Military AI Works

John, I have the Yorkshire 4 working fine in P3Dv4, so there should be no problem there. I might have a look at Finningley this week while I'm out of the country; I was based there from August 87 to November 91 as QFI/CFI on Yorkshire UAS, so I remember it very well. I have lots of pictures of our end of the airfield (up by the 20 threshold), but very little of the rest of the place. However, I wouldn't presume to be able to put anything together to rival your capabilities.

Steve, your memory is very good! I think that the practice of sending CFS Standards Sqn out to operational stations (not just fast jets) ended in the late 70s, as simulators became more capable and it was accepted that the JP wasn't really representative of anything other than a non-swept, low-wing aeroplane. I can check with my ex-Tonka mates, but I don't think they ever did this. I remember my truckie pals talking about this when they were on Britannias, Comets and so on, but it never happened on Hercules in my time (1980-onwards).

To add another possible angle to this project.... Strikemasters are used as contract CAS Training aircraft with 'Blue Air Training' in the US. https://blueairtraining.com/ Could add a 'non-retro' aspect

Sean

John, I will make a stand alone P3D Yorkshire bases package for you tomorrow with EGXG Church Fenton, Linton EGXU, Dishforth EGXD, Topcliffe EGXZ and Marne Barracks X5CA. Greg is moving house I believe, not sure when we can get it on the server.

Henk.

I can do that

Great!

No rush Henk and Martin. We've confirmed that the 4 converted airfields work in P3Dv4 so I can get on with other aspects of the project in the meantime.

John

John/Martin: I have dropped the stand alone package (MAIW Military Airfields in Yorkshire P3Dv4.zip) into John's FTP folder.

Henk.

Thanks Henk. All working fine.

John

If you look on YouTube the entire 1980s BBC series called Fighter Pilot is available. Fascinating look at the how the RAF was, especially turning "blokes" into Officers and Gentlemen. Lots of JP footage too.

TimC340 wrote: ↑09 Dec 2019, 21:12 Steve, your memory is very good! I think that the practice of sending CFS Standards Sqn out to operational stations (not just fast jets) ended in the late 70s, as simulators became more capable and it was accepted that the JP wasn't really representative of anything other than a non-swept, low-wing aeroplane. I can check with my ex-Tonka mates, but I don't think they ever did this. I remember my truckie pals talking about this when they were on Britannias, Comets and so on, but it never happened on Hercules in my time (1980-onwards).

Jeez, if a Britannia ever got into a spin, and got out of it, then that pilot would have a very limited career.

I agree about the validity of the JP5 for spinex. I remember thinking at the time that using the Hawk would have been better, but I am sure that there was a good reason why they didn't use that. Having said that I did manage a Hawk trip from WTM and I can't remember why it was there at the time.
I also agree about the quality of sims. When i was at Coningsby the very limited visual capability was removed due to the cost of it against the benefit. In those days the visuals were using models. I remember that the 3 that were used for the F-4 sim was a range, the CGY airfield and a Badger above the clouds.
Very nice high quality model stuff there but if the camera lens hit the models then it invariably scratched the lens which even in the late 70s was several thousand pounds.

So as there were no more attack sqns, the intercept model was very limited and therefore not used, and the circuit model was really only of use for people at the start of the OCU course it was all deemed too expensive.

The sim was basically set as a night IFR total blackout flight. Great for instrument practice and therefore unpopular with your average fighter pilot.

Yes, the Herc sims when I first started had the model-based visuals. We had four sims; one had Madirah, one Kai Tak, one Lyneham and I think the last was Akrotiri. The entire sim complex was replaced in around 1981 with full-motion 6-degree freedom boxes, with computer-based nighttime visuals.

I think the Standards stuff for truckies was more a bit of GH - Aeros, stalling, etc. We never did it; stalling the Herc was very benign and we didn’t need a baby jet to show us how to do it. We could probably also do a better Aeros sequence!

I’m pretty sure the practice had lapsed before the Hawk had enough numbers in service that they could spare any for this sort of thing. In 1978/79, when I did the advanced course at Valley, we still had Hunters on 3 Sqn, and both TWUs (Brawdy and Lossiemouth at the time) were Hunters. Hawks were fairly scarce.

VulcanDriver wrote: ↑10 Dec 2019, 15:00 If you look on YouTube the entire 1980s BBC series called Fighter Pilot is available. Fascinating look at the how the RAF was, especially turning "blokes" into Officers and Gentlemen. Lots of JP footage too.

I was very much part of Linton when the Beeb began filming this series, though I left not long after the studes arrived. Martin Oxborrow is still a mate. The one thing that comes over most strongly in that part of the series is how bloody awful some of the instructors were - and that was used as an example of how not to do it when I did CFS in 1987!!

I'm intending to produce T.4's for Cranwell, Church Fenton and the TWU at Brawdy (earlier camouflage and later Barley grey schemes). Progress so far:



















John

Beautiful!!!

Sent from my SM-A405FN using Tapatalk

Another very nice surprise!

Henk.

Very nice.

What can you say about those. Lovely stuff.

I had never seen any pics of the TWU birds as I thought they had switched to Hunters when I joined and Hawks shortly after. I think I am correct in thinking that the only non-JP5 birds around when I joined were at the CATCS at RAF Shawbury. However, there may have been small pockets of others around at the time.
For example, the Barley Grey birds would have been well after I joined.

I bought the Warpaint book of the Jet Provost to help me along Steve. It's packed full of photos and beautiful colour plates. There's a nice shot of 6 T.4.s lined up at Shawbury, dated October 1971. JP years are stated to be 1970-1989 for that airfield. Barley grey T.4's were introduced at Brawdy in 1989 but only lasted until 1990 when JP use was ceased.

John

There you go. They were there at Brawdy all along and I never knew it.

Looking forward to this one, looking good so far John