APOLLO-50 (Lifted off now!)


  • I know this is a day late and a dollar short as one of our expressions goes but I have just had my first play in this magnificent scenery package. Huge thank you from me to all who put so much work in to make it so enjoyable. :love:

  • I briefly saw Mike Collins (Apollo 11 Command Module pilot) at the Oshkosh EAA Airshow Friday night (July 26th) - it was Oshkosh's 50th anniversary too!

    The place was packed for Collins' 8-10pm talk and he got a loud, standing-ovation welcome when he was introduced 8)

    CHALLENGE - Try to find his Command Module + Service Module in FS2 high-altitude orbit

    If you can imagine where the Saturn V rocket would be after 100 seconds of flight, arching out over the Atlantic ocean - then you're looking in the right place (hint - only the F-15 can find it). You'll also get a great view of the entire Apollo-50 project on your way back down 8)

  • There was a "black moon" on Wednesday July 31st (2nd new moon of the month) which reminded me of our Apollo-50 project at night - if you haven't tried it with the city lights on yet, give it a try this weekend! The guys did a nice job with all the airport lighting and many of the custom buildings, etc 8)

    For the best night time viewing, adjust your FS2 time to just after sunset. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

  • Please can somebody help me ...

    I have tried to download this scenery 4 or 5 times now, each time with different degrees of success.

    I just do not seem to be able to get the full 5.88Gb file, it's downloading only between 4.5Gb and 5Gb max, resulting in missing buildings textures etc.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

    QF10

  • Please can somebody help me ...

    1. Enough Storage on your end?

    2. Data Cap?

    3. Something wrong with Flight-Sim.org?

    The 'Images' folder takes up 5. 04 GB and the 'places' folder takes up 444 MB

    Can you private message me with some screen shots of the "places" folder you've downloaded?

    Perhaps I can send you the missing folders you need.

  • One of my favorite points of interest in the Apollo-50 project is the re-entry & splashdown area.

    It turns out that once the Command Module descended below 60,000 feet, it had very little remaining horizontal speed and was falling at a terminal velocity of about 230 mph (370 km/h) until it reached 24,000 feet when the drogue chutes were deployed. It then descended at approx 124 mph (200 km/h) until 10,000 feet when the main chutes were deployed. The remaining descent to splashdown was at 22 mph (35 km/h).

    If you haven't visited this area yet, it's worth the trip 8)

    Animated re-entry capsule ...

  • I finally got around to testing the Apollo 50 and it is an impressive and amazing project!

    A big thank you to everyone who was involved in making this, now I finally have a runway wide enough and long enough for any aircraft :D

    Doing the space-shuttle approach

    Couple of things I noticed, mostly related to the file names and contents of the tsc files.

    File names like KTIX_v3.0.tsc are a no-go. File names should be lower case and limited to the characters a-z, 0-9 and underscore. No dots, no capital letters and obviously no dots within a file name or folder name except for the file extension.

    -> This makes this lovely add on also work on operating systems like Mac

    Within the tsc files I noticed comments that started with #-----, yeah those are not valid comments and are interpreted as file content. Only the text in a line after a double slash // is a valid comment.

    -> Can cause issues loading the file

    There are also files like the Hornet_Heli.tsc (should be renamed hornet_carrier.tsc) that have an invalid syntax, cause some lines were commented out but you forgot to comment out the last trailing > In this case this doesn't make a difference but it's not a clean syntax.

    The files also contain the tab character which is not allowed either... You should replace all tab indentation with four white spaces.

    -> Can cause a simulator crash when the scenery is loaded or in case we change something in our code

    Some of the tsc tags like <[string8][lname][]> should not have a white space inside the last [] because then your long name is going to be " " and not whatever the actual name should be, e.g. it could be using the short name "sname" if the lname is actually empty but in case of a [ ] with a white space in the middle the name is no longer empty and things can start to break.

    -> Causes undefined behavior

    The tm.log file has a couple of errors and warnings

    1.19-tmscenery: ERROR: (geometry 'C:/Users/Jan/Documents/Aerofly FS 2/addons/scenery/Apollo50/places/Kennedy_Space_Center/KTIX/.tmb' not found)

    1.19-tmscenery: ERROR: (geometry 'C:/Users/Jan/Documents/Aerofly FS 2/addons/scenery/Apollo50/places/Kennedy_Space_Center/KTIX/.tmb' not found)

    1.19-tmscenery: ERROR: (geometry 'C:/Users/Jan/Documents/Aerofly FS 2/addons/scenery/Apollo50/places/Kennedy_Space_Center/KTIX/v-22>

    1.19-tmscenery: <[tmvector3d.tmb' not found)

    1.20-tmscenery: ERROR: (geometry 'C:/Users/Jan/Documents/Aerofly FS 2/addons/scenery/Apollo50/places/Kennedy_Space_Center/KTIX/pa42_livery1_virtual_220_obj.tmb' not found)

    1.33-tmfile_properties: WARNING: property 'element' is not a member of type 'tmsimulator_scenery_object' hash=6339722941103191957.

    1.33-tmfile_properties: WARNING: property 'element' is not a member of type 'tmsimulator_scenery_object' hash=6339722941103191957.

    1.33-tmscenery: ERROR: (geometry 'C:/Users/Jan/Documents/Aerofly FS 2/addons/scenery/Apollo50/places/Kennedy_Space_Center/Visitors_Center/.tmb' not found)

    1.33-tmscenery: ERROR: (geometry 'C:/Users/Jan/Documents/Aerofly FS 2/addons/scenery/Apollo50/places/Kennedy_Space_Center/Visitors_Center/.tmb' not found)

    1.34-tmfile_properties: WARNING: property 'element' is not a member of type 'tmsimulator_scenery_object' hash=6339722941103191957.

