FSDreamTeam forum
General Category => Unofficial F/A-18 Acceleration Pack board => Topic started by: Paddles on December 26, 2017, 07:31:55 pm
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Guys,
It's finally here (http://vlso.blogspot.com/)! It's not a beta, it's release v.1.0! And it's my Christmas gift to all of you, fellow simmers!
This new version is fully compatible with FSX/SE, Prepar3D 1 to 4 (including 64-bit), as well as with the RFN and SimWorks Studios gauges.
Of course, you will notice some GUI improvements, but the most significant changes are under the hood. Almost all parts of the code were revisited, modified, rewritten from scratch or deleted. The data structure was changed and new version is not compatible with any of the previous beta versions. This means that you will have to qualify again...
Also, the vLSO config file format changed from INI to XML, which means that you will have to manually transfer your custom aircraft settings to the new program.
Before you start the program, I urge you to spend some time to read the manual. Probably, I should have described some parts in more details but it is what it is.
I want to express my gratitude to Sylvain Parouty (RFN) and Farley Kelly-Masterton (SimWorks). It's been an honor and privilege working with them. And my special grand merci goes to Michel Panattoni, ex naval pilot, who greatly helped me to debug and improve the RFN part of vLSO.
Well, that's it. Have fun and happy holidays!
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Paddles,
Your dedication to overcome so many new obstacles to provide us with a Version 1.0 is greatly appreciated. This milestone brings possibilities of finally having a program reaching realness levels never imagined before.
Thank you, Paddles.
Now, off to retrieve the new manual!
Striker
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Paddles, the words "THANK YOU!!" seem wholly inadequate to express the gratitude I, and I am sure MANY others, feel. They're the best we've got, though, so they'll have to do. The hard work you've put in is simply amazing to a programming idiot like I. :P
I still think those AI LSO's hate me, though ;D :D
THANK YOU!! A fantastic present indeed.
A very merry Christmas, if appropriate, to you and yours. I look forward to what amazing things this new year will bring.
Pat☺
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Guys,
Here's a new version (http://vlso.blogspot.com/2018/01/vlso-101.html) of vLSO.
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Thank you, Paddles! Your work is simply fantastic. ;D
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Guys,
Another vLSO version is here (http://vlso.blogspot.com/2018/01/vlso-102.html)...
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Guys,
vLSO updated to v.1.0.3
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I have used vLSO with FSX and with the most recent update installed I'm unable to get it working as before. The vLSO program itself runs and shows it is connected to FSX, but the location is never recognized and vLSO doesn't give radio calls or record / log the landing. I've tried it at Lemoore (where it worked before with UCHIs scenery) and I've re-installed (updated) the vLSO integration pack from your blogspot page. I've also tried to get vLSO to work with tacpack carrier with no success. vLSO is a great addon and I'd love to get this working again!
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::) OH NO! LOOK what the LSO will do in future! The LSO dream - complete control over an approaching aircraft. :o ;D
Abraham Lincoln Tests ATARI 28 Mar 2018 Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Josue L. Escobosa USS Abraham Lincoln Public Affairs
http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=104887
"ATLANTIC OCEAN (NNS) -- USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) was the first kid on the block to get a new ATARI. No, not the iconic gaming system from the 80s, but a system designed to remotely land aircraft on a carrier. Abraham Lincoln's friends, the other carriers, should be jealous.
ATARI, or aircraft terminal approach remote inceptor, was, for the first time ever, successfully demonstrated during a touch-and-go on an aircraft carrier while conducting carrier qualifications and flight testing aboard Abraham Lincoln. ATARI gives Landing Signal Officers (LSOs) the ability to take over and maneuver aircraft during recovery operations.
"I was really impressed with LSO's ability get me to touch down," said Lt. John Marino, a carrier suitability pilot from the "Salty Dogs" of Air test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, and the first pilot to land on a flight deck using ATARI. "The conditions were really varsity (difficult), and it was really impressive the system worked the way it did. On a calm day, it would have been a little bit boring, but this was definitely more challenging."
Developed at Naval Air station Patuxent River, Maryland by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), ATARI was originally been tested in a Learjet in 2016, performing shore-based low approaches. In 2017, F/A-18s were fitted with this technology and after extensive testing and quality assurance, VX-23 was confident enough to test their system at-sea.
"There was some nervousness because the sea state was so bad," said Marino. "Back on the airfield, testing was benign."
