RAF Gütersloh P3D restarted

[Manschy]

Hi everybody,

after a long time (partially caused by lost motivation in designing for P3D since MSFS came up yeah yeah ...), I gradually regain my interest in RAF Gütersloh.
It is a WIP now for more than two and a half years. After finishing my RAF Brüggen Air Base I was intent to go on with Gütersloh asap....
But as mentioned, MSFS which killed a lot of users interest in P3D, also Corona and some other (personal) reasons. With the disappointing release of RAF Brüggen (as same time MSFS came up and nobody wasn't interested in this Air Base suddenly any more...) I stopped my designing capabilities.
But some few months ago, John offered me his Wessex for Gütersloh. Speechless....
Furthermore, inside another german forum for aviation in general a guy who is technician at a real flightsim project of an Airbus A320, ask me for a ETUO update in P3D. This real simulator is based in Paderborn, being very close to my location.
He used the former version for FS2004 for a long time but they changed the system and their basic simulator which now is P3D.

Here's a pic now with the P3D ETUO WIP we installed three weeks ago:



With that said, I decided to restart RAF Gütersloh again, whether or not user will download it or not. I will do it for a small community which will honour the work, and for myself at last.

So today.....I have to relearn a lot I had to realize
Skills are a little rusty but it works a little like relearing riding a bicycle. It will work out all right.

So, now you are current, gents, stay tuned....

[TimC340]

Delighted to hear it, Manschy! I spent two happy years at Gütersloh 1975/76, working on the local economy (including on base) while my Dad was the station commander. I left with the Lightnings to start my own flying career.

You are very welcome to any help I can give.

My Dad receiving the Freedom of Harzewinkel in 1975:

[Manschy]

Wow, impressive!
In the middle, this seems to be the Harsewinkels mayor? So your Dad is to the right or to the left?

Good to know having a good supporter here at my elbow again .

I left with the Lightnings to start my own flying career.

What does this mean exactly? What kind of flying career?

[TimC340]

My Dad's on the left. On the right is Air Marshal Sir Mike Beetham, then CinC RAF Germany (which means the photo is 1976, not 75). He was later Chief of the Air Staff and Acting Chief of the Defence Staff. Yes, it's the Burgermeister of Harsewinkel in the middle - sadly, I can't remember his name.

My Dad was the last Lightning station commander at Gutersloh, as the Harrier moved in at the end of '76. So we left with it. My flying career has been covered here before but, briefly, I was an RAF pilot from 1977-98 (mostly C-130), and an airline pilot with Virgin Atlantic on B747, A340 and A330 from 1998-2020.

[Manschy]

Deeply impressed, mate.

[asdro]

The airport/Airbase in Gütersloh will be demolished in the near future.

The company SCHÜCO, which produces doors, windows, facades, has bought the area and wants to build a new large factory there.

[Manschy]

Not quite correct, Asdro. Nearby to the former air base, to the north, there is to be formed a commercial area, which is called "Gewerbepark Flugplatz Gütersloh". According to my present knowledge, this is the area Schüco is interested in.
This is a fast growing area, but obviously outside the airport terrain (here is a pic where you can see it above the yellow through road B-513. Below, it is the former air base terrain.

https://gewerbepark-flugplatz-gt.de/fil ... d2e32a.jpg

Phew !!!!!

Furthermore, the US-ARMY shows an interest in the area, so hopefully, many objects on the terrain will survive!

Anyway, it will survive within P3D

[asdro]

The local news paper, that I found with google, called nw-online (Neue Westfälische), mentioned that SCHÜCO wants to build a factory on the former airbase.

I red that, yesterday. If is is exactly on the airbase, or very close, I cant tell. May be you are right.
But as you know, plans can change any time.

I havent red that the US-ARMY is interested, too.

[Manschy]

Okay, Tim. Slowly, but bit by bit there are some few questions about RAF Gütersloh I am hoping you can help to answer.

So first today is regarding the taxiway lights.

I can't find any useful pics from taxiway lights (center, edges...). Do you remember if there were any? Or by what were the taxi edges distinguished otherwise?

[TimC340]

Hi Manschy. It was certainly standard for RAF airfields to have taxiway edge lighting. Centreline lighting was rare, but would occasionally be used for runway turnoffs and the like. In my time, edge lights were amber on the outside and blue on the inside edge of the taxiways (inside being nearest to the centre of the airfield). Whether that was the case at Gutersloh, I can't remember off the top of my head. Let me do a bit of investigation.

[Manschy]

Hi everybody,

I dediced to make a pre-release for all MAIW friends, just for you all to prevend a never ending story again.
So you get the version v.0.9 because it is still a work in progress and will be updated by 9.1, 9.2 etc until hopefully the work is done finally with version v1.0 when release.

There are currently no seasonal ground polys. If you use SODE, you will already get animated hangar doors and arrestor cables, trees will already have fall textures at fall and walls will be snow covered at hard winter.

Users who own ORBX 3D libraries will find grass all over the air base, as long as there is no custom made.

Because I use P3Dv4.5, I can't warrant the correct working in P3Dv6, but it should work fine also in P3Dv5 at least. Each feedback regarding this is more than welcome.

Traffic should already work fine, please have a look inside the READ_ME_FIRST_TRAFFIC_FILES.txt file to download the appropriate packages.

