FastCargo

Amateurs! My first flight sim was Flight Simulator...for the Timex Sinclair ZX81 in 1982. Written in BASIC...loaded with a cassette tape. And just about every one since then I've at least tried...at least until there started being reviews and I started being picky.... FastCargo

HA! You MUST be joking! I am mister joe average...not the 'hot stick', but not 'that guy' either... Pass checkrides, usually get a 'commendable' in a few places, that kind of thing... Besides, it's my yearly airliner checkride I have next week...just had my recur Qual check last week. Only 3 more military checkrides to go... On to other things. I know the Saegheh version I did is somewhat fictional (there have been no pictures of a 2 seat version of that aircraft). However, if everyone has noticed, all the aircraft I've showed so far have been 2 seaters. And all are based on the initial T-38 model I completed sometime ago. In order of progression: T-38A - Original model AT-38B - (From T-38A) Added centerline pylon, expanded 'Drag Chute housing slightly', added HUD, ini edits for centerline pylon. Time = 1 hour T-38C - (From T-38A) Modifed intakes, remapped same area, added HUD, shrank nozzle connectors, added and moved antennas. Time = 2 hours F-5B - (From AT-38B) Modifed intakes, added LERXs, leading edge slats, expanded center pylon, added wingtip rails, 4 underwing pylons, tailhook. Expanded Drag Chute housing and deleted nozzle connector. Thickened wheels. Remapped all changed areas, especially intakes. Added ini edits to incorperate new pylons. Time = 6 hours F-5F - (From F-5B) - Stretched and recontoured nose and spine. Stretched and widened engine 'box'. 'Squeezed' cockpit area. New gear doors, speedbrakes. Thickened landing gear and wings. Modified vertical stab. Nose cannon installed. Extensive changes requiring redo of entire texture mapping. Time = 12 hours. Saegheh - (From F-5F) - Duplicated and moved vertical fins. Recontoured intakes. Time = 2 hours. As the models have progressed away from the T-38 original, the time invested has gone up geometrically. And notice that the changes just haven't been that extensive. However, some of the most complex parts are the cockpit areas. Trying to do a single seat Saegheh would pretty much require a whole new nose section to build the canopy/cockpit from. And building the F-20 would pretty much require a whole new engine 'box' area plus the new nose/cockpit derived from the single seat Saegheh. An easier task would be to start with the MF F-5E model and go from there instead. You can see the task I would be up against. No wonder guys tend to want to have their own models instead...it's actually a bit difficult sometimes to try to modify an existing model, especially if you aren't the one that built it... So just givin some feedback there folks. Speaking of which...I've made a decision on the cockpits. All of the aircraft in the release that can either drop bombs/shoot missiles/guns or have a HUD will default flying from the front seat. For the F-5B,F-5F and Saegheh (which will be Iranian), because cockpits exist from their single seater stablemates, the user will have to have the MF F-5A/C/E to have cockpits. I will include inis for the F-5s/Saegheh to allow the MF cockpits to be used but I WILL NOT be supplying cockpits. This is predicated on the MF not having a problem with me doing this. The T-38s on the other hand will have cockpits built by me. The B and C model will be front seat...but the A model will be rear seat. There will be alternate inis provided to allow flying from the other seat, but it won't be quite so 'neat and tidy'. Hopefully, this will cut my workload down a bit. FastCargo

Stratos, You could try making them yourself. It's tougher without templates...but certainly not impossible. Use GIMP...it's a open source painting program that works with layers. Give it a shot! FastCargo

Yep, Mustang's tutorials were invaluable in helping me... FastCargo

You haven't been watching Battlestar Galactica then... FastCargo

On Wednesday I made a personal goal of 3000 hours in the T-38. And just in time, the patches I designed arrived the day after... So everyone gets to celebrate...at 5 dollars a patch of course... Anyway, I figured I'd share...just another way of saying I'm old! FastCargo

Hahaha! The only way I can own that is if I buy it for my PSP... FastCargo

Hehe...the 38 has a glass partition between the seats...so no direct slapping. However, a 'canopy slap' is almost as good. Simply take the aircraft, fly straight and level for a bit, then go full stick deflection left or right and enjoy the satisfying 'clonk!' as the student's head hits the canopy... Now, I have NEVER done this on purpose...usually it was a 'Oh ****!!' moment while I was flying where I needed to quickly roll left or right (usually birds in the face...though the occasional excessive formation closure rate problem would be another reason) and the student wasn't ready and so he got surprised. But boy, I've sure thought about it sometimes...makes me all warm and fuzzy... . FastCargo

That's the problem with a writer's strike. FastCargo

Thanks folks! 3000k in type doesn't sound like a lot until you realize it was done an average of one flight per hour of time. And that doesn't include the multiple landings per flight... Anyway, the patches you see were totally designed by me. When I first realized I was coming up on 3000 hour mark, I started researching and realized there were no 'hours' patches that existed for the T-38...at least not in recent history. So I decided to make one! Then I figured there might be a market for them since they didn't seem to exist at all. Totally selfish...but sales haven't been bad so far. My goal (besides recouping my cost of having them created) is to make this patch the 'standard' among the T-38 aircrew across all services and operators (ACC, AFMC, USN, NASA, etc.). Sort of my legacy to the T-38 world... At Randolph AFB...been there about 4 years as a reservist. Military...about 3630 hours total time including my student time. Civilian...about 1770 hours total time with FedEx. I have some other time in various things, but too small to really count for anything.

