Warbirds Scramble over Wanaka
For February 25, 2023
Michael MacKuen

We shall have some fun flying warbirds over New Zealand’s South Island. And in the process, we shall get a quick look a the new World Update scheduled for Thursday, February 23, 2023. We shall start at Wanaka [NZWF] which hosts the famous biennial “Warbirds over Wanaka” airshow. This will be a Scramble where the participating pilots will choose the route toward the final destination.



This event will be slightly more “structured” than those in the past. Because we want to get a look at the scenery, we might try to get to some of the new stuff. This includes Milford Sound [NZMF] and Lake Tekapo [NZTL]. With the new detailed mesh, we will want to look at Mount Cook and the Southern Alps – as well as the rugged terrain of Fiordland. We might return to Wanaka for the airshow. Or we might head off to see something else. The joys of a Scramble.

In addition, I shall provide a collection of freeware airports (most modest improvements) that will potentially enhance our visual experience if we select them as landings. These are not in any way required. And there are several default airports that might prove attractive intermediate stops as well.

The Scramble Setup
The “instigator” takes the lead by announcing the initial departure airport to set the stage before the event begins. On the day of the event, he will write down the names of the arriving participants and then randomly order those names in a sequenced “planner roster”. At departure time, the list will be published on TeamSpeak. Participants who join after the beginning will be added at the end of the list.

Then, at the start time, the instigator will announce the first destination. We shall fly to that airport. When everyone arrives, the next name on the ordered list becomes the next “planner” who will announce the next destination. We repeat the process until the ordered list is exhausted at which time we cycle back to the original planner. And so forth until we are done.

Notes.
- Having the list openly available will allow the next “planner” a little extra time to choose the next leg. As soon as he knows the airport from which to depart, he can begin to think about a suitable subsequent destination. There is no hurry to do this quickly. And this week we might take more time than is necessary while we work on how to do this well.
- Any pilot may “pass” on taking the planner role, either on a particular turn or altogether, as he wishes. (Pilots who have only limited access to a map may find it difficult to pick suitable airports “on the fly”.)
- Legs may follow any pattern. They may move in a single direction or they may veer left or right or may double back to create a jumble of directions.
- For this week, legs should be no more than 80-90nm. And we might try to favor airports that are sufficiently long to accommodate our warbirds-say 2,500-3,000ft.
- We shall want to take it easy. Shorter rather than longer flights. No hurry to choose destinations. A light playful touch will make the experience more fun.

Documentation
There is no actual flightplan. I have included a pseudo-plan from Wanaka that provides an overview of the South Island: available here. In our time frame, we probably cannot circumnavigate the entire island – but can fly over quite a variety of dramatic vistas.

Aircraft
This is a “Warbirds” flight. Popular choices include Flying Iron’s Supermarine Spitfire IX, Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat and Lockheed P-38L Lightning, the Milviz/Blackbird Goodyear FG-1D Corsair, and the Aeroplane Heaven Supermarine Spitfire I and North American P-51 Mustang. (There are other good MFS aircraft which would be excellent for this mission.) I shall choose the Flying Iron Spitfire in Jan Kees Blom’s Colin Grey livery. (Colin Falkland Gray was a charismatic Spitfire ace and squadron leader and wing commander – and a native New Zealander.) As ever, please fly what you like.

Additional Scenery
None necessary. We shall limit ourselves to airports already in the default simulator. Feel free to use any addon scenery that you like but understand that others may not have that scenery. Because we do not know where we shall go, there is no way to plan ahead.  (I have made available a package of 14 freeware airports here. Happily, the package is not too large. All these airports are ok but a few are borderline small for warbirds. Thanks to the talented authors!)

The New Zealand World Update 12 should include quality renditions of Milford Sound, Westport, and Tekapo. If these disappoint, there are high quality freeware versions available at Flightsim.to. (If you have these freeware addons installed, you might deactivate them before World Update 12 arrives.)

Time and Weather
For takeoff on Saturday, set the simulator at 3:00 pm local for February 25, 2023. This is a late summer afternoon in New Zealand. We typically prefer real weather. (There is an Asobo real weather glitch on the west coast. If this persists in WU12, we’ll switch to ”Clear Skies” or “High Clouds” to avoid the incorrect summertime snow cover.)

Multiplayer Particulars
Date and time: Saturday, February 25, 2023. 1900 UTC
Where: AVSIM RTWR Teamspeak - Casual Flights Channel
Teamspeak Server Address: ts.teamavsim.com
Microsoft Flight Simulator Multiplayer: United States East server. (If too crowded, we may choose another server with less South Island traffic.)

