Whidbey Island and / or EA-6B Prowlers

[Craxelicrox]

First off; I am not a designer, painter, developer, or anything / anyone who contributes to the AI community. But I am active duty Navy (aviation), and I really do enjoy the work that comes out of MAIW! So it should be no surprise that I like to fly my platforms. Currently I am flying out of Tinker with VQ-3 in the mighty E6-B Mercury, but before that I was stationed out of Whidbey Island with VAQ-142 the Grey Wolves.
Now, in AVSIM there was a guy who had painstaikingly made a reproduction of NAS Whidbey Island, but it is no longer available for FS9. However, it flew the AI P-3s and E-6 Intruders. The Intruders are long gone, the Growler is looking to take over from the Prowlers (which will take years), and the P-8 is lurking behind the curtains at the Orions.
What I am getting at is this; Could I possibly be the only one interested in seeing a realistically active NAS Widbey Island on a scale as the Nellis project? Hardly so...
There are so many Grumman fans out there that would be thrilled with Prowlers in the AI skies, perhaps to include some day all of the Grumman birds... (asking a lot here, I know). But yes, EA-6Bs... the noisiest CV jet out there.


I thank you in advance.

[Craxelicrox]

Oh boy...... Just read the rules. SORRY!!! Disregard, belay my last. I'll go to my room now.....
Yes; I will read the rules before posting, next time.

[Firebird]

Well normally we would say sorry but unfortunately we don't talk about projects under way or future plans.

However, there is some that is already available so we can answer this quite freely.
Firstly I think that the scenery that you mentioned was done by John Stinstrom and we actually point to that scenery in two packs that we currently have that add movement to the base. However on checking you are quite correct in pointing out that the scenery is no longer available on avsim.
However, what I did find on Flightsim.com is that if you search for 'wb_knuw1.zip' you will be able to obtain it.

Now as to aircraft stationed there if you go to our downloads page http://www.militaryaiworks.com/ammap/Ma ... index.html you will then be able to navigate to Washington State and download the USN/USMC Airliners package and the USN EP-3E package.
The first one will install VR-61 and it's C-9Bs there and the EP-3E package will install VQ-1 and VQ-2 and their P-3s there. Use the latest KNUW afcad file, from the EP-3 package and their is also an addon to fix an issue with the scenery in both. The readmes point out the file and where it is.

Now as for future stuff, we play our cards fairly close to our chest here, but if you look around the site you will see pictures of a fairly new model from Nick Black, the F-18. Now while there hasn't been any EA-18G version of the model yet. You never know what Nick may drop on us. . Now as to seeing an EA-6B it all depends on whether somebody builds a model of one to our standards. At this moment in time, one has not been released. Therefore we have a hands kind of tied there, however again you can never tell what will arrive and it I think its fairly safe to assume that if one does appear then WI is a very likely destination.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

[MIKE JG]

Oh boy...... Just read the rules. SORRY!!! Disregard, belay my last. I'll go to my room now.....
Yes; I will read the rules before posting, next time.

LMAO!! Don't sweat it, we're used to it.

I think you will find John's WI scenery quite nice, even has the "WELCOME HOME" bit on the taxiway. Add the two packs that Steve mentioned and you will have a relatively populated NAS WI. IIRC, there was a picture of an AI Growler on the front page a while back, so I know there must be one at least in "the works" as we like to say around here.

[Craxelicrox]

Mike, Steve (poking my head out from my room....),

Gentlemen; you have been too kind in you replies. I am grateful. And must I say, that had you chosen to open a restaurant instead of doing AI, I would be table-side every day.
I thank you for your kind directions, cryptic forecasts, and help; its what makes this hobby perhaps one of the best in the world.





Very respectfully,


David R.
VQ-3
Tinker AFB, OKC

[Victory103]

Don't worry David, there are many of us waiting to hopefully populate NUW outside of the awesome EP-3 packages. I put a few of the Rick S. non-AI models and one lame Abacus Prowler on the ramp for now.

