The Aircraft Carrier Thread.

[Sbob]

So, this is finally finished:

Update kit for the IRIS/DSB T-45 Goshawk for FS9.

Updates for the DSB T-45C Goshawk for FS9. Includes new panel and sound folders plus ATC voice files and callsigns for most of the T-45 squadrons. Full install notes in the README file, make sure you READ it.

sim-outhouse.org

and I can get my life back.

I've had the Goshawk installed in FS9 and FS2002 for quite a long time and figured it would be a snap to just zip-up the update kit and upload it. Then, I wanted to try some night landings and things went sideways.
For daytime ops the Goshawk is fine. Its a trainer so you don't want too many bells and whistles.

But then I noticed some odd stuff at night. The VC light was over-powering so that got fixed. There's also a problem with add-on textures, you'll see an artifact on both sides of the virtual cockpit at night. Trying to fix that (and I've thrown the kitchen sink at it) has eluded me and its makes NO sense why. The stock textures are fine, any repaint will cause the artifact to show up at night.

The basic problem is that you only NEED two carrier landings at night in the T-45, so it becomes a question of diminishing returns and how hard I wanted to flog on it.

Anyway, have fun with it. I swapped-in a better AOA indexer, at least its closer to what you'll need. Let me know if you're missing the ASI, I swapped in the ASI from the other DSB (UK) Hawk because it has a red tag at the over-speed point on the dial and now I'm wondering if I included the gauge?

 

[Sbob]

To start off, Merry/Happy [what ever you're celebrating].

This is a good time to take a short break but things will be starting to speed up.
If you're new to carrier landings, keep practicing with your Trainer aircraft on land.
The better you get to know this plane, the better you'll be ready for CQ at sea.
Concentrate on being able to touch the mains where you intended on a runway.

I've included some AOA Indexers with the TA-4 and T-45 aircraft updates.
The Indexer is the gauge in your line of sight with the two carrots and one meatball in the center, usually found to the left hand side of the HUD except on the Goshawk where it's just to the right of the main PFD.
Its also your newest and bestest buddy because the Indexer simplifies your instrument scan when you really need it.

For basic pattern work, drop the gear and the flaps (fully). Drop your airspeed to "Bachelor's Standard", ie. 150 Knots and maintain level flight with the nose pitched UP slightly. You want to maintain a straight-on course that's lined up with the runway for your approach leg. Naturally, the downwind leg will be 180 degrees from that. For turns, maintain airspeed and use a consistent 45 degree bank to the LEFT. This will put you on a basic "racetrack" pattern over the runway. Use this time to drop your speed slowly. Watch your Indexer, it should change from the lower carrot to the meatball. Dropping the speed below the meatball (the top carrot turns on) will make it almost impossible to maintain altitude and you'll be really close to a STALL. From here on, your throttle position becomes VERY important. Only use SMALL changes on the throttle to maintain altitude and keep the meatball lit.

Time for a quick aside- Your LSO (Landing Signals Officer) on the the boat ALWAYS knows when you're too fast or too slow. Those three lights on your Indexer are also connected to three small lights (green, yellow, and red) on the nose gear strut or inside the nose gear door. Your bestest new buddy is also a bit of a snitch. One other thing to understand, you ALWAYS fly a "corrected" 3 degree glideslope to the carrier deck. The carrier, itself, "broadcasts" a 3.5 degree glide slope which evens-out to a 3 degree glide slope due to the ship's speed. "The more you know".

So, getting back to pattern work, what you're really doing is getting used to flying near a STALL without actually getting into a STALL. If you're having issues with getting the meatball lit, try opening the speed brakes and use a little more power to compensate.

For your touch-and-go's, pick a spot near the runway. Once you're on the glide slope, try to keep that spot in view and WATCH if it starts to drift high or low. Use small throttle corrections to keep that spot in the right place. Normal touchdowns would be somewhere near the first 1/3 of the runway for a touch-and-go. This is where you start to build some consistency, and that's what gets you aboard when it matters.

Most AOA Indexer gauges allow for some in-between values and you can use this as a bit of a cheat. While you always want the meatball lit, there will be times when you'll also want to see the lower carrot lit and even a few times when you'll want the upper carrot lit.

Since we're getting closer to CQ, you may as well get some carrier scenery installed if you haven't already.

To me, the pick of the litter has always been Carriers 2006.

Carriers 2006.zip

Carriers 2006 (1385) Flight Simulator 2004 (Scenery) Carr2006.zip (5.85 Meg) (downloaded 1946 times) This package is an update of the 18 ArrestorCable Nimitz Class aircraft carriers by Javier Fernandez & Richard Hogan, with all new Afcad...

sim-outhouse.org

Its free but more than that, it has the BEST (IMHO) layout for carrier scenery files. Pay attention to how the two main folders get installed and added to your scenery.cfg file. Try to AVOID using FS's layering tool, if you've never done it now's a good time to learn how to manually edit your scenery.cfg file.

C2K6 is US-centric and fairly modern and there are some really small problems to fix (the traffic file for the carrier near Miramar) and I'm not super-happy with some of the locations (Korean DMZ and Gulf Of Sidra), but C2K6 is, pretty much, all you'll need. We'll dive a LOT deeper into other carrier scenery and, ultimately, how to add your own later in this thread.

 

[Sbob]

So, enough of the holiday stuff. Its time to get back in the groove. (PART ONE)

If you are doing the "Career Mode" route, you should be familiar enough with either the TA-4 or T-45 trainers.
Its time to "take it to the boat" and get Carrier Qualled.

If you're new to this kind of flying, its easy to dive into the vids and the forums and start learning about Marshal Stacks, glide slope intercepts, gross weight vs. approach speeds, where to start a Carrier Break, etc. Its all good info but DON'T get hung up on it, at least not yet.
Keep your first Carrier traps easy. This is all about getting your back-side/pants seat calibrated and getting used to flying between 1,500 feet to 600 feet AGL with the gear and flaps fully extended and your airspeed close to 150 KTS. Start paying more attention to your AOA Indexer. The lower segment (usually RED) should be lit and you'll need to "bump" the throttle slightly to avoid lighting the middle or upper segments. This was why I kept harping on practicing the pattern work and touch-and-go's at your training base. What you are doing now is essentially the same thing. Keep that in mind, don't let the Carrier freak you out.

