Military AI Works

These are the Agusta 109's (Hkp15A's and Hkp15B's) of the Swedish Armed Forces to be used in conjunction with the Black Hawks at Malmen in the Saab 105 packages:























I've painted 8 examples (5 A's and 3 B's), limited by the parking on the helicopter ramp at Malmen.

They are all ready to be packaged, but before I upload them, I just want to see what's involved with the Belgian A109BA's in a bit more detail. There are some significant differences in the models but If they are manageable, they could be included with the Swedish examples.

John

Looking good John

Oh this camo is a killer seriously.

Really stunning, John!

Hi John, another really good job with the A-109
I've had another look at the Italian examples. I think that if you can remove the gunner, these model are good also for the AW-109s of GdF and Carabinieri. Some differencies in antennas and sensors but I think we can do without the perfect configuration.

Regards, Giorgio

There are 3 models for each of the two types Giorgio. The gunner is in a separate 15A and 15B model and only allocated once to each type because of the additional polygons. The other two models for each type have no gunner, but a choice of an animated left door and the door permanently closed to give some variety when parked.

John

John Young wrote: ↑20 Nov 2020, 16:09 They are all ready to be packaged, but before I upload them, I just want to see what's involved with the Belgian A109BA's in a bit more detail. There are some significant differences in the models but If they are manageable, they could be included with the Swedish examples.

John

Hello John,

I just send you an email with a PDF file with all belgians versions of A109BA (just weapons change)

Best regards.

Always thought they were sleek helos when the USCG used the MH-68 variant years ago. I do love the door gunner. Another brilliant rotary AI model.

very nice looking helo John, thank you.

Simply astonishing!!!

Lovely job..

Cracking piece of work John

Hi John,
New Zealand operates them as well.... I can probably get the same sort of details as I got for the Strikemaster if you are interested?

Another dovely looking model!

Cheers
Sean

I think they are quite manageable Sean - from a quick look, it's the Swedish model with the addition of a winch. I think I can probably manage with what's on the net thanks, but if I get stuck I'll come back.

I am in the middle of making the Belgian "BA" models. They are significantly different to the Swedish models and have involved a lot of re-work in Gmax, but I'm now at the re-mapping stage prior to painting.

John

Great pics John

Truly a work of art. I marvel at your abilities.

John

They look like beautiful models!

I knew the Belgian A109BA’s would involve a lot of work, because they are very different to the Swedish models – different engines, nose, window shapes, aerials and of course a fixed undercarriage. The Medivac and TOW models also needed additional parts, the former because of the wider doors (cross-wise) to accommodate a stretcher. There are also two special paint schemes – the current display livery and the previous one.















The 109’s also share Beauvechain (EBBE) with 4 NH-90’s and I have incorporated the models (to be downloaded separately), produced by Lukas Hermanovsky, into my flight plans and parking. The NH-90’s are fine in FS9 and FSX. I don’t know if they have been converted for P3D, but at the moment they will not work in that sim version. This is FSX:



What I didn’t expect was the problems in setting up the Belgian examples at Beauvechain with a helicopter AFCAD overlay. The airfield has two parallel runways like this:



In the real world, the helicopters taxi down from the north parking and use the centre of the main runway for take-off and landing. However, no matter what I try, I cannot position the overlaid helicopter AFCAD in that position – the take-off is fine, but landing helicopters switch paths onto the main AFCAD and exit south where there is no A109 parking. I can’t even position the overlay a bit further along the runway away from the intersection because the same thing happens.

What I have managed to do is position the overlay runway on the grass (blue arrows) successfully. The helicopters still taxi over the intersection, but they don’t switch paths:



There is an added complication in that the main EBBE AFCAD, which comes from the Belgian Alphajets package, causes my Typhoon fixed wing test to depart from 4L to fly a programmed circuit, but land in the opposite direction on 22R. I have no idea what is causing that. The default EBBE AFCAD is fine.

I’ve spent about 12 hours on the problem so far and Tim has kindly stepped in to help me, having dealt with a similar problem at Grosseto with the Typhoons. I hope we can find a solution, but if not, the grass operation should suffice.

I am intending to make the 6 New Zealand examples which are based on the Swedish models but with a winch, but. As might be imagined, I will not be touching any scenery!

John

John

Firstly Wow. These helicopters are a treat.

Secondly, on the subject of afcad. I have spent days if not weeks trying to get helicopters to work from one afcad.
The results for FS9 are consistent, aircraft use the longest runway active or not, if runways are same length they will go to the one on the top of the list. Using the multiple runways to create the simulated parallel works now and again.

The hard truth is to use a separate afcad. I use the UNKNOWN surface which is not visible in FS9. For the taxi and runway links, use the same surface as the underlying runway or taxiway.

John

Thanks John. I am indeed using two separate AFCADs - the one for fixed wing aircraft using the main runway and the other, ideally overlaid at the centre of that, for the helicopters. I don't normally have a problem because the airfields I've used previously, including Malmen for the Swedish 109's have dedicated helicopter runways and they are easy to set up because they are usually away from the main runway and there is no conflict.

You really don't want to mix the two. AI helicopters with an animated lift need a short (800ft) runway. Full length runways will work, but the helicopters will land with an unrealistic nose-high attitude.

John

John,
Are the Belgian ones more typical of mil use ones, or are they just being different?