If you want to help others enjoy the multiplayer experience, don't forget to enter your aircraft details on the multiplayer spreadsheet (linked here). Your courtesy will save others a lot of time and effort. Thanks!

Coming over from the dark side and still in the land of the living, I'd like to join into a flight soon.  Bert has helped me though a bunch of hurdles. And I was able to get other help online to get all my Saitek hardware working, finally...this makes a huge difference.

But, I do not have any payware planes yet, and as soon as I start looking I find I have to groan, while it may not seem like much, as soon as you start saying I want one of those, and one of those, and one of those, you are into $100s. 

I'm thinking I will skip this one until I get my hanger sorted out.

57 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

I'm thinking I will skip this one until I get my hanger sorted out.

Your Gotgravel Vertigo will do the job until you get a Spitfire installed.. 😉

The only downside with these kind of flights is that you may see others in airliners... MSFS model matching is not very good..

If you did not already get the Vertigo.. there may be a delay (contact me for copy..)

Quote from GotFriends:

In line with the above, the Savage Grravel, Savage Carbon, Monster NXCub and Vertigo are no longer listed on flightsim.to. They will of course be available soon on www.got-friends.com. A big thanks to the MSFS community for loving these free mods so much and for the ludicrous download count (over 230,000). You are amazing!

 

Edited February 21, 20233 yr by Bert Pieke

1 hour ago, Bert Pieke said:

Quote from GotFriends:

In line with the above, the Savage Grravel, Savage Carbon, Monster NXCub and Vertigo are no longer listed on flightsim.to. They will of course be available soon on www.got-friends.com. A big thanks to the MSFS community for loving these free mods so much and for the ludicrous download count (over 230,000). You are amazing!

 

Based upon your recommendation, I got them from TO and installed, the vertigo, goes like a bat out of hell.

 

41 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

Based upon your recommendation, I got them from TO and installed, the vertigo, goes like a bat out of hell.

 

See you Saturday... I'll fly my Vertigo as well. 🙂

Wish I could join you, this one looks especially fun. Have a great flight gentlemen...or ladies (don't want to make any assumptions).

We shall miss you Steve. (If you do pop in, we may have switched servers to Northern Europe or Southeast Asia - to avoid the crowd gawking at the new scenery.)

51 minutes ago, MM said:

to avoid the crowd gawking at the new scenery.)

I went to Milford Sound last night and it was hilarious. The amount of 310s (or whatever they were) was staggering. People wandering about gawping at the scenery. Pathetic.

Wait a minute, I was one of those plonkers! Doh!

Thanks for the wry wisdom, Ron. Right on target.😉

--

New Zealand WU12 Airports and Mesh to Disable

The Microsoft NZ new World Update 12 airports are:
 

NZGS Gisborne
NZMF Milford Sound
NZMJ Martins Bay
NZQU Gorge River
NZRO Rotorua
NZTL Tekapo
NZWR Whangarei
NZWS Westport
T004 Quinton Lodge

Probably a good idea to disable any freeware you have for these airports when you install the WU12. The now-default sceneries are pretty good.

Similarly, you might temporarily disable the Orbx New Zealand Mesh if you have it. On a quick tour, the new WU12 New Zealand Mesh looks very good. (In some areas, it has 1m mesh.)

Past history indicates that if you are dissatisfied with the WU12 versions, then you might be able to replace them with the freeware versions which might work well enough. (The NZA team made NZRO, NZTL, and NZWS for WU12. They have indicated that they will offer a freeware “update” that will add more detail via the NZA Library. The updates for NZRO and NZWS have just now been published as freeware. Available at Flightsim.to here and here.)

Early testing indicates that other previously installed freeware will work with the updated New Zealand. Maybe some small glitches due to changes in the underlying photoreal textures, but not showstoppers.

And the NZA Simulations Nelson (NZNS) and Mt Cook (NZMC) payware projects are likewise fine. (These two are now on sale at the NZA site.) Their brand new Christchurch (NZCH) looks to be a top-level large airport to join Mir’s Wellington and Auckland.

 

Just in case one might want a warbird but doesn't have one..there are a few ok freeware birds at https://flightsim.to/profile/Fsadni/uploads  (P-40, Hawker Hurricane, BF109, Focke-Wulf FW190, Dornier DO335)

 

Norm