Blackburn Buccaneer

[Delboy99]

As Gary mentioned Buccs were usually parked with the Airbrakes open, and also with the flaps down and bomb bay closed. The panel hanging down from the open bomb bay door in Garys pic is a pannier, used for crew baggage on a land away. Not usually fitted but very handy for bringing back duty frees ...er duty free. The flag dangling in front of the bomb bay was attached to the hydraulic safety key, which shut off hydraulics to the bomb bay door when the aircraft was parked.

[Firebird]

HOSM. Haven't heard that one for a while. Our FGR2s used to go there for major, as well, until they moved it to St Athan.

[BLACKCAT]

Delboy

Purely out of interest, did the airbrake open as 'default' when parked due to the hyd pumps reducing system pressure to zero on engine shutdown?

[AndyG43]

Supposed to be a bit tongue in cheek

Sorry mate, went over my head! D'oh!

[Delboy99]

Hi Blackcat. The airbrakes didn't open by themselves with low hydraulic pressure. If I recall correctly, and it was a long time ago, the crew normally left the brakes open when they taxyed in. This enabled us to check the mechanism and also check the actuator for leaks. Leaving the brakes open may have come from the old naval procedures. The aircraft took up a lot less space in the hangar with the airbrakes open.
The flaps however may have been left down to stop them drooping by themselves, The weight of the flaps could well have caused them to droop as gravity overcame the actuator with hydraulics off.

[Garysb]

HOSM. Haven't heard that one for a while. Our FGR2s used to go there for major, as well, until they moved it to St Athan.

Many moons ago
Notice the sign, the funny thing was I had a police motorcyclist stood with me taking pics as well

Sorry for the thread creep

Gary

[John Young]

Here's the first screen shots in Gmax. This one will form the basis of the S2 and S2B models. The aircraft is carrying slipper tanks on the inboard pylons with CBLS racks on the outboards complete with 2 practice bombs in each.





Cutting out the clam shell airbrakes was interesting, but it worked better after I had tried it once and learned from it. The animation to get them to operate as a "flap" but also to link it to a dummy part to have them open when parked will be a challenge because of the double hinge on each side. I'll give it a go though.

The arrestor hook in the down position is a bit redundant and it will be "glued" in the up position. It could be used down when parked, but I haven't seen and photos like that. I suspect it's never necessary because the centre of gravity ism't going to allow the aircraft to tip back easily.

John

[delbydoo]

Oh my gosh.....

[DaleRFU]

That looks seriously cool

[Bora]

Looks very nice indeed !! The curvy shape turned out perfectly !

[delbydoo]

Looks very nice indeed !! The curvy shape turned out perfectly !

And it's banana-coloured!

[AndyG43]

Blimey, quick work John. That looks great, already the best looking S2 in FS9.

[timbob1]

Awesome work there John

[Delboy99]

Looking really good John. I can't wait for the finished article.

I can't ever recall seeing Buccs parked with their hooks down.

[Christopher Low]

John,

You are amazingly quick at creating superbly convincing models

[John Young]

Thank's Chris. About 50 hours to do the Gmax modelling and the same again to set up the texture sheet and do the mapping. The Buccaneer is currently drying in the paint shop, having just been painted with it's camo scheme today. I'll take it a bit further and then post some shots. I'm very pleased with it so far. I've flown it myself but it hasn't yet been set up as AI.

John

[John Young]

I now have a single LOD FS9 model that I've been testing before I move on to make the other LODs and model variations.

In the first shot below, all the animation is set up and the additional weapons have been made for the alternative load-outs and paint schemes. Apart from the different Buccaneer schemes, my intention is have a separate wing fold model so that users can have a mix of folded and unfolded wings on their flight lines. The subsequent shots are from a test circuit flight:

]







I've just a couple of things to do before I move on to make the LODs. One of them is to decide how to set the canopies. At the moment they are triggered by the beacon light and therefore stay open only when the aircraft is parked. I can also link to the strobe light so that the aircraft taxi with canopies open as far as the runway hold line. What I'd really like to do, I think, is have them linked to the Nav lights so that in FS9 they remain closed all the time unless the lights are on, in which case the canopies open for 15 minutes before and after taxi, but close when the aircraft is on the move (second trigger). Mike M gave me a block of xml to try a couple of months ago, but I had no success with it unfortunately. Here's the code that works for the canopy/beacon light animation:



Does anyone have the block of code for the Nav/light and on the move animation trigger or can anyone tell me how to modify my existing beacon light code to achieve the Nav light result please? I'll have to stick with the beacon light or strobe method for FSX because the Nav lights only come on at engine start.

John

[DaleRFU]

The jet looks great John

[delbydoo]

Oh my......

[Firebird]

John, I wish I had access to my copy of Nick's xml file as for his Mirage F1 he developed code which meant that the canopy almost closed during taxi but closed fully when cleared for take off. That would suit your purpose beautifully.
I remember watching the Buccs take out with the canopy half closed.

Hopefully somebody else has a copy of it.