Naval aviation in X-Plane?

[Tregarth 0]

I have just made the move from FSX/P3D where there are a great amount of websites and add-ons devoted to naval aviation i.e. carriers, gauges, aircraft, carrier landing training scenery etc.  Are there similar websites in X-Plane?  If so can you please point me at them?  I have landed the default Cessna on the default USS Nimitz but am now looking for other planes, carriers etc.

I have asked X-plane who have suggested I use Google but Google is not that helpful.

Thank you

Tregarth

[Janov 2,383]

I am not aware of any sites dedicated to naval operation in X-Plane.

Naval ops in X-Plane is fairly basic. There is one Nimitz class carrier and a Perry class frigate.

The Nimitz has a working Fresnel lens system, although it is fairly hard to see unless you run X-Plane with a high resolution. The arresting gear works, but you won´t see the wires get snapped up by the hook. A big shortcoming, I feel.

There is also a basic "AI" LSO on duty who will give you (not very helpful) voice commands.

The carrier does not sport moving elevators, no AI traffic, you can´t see the catapult shuttles move and there is no steam from the catapults.

The frigate has a deck for helicopters together with a basic lighting system that helps during landings.

Both ships will pitch in the sea, which makes landings more realistic.

There have been various problems with the moving ships with ground-physics interaction (i.e. planes skittering across the deck), also with the replay, but I think most of that works ok now.

You also can´t "control" the ships, they will simply appear when there is enough water and drive about as they please.

You CAN place those ships as objects when making scenery, in that case they are simply static. Not sure if the catapult or arresting gear works on those static ships.

Cheers, Jan

 

[Tregarth 0]

Thank you, you have confirmed my doubts.  I have found the carrier which is OK (just).

I think that for naval aviation P3D is light years ahead of X Plane, simply because FSX/P3D have been going for longer and so have developed a thriving naval aviation community .  No doubt XP will catch up in time.

In the meantime if you want to fly civil - X Plane, if you want to fly naval - FSX/P3D.  Hopefully someone will prove me wrong.

Regards,

Tregarth

[Humpty 751]

what exactly do you mean by Naval Operations ?   Do you mean Carrier based aircraft ? or Carriers ?? 

Well then hands down to DCS with the Su-33 / F-18 / Harrier with amazing heli landings in bad Wx . Nothing will come close.

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

6 minutes ago, HumptyDumpty said:

what exactly do you mean by Naval Operations ?   Do you mean Carrier based aircraft ? or Carriers ?? 

Well then hands down to DCS with the Su-33 / F-18 / Harrier with amazing heli landings in bad Wx . Nothing will come close.

Exactly this.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Also there is the Phantom which is a nice choice, but I have not flown it from a carrier yet.  Also for kicks try the Aerolight 103 ultralight, be sure to put in one notch of flaps.  You can probably take off and land before you even clear the deck.

John

[Paraffin 2,197]

Yes, I was about to suggest DCS too. Military aviation is the primary focus there.

As one alternative to modern carrier ops, you could go for vintage scenarios in X-Plane with the Khamsin "Pacific Islands Airfields - WW2" payware scenery, using some of the pretty good payware like the Corsair F4-U and B-25 Mitchell. Maybe try getting the B-25 off the Nimitz to recreate the Doolittle raid. 🙂

[jcomm 5,936]

I prefer War Thunder, by far!

Lot's of available amphibious aircraft and other vehicles, plus all sorts of boats.

Scenery is great, runs really smooth!

Free-2-Play !!!!!

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by Von Target

[mjrhealth 820]

There is a payware FA18 which is quiet good, but ye, naval aviation sucks in xplane. And i assume p3d got a port over of the work done in FSX which was quiet amazing in the end with the LSO and tracking and grading of landing .

[jt8d9a 1,881]

Carrier ops are fun with XP. I can fully recommend the Colimata FA-18F.

[Tregarth 0]

Thanks for this. Yes, I have been looking hard at DCS but they only have the SuperHornet (for naval), which no doubt is very good but also not cheap.  In contrast FSX/P3D has a world of support which, as mjrhealth said, has been ported over from FSX.

To answer HumptyDumpty by naval aviation I mean a choice of aircraft, choice of carriers, choice of landing grounds, choice of landing gauges,  It also has a Deck Landing Control Officer and a virtual Landing Signal Officer who will grade your landings.  Much of this is freeware.

Unfortunately, X Plane does not even know of many of these things.  I am not knocking XP, it is just that P3D has a long history which XP has not yet built up.  Probably, in time it will, but for now for the reasons shown above, P3D is better.

I will probably continue with XP for civil flying, and use P3D for naval, which I think is more challenging.

Regards,

Tregarth

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Tregarth