Briefings

Vipers, Venoms and Cobras

We are pleased to release the final part of a project featuring the Bell Cobra light attack helicopter. Earlier this month we uploaded 36 AH-1S Cobras of the JGSDF, including updated scenery of Akeno, Kasumigaura and Kisazaru from Brent Newman. This was followed by 20 AH-1F Cobras of the Republic of Korea Army, painted by Mins, who also designed  scenery and flight plans to operate them.

The final part of the project consists of two helicopter types. The first is the AH-1Z Viper of the United States Marine Corps. 60 examples have been produced. These operate with flight plans and updated scenery of Camp Pendleton, California and Futenma, Japan, from Brent. The second helicopter featured is the Bell UH-1Y Venom or “Super Huey” which is also operated by the same HMLA squadrons at Camp Pendleton and Futenma. This type is often seen together with the AH-1Z Vipers and is actually present in greater numbers. 72 examples have been produced for the package.

It was just over 2 years ago that Stephen Phillips sent John some plans and technical data for the Bell AH-1 Cobras. They didn’t however feature initially high on the“to do” list, in part because XML coding for the necessary hover-taxi operation for skidded helicopters had still to be worked out, but also because other aircraft were ahead in the queue. One example was the skidded UH-72 Lakota that John used to develop the hover-taxi technique.  Hover-taxi is seen here with the 4 Bell helicopter subjects – Cobra “S”, Cobra “F”, Viper “Z” and Venom “Y”:

 

AI aircraft of course need scenery and flight plans to operate them. While John was working on the models, Brent was working on those aspects for Akeno, Kasumigaura and Kisazaru:

 

With the AH-1S package ready, it was a simple exercise to turn the model into the “F” variant and send it to Mins in The Republic of Korea, who was keen to paint it in the Army colours of his country. He did this brilliantly and also included scenery and flight plans to operate the 20 examples:

 

The USA home for the USMC Vipers and Venoms was probably a bit more challenging, simply because of the number of aircraft to be accommodated. Apart from the 60 Vipers and 72 Venoms, Brent’s scenery of Camp Pendleton also includes 23 V-22 Ospreys.

 

Venoms and Vipers are also deployed on temporary duty to Futenma, Japan:

 

All of the Cobra, Viper, Venom and associated scenery elements are compatible with FS9, FSX and P3Dv4. To summarise, these are the packages users may choose from according to their interests and sim version:

Bell AH-1S Cobras for FS9

Bell AH-1S Cobras for FSX and P3Dv4

Bell AH-1F Cobras - Republic of Korea for FS9

Bell AH-1F Cobras - Republic of Korea for FSX and P3Dv4

Bell AH-1Z Cobras – USMC for FS9

Bell AH-1Z Cobras – USMC for FSX and P3Dv4

Bell UH-1Y Venoms – USMC for FS9

Bell UH-1Y Venoms – USMC for FSX and P3Dv4

 

Scenery RJOE Akeno v2 - Japan JGSDF for FS9/FSX/P3D

Scenery RJTK Kisarazu Airfield v2 - Japan JGSDF for FS9/FSX/P3D

Scenery RJAK Kasumigaura Airfield v2 - Japan JGSDF for FS9/FSX/P3D

Scenery KNFG Camp Pendleton for FS9/FSX/P3D (Coming soon)

Scenery ROTM Futenma for FS9/FSX/P3D (Coming soon)

 

We hope you enjoy these packages.

John, Brent and Mins.