Phine Photos of Phabulous New Phantom Phor Phflightsim

Here are some shots of the latest addition to my FSX hangar - the new Navy F4B "Phantom II" for FSX and P3D from Simworks Studios. The airplane is currently available as a payware open beta version so there will most likely be some further "peak and tweak" type changes in the final release.

 

The model also includes a very detailed AI version of the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CV43) to use for carrier takeoffs and landings and the airplane is TacPack enabled so you can load and fire various weapons if you have the TacPack payware package

 

In this series we're flying an F4B from Fighter Squadron 111 (VF111) "the Sundowners" out of Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego, California. These shots would be from sometime in the late 1960s

 

[click on the images for a full screen view]

 

Ready for takeoff on an offshore training mission from Runway 24L at Miramar. Back in the day Miramar was known as "Fightertown USA." It's now a Marine Corps Air STation

 

Lined up and looking down the runway from the front cockpit (pay no attention to those "Generator Off" lights on the upper right side panel!!! :D:D:D)

 

The Radar Intercept Officer's (RIO) rear cockpit displays and controls

 

Taking off in full afterburner. In the real world this would probably generate some noise complaints from residents of the surrounding suburban communities that have grown up around the air station - but here in FS it's no prob. "Noise restrictions? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING NOISE RESTRICTIONS!!" :D:D:D

 

Our shadow chases us on the ground as we rapidly climb out

 

Turning to head out over the Pacific to the offshore training areas we can see Point Loma coming up on the left and the buildings and runways of North island Naval Air Station in the distance on the North tip of Coronado Island with the "Silver Strand" stretching down the coast behind

 

We join up with and flyby the USS Coral Sea (CV43) our home aircraft carrier also operating in the training area

 

After landing on the Coral Sea our weapons loadout is changed for a CAP mission with 4 Sparrow III air to air missiles. Visible behind us is the Coral Sea's "island" with the stack trailing smoke and the mast with its array of rotating air and surface search radars and comm gear antennas

 

Moving forward we're getting positioned for launch on the starboard forward catapult

 

Another view of our position on the cat. Also shows the level of detail on the Coral Sea model

Nice ones! I had to clean the spit off my screen after reading your headline, but it was well worth it. Phantaspthic! :p — Bob

Thanks Bob - phorry phor the phspit :D:D

Super pics. of that great old fighter and the Coral Sea Bill. A very informative narrative also. :cool: :cool: :D

Great pics of my favorite of all time Bill. I have always like the F4B "Phantom II, as in Vietnam I was at the very tail of the Vietnam war as I turned 18 when the war ended still had to do the Post Office registration for the draft. But the plane had such arsenal power for it time. Thanks to all Service men & women in all Wars for their service so we can have our Freedom. Kenny

another phine phantom, nice shots! you know what really surprised me about this bird? since the thing is such a locomotive, I figured it wouild have an equally massive cockpit. nope. getting in was like squeezing into a support sock. tomcat on the other hand, very roomy. found that out at the nas museum in Pensacola.

Phantasic, phine shots of the plane I used to work on!

The radar equipment in the phront and rear cockpits is beautifully rendered, no question. Does the radar work at all? Just wondering, we phixed a ton of them :D

Of course, we had nearly 30 planes in VMFAT-101, so we had a ton of work, especially when they came out with the AWG-10A. VERY unreliable! The '10C finally made them worth having in the plane though, as well as lightening out work load a great deal. As the stickers Westinghouse put out said: I aint afriad of no Hawg!

Thanks for a great post, and a lot of memories of working weekends and holidays :D

Pat☺

Larry, Kenny, Phil, & Pat - many thanks for looking and the great comments and r/w insight

 

 

The radar equipment in the phront and rear cockpits is beautifully rendered, no question. Does the radar work at all? Just wondering, we phixed a ton of them :D

Pat☺

 

Pat: the radar does work. With Tacpack installed you should be able to use it to find targets and fire weapons. So far all I've been able to do is turn it on :D:confused: Maybe if I read the manual it would help :D:D:D ("RTFM" as the saying goes)

 

Here's a couple of other shots - a USMC livery and some close ups of the RIO and Pilot radar displays and controls with the radar on. I don't know but it kind of looks like the pilot display is controlled by and just a repeater of the RIOs

 

[click for a full screen view]

 

 

 

I have to agree THE JUGGY PAINT JOB LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER!! :cool::cool::cool:

That looks like the newer, Air Force version of the radar control panel and the Pilot's and Rio's scopes. I saw them at Clark AB when we went on det there and I got bored one night and went into the AF hangar to have a glance at their stuff. I was able to fix their LRU-11 problem (display driver unit) using the the Beat the Heck Out It method. It had a problem sometimes that just needed a good thwack to fix.