If you want the "full Monty" experience and you have Carriers 2006 installed, do a quick cross country flight from your training base to NAS Jacksonville (KNIP) and do some more pattern work to get familiar with the runways.

If you have Flight Deck 3 from Abacus, fly to NAS Pensacola (KNPA). I also have some AFCADs and Traffic files for FD3 if you want them. Just drop me a message and I'll hook you up. Otherwise, we'll figure that there's bad weather over the Gulf and your carrier did something its good at. It moved East to the other side of the state.

Once you land at KNIP or KNPA, take a moment to jot down some notes. Use the Map View to find the carrier and write down the ILS, VOR, and NDB freq's. The Glide Slope course setting is also important. You'll also want to get a ball-park idea of where the carrier is located but notice that we really don't care about the Lat or Long. We also don't care about Elevation, the ship should be trucking along at sea level. Now, try to get a good night's sleep. No pressure, but tomorrow (weather permitting) will make or break your career in Naval Aviation.

OK, its time for your first real day of CQ. Double check your radio freqs and course setting. Top off the fuel and get airborne. If you're using the Carriers 2006 scenery, head East and climb to 8-10,000 feet. Watch your NDB display, you are looking for the USS Kennedy and its NDB should be 367.0 while the VOR is 108.40 and the ILS is 110.30. Once you pick up the NDB, fly towards it. Once you can see the ship, steer a course so you wind up "about" 10 miles behind the ship. If you are running ARRCAB, now would be a good time to make sure its running. Drop the gear and (full) flaps and drift down to "about" 1,500 feet at 150 knots. DON'T be in a hurry, this is where things usually go sideways. Notice that your tailhook is still UP, your first couple of passes at the ship are for RECON and some touch-and-go's. Try to plan ahead, things are about to get busy.
DO NOT contact the tower yet, but hit the "~" key to dial in comms. If you have AI traffic set up, listen to what's going on. Someone's usually taking off or requesting a landing by this point. This is why I enable callsigns and flight numbers, its always good to know who else is in the pattern. FS ATC will ALWAYS hit you with a "go around" or "line up and wait" call if another plane is taking off or landing.

BTW, I should point out that this post IS FS9/FS2002 specific. This ain't FSX+, P3D, or DCS. Our carriers don't move but the basic procedure's are mostly the same.

So, you're about 10 miles out and you have the radios set and the HSI course dialed-in. Maintain 1,500 feet/150 knots and aim for the boat (use your NDB pointer and HSI until you get a good view). The lower segment of your AOA Indexer should be lit. Notice that the auto-pilot is as cold as an ice cube.

WE DO NOT USE THE AUTO PILOT IN FS8 OR FS9 FOR CARRIER OPS. EVER. I tried to play around with A/P settings back when the real Navy started talking about "Magic Carpet" but the FS8/9 A/P just can not handle it. Cruising at altitude is one thing (as long as you don't use the Auto Throttle) but USN Fast Jet FD's just do not play well with the A/P.

Anyway, you should be cruising up to the boat. As you get close, take a good look at the landing deck. You'll notice the "dirty" center section and if you look close enough you'll see the trap wires. You should also notice the "Meatball" landing light. In FS9, the Meatball is limited but its still handy. As you fly over the ship, set a steady 45 degree bank to the LEFT. Once you've changed course 180 degrees (downwind leg) call the tower and request a touch-and-go. Once the tower clears you, slowly begin to settle down to 600 feet while maintaining 150 knots. Keep an eye on your ILS Glideslope (HUD or HSI). Now is also a good time to hit <shift><z> and check the wind and its direction. You can set the wind direction on your HSI using your HEADING bug. If you are flying in the VC view (recommended), bump your view down slightly so you have a good outside view AND you can see your HSI and NDB pointer. Try to maintain 600 feet and slowly drop your power so the middle light on your Indexer turns ON. If both the middle and lower segments are lit, that's fine. Take a quick look at your airspeed, just for reference. From here on out, your airspeed is ONLY important if you can't stay on the glide slope. Check your VOR display (HSI or HUD). When you are 4-5 miles behind the boat, start another steady 45 degree turn to the LEFT. Watch your Indexer, HUD/HSI, and NDB pointer. Continue the turn while you maintain 600 feet. When your NDB pointer and HSI course are pointing in the same direction, you should be really close to being lined up on the glide slope. If the horizontal bar of your ILS shows the glide slope is ABOVE you, that's fine. Maintain level flight until you intercept it. The Meatball on the ship should turn green by this point. If the top segment of the AOA indexer lights up beyond this point, bail out of the approach, hit the throttle, and try it again. While the three segment lights of the Indexer are really close in terms of AOA units, getting the top light usually means you're about to stall. This was why you filled the tanks prior to take off, you have plenty of gas to get this stuff right.

 

[Sbob]

(PART TWO)

So, let's say that you're still on-speed and on-the-glideslope. Your scan should now be limited to watching the GREEN Meatball on the ship and the ILS bars in the HUD/HSI. If you start to drift low, add a touch of power. If you start to drift high (recall that FS models GROUND EFFECT and you WILL experience it below 200 feet) drop your power slightly. Keep your Indexer in your peripheral view. Concentrate on hitting the middle of the landing deck. You got this, its as easy as grabbling a towel after you wash your hands. If you feel like you landed short or long, plan on doing another touch-and-go. I set up the sound folders for the TA-4 and T-45 so you'll hear the "tire roll" as soon as the mains touch the deck. Use that to grade your performance. Anyway, as soon as you touch down, go to full power and get back in the air.

