This week's highly anticipated flight will begin with a tour of the principal military airfields in the south of England, and will culminate in a run round the famous "Mach Loop" low-level training area in Wales.

 

We'll begin at MoD Boscombe Down, the UK's aircraft testing centre and home of the Empire Test Pilots School.  Our first stop will be RAF Brize Norton, a military transport hub. Next we visit the former RAF Wattisham, which was a front-line fighter base for Lightnings and Phantoms (Ron, we expect a guided tour!).  We will call in at RAF Lakenheath, home of the USAF's 48th Fighter Wing before making our way north to RAF Coningsby, home of the Eurofighter Typhoon and of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and then RAF Waddington before we head west into Wales to the Mach Loop, named after the nearby village of Machynlleth.  After a lap or 2 (or 3) of the loop terrifying the local ovine population, we can then finish at RAF Valley on the isle of Anglesey.

 

Aircraft suggestions have been covered in a separate post.

 

Flight plans

FSX

Plan-G

 

Scenery

Nothing special required; Orbx England & Wales are likely to enhance the experience, as does the FTX Global + Vector + EU Landclass + Mesh package.  A decent mesh is probably advisable; if you don't already have something applicable to the UK, there is a freeware UK mesh in the AVSIM library.

 

Freeware enhancements: there are a number of worthwhile freeware airfield enhancements available:

RAF Wattisham - ACG

RAF Coningsby - ACG

RAF Waddington - John Young

RAF Valley - MSPG

... and even a small scenery adding aircraft spotters at various points on the Mach Loop! (thanks MSPG and Mike)

 

Date and time: Saturday 17 September 2016, 1800 UTC

 

Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Multiplayer: FSX Multiplayer (IP will be provided on Teamspeak)

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet! (linked here)

Note to Ron: Please set server time to 1100 Local, and I suggest turning the date back to August, as I got some very strange looking autumn textures when I tried it using the real date!

Nick.

 

Thanks so much! Will "pre" -prepare #2. 
For those that have "RTW Race Team" under their avatar, I will be looking forward to your Duenna reports.  

Ha! - May you have excellent flights gents.

Edit - Nick, may you smoke them "kitty kats" . Cmon really? 

Edit - Nick, may you smoke them "kitty kats" . Cmon really?

 

 

LOL!  I was working on flying the RAZBAM Harrier for this one, but I'm really not familiar enough with it yet (especially if anyone demands to see a vertical landing).  So it's going to be the Phantom, which thanks to our SE Asia experiences is the jet I'm most comfortable in now.  And yes, it can fly along happily at <300kts, I found that if you don't push those two levers on the left all the way forward, you don't go as fast....

 

I'll try to remember the duenna when we leave Waddington!

Slightly off the subject, but has anyone been able to get the F4 Phantom AI to work at RAF Wattisham, freeware version, that is?  I've run through all the checks, but no joy. 

For Aero Vodochodny pilots, here is a review of the LotusSim L-39C by Greg Morris. Based in Illinois, Morris is a professional flight instructor for the Albatros. You will by now feel pretty comfortable with the aircraft and will recognize much of what he says. One nice feature of this piece is his detailed instruction for speeds in different flight regimes.

And for those who have not yet seen them, here and here and here are three YouTube videos of GA pilots learning to fly the L-39C in New Mexico. The coaching from the instructor should seem familiar by now. And a few of his hints might be worthwhile.

Thanks for these, Mike.  The review by Greg Morris was most interesting.  He points out many features we sim pilots have learned already.  I wish he had referenced km/h instead of knots, however, since the sim aircraft airspeed indicator is calibrated in km/h.

Slightly off the subject, but has anyone been able to get the F4 Phantom AI to work at RAF Wattisham, freeware version, that is?  I've run through all the checks, but no joy. 

 

Stew, I have the AI Phantoms package working at Wattisham so confirm it can do what it's supposed to.  It was a while ago that I set it up so don't remember every step but don't think it was much of a struggle.  Even managed to change half the Phantoms to Lightnings so both are stationed there.

 

The thing about AI that often trips me up is that if you have a FS2004 traffic file present anywhere in your sim, it means no FSX traffic file will work (at least that's what I understand, someone correct me if I'm wrong).  You can have one format or the other, but not a mixture of both.

Nick is 100% correct. Any FS9 traffic bgl will ruin traffic in FSX. 
AI Flight planner can easily fix this for you. "Bulk Traffic" menu, "Convert FS9 Traffic Files to FSX" 

 

 

For Aero Vodochodny pilots, here is a review of the LotusSim L-39C by Greg Morris

 

Interesting read Mike. It explains why I failed to complete a loop despite my pulling back on the stick like a man possessed! :rolleyes:

Nick, for my sins and in a moment of weakness in the small hours, I got the Phantom. Haven't flown it yet, too skeert. I don't see a 56 sqn paint anywhere. Where did you get it? I've searched all the usual places.

Nick, for my sins and in a moment of weakness in the small hours, I got the Phantom. Haven't flown it yet, too skeert. I don't see a 56 sqn paint anywhere. Where did you get it? I've searched all the usual places.

 

Lol, well done Ron!

 

56 Sqn paint is over on flightsim.com, link here.

 

Edit: proxy for those who don't have the Milviz Phantom now available here.

Stew, I have the AI Phantoms package working at Wattisham so confirm it can do what it's supposed to.  It was a while ago that I set it up so don't remember every step but don't think it was much of a struggle.  Even managed to change half the Phantoms to Lightnings so both are stationed there.

 

The thing about AI that often trips me up is that if you have a FS2004 traffic file present anywhere in your sim, it means no FSX traffic file will work (at least that's what I understand, someone correct me if I'm wrong).  You can have one format or the other, but not a mixture of both.

Nick and Roman,  If I had any FS9 traffic files present, I wouldn't be able to see *any* AI, correct?  However, I see plenty, all the time, both GA and airliners.  That's why I'm puzzled.  Also, I temporarily took away all aircraft traffic files (I think) from .../Scenery/World/Scenery and still no Phantoms AI at Wattisham.  I'm stumped, but may try Roman's suggestion with the AI Flight Planner.  <Sigh> Another piece of software to learn how to use. 

Cheers Nick. On the subject of the add-on scenery, in particular RAF Valley, an evening landing there provides the biggest light show I have ever seen. I'm sure it can be seen from outer space!

BTW, does anyone know why Internet Explorer doesn't allow me to quote another's post? 

Should I have the Flight Planner convert *all* FS9 files, or just the aircraft.  It found some boat traffic for FS9.....

 

And how come, if I have some FS9 traffic files, I still have lots of AI flying around???

Should I have the Flight Planner convert *all* FS9 files, or just the aircraft.  It found some boat traffic for FS9.....

 

And how come, if I have some FS9 traffic files, I still have lots of AI flying around???

 

What is the source of the AI that you see?  Is it the FSX default AI, or a commercial AI package, or various individual packages that you've added?

 

As I understand it...  if you have any FS9 traffic bgl's in your FSX installation then you will still see the all the FS9 traffic, but any FSX traffic bgl's won't show up.  So you can still have lots of AI, it will be all the stuff from the FS9 bgl's.

 

The FS9 boat traffic file should mean that no FSX traffic files will show up.  Solution is either to convert the Wattisham traffic to FS9 format using TrafficTools or something similar, or convert your FS9 bgl's to FSX.