Lexx, Glad you popped up in this thread...your various threads on the TW forum is what enabled me to consider the idea in the first place. The screenshots I have posted are from the actual aircraft model flown from the 'inside'. I deliberately made the interior more detailed than needed in order to make it look 'better' to be flown from the front or back seat (3 dimensional canopy parts, detailed shapes of the ejection seat, etc). However, it isn't a matter of making it look passable from either seat. I want it to look CORRECT to the best of my ability. Which requires another level of detail up from what I would be willing to put on the external model. The real cockpits are different from each other. I don't like the idea of a generic cockpit because it wouldn't look right... Now, having said that...being that 2 of the aircraft are unarmed, flying from the front wouldn't really be much different from flying any other aircraft with no weapons (except in the case of air racing...or recon). So how to make it challenging? Fly it from the back. Try landing smoothly from the back...or hooking up to the tanker... Or a better challenge. In the AT-38B (which is armed) and T-38C (which is not), IFF instructors teach guys how to do ACM, but the instructor is teaching from the back seat...not just talking, but actually flying the aircraft. Including getting a guns solution...and they still have no HUD back there. They do it eyeball style. That would be a challenge...keeping tally on your target 'through' the student's nugget. I guess the only reason I bring it up is that flying a 2 seater from the front seat only seems kind of dull...why have a 2 seater (assuming it's not a WSO/RIO setup, like in F-14s, F-4s, etc) if you can't see what it's like back there? However, the view from the front is such a nice one...and having a HUD (especially in the F-5, where you're doing all sorts of weapons stuff) would be nice... Please keep the comments coming. FastCargo

The issue isn't if it's possible. The issue is if I want to build EIGHT separate cockpits...I could see myself getting burnt out with the whole project long before that. FastCargo

Both the GBU-39 and GBU-40 are GPS guided in the real world. However, GPS guidance is good for non-mobile targets (the bomb is simply hitting a preprogrammed coordinate). That's why the GBU-40 was developed. It uses GPS guidance to get to the general area, but uses a terminal phase infrared sensor to update tracking info to hit a mobile target. Gocad is correct as far as the simulation engine is concerned. Please put your Sunburn question in the Sunburn support thread, that way others can benefit. JSOW - '2 weeks'. FastCargo

Jeez Lexx, a flying trash collector with all those addons...:). Nice improv though. FastCargo

Ah....Abbotsford. They treat you right at that airshow. Did that show 3 years runnin... FastCargo

For discussions like this, please head over to here: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showforum=155 Air Combat School for all simulations. I'll let this thread stay here tonite...then move it over to the Air Combat School forum. FastCargo

Heh, yeah, Rutger Hauer and Kim Catrall... "Need big guns, big f**kin guns, ... no, no not big enough..."(muttering while going a shotgun rack...) "Now you've got him talking like you!" FastCargo

Hey guys, First aircraft project of which some of you have seen teasers. Don't get TOO excited...I expect to be at release by Christmas...2008. So don't ask for updates either! On to the screenshots! Debating if I'm going to implement this...moveable canopies. Tested here as airspeed dependent. (Aircraft is not ground stable yet...that's why the wierd angle). I may just leave the animation in place and let end users put in the ini entries. You will be able to see the engine faces but barely for the A model...which is true in real life. The C model will be easier to see. Will probably not make spinning blades. The real aircraft has stator vanes at the front that mask most of the spinning parts. Classic lines...ignore the decal. I'm using the F-5A as a basis for testing...using the layouts to get an idea on how to skin, decal, etc. Has animated nozzles...just have to tweak the ini entries a bit. Has decent detail on the landing gear, and full animation, including shock struts and nose wheel steering. The model is sitting at just under 22000 polygons. My goal is under 25k for the entire external model. If it starts cresting that, I'll start taking out some detail. Still have to put on little bits (antennas, pitot tube, etc) plus figure out how much to put in the cockpit area. I've run into a snag already with the 'bubble' that sits around the cockpit viewpoint, which cuts out some stuff I wanted people to see...plus makes a 'rear cockpit' view harder to implement. That's it for now...I'm taking a break! FastCargo