Once you're ready, call in for a full landing on the downwind leg and drop the hook. This is where I have to stress again that this post is specific to FS8 and FS9. If ATC already has a plane on final, take your time and cruise around until they land or bolter. Nothing is worse than greasing a line up only to get a "go around" call when you're ready to touch down. Get yourself back in position, all you're doing is what you've been practicing for a while. To do a full-stop landing using ARRCAB or RCBO, you need to violate ONE important rule. Do NOT go to full power if you think you'll catch a wire. I recall RCBO freaking out and ARRCAB will defiantly freak if you touch down at full power. Instead, if you're "mostly sure" the hook will touch down near the wires, do an old school "cut power" once you're 5-10 feet above the landing deck. You'll hear the "trap" sound effect and you'll be sitting still faster than anyone's business. NOW, you need to be honest. What did you hear first, the trap sound or the tire roll?
If you heard the tire roll first, congrats BUT you still landed short. Whatever, you're down and in one piece. NOW you need to get your butt out of the landing zone. Power at IDLE, tap the breaks, and raise the hook. Taxi smartly OUT of the landing zone, to the right. Turn so you're facing the stern of the ship and park-up somewhere close to the island or the rear elevator and take some deep breaths.

Make sure you are not inside the double-white lines, especially if you have AI traffic. If you are inside the bounds of the landing deck OR parked close to the AI taxi nodes and lines, you WILL snarl the AI and good luck getting clearance to taxi and take off. Wait, take OFF? Yeah, now you get to ride the catapult. Catapult launches are a LOT of fun. They are also super-easy unless you get a "cold launch". Start by contacting Ground and request a Straight Out Takeoff. Do NOT use Progressive Taxi. As long as the coast is clear, taxi to a spot behind one of the cats then contact the Tower. As long as the AI are playing nice, you'll get cleared for take off. Now, taxi to one of the cats and get lined up, set a couple of notches of UP trim then set the parking break then hit <shift><F9> (ARRCAB). You'll see some text and hear a voice saying you are ready to launch. Cycle the controls and make SURE the flaps are fully down and the speed brakes are stowed. When you're ready, run the throttles up to at LEAST 95% and hang on. Tap the brake key and wave goodbye to the carrier. If you find yourself "stuck on the cat", its ALWAYS because you're blocking an AI that wants to take off. Taxi back to the island and let the AI sort themselves out, otherwise you'll be waiting for a LONG time.

For typical CQ you would start with TWO daytime traps followed by TWO night traps and then TWO day traps the next morning (weather permitting). The night traps, by far, are the worst. It is SUPER easy to get dis-oriented and night traps always feel like a mistake. Just gut it out and pay attention to your instruments. I love doing day traps, I love doing foul weather day traps, I LOATHE doing night traps in any kind of weather. And, I've been doing these Ops for years. Night landings are just the worst. The only other observation I can offer is that its best to keep a tight landing pattern around the carrier. Starting from six miles out (600 feet) is almost automatic. Doing the 1,500 foot approach (day or night) is where the trouble starts. Its like you're spending too much time on the glide slope. Its just better to get it over with quick and dirty.

 

[Sbob]

(PART 1)

I'm getting ready to shift gears to cover scenery, how to fine tune it, and what makes carrier scenery unique in FS9.

Before I do that, I want to rap up most of the aircraft stuff. If you're playing with a "career mode" in mind, once you have completed CQ and earned your gold wings, you are basically done with flight training. If you're still having issues with carrier landings, now would be a good time to ask some questions.
Congrats.

There may be some additional training involving white-and-orange jets doing ground attack training missions, but for the most part its time to start thinking about the fleet. In real life, where you end up is mostly where the Navy needs you. As I mentioned earlier, the Navy has almost always needed fixed-wing pilots for attack squadrons. The Long Range Intercept mission (F4's and F-14's) may be available but these are jobs that are usually filled by senior and second-tour Officers who already have a bunch of experience (except for the RIO's, but that's a separate topic).

By the way, don't count out the non-fighter jobs. The E-2 and C-3 also need flight crews. Same deal for the S-3, EA-6B, and rotary-wing slots.
The C-3 (COD) is actually a pretty good place to wind up. If you joined the Navy to actually see a lot of the world (for example, if you've spent a lot of time flying people-movers or cargo in FS and enjoy that environment) the COD might be your ideal aircraft. Think of the COD as the carrier's roadie. Your job would involve a lot of time on land as you follow the carrier during its deployment. All of those supplies and parts had to come from somewhere. Plus, almost half of your landings will require white knuckles and some open ocean.

If you want to play hard-core career mode, grab a pair of six sided dice and give them a toss. For the first die:

1-2. Atlantic (LANT) fleet. Fighter tail codes start with "A" and Oceana is the BIG base.

3-5. Pacific (PAC) fleet. Tail codes start with "N" and the rest of the world is your oyster.

6. Oddball squadrons. Typically homeported in Texas, Hawaii, Japan, Key West, or the Azores. While these bases are normally staffed by aviators on their second or third tour, it should be noted that you can't spell "Navy" without borrowing some letters from "Waiver". This was how I wound up doing submarine quals on a diesel boat in Japan during the late 1980's. These are also known as "Who knew??" Orders which were normally generated by BUPERS when someone hit the Panic button. Either way, these orders are usually a good deal.

 

[Sbob]

(PART 2)

Your other die would brake down something like this:

1-. F-14 or F-4 (Interceptors). Your ego matched your roll.

2-4. VA or VFA squadrons. Whatever you're flying, it has bombs bolted to the wings.

5. Rotary wing. You need to learn how to hover.

6. Supply, Control, and Patrol. Usually still has props but also includes the S-3, EA-6B, and the Growler. This covers everything from the Orion to the Viking plus the COD.

I'm guessing most of you already have a plane in mind plus some re-paints but "Career Craps" is a fun way to check out stuff you never considered.

What ever you picked, your next stop will be the FRS/RAG. Guess what? In most cases you're going back to something that looks a lot like those good old days at Meridian or Kingsville. Except it isn't and you are now firmly on the Navy's clock. Get ready to drink from the fire hose, that Dash One and the bold faced procedures aren't going to memorize themselves.

