fly an FSX plane if I had one because I don't have FSX and never will.

As it happens, there is a CFS2 Hudson and an FS2002 Electra that I think would probably work in FS9, though I still haven't had a chance to try them. No civilian Super Electra though, and no Junior Electra. Of the three, the Hudson is the one I'd most likely fly, if I had much time to fly anything.

Meanwhile, I am extremely pleased to have the Ventura/Lodestar/Harpoon/Howard series and very grateful for them. They are all high on the rather short list of planes that I will actually fly on those rare occasions when I can stop my compulsive fiddling and just go for a flight. The Tigercat and the Commanders are also high on that list, and the Twin Beech has long been my favorite. I've flown the Twin Beech more than any other plane since I got back into the hobby, probably as much as everything else put together.
 
I understand your position Mick. Hopefully the CFS2 and FS2002 units will work for you.

I do not fly but rarely myself; all my time is spent in development and testing. Hopefully, that will change once we get the Mallards completed. I really haven't had the time to enjoy the Lockheed aircraft we have released yet. The F7F's will get some air time during the RTW race.
 
Mick said:
But it costs $24 bucks, and more importantly, it's for FSX.
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They did a FS2004 version too, I should know I was on the beta team. The link is actually for the FS9 version and a very nice plane she is too. I was just trying to save Milton 1600 hours of work.

Might be worth looking out for a sale, Christmas is usually a good bet for lots of sales.

ATB
Jamie

PS. Really looking forward to all these Milton presents when I get set up again. Getting settled into our new house first though. My puter died a couple of months back, did nothing but pack it away until we moved. Now in the new house, fired it up to see the problem and there was none!! Bonus.
 
Wonderful Ian - thanks! I like the Ventura in RAF colours. The mission looked like a conventional land bombing run in Europe. I had thought the Hudson/Ventura/Harpoon was mostly anti-shipping/ASW. Anyone know more about their ETO operations?
 
expat said:
Wonderful Ian - thanks! I like the Ventura in RAF colours. The mission looked like a conventional land bombing run in Europe. I had thought the Hudson/Ventura/Harpoon was mostly anti-shipping/ASW. Anyone know more about their ETO operations?
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Not an impressive service record at all.
Interesting to note that of the No.2 Group squadrons saddled with Venturas only one was RAF, the other two were Commonwealth units.
Aside from the shortcomings quoted below, they lacked decent defensive armament, all guns being .303 calibre and the upper turret the archaic Boulton Paul model as fitted to Hudsons.
Given the Ventura's front line operational career only spanned the period between November 3rd, 1942, through to September 9th, 1943, it was pretty much a disaster, 100% losses on the May 1943 Amsterdam raid finally hammering home the point.
Aircraft nicknames are a good indication of the aircrew opinions, the Ventura was dubbed 'The Flying Pig'.

Quote:"The first Ventura Mark Is were accepted by the Royal Air Force in September 1941, with aircraft starting to arrive in the United Kingdom in April 1942. By the end of August that year, enough Venturas had been ferried over the Atlantic to equip three Squadrons, No. 21 Squadron RAF, No. 487 Squadron RNZAF and No. 464 Squadron RAAF. The Ventura flew its first combat mission for the RAF on 3 November 1942, when three Venturas of 21 Squadron were sent against railway targets near Hengelo, the Netherlands. On 6 December 1942, 47 Venturas from 21, 464 (RAAF) and 487 (RNZAF) squadrons were part of a No. 2 Group escorted daylight raid, with 36 Bostons and 10 Mosquitos, on a low-altitude attack against the Philips radio and vacuum tube factories at Eindhoven, also in the Netherlands. This was the primary event that demonstrated the Ventura's weakness in such raids: nine of the 47 Venturas were shot down (along with four Bostons and one Mosquito), and many others were damaged by flak or bird strikes. Following this, the aircraft were switched to medium altitude raids, but fared little better. During an attack on a power station in Amsterdam on 3 May 1943, New Zealand's 487 Squadron was told the target was of such importance that the attack was to be continued regardless of opposition. All 10 Venturas that crossed the coast were lost to German fighters. Squadron Leader Leonard Trent, later the last of the 'Great Escapers', won the Victoria Cross for his leadership in this raid.

The Ventura was never very popular among RAF crews. Although it was 50 mph faster and carried more than twice as many bombs as its predecessor, the Hudson, it proved unsatisfactory as a bomber. By the summer of 1943 the Ventura had been phased out of service in favor of the de Havilland Mosquito. Its last mission was flown by No. 21 Squadron RAF on 9 September 1943. After leaving bombing service, a number were modified to be used by Coastal Command; in the coastal role they served as the Ventura G.R.I.
A total of 387 PV-1s were used by the RAF as the Ventura G.R.V. They were used in the Mediterranean and by Coastal Command. Some RAF aircraft were modified into Ventura C.V transport aircraft".Unquote.
 
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