On that version, yes, the pilot scope is just a repeater. In the Navy version, the pilot did have certain controls on the scope, like contrast, brightness, and I think range select. Either way, the RIO (Wizzo in the AF) did 99% of the works.

HOWEVER: After speaking with a number of RIO's and Wizzo's, both I learned that a lot of AF Pilots actually somewhat resented their Wizzo's presence in the plane at all. They were of the old school, "I'm a fighter Pilot, I don't need anybody in MY cockpit, darn it." Quite a few WIzzo's I spoke to had pretty much been told to "Get in, sit down, and shut up".

Yes, the Pilot has a cage switch, a cursor castle switch, and a control to lock onto a target on their stick and throttle, so they had limited use of the radar, but most just boresighted it, and locked on whatever target was in front of them.

I am not saying they were wrong, and some pilots let their Wizzo's fly, and land even, the aircraft (AF planes had duplicate controls in the rear cock[it), and even worked their Wizzo's quite well, or anything, but by essentially removing the Wizzo from "their" plane, they dramatically increased their workload, and decreased the radar's capabilities. Makes me wonder how some of those furballs they wound up in would have been different if they had worked together better :confused:

I'm just saying :)

Again, great pictures though! Thanks for posting them!

Sadly, I can't afford pretty much any payware, so until TacPac becomes freeware, I'm SOL :D But maybe someday!

Have phun phlying that great Phantom! :D

Pat☺

Have phun phlying that great Phantom! :D

Pat☺

 

Thanks for the info Pat - unfortunately I may not be flying anything for a while. I've suddenly developed an error message ("Error ID=28 Unable to install message filter") that prevents FSX from loading. Nothing seems to fix it (registry cleaning, etc.).

 

May have to uninstall and reload FSX :(:(:(:(:(:(

OH NO! I hope you get it sorted out.

I've never seen that error, and hope I never do, either! I am sure someone on the great phorum has though. I bet if you post a thread about it you will get an answer, hopefully not one requiring re-installation. That's a royal PITA!

Good luck! Get back into the cockpit soon!

Pat☺

[quote=PhantomTweak;"I'm a fighter Pilot, I don't need anybody in MY cockpit, darn it." Quite a few WIzzo's I spoke to had pretty much been told to "Get in, sit down, and shut up".

Yes, the Pilot has a cage switch, a cursor castle switch, and a control to lock onto a target on their stick and throttle, so they had limited use of the radar, but most just boresighted it, and locked on whatever target was in front of them.

I am not saying they were wrong, and some pilots let their Wizzo's fly, and land even, the aircraft (AF planes had duplicate controls in the rear cock[it), and even worked their Wizzo's quite well, or anything, but by essentially removing the Wizzo from "their" plane, they dramatically increased their workload, and decreased the radar's capabilities. Makes me wonder how some of those furballs they wound up in would have been different if they had worked together better :confused:

I'm just saying :)

 

Pat☺

 

Hey Pat I had a squadron CO that only flew the minimum hours to get his flight pay unless he could suck up by flying a VIP or Bob Hope hop. When he got in the plane he sat down in the HAC seat, which is the right seat in a chopper, and turned off his intercom. He made it very clear His H2P was there to fly the plane and to leave him the hell alone! He'd sit and look out the window and occasionally take pot shots at something with his "hog-leg" .44 Magnum pistol out the sliding side window. (No private weapons like the .44 aren't legal under the Geneva Convention then or now.)

 

The H2P had to monitor and tune all the radios, keep the charts, radio everyone, and oh yeah fly the plane as if he were flying solo! This is in combat mind you and often, except generally VIP hops, under enemy fire!! So much for the We're All On The Same Team concept!!:rolleyes:

Great display of NAVAIR Phantom Phabulousness here Bill! Miramar, have not been there since 1991, still was the Tomcat master jet base back then, oh the memories. Mike ;)

Thanks Mike!

Quality shots of one of my favorite fighters Bill, great job!! :)

Super shots of the Phantom Bill, great job :eek::eek::cool:

I've suddenly developed an error message ("Error ID=28 Unable to install message filter") that prevents FSX from loading.

 

Bill, did you fix this and if so, how?

 

peace,

the Bean