As far as where your RAG is located, that depends on timing. For example, the Tomcat RAG was at Oceana before it moved permanently to Miramar. Oceana is Hornet-town and the home of VFA-106. For the rest, hit up Wiki and start gettin' learned. For most aircraft with side-by-side-seats up front, your RAG is your home squadron. You would start out your first tour as the co-pilot with a senior member of the squadron and do your check rides with the CO or XO. Time at the RAG depends mostly on the aircraft type. While the F-4 or the F-14 might take one or two months, the Hornet might take the better part of a year due its multi-mission capability. Should you install scenery for the RAG? That's your call, I would defiantly add an accurate AFCAD. BTW, shoot the moon with your "home" squadron's scenery (and AI). You'll be spending more time there than you may think, especially during your "rookie" tour.

I was going to do a run-down of available aircraft for FS9 but I had second thoughts. Instead, if you have any questions about what's available and where to find it, just ask.

 

[stoney]

Must be my age, but my favorite is the Grumman S2F-1, by Milton Shupe.

 

[jackryan172]

Back in my day we had a west coast RAG for the Hornet, VFA-125 at NAS Lemoore. Of course now its the F-35C RAG, but for a while it was the F/A-18A/B/C/D RAG and VFA-122 was the E/F unit. They merged for a little while with 122 becoming a one stop shop for all your Hornet needs A-F.

 

[Sbob]

^ Right.

Which is why you want to dig deep and research your potential squadron.
Wiki is still a good source for digging up info.

Bear in mind that military time can get weird. Two months might feel like three years if you're up to your nose in whatever's going on but three years can feel like two weeks once you've survived it.

This is why you want to be a little careful with re-paints. Who ever uploaded that snazzy re-paint had the best intentions but maybe they missed some details. That "AF" tail code might have really been "ND" or maybe they included the squadron number but its wrong.

BTW, J.R., do you remember back in the day when a hornet carried a single part number? The Navy went all-in on the hornet (to say the least) and used the single part number so squadrons could order hornets in bulk (like when they upgraded from the A's to the C's). If you were filling in request chits for parts and got a couple of numbers wrong, some really strange things could happen and you might get called to the pier to explain why a multi-million dollar jet had YOUR name on it.

 

[Sbob]

So, this seems like a good time to concentrate on how to add your own carrier scenery, made mostly "from scratch".
Let's say that there may have been a recent story in the news, and all of a sudden you'd like to add a CVN somewhere in the Caribbean.
For argument's sake, let's say you want a CVN somewhere between Cuba, Puerto Rico, and South America.

Carrier scenery usually breaks down into four different kinds of BGL's:

-"3DO" scenery to give you something to look at. This is what you'll see floating on the ocean.

-"AFCAD" scenery which includes the solid flight deck, nav aids, ground and tower comms, taxiways and nodes, parking spots, tower view, and most important- the entry point data which is displayed in FS's GoTo Airport window. This AFCAD BGL is what usually takes the most time to complete and you don't want to plan on nailing it on the first try. Expect several sessions of tweaking things like the hard-deck elevation and boundaries.

-A small, but important, FLATTEN BGL. This BGL really isn't a typical flatten. It "glues" your carrier scenery to the surface of the ocean.

-(Optional) AI traffic. Carrier AI can make or break your new scenery.

My goal is to outline how YOU can build all of these files and place them where YOU want.
You don't need a lot of software and source files to build your own stuff and you can usually knock-out a project in less than a day.
But first, you need a plan.

CVN's and their escorts need a LOT of "room to zoom", especially when they are launching or recovering aircraft. A typical CVN is a huge National Asset costing billions of dollars and carrying about 5,000 people as crew. You don't drive these things like a party barge on a lake. A carrier will rarely conduct Flight Ops within sight of land, in shallow water, or when its close to normal shipping lanes or fishing grounds. BTW, a CVN can cover roughly 500 nautical miles in a 24 hour period. Let's say you are a noob LT. and you'll be flying every other day -or- you are more senior in the squadron and you'll be flying every third day. If you used the same carrier 3DO, you could place a string of carriers 1,000 or 1,500 miles apart to create a typical deployment. Think outside the box and you can create some fun scenery.

Anyway, put together a basic plan. You'll need a basic set of co-ordinates (lat and lon) of where you want to place the ship. Find some paper and WRITE this stuff down. You'll also need some basic names and titles for the BGL's and the menu data in the AFCAD BGL. Use the Carriers 2006 AFCADs as a good source and guide. You defiantly need a unique four digit/number ICAO name for your scenery. Traffic Tools has a nifty utility called CollectAirports.exe. Use that to create a text file of ALL the airports in your FS install. Carriers 2006 uses the "AC##" format to define each carrier. Abacus used the "FD##" format for most of its carriers, etc. Your goal is to come up with a unique ICAO name and title for your BGLs so they don't conflict with anything you have installed and you'll be able to remember them later. I'll go into more detail on each type of BGL (especially that AFCAD BGL) in later posts.

Getting back to recent events- Right now there's a lot of information we still don't know. While we know there were E-2's and EA-18G's involved, that doesn't mean they launched or landed on a CVN. Roosevelt Roads (TJNR) is only about 500 nMi from Caracas.

 

[Sbob]

(PART ONE)
So, moving along, let's place some basic aircraft carrier 3DO on a chunk of the ocean.
This is the easy phase of the operation. You can use programs like "EZ Nimitz", "RW12 Object Placer", "EZ SCENERY" , or crank out an HTML file and drop it into "BGL-COMP" which should be included in your FS2004 install.