FYI
VAQ-129 (RAG), VAQ-132, and VAQ-141 all have Growlers now, so the Prowler is slowly fading, at least we still have the USMC VMAQ squadrons at Cherry Point.

[Craxelicrox]

Yeah, the Growler is moving in, but it will take time before the flight line is taken over. Oh, and by the way; for those of you who think VAQ-142 is decomming next year; well, there is new message traffic (unclassified), saying that they will remain in the fleet AND stay as expeditionary (but with Growlers...). Of course, the platform turn-over will take time.

[Flyin Illini]

VAQ-129 (RAG), VAQ-132, and VAQ-141 all have Growlers now, so the Prowler is slowly fading, at least we still have the USMC VMAQ squadrons at Cherry Point.

I tell ya what, if or when we get a prowler. Im making sure they all come back to life. There is not enough variety anymore with hornets doing everything

[Craxelicrox]

Agreed....

[Ripcord]

I apologize (sorta) for digging up an old thread here, but I also would like to see an EA-6B package.

Rather than do our own model, why not do a series of repaints of the Alphasim/virtavia EA-6B? Still a lot of repaint work I realize, but since there just aren't that many of them left (and a regular squadron only has 4 or 5 aircraft anyway) then it might not as much work as would, say, a full-on fighter wing or squadron.

And as was pointed out, we already have the NAS WI base done (and done well), so it would be just a matter of doing the callsign package and some traffic - along with the repaints of course.

For some reason the alphasim/virtavia website is down, so I am unable to 100% confirm for myself that this package is, in fact, freeware. I've just seen reports of this online. And even if it wasn't we could contact them and request to use the AI only for MAIW.

Ripcord

[lewis]

Why Virtavia, why not this. Only need to convince Jake to complete it.

[fishlips]

It's not that far from completion for an AI model. Make a great little project for someone, with Jakes permission of course!

[Victory103]

Rip,
That model is payware, so a "no go" there. Pretty soon only the USMC will be flying them, but would make for a good update to the Cherry Point Harriers pack. Then again, the retro AI scene is on fire right now, and those 1970-80's hi vis Navy schemes would look good.

[Dave Waffler]

I have a payware AI EA-6 I use for traffic I made for around Cherry Point. The model isn't all that great, but seeing the Prowler flying around is pretty cool to see

[Ripcord]

Why Virtavia, why not this. Only need to convince Jake to complete it.

OK, then I couldn't agree more!! I was not aware of this!

I did just note that the Virtavia site is back up and the EA-6B is still payware, so clearly that isn't happening.

[Ripcord]

Come on Lewis, here's to you man! Looking forward to your EA-6B package, when it's ready.

[Ripcord]

Hey, wait a minute! Graham King did a whole boatloat of repaints for the Rick Sasala EA-6B and Mike Pearson has done almost as many repaints for the Ito EA-6B (not sure yet if that flies).

Not only do we have an EA-6B model to use, we may even have two to choose from.

[Victory103]

Ripcord, I have used the Rick S. model in the past, for not being a true AI built model, a few on the ramp is not a big deal on most systems. Most squadrons only have 4-5 airframes assigned anyway. Now if I could figure out how to convert the Rick S. model to AI with FSDS I would have. As discussed on here it's sometimes better to start from scratch vice taking someone's work (with permission) to use.

[Ripcord]

Ripcord, I have used the Rick S. model in the past, for not being a true AI built model, a few on the ramp is not a big deal on most systems. Most squadrons only have 4-5 airframes assigned anyway. Now if I could figure out how to convert the Rick S. model to AI with FSDS I would have. As discussed on here it's sometimes better to start from scratch vice taking someone's work (with permission) to use.

For now it is mejor que nada. Actually what I do is sprinkle in some of Rick's AI with some of my Virtavia AI and that pretty much covers all I need.