The Aircraft Carrier Thread.

[Sbob]

BTW, I *think* what you're looking for is this:
I've attached my "master" ARRCAB.dat file.
Just unzip it and drop the .dat file into your ARRCAB folder in FS, over write the old one.
This will give you ALL of the landing cable locations I use, there are a lot of them and they cover a lot of different carrier scenery.

We're jumping the shark a little, I'll explain ARRCAB better later on, but you may as well load it now.

BTW, if you want to check out what's in the .dat file, just OPEN WITH then select NOTEPAD.

ARRCAB cable zones look like this:

[Zone23]
CarrierIdent=CVN-73 off Pensacola
FrontRightCornerLat=29.99933723
FrontRightCornerLon=-86.99993932
FrontLeftCornerLat=29.99930218
FrontLeftCornerLon=-87.00028318
BackLeftCornerLat=29.99902178
BackLeftCornerLon=-87.00024272
BackRightCornerLat=29.99907436
BackRightCornerLon=-86.99989886
DeckAltInFeet=67.5
CableCatchZoneHeightInFeet=2.4
RunwayHeadingInDegreesMag=351

This one is for the Flight Deck 3 USS George Washington just south of Pensacola.
It will, eventually, be your destination for two days of carrier landings. Six traps during the days and two traps at night in either the TA-4J or the T-45. Those night landings WILL be a handful (and a half) which is why you'll be doing some basic flying over land for a while.
After that last night trap, you'll get your "wings of gold" and get sent to your squadron after you get type certified in the jet you wanted.

I'm compressing the basic stuff quite a bit but it DOES pay off when it comes time to land on the boat. Trust me, you'll do fine but you need to learn the trainers like the back of your hand.

 

[Sbob]

Hmm.

I was checking downloads to find the Alphasim T-34 package and found this:

AVSIM Library

Flight simulators premier web site. Freeware, forums, community; it all comes together at AVSIM.

library.avsim.net

Go down to the bottom of the page and check out Beechcraft_T34C_with_full_functionalities_and_fail.zip.
If you're looking for something a little more complicated, this might be your ticket.
I only want you to fly the T-34C so you get something with a little more power than the piston engine version, the T-34C is also a good intro to flying turbo props and a great trainer if you're thinking that the E-2C or the C-3 COD might be in your future.
This download features a complete sound folder, I'll be adding my favorite turbo prop sound folder to my update kits, but you have another option if you want it.

Anyway, enough waffling. I'll get into the full training spiel including finding NAS land-based scenery including max-detail scenery vs just adding an AFCAD, etc. and what to do with your training flights.

 

[stoney]

Gee sbob, I don't have a ARRCAB folder in my install. Now I DO have all of the Carr2006. I just don't know where the ARRCAB DAT file goes.
Incidentally I have made three successful traps in the T-45C. So I'm getting it so far.

 

[Sbob]

That's great, but what made you stop after you landed?

There are several arrestor wire programs out there. I just did some quick searches and couldn't find any of them, naturally, except for 3Wire.

I'll tack an install zip for ARRCAB2.6 to this thread.
ARRCAB is the most hassle-free program of the bunch (IMO), just extract the full ARRCAB folder from the zip and drop it in your main FS9 folder.
Then create a shortcut icon and add that to your desktop or menu bar.
To run ARRCAB, start FS9 and load your plane and some scenery (a carrier is ideal but you can also start from a near-by airport).
Next, <alt><enter> so you can see your desktop. Hit the ARRCAB icon and it will start. At this point you can <ALT><ENTER> again to go back to your normal FS view. Just remember to shut ARRCAB off before you quit running FS.
From there, you'll need an aircraft that has a tailhook enabled in the aircraft.cfg file, a tailhook switch on your joystick or in your panel folder, and you'll also need to have FSIUPC installed.

ARRCAB is automatic. It will tell you which carrier deck is closest. It also contains "universal" catapult zones. Just line up (roughly) in line with the bow/catapults and hit <CTRL><.> to set your parking break. Hit <SHIFT><F9> and a deck crewman will tell you you're ready to go. Run up the throttles to at least 95% power and the cat will keep you in place. Hit your joystick trigger and hang on tight. ARRCAB will launch you off the carrier at around 150 KTS.
To land, you need the gear and tail hook down. Just aim for the center of the arresting wires on the deck. If your aim is good, you'll get yanked to a stop (quickly) along with some sound effects. Its a rush.

Putting the hook on a wire can be tricky. You need a good view of what it looks like when you're in the right spot.
Load up your plane and some carrier scenery. Taxi so that your tail hook (not your cockpit) is directly above the center of the arrestor cables. Take a look around. This is what you want to be seeing when you land on the deck.
If you land long, you'll miss the wires and BOLTER. If you land too short, you might catch the #1 wire or you'll bounce over the wires and it will be another BOLTER. You can do touch-and-go's if you leave your tail hook up.

If everything went right, you caught a wire and now you're sitting on the flight deck. Hit your brakes, bring the throttles back to idle, then raise the tail hook. You can now taxi off the landing zone and park up. Nothing to it.

Take a look inside your ARRCAB folder and you'll spot a couple of BGL files. These are "eye candy" BGLs for Fentress NOLF and NAS Patuxent River. All they add is some arrestor wires at the ends of the runways. You still need to add the cable zones in your ARRCAB DAT file. Or, grab my cable zones DAT file and replace the stock Arrestor Cables.dat file in ARRCAB.

We're jumping the shark a bit. I'll explain this stuff better later on.