Due to the timing of all the drama at Flightsim.com, this has become a little complicated. For the most part, check your favorite download site and search for "Nimitz" or "Stennis" scenery creation files. EZ NIMITZ, as I recall, comes in two versions. The first version features the older FS2002/FS9 trap wires on the deck while the later version was designed more for FSX with the chunky 3D trap wires. Either way, the "EZ" placer programs make adding the carrier 3DO pretty simple and this is a bit of a pain. What-ever 3DO you generate will be almost impossible to share due to where you installed the source BGLs in your scenery.cfg file.
Also keep in mind that there are two basic flavors of carrier scenery, "stand alone" and "change-able". Carriers 2006 is a classic example of "stand alone" scenery. What you get includes stuff like the rainbow shirts on deck and animated blast deflectors but you won't be able to use these BGLs to create your own scenery.

Which ever placer program and 3DO source files you use, MAKE SURE you write down the LAT and LON of where you placed it in "FS9 friendly" co-ordinates. You also want to write down the name of that 3DO BGL you created and where you dropped it. In the next post I'll be adding an AFCAD BGL for some carrier 3DO I placed in the Gulf Of Oman. I have NO idea of where this 3DO wound up in FS, its possible I accidently added this new 3DO to another BGL I created. 3DO BGLs only contain the basic 3DO, in most cases you won't be able to find it in your Airports Menu. They are only a scenery object and may, or may not, have a hard deck. This is why you HAVE to create a separate AFCAD BGL which I'll cover in the next (long) post. Ever wonder why a lot of the old carrier scenery got placed next to an airport on land? You're about to find out.
At first, place your new 3DO BGL in the main ADDON SCENERY>SCENERY folder or drop it in the main Carriers 2006 scenery folder. Just make sure you can find it later.

So, once you get your 3DO BGL placed you'll want to check it out. Start FS and I recommend having the Alphasim S-55 chopper installed. Where you start doesn't really matter, use the NAV menu to input that LAT and LON you wrote down (set the TOWER VIEW alt to something like 80 feet).

You should see your new creation (make sure TIME OF DAY is set to DAY). At this point you may want to create/save a temporary FLIGHT to make things easier if the 3DO placement went wonky, it happens. Check you NAV display, outside of your position and the tower view you should see Bupkis. Outside of the 3DO, nothing else exists yet. Now, try to land on the Flight Deck. In most cases you'll just drop down to the ocean inside the carrier. Some 3DO (FSX era) includes a stock Hard Deck, most of them don't. Don't sweat this, that's just one of the reasons why you'll also want to create an AFCAD BGL. For now, keep flying around. Fly out past the carrier a bit and REALLY look around. Is the carrier floating above the water, sunken too much, or does it look about right? Is the Flight Deck and the Wake aligned with the hull? Get this stuff right, now. Also check out the water. With only 3DO you shouldn't see any distortion on the water, but sometimes it can happen.

 

[Sbob]

(PART TWO)

While this is the easy part of creating new carrier scenery, many things can still go wrong. Make sure you read the install notes COMPLETELY if you're using the "EZ 3DO" BGLs. Try to set your 3DO in a position that doesn't overlap the main ocean scenery BGL borders, its rare but I had one case where the 3DO just wouldn't sit right so I had to move it to a different spot. Make sure the textures for your carrier loaded and are located in the right folder. Most of this stuff is obvious which is why I usually kick myself when it goes wrong.

If you're building your first carrier scenery, it can be a challenge. Most of what you need to do didn't get covered all that well back in the day. This is what this topic is all about. If you're having problems, by all means sing out and I should be able to get you on track. I'm trying to cover EVERYTHING but there's a ton of stuff that can get you frustrated.

Once everything is sitting right and doing what you intended, take some time to write down some notes. Fly your chopper over the deck, try to position it so you're roughly in the middle of the hard deck area and close to the Island. Hit PAUSE then hit <ctrl><z>. Write down your position (LAT and LON). Try to get the wheels close to the deck. On the Alpha S-55 you can hover your pointer over the altimeter and read the digital altitude. Write that down as well. You don't need to be super precise, just close.

In the next post I'm going to dive DEEP into how to create a good "AFCAD" type of BGL. I use AFCAD2 for FS9. I've tried similar programs but AFCAD does what I want and I still haven't found a reason to replace it. You can use the same info I'll be covering in another program, just be aware that the next post WILL be AFCAD-specific.

 

[Sbob]

Sorry this post has taken a while. I wasn't sure if it was better to wear out the keyboard with only text, use screenshots, or do both.
Let's press on.
Planning ahead is a BIG part of producing your own AFCAD. While creating your own AFCAD is fairly simple, there are some small items that are very important for carrier scenery that tend to "hide in the weeds". I'll use BOLD TEXT to call them out as we move along.
If you already have CARRIERS 2006 installed, use those AFCADS as a TEMPLATE to build your own. Start AFCAD and load any of those files to see how they work. The basic format for these files is their ICAO code, "AC##" where the # are digits from 01 to 15 or so.
Load one of these AFCADs, let's use AC03 as an example. Notice the APRON (aka the hard deck). Its in the shape of a top-down view of the carrier and it uses 24 NODES (points) to construct this apron. When you lay out YOUR AFCAD, start with a basic 24-sided polygon to build your APRON. You'll fine-tune this shape later. Right-click on one of the nodes or line segments. Notice that the apron polygon uses "steel mat" to define what kind of surface it is. This is kind-of important unless you want to see dust around your tires while you taxi on the deck. Notice that you can't define the ELEVATION of these nodes yet.
Next, you'll notice the RUNWAY. While the runway isn't pointed to 010 or 190 degrees, it IS labeled as such. Partially, this is due to the RELATIVE alignment of the runway compared to its location on the apron (its actually backwards) but mostly, this will allow the ground and tower to tell you to take off or land on RUNWAY 1. So, ALWAYS use 010/190 as the runway labels. Click on the runway to highlight it then right-click and select PROPERTIES. Notice that you can set the elevation of the runway in this text bow, BUT ONLY THE RUNWAY ELEVATION. You can't control the elevation of the apron polygon from here. Go back to the view of the apron and runway again. Notice the large pink spot. That's the reference point. Notice this point usually doesn't align with anything important, its just there. For the time being, ignore the parking spots and taxiways. We'll cover that later. The parking and taxiways become important if you plan to add AI planes, for now plan to add them just before you call your AFCAD "good enough".
Next, take a really good look at the runway. Look hard enough and you'll see a BLACK LINE running down the center of the runway. Click on that line to highlight it and check out its PROPERTIES. Its identified as a RUNWAY TAXI LINK and if you have problems with AI aircraft acting goofy or your TOWER or GROUND comms refuse to play nice, 90% of the time its because this line is missing.

