JYAI MH-6M “Little Bird”
Posted: 26 Nov 2021, 14:49
For those that like US Army helicopters, Menno van den Boogaard’s AI package of Fort Campbell, Kentucky is one add-on to have. Not only does it feature detailed scenery, but several nearby training airfields too. These airfields provide destinations for a wealth of Apache, Blackhawk and Chinook AI traffic - possibly one of the most intense scenarios I have seen:
The base is home to the US Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) and the 101st Aviation Regiment that, between them, fly the helicopter types mentioned above. However the one helicopter that is missing from the package, is the MH-6M “Little Bird”, flown by 160th SOAR. I discussed this with Menno and although it was on his to do list, he was happy for me to press ahead with it. Although his scenery was built for FS9, again, with his agreement, it has been made to work in FSX, P3Dv4 and P3Dv5 also, with the minimum of changes. Tim has kindly done the P3Dv5 conversion.
I actually started work on the Little Bird models a few weeks ago, while Tim was still working on the Ahlhorn scenery for the NF-11 Meteors. All is now complete and the vacant ramp area at Fort Campbell, is now populated with 18 MH-6M’s that fly circuits of Fort Campbell, or travel out to the training airfields.
3 models are included in the packages (FS9 and FSX/P3Dv4 and v5) – an unarmed version, an armed version with guns and rocket launchers and a version that carries 4 soldiers externally. The version with 4 soldiers was not the easiest of models to make and the figures themselves add nearly 3000 polygons to the count. The heads are animated which helps, but I’m not totally happy with them. I won't be offended if users prefer to substitute either of the two other models in the aircraft.cfg file entries instead.
So, that’s another gap filled. I think it was Chris who suggested the model (M500) and that's another wish fulfilled. My thanks to Menno of course for providing the home and inspiration for the new models. Everything is documented and packaged up, but I’m just going to sit on the zips for a couple of days before uploading. I’ve left things out of recent uploads and I just want to try and make sure I don’t do the same again.
John
The base is home to the US Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) and the 101st Aviation Regiment that, between them, fly the helicopter types mentioned above. However the one helicopter that is missing from the package, is the MH-6M “Little Bird”, flown by 160th SOAR. I discussed this with Menno and although it was on his to do list, he was happy for me to press ahead with it. Although his scenery was built for FS9, again, with his agreement, it has been made to work in FSX, P3Dv4 and P3Dv5 also, with the minimum of changes. Tim has kindly done the P3Dv5 conversion.
I actually started work on the Little Bird models a few weeks ago, while Tim was still working on the Ahlhorn scenery for the NF-11 Meteors. All is now complete and the vacant ramp area at Fort Campbell, is now populated with 18 MH-6M’s that fly circuits of Fort Campbell, or travel out to the training airfields.
3 models are included in the packages (FS9 and FSX/P3Dv4 and v5) – an unarmed version, an armed version with guns and rocket launchers and a version that carries 4 soldiers externally. The version with 4 soldiers was not the easiest of models to make and the figures themselves add nearly 3000 polygons to the count. The heads are animated which helps, but I’m not totally happy with them. I won't be offended if users prefer to substitute either of the two other models in the aircraft.cfg file entries instead.
So, that’s another gap filled. I think it was Chris who suggested the model (M500) and that's another wish fulfilled. My thanks to Menno of course for providing the home and inspiration for the new models. Everything is documented and packaged up, but I’m just going to sit on the zips for a couple of days before uploading. I’ve left things out of recent uploads and I just want to try and make sure I don’t do the same again.
John