    1.34-tmscenery: ERROR: (geometry 'C:/Users/Jan/Documents/Aerofly FS 2/addons/scenery/Apollo50/places/Kennedy_Space_Center/Port_Canaveral/3D_Autogen_Buildings_Jake/.tmb' not found)

    -> Can cause crashes

    The download also contains files like: toc_converter_config.tmc and tm.log files. Those should be excluded from the a release product. I also found a zip file A50_Center_T_Michael_FS.zip within the folders... 1.3MB large.

    -> Increase loading times and download size

    I went ahead added a runway and more parking positions to the carrier, see the file attached.

    Sadly the F18 catches the fences at the end of the carrier deck on the two forward start positions.

    But the start position towards the end of the deck works great and you can take off with full afterburner and a slight dip below the deck and some wet pants :D

    This gap is sometimes causing issues during touch and gos though...

  • Hi, Jan,

    thank you for your advice.

    I've finished my tsc-file so far that you can use it for other purposes as well. And before I make this file officially available, I would be happy if some people want to test it.

    In addition still some references:

    - Please load the file "uss_horten.tsc.txt" into the directory where the original file "Nimitz landing.tsc" is located.

    - Please take this file out of operation by renaming it (e.g.: to "Nimitz landings.tsc__OFF").

    - Then rename the file "uss_horten.tsc.txt" to "uss_horten.tsc".

    Currently I have all catapults set up as runways to distinguish them from the parking positions.

    But I will add a variant which shows the catapult locations as Parking Position.

    With an F-18 you can start best from the catapults C4 and C3, C1 is still possible, with C2 you get wet.

    A landing with the F-18 doesn't work yet, the carrier is simply too short - but with a Cessna it's also possible.

    I'm looking forward to all feedbacks.

    And in the next days I will also publish the files for other naval ships.


    Bye from Michael

    Files

    Tschüss, Michael (🍎🚁)

    Configurations:

    - MacBook Pro (16", 2021); Chip: Apple M1 Max; actual macOS || Thrustmaster TCA AIRBUS EDITION: 1x Sidestick, 2x Quadrant, 2x Quadrant Add-On || Pro-Flight-Trainer PUMA X

    - iPad (12,9", 4th Generation, RAM: 6 GB); actual iOS || nimbus steelseries

  • Jan, rw operation of this carrier puts ~ 30 kts of wind on the nose of the carrier, in case of catapult malfunction. Using the full carrier deck with afterburners and takeoff flaps should enable the F-18 to make a near normal simulated takeoff. I am assuming you can fly like a Navy Pilot. (No more wet pants) 8o

    The A-Team appreciates your comments and critique and will attack the text errors.

  • It would be nice if more details could be seen on the flight deck.

    I would adjust the coordinates of the catapults etc. accordingly.

    Bye, Michael

    Tschüss, Michael (🍎🚁)

    Configurations:

    - MacBook Pro (16", 2021); Chip: Apple M1 Max; actual macOS || Thrustmaster TCA AIRBUS EDITION: 1x Sidestick, 2x Quadrant, 2x Quadrant Add-On || Pro-Flight-Trainer PUMA X

    - iPad (12,9", 4th Generation, RAM: 6 GB); actual iOS || nimbus steelseries

  • I followed this plan and at the same time took into account the people on the flight deck.

    And I use this information to set up the aircraft. (which is different for the Apollo project :))

    Images

    Tschüss, Michael (🍎🚁)

    Configurations:

    - MacBook Pro (16", 2021); Chip: Apple M1 Max; actual macOS || Thrustmaster TCA AIRBUS EDITION: 1x Sidestick, 2x Quadrant, 2x Quadrant Add-On || Pro-Flight-Trainer PUMA X

    - iPad (12,9", 4th Generation, RAM: 6 GB); actual iOS || nimbus steelseries

  • I've finished my tsc-file so far that you can use it for other purposes as well. And before I make this file officially available, I would be happy if some people want to test it.

    Bye from Michael

    Michael, I love your work you've done on starting positions for the carrier, very impressive!

    I've made a few fixes and adjustments to the carrier model:

    Fixed all the runway edges so there is no collisions or sinking below deck.

    Added two catapults decals back to the front of carrier.

    Added a simple night texture

    Removed/moved a few Crew members

    Download Nimitz Carrier Fix Remove/overwrite old folder. For additional Starting Positions download Michael or Jan's .tsc files.

  • ... I find the whole lowercase work flow kind of a shame, just to suite Mac users, what year is it? ...

    I'm a Mac user and so I'm happy if a file works on my Mac. :)

    Please don't misunderstand: You can also use upper and lower case for file names on a Mac. But the Mac-system is case-sensitive. If in a tsc file a file with the name "nimitz-carrier" is called, then

    - the Mac only opens a file "nimitz-carrier.tmb",

    - while Windows opens "nimitz-carrier.tmb" and "Nimitz-Carrier.tmb" and so on.

    Bye, Michael

    Tschüss, Michael (🍎🚁)

    Configurations:

    - MacBook Pro (16", 2021); Chip: Apple M1 Max; actual macOS || Thrustmaster TCA AIRBUS EDITION: 1x Sidestick, 2x Quadrant, 2x Quadrant Add-On || Pro-Flight-Trainer PUMA X

    - iPad (12,9", 4th Generation, RAM: 6 GB); actual iOS || nimbus steelseries