Now its time to dive into the weeds. This stuff might seem like "who cares?" stuff BUT it becomes important later when you want to load this location in FS. Go to the top title bar in AFCAD and select FILE and PROPERTIES. A text box will show up with a bunch of information. Notice that you can EDIT or change most of it. For now, the MOST IMPORTANT info will be the ELEVATION BOX. THIS IS THE ELEVATION OF YOUR APRON POLYGON. This elevation is VERY important if you notice apron artifacts sliding around while you taxi on the deck or if you or your AI have their landing gear floating above the deck or buried under it.
You also have a bunch of location information and this is usually why Carrier scenery is best loaded using the Airport ID/ICAO code. EVERY carrier scenery package out there uses its own interpretation of COUNTRY, STATE, and CITY identifiers. If you've also noticed this, it might be a good excuse to clean this stuff up during your next rainy or snowy afternoon. If I try to find scenery based on the Country, it turns out that FS has stuff listed for USA, United States, UNITED STATES, US, USN, Navy, etc. Load up a stock airport in AFCAD and check its PROPERTIES names so you can keep everything uniform. Your life will get that much easier. There's still a lot more stuff to cover but now's a good time to take a break.

Your main take-aways in this post are the location of the Apron Elevation and how to change it and that darned black runway taxi link. It took years for me to have those light bulbs click on.

 

[Sbob]

So, you're ready to start AFCAD2 and create that AF2 BGL for your carrier 3DO, right?
When you select FILE>NEW, the first thing you're going to see is that Properties box. This is why I've harped on writing this #### down. You need a GOOD idea of what's going into those text boxes. What are you going to name this airport? What country? What State? What City? Which letters are capitals and which aren't? What Airport ID are you going to use? While we're on the subject, where are you going to place these BGLs? I like to use the folders from Carriers 2006. They are already layered correctly and set up in your scenery.cfg file. You have plenty of room, I have four different sets of "private stock" carrier scenery BGLs and textures stashed in C2K6's folders with no issues. Its also a good location if you want to work on some edits three or four years from now.

Anyway, all that text can be changed later but you need to INSURE that your AFCAD won't over-write some other scenery or cause a conflict in FS.
Again, use those AFCADS from Carriers 2006 as a template if you need it.
The most important fields in the Properties box (for now) are ELEVATION and that LAT/LON you wrote down when you were close to the 3DOs island. Normal Nimitz Class carrier scenery 3DO has a flight deck set at 65 feet. We need to be a little tricky since we already have some carrier 3DO installed. Try starting with an elevation of 64 feet. This will place the apron and runway BELOW the 3DO's flight deck. Later, we can bump this elevation up to, say, 64.9 feet so our aircraft and AI have a little "sink" built into the tires but WE MUST LOCATE THE AFCAD STUFF JUST BELOW THE 3DOs FLIGHT DECK.
Now, we can jump into AFCAD's main view. Start out by placing 24 NODES using the Polygon tool (the shaded square with the green dots in the top right corner of the Tools header) to create the basic Apron. Next, add a START LOCATION using the INSERT tab and place it anywhere inside the Apron. ADD a runway (01/19). The size and orientation of the runway doesn't matter yet. Save your work using SAVE AS and drop this AFCAD into C2K6's main Scenery folder. You've just finished the Heavy Lifting phase of your new scenery. Close AFCAD.

This is where having the Alphasim Sikorsky S-55 installed (http://www.virtavia.com/Freeware/ )starts to pay off. Start FS and load the S-55 and select your new AFCAD using the Airport ID window, also set Time Of Day to "noon"/daytime and Fly Now. You should wind up on your brand new Apron close to, or on, the 3DO. At this point, hit PAUSE then type <alt><enter> if you're running FS in full screen mode. Minimize your FS window using the box icon and set the window so its smaller but still useful.
Now, you can start AFCAD again. If its running in full screen, make that window a little smaller. If you're used to using <alt><tab>, use that BUT be aware <alt><tab> can act a little goofy in Win10 and 11, especially with AFCAD. You're going to be adjusting those Apron NODES in AFCAD so they fit INSIDE the 3DO's flight deck. Open your new BGL. You should notice in AFCAD that a red cross ( + ) has appeared somewhere on the screen, that is your location in FS and we're going to use that to move those Apron NODES. Move the S-55 really close to the flight deck corners at the bow of the carrier. You'll probably want to use SLEW and PAUSE. Try to position the ROTOR HEAD of the S-55 close, but INSIDE of the 3DO's corners. Go back to AFCAD's main screen and click the NODE closest to the red cross to highlight it then drag it to the middle of the red cross. Repeat for each of the Apron NODES (including the "cut outs" for the elevators if they are down) and you should now have a nice outline of the carrier's Apron which is now going to be your Hard Deck. Nothing to it. I always use AFCAD's SAVE AS option so I'm sure I over-write the older BGL instead of creating a second BGL. Notice that we aren't worried about getting EVERYTHING right, yet. Work on one phase at a time. You'll need to restart FS every time you save your AFCAD. Once you have the basic outline of the Apron finished, do a test flight in FS to check your work. As long as the AFCAD elevation is below the 3DO's deck level, you should no longer see the apron. Now, fly around the carrier and pay attention to the water around the carrier. In most cases, something's going be a little screwy and you'll probably notice some distortion in the water. To fix that, you'll need to create an Ocean Flatten. This kind of BGL is super easy to create and I'll get into it in the next post. For now, chill and admire your handy work.

