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