According to the state of development, there will be no manual for the moment, but I did arrange the package parts hopefully self-explaining. If any issues, please report and discuss in this topic here.

So here comes the download link:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApxPvGIZoKCrgk3OKCD ... K?e=RGWcDo

Enjoy, but please stick around for news and for giving me a helping hand if needed

[raclim]

Spend the last day flying around Gutersloh and all i can say is WOW!

Keep up the good work Manfred and i look forward to the finished release!

[Manschy]

Thank you very much, Raclim, nice to hear you are satisfied.
Please give me a short feedback regarding

- Process of installation - Does it work fine?
- Do you have SODE and did you get everything on its place?
- Is your traffic working as desired?

Maybe some few screenshots would be nice to have a look at (hangar doors, arrestor cables, trees and aircraft appearance).

Next step will be adding some few more scenery objects (SODE season objects, thank you, Rob, traffic signs, cars backstage).
Then getting back the skills to add correct ground layers for seasonal textures and wet overlays at rain.

[hawkdriver]

Manfred,
Beautiful job of resurrecting the ETUO WIP project. I have it installed on P3Dv5.4 and works as advertised. Install instructions clear as a bell, SODE works for all doors ( though I do have a red x in the infield facing the hanger aprons, but all works properly). All AI traffic flying. Thank you sir, makes a great flight from ETUO to ETUR. Rob

[Manschy]

Thank you very much for response, Rob!

Yes, I noticed the red X as well inside the airfield, that means, you obviously use real time, so it is fall. In fall, the walls season is still missing which causes the red X because the models are still not included in SODE. But this is the next job I promptly will make an attack on...
Really glad it also works in 5.4....wow.....

[raclim]

Hi Manfred,

To answer your questions:

- Process of installation - Does it work fine?
The installation wen't like a charm, i placed the folders in the right place and everything worked from the start. I use P3D 4.5

- Do you have SODE and did you get everything on its place?
I use SODE and it looks to me all the objects are in the right place and work as they should. The only thing i encountered were the walls in hard winter. In your post you mentioned: "walls will be snow covered at hard winter". I Guess you mean the Hardstand walls, in early January the don't show and on february 12th they do show, but there is no snow on top of them, but maybe i understood your description wrong

Eary January


February 12th


- Is your traffic working as desired?
This question i can not answer. I allready had flightplans for the Harriers, Chinooks and Puma's installed, but they all appear in the correct place and they move across the airport correctly.

Regarding the Puma's, as you probably know allready they operated from the platform in front of hangars 6 and 7 and the parking area southwest of that platform. I found an image only showing the parking layout:



I found your 2TUO AFCAD and i altered it to allow it for Puma operations:

In it are 2 runways, the one on the west is used for take off and the one on the east is used for landings, all in the direction of runway 27

This screenshot shows the parking layout in P3D, with a Puma taxing to the runway, also the Harries can be seen moving in the HAS area:


And here the Puma is entering the runway for take off:


If you are interested then i can provide you the AFCAD. Back in the 70's the Wessex's probably operated in the same way.

Here are some more random screenshots:

Harriers moving in the HAS area (Summer):


Harriers ready for takeoff (Summer):


Chinook area (Summer):


Visitor area (Summer):


In fall:


I hopes this answers your questions and helps your project!

Kind regards,
Randy

[Manschy]

More than I could expect, mate. Thank you so much. That is already a Beta tester's work!
I am very impressed that it looks so good and seems to work fine at this early state.
Regarding the PUMAS: Yes, the 2TUO was planned to let Pumas operate as well and give them an additional runway on the infield grass. Not sure how it was in reality, the RWY27 usage seems to be the correct way.
I did add the grass runway because that way, the Pumas don't disturb the main ETUO traffic very much, just when crossing the the taxiway in front of the Hangars 6 and 7.
Furthermore, they have an own playground and it is possible to let both small heli ports interact by themselves.
Maybe, I will come back to your offer regarding your altered 2TUO...

There is one question regarding your Harrier Take Off scene (summer shot RWY 27):
They take off into west direction, so wind heading should normally be from west to east. As to that, the overrun barrier should be down on RWY 27 and up on RWY09. How was your weather setting while doing that shot, please?
I got the same, when wind is at 0 knots, or wind direction directly from north or south ( 0 degrees or 180 degrees ).
Do the barriers work correctly when you change the wind direction into west / east?

Randy, fantastic shots, and a big incentive to keep doing with the next steps...
(BTW: I never had a F-111 at ETUO...cool....)

[raclim]

Happy to help Manfred! It's the least I can do after all the joy your Brüggen scenery has brought me.

Regarding 2TUO, you are right that in my setup the AFCAD can disturb the main ETUO traffic, but please let me know if you would like to have my AFCAD.

The Harrier Take Off screenshot was taken at 0 MPH wind, so that explains the barrier being up. I did check the barriers with different wind directions and they work as they should. Wind at 270 degrees lowered the barrier at the start of runway 27 and raised it at the end of the runway, wind set at 90 degrees did the exact opposite.

[Manschy]

That sounds really good, thank you for information.

[hawkdriver]

Manfred,
Question, Do you know the location of the Base Operations building? Is (was) it located adjacent northwest side of Hanger 5?
Found the attached on line (not mine), quite old. Rob