 

[Sbob]

If you've created your new AFCAD BGL and things just aren't working right, STOP. Don't panic.
More than likely, you can start FS then load your new AFCAD scenery and you'll wind up sitting on the ocean beneath your carrier 3DO.
You can flog on the polygon and runway elevations until the cows come home and nothing will change.
You NEED an Ocean Flatten BGL and these are super easy to create.
An Ocean Flatten acts like GLUE to lock your AFCAD to the ocean surface plus it will lock your 3DO BGL (if it already contains a hard deck or not) to the AFCAD and the ocean surface. With the Flatten, everything will now work together.

Flatten BGLs (in this case) are VERY simple. You MUST have the elevation set to 0.0 feet and you need two NODES that are connected by a line. So, start FS and set your chopper on your new scenery again. Going into SLEW mode will probably help. Now, start AFCAD again and select NEW to create a new BGL. Use the same ref point LAT and LON you used for your AFCAD BGL. Give your new Flatten a unique Airport ID. I follow the convention used in Carriers 2006, so my Flattens have ID's like OF66 and OF67. For the most part, don't worry about filling in info like Country, State, City, etc. Just MAKE SURE the elevation is set to 0.0. Now, position your chopper in FS just in front of the ship's bow. Switch back to AFCAD and set a red marker. Slew the chopper back to the stern of the ship in the center and set another marker. You mainly want to follow the ship's hull and NOT the angled flight deck. Now, in AFCAD again, set a blue dot a little beyond each marker (outside) and connect them with a runway or taxiway line. That's it, save your new BGL with a name you'll recognize and place it in the SCENERY folder of Carriers 2006's Flatten folder. Shut down AFCAD and bail out of FS. Start FS again. NOW load your chopper and your new scenery. Slick, huh?
If you're still having problems let me know. Some "placer" 3DO can have all kinds of issues. If you're noticing distortions in the water, reload your Flatten in AFCAD and move those blue dots a little farther apart while keeping the line lined up with the ship's keel. Flattens tend to be quick and easy. Once they work you'll never have to mess with them again.

If you don't have Carriers 2006 installed, there's ONE important note. Ocean Flatten BGLs MUST be installed AT LEAST ONE layer greater in your scenery.cfg file. This can be confusing so let me show you how my carrier scenery and flattens are loaded by FS:

[Area.071]
Title=Carriers 2006
Local=Addon Scenery\Carriers 2006
Remote=
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=71

[Area.072]
Title=Carrier Ocean Flatten Files
Local=Addon Scenery\Carrier Ocean Flatten Files
Remote=
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=72

For jgf and the second post in this thread, YOU NEED AN OCEAN FLATTEN BGL for your scenery.
Ocean Flattens can cure a whole bunch of misery.

Moving on, we're not finished with that AFCAD yet. Now that everything is glued together, its time to polish that AFCAD and make it shine. We'll get into that in the next post.

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

If you were filling in request chits for parts and got a couple of numbers wrong, some really strange things could happen and you might get called to the pier to explain why a multi-million dollar jet had YOUR name on it.

In the mid '80's, deployed on the USS Tripoli (LPH-10), we were unable to get the BV bolts needed to attach rotor blades for the CH-46. So somewhere afloat east of Japan, I ordered a whole aircraft, thinking that it's be canceled up the chain. When we arrived at the carrier pier at Cubi Point, there was a white plastic wrapped Phrog (with many other boxes of parts) sitting on the pier waiting for us. And since this was basically an already paid for item (came from the boneyard), the G-4 said to go ahead and keep as a hangar queen to cannibalize. We had her in the hangar at MCAS Tustin for years after the cruise.

 

[Sbob]

The single stock number Hornet stuff came from the late 1980's.
Where it got spooky was that the stock number was really close to something a lot more mundane (and cheap), something like a case of Spray-And-Wipe bottles (the Navy's version of Windex). Since I was an RPPO (repair parts petty officer, like a liaison to the store keeper division for the nav/ops department), that stock number kept me on my toes.

 

[Sbob]

BTW, for those who are interested, here's my current project.



The red dot is the location of some scenery I hacked together years ago.
Someone had posted updated AFCADs for the old Alphasim Big E scenery without the 3DO.
That carrier has the AFCAD tweaked to fit the basic Nimitz 3DO (basically the same 3DO as the Carriers 2006 package but place-able) plus some AI.
The carriers are located near Jask, Iran in the Gulf of Oman.

The blue dot is the carrier I'm currently polishing up and its the basis for this part of the thread. I had added the Nimitz 3DO for the Teddy Roosevelt to what I consider a better location. Then I lost track of the BGL for the Teddy R and it became a "flying dutchman" north of Oman. I still can't find the actual BGL file for the 3DO and it might have been added by mistake to some other 3DO? Both carriers are only about 30 miles apart, which is why I don't want to keep both of them.

Eventually, I'm going to ditch the red dot scenery and convert the AI over to use the blue dot scenery.
So, its a case of adding some 3DO to someone's AFCAD then building an AFCAD for some old 3DO so I can swap them around.
If that makes sense, congratulations.

Meanwhile, the new AFCAD is almost finished. I just need to tweak the apron a little more so its all stuffed inside the 3DO then add the NAV and COMMS radio stuff and the (invisible) taxi ways and AI parking spots. After that will be mapping out the new trap zone using Nav 3.0 so I can update my ArrestorCables.dat file for ARRCAB then converting the AI traffic BGL over to the new scenery and then I'll call it DONE.

Really, the two worst parts of this are the AFCAD Apron and plotting the trap zone for ARRCAB. The rest of it goes pretty quickly.

 

[Sbob]

OK, its time to add some polish to your AFCAD BGL.

