Military AI Works

Looking great John!

Agreed!

So, with 13 aircraft from VAW-120 completed, I spent a little time setting up what I've made at Norfolk and Point Mugu.

VAW-120 comprises E-2C and D examples, plus one "D" with a refuelling probe. I think that aircraft transferred from Pax River:



Norfolk has worked well, although I still need to allocate the parking on a squadron basis (a guess I think, unless anyone has information).



I was nearly fooled by this situation of freeway traffic crossing the main runway at Norfolk and was pondering how to remove the road. I discovered however that the road does cross the runway in the real world, but through a tunnel under it.ADE has a feature to draw an airport poylgon to exclude traffic in that area. So the cars and the truck in the screenshot are just about to disappear a few feet later in their travels. Alas, they don't re-appear again on the far side of the runway, but I can live with that.



This is Point Mugu, all set up, but again some rationalisation of the parking is needed.



The sceneries, with aircraft and test traffic files, are all working in FS9, FSX and P3Dv4.

I'm going to make the Greyhound next before setting up the final flight plans for the Norfolk and Point Mugu sceneries. Brent has kindly flight planned the Japenese examples. I need to explore scenery for the 3 French examples at some point, if anyone has any suggestions.

John

For the French exemple, all are based at Lorient/Lann-Bihoué (LFRH). The only sceneries I find for this airbase are here : http://www.mirage4fs.com/scenery.html (One for FSX by Tony Mezieres, and one for FS9 from Jean-Jacques Herve (old FS2002 with Fs2004 afca)).

You can also use the Charles De Gaule Carrier scenery (available in the MAIW French Rafale pack) for a least one exemple.

The RFN guys have the French stuff covered. I even forgot about their AI pack that included a 1 LOD E-2.

http://royalefrenchnavy.restauravia.fr/ ... ns.htm#Avi

It is frustrating without ramp access to figure out the parking, I was trying to do the same with MCAS New River. Had Google Earth open and random Facebook pics to match hangars. Oceana and Lemoore are somewhat easier with the squadron logo on the hangar doors and mostly accurate parking.

Thanks for that, Ill explore the French scenery after I've done a bit more work on the Greyhound. I thought it was just the nose that was a different shape, but in fact it needs a whole new fuselage. The parking puzzle at Norfolk and Point Mugu I can guess. It's a pity I haven't been able to paint the "Screwtops". You can see those aircraft parked in Google Earth easily from the spirals on the radome. At least then, I can avoid those spots.

John

Got the latest copy of “Airforces Monthly” through my letterbox this morning (issue 385 April) and it has a very good article on the E2 fleet.

Thanks Pete, if there is anything that indicates the current paint scheme of VAW-123 (Screwtops) that would be good. The serials according to Scramble are: 164485, 1658121, 165822, 165826, and 165827.

John

The only serials mentioned as VAW-123 are:
165299 - E-2C (Group II NAV upgrade) (600 on nose AB on tail)
165822 - You already have (was a VAW 117 bird)

That's the problem Pete. Nothing is consistent.

John

The other problem, there is no indication of when the image was taken. But hopefully more information will lessen the uncertainty.

The Greyhound that I thought would be straight forward, was far from it. However, I think I've got there:









These are two examples from VAW-120 and there are a further four more from that Squadron that I'll number up next. I'll also check around to see if there are any others I particularly want to paint. If not, I'll press on with putting the Hawkeyes and Greyhounds into scenery and making flight plans.

John

It may not have been straightforward but the results are excellent

petebramley wrote: ↑27 Mar 2020, 18:50 It may not have been straightforward but the results are excellent

Could not agree more....fantastic job..

Jim

Looking forward to these beauties !

CODs! Funny, the April issue of AirForces Monthly has an article on the USN E-2s.

TheFoufure wrote: ↑15 Mar 2020, 16:43 For the French exemple, all are based at Lorient/Lann-Bihoué (LFRH). The only sceneries I find for this airbase are here : http://www.mirage4fs.com/scenery.html (One for FSX by Tony Mezieres, and one for FS9 from Jean-Jacques Herve (old FS2002 with Fs2004 afca)).

You can also use the Charles De Gaule Carrier scenery (available in the MAIW French Rafale pack) for a least one exemple.

I find an other LFRH Lorient scenery here : http://lfrh.simu.free.fr/download.htm

TheFoufure wrote: ↑27 Mar 2020, 22:01

TheFoufure wrote: ↑15 Mar 2020, 16:43 For the French exemple, all are based at Lorient/Lann-Bihoué (LFRH). The only sceneries I find for this airbase are here : http://www.mirage4fs.com/scenery.html (One for FSX by Tony Mezieres, and one for FS9 from Jean-Jacques Herve (old FS2002 with Fs2004 afca)).

You can also use the Charles De Gaule Carrier scenery (available in the MAIW French Rafale pack) for a least one exemple.

I find an other LFRH Lorient scenery here : http://lfrh.simu.free.fr/download.htm

I just test this scenery.... very poor. Not to use.

From the E-2 Hawkeye, is it possible to envisage an extrapolation with the KJ-600 model from China Navy ? It is very similar... china copy from E-2C.

Thanks.

Probably not. I'm finding this challenging enough keeping my head around 22 models (11 for FS9 + 11 for FSX/P3Dv4) already.

However, if you want to supply the scenery and flight plans for the 3 sim versions, I'll explore it a bit more.

John