One thing I like to add to my carrier scenery is an "LSO" view instead of a normal tower view.
The LSO station is located on the flight deck, on the aft/port side. If you have the Nimitz Class carriers, like Carriers 2006, installed you can see the wind deflector for the LSO station:



Here, you can see my "utility" S-55 parked in front of the LSO's station. I can start AFCAD at this point and really pinpoint the spot on the flight deck. Most carrier scenery doesn't include a tower view, but its easy to add. From the INSERT tab, select "tower view" and a data box will appear. Ignore it for now. You should see a red "+" on the top-down view, just drag the pointer to this + and click. The lat and lon info will auto-fill along with an elevation. Here's how you can really personalize your scenery. Grab a tape measure and stand in front of a wall. Drop the end of the tape measure to the floor and hold it against the wall. Read the measurement directly off the tape, keeping your eyes level and write this down. I use 5 feet 6 inches, or 5.5 feet, as my eye height. Now, going back to AFCAD, click the runway to highlight it. Right click to bring up the text box and read the elevation. Add your eye height to the runway elevation and now you have the elevation for your LSO/tower view.
Try this out, its a lot of fun. You can watch yourself taxi around on the flight deck and its a good view if you ever wondered what it looks like to get run over by a Phantom, Tomcat, or a Hornet. Once you get really smooth at carrier landings, switch to this view just before you land or watch your catapult takeoff. This trick is also handy for remote military scenery. Set up a Crew Chief view near the revetments or a CO's view standing in front of the command post. Have some fun with it.

How about adding a glide slope ball for landing? We can do that, kind of. We can't use the real "ball and datum line" but load any of the Carriers 2006 AFCAD BGLs in AFCAD. Highlight the runway and right-click to open the text boxes. Notice how the runway is laid out in the General tab with rwy 19 on top. Now, click the VASI tab and look in the bottom left corner. That's your red/yellow/green glide slope light. Copy that text for your own scenery.

Radios- I like the C2K6 radio format:

ILS- 110.30 with the green ILS marker aligned on the middle of the ship's stern. This was something that made sense to me when I was trying to set up the Navy's Magic Carpet landing system in FS (again, you can't tweak FS's auto pilot enough to make it work) and the "ILS" transmitter really is located at the stern of the ship.

VOR- 108.40. I like to locate the VOR and NDB transmitters on top of the island, about 100 feet above the flight deck.

NDB- 3XX.0 where XX is the ship's hull number. Again, load a C2K6 AFCAD BGL into AFCAD to see how they did it, including ranges.

COMMS- I like to keep it simple for my scenery. In AFCAD, go to Lists and open COMM Frequencies. Insert a Tower freq and a Ground freq and call it "done".

Well, this almost wraps up carrier AFCAD BGLs. I still want to cover taxi lines and nodes and parking spots but I'm going to combine that stuff with AI traffic BGLs in the next post. Just remember to ALWAYS include that darned black RUNWAY TAXI LINE if you plan to install AI for your carrier.

 

[Sbob]

OK, you've finished fine-tuning the Apron for your new carrier scenery and you have added a 70 foot by 750-ish foot runway.
This process requires a bunch of test flights, mostly to make sure the small nodes that define the shape of your Apron are close to the actual corners on your 3DO's flight deck but tucked just inside these corners. You don't want to drop into the water when you get close to the walkways on the side of the flight deck, but you also don't want to see any "phantom flight deck" stuff sliding around as you taxi around. Pay attention to those cut-outs for the lowered elevators. If you notice that "phantom Apron" poking thru the 3DO or your tires are sitting too high or too low, you can adjust this easily using the ELEVATION box in Afcad's PROPERTIES section for your afacd. Just try to "ballpark" these changes and work in small units. Figuring out the actual elevation is not as easy as it seems, so try small changes then test them to see if they work. Once I have the actual elevation of the 3DO flight deck figured out, I like to set the AFCAD Apron .1 of a foot below the 3DO flight deck. Once you're happy with the Apron outline and elevation in AFCAD, grab a sheet of paper and a pencil and draw the outline you see in AFCAD. Your next step (if you're planning to use some AI traffic) is to add the taxi NODES and taxiway lines. Carriers 2006, again, is the standard I like to use so SAVE your current AFCAD then load one of the C2K6 afcads. PAY ATTENTION to the placement of the blue and red NODES. This is one of those times where being a mimic is the sincerest form of flattery. Add the blue and red nodes to that drawing you made. Now, highlight each of those taxi lines and right click on them. Write down what type of line and all the info like line width and MAKE sure each line you add between your nodes has all of those "No Line" boxes checked. Now, add your nodes and taxi lines to your AFCAD. BE SURE you add a RUNWAY TAXI LINE (black line) between the rear-most and most-forward blue nodes on the center of your runway (70 feet wide). AI won't do much of anything if this line is missing. Also, make sure you run AFCAD's Fault Finder when you finish adding the nodes and taxi lines. Things may look fine, but if your taxi lines are off your AI will notice it.

One thing you'll want to notice, an aircraft carrier is a massive ship BUT its also a very small airport. Carrier scenery requires finding a balance between "not enough" and "too much". Landing is already a challenge, why would you want more distractions?

For AI traffic, the BGLs in C2K6 work once you edit them for your AI planes. You get four fighters and a helo that fly a tight pattern when they aren't taking off or landing. Big picture time, watching a full Alpha Strike take off or land while other aircraft are heading to another airport just ain't going to cut it. Adding complexity to AI (in terms of numbers and time aloft) is a sure way to make them break. Remember the really small airport stuff. You don't have a lot of taxi ways to play with, too many AI will just wind up doing stare downs until you get in the way.

So, what kind of AI aircraft do you want? I like the mix of one chopper and three fighters. A COD would be neat but the COD is usually ashore. An E-2 Hawkeye would be a fitting tribute to WOMBAT but E-2's tend to take off early and stay airborne a LOT. You really aren't going to see one on (or near) the boat when its your turn to fly. So, plan this stuff out ahead of time.

We're mostly done with AFCADs unless there are any questions. Try to get your's "right" then go back to add the polish. In the next post I'll do a deep dive on adding AI aircraft and getting your Traffic BGL to do what you want. Traffic BGLs, like AI, tend to be tricky but they are actually not that complicated. The troubles start when you try to add too much.