LSOs are capable of taking over an aircraft from up to five miles away using the ATARI. The system demonstrates a potential method for recovering an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) by using the LSO's ability to observe and fix glideslope and lineup errors. Though not intended to be a primary method for recovering aircraft, it does provide a relatively inexpensive backup system in the case and an LSO needs on to step in and use their expertise and training to safely guide an aircraft. Along with the ATARI, a van outfitted with the ATARI system was brought aboard and setup behind the LSO platform to allow the engineers to watch the approaches in real-time, monitor safety-of-flight data and ensure passes were going smoothly. The van recorded flight data for engineers to analyze later and allowed VX-23 to test their system without having to install it [onboard] Abraham Lincoln.
"We don't have unmanned carrier-based vehicles in the fleet today, but they are coming soon, said Dan Shafer, a NAVAIR air vehicle engineer. "This is a potential alternative landing method and our system performed well."
Much like its namesake, ATARI uses a joystick to control a UAV, or in this case for testing purposes, an F/A-18 outfitted with the system and a safety pilot sitting in the cockpit. The LSOs use the joysticks to make corrections and safely land the aircraft on the flight deck.
"We took the guy who's flying the aircraft and we moved him to the LSO platform," said Buddy Denham, a senior engineer at NAVAIR and creator of ATARI. "You're effectively using little joystick controllers to guide a 40,000 lbs. airplane, and it's almost like you're playing a video game."
Prior to landing, the aircraft first had to perform three wave-offs to ensure all conditions were safe and the system could indeed take over the aircraft while-at sea. On the fourth approach, the system engineers and LSOs felt comfortable doing touch-and-goes.
"The deck was pitching significantly and yawing and rolling," said Denham. "It was particularly difficult to land that day, and we showed it's possible to use this system even when the conditions aren't ideal."
The ATARI testing was conducted over the course of two days in conjunction with carrier qualifications. Though not currently slated for fleet-wide implementation, yet the successful give it potential for future application. The ATARI engineers will analyze the data collected aboard Abraham Lincoln and make adjustments for further at-sea testing."
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Holy moly! ATARI is back?...
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Atari-2600-Wood-4Sw-Set.jpg/450px-Atari-2600-Wood-4Sw-Set.jpg)
;D
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Sadly, I still have one of those around someplace.
I was on det to Japan when they first came out, and grabbed one cheap. Carted that thing all over Asia with me. Never got a chance to use it till I got back to the States...
Fun as heck at the time, though. Then again, I thought Pong was a great game when it came out...
Pat☺
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Guys,
vLSO updated to version 1.0.5
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Paddles,
first off, thank you very much for your continued developement of this awesome freeware software.
Unfortunately with the newer (1.X + ) versions I have the same problem as reported above by another
user , some location is never recognized, not even after tuning the freq for the carrier.
The other two buttons are green, but location stays red all the time.
Any ideas how to solve this issue would be much appreciated.
Thanks and kind regards,
Oliver
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Hi Oliver,
Please be more specific - the two green buttons are SimConnect and flightsim status indicators? And the location status indicator can be either grey or green, not red.
You have to be within 50nm to detect a carrier, provided your NAV is tuned to this carrier. The only exception are SWS carriers, because the SWS gauge doesn't use any NAV. However, the same 50nm limit is applied.
If this doesn't help, may I have a copy of your vLSO_log.txt file? And perhaps a couple of screenshots to show the problem?
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Guys,
vLSO updated to version 1.0.5
Hello Paddles,
I'm old & grey at 80 but really enjoy my P3Dv4.2 fltsim. I particularly enjoy Dino's T-45C and F-14D and the F-18C_FSXBA and I use the AI Carriers.NET.
I have just discovered your outstanding work with vLSO and really wish to get it working for me. But every time I try to install it I get the dreaded " This application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect" . Now, I know this is my fault for not being very computer savvy, but I would really appreciate some help from someone who is and can spare a few moments for an old enthusiast.
In any event, Please keep up your great work
Roger Lowery
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Hi Roger,
This should fix the side-by-side error:
Go to the [P3D Install Location]\redist\Interface\FSX-SP1\retail\lib\ folder and run the SimConnect.msi installer found in that folder.
If it doesn't help, try to run the SimConnect.msi installer from the [P3D Install Location]\redist\Interface\FSX-SP2-XPACK\retail\lib\ folder.
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Hello Paddles,
Many thanks for your help; it was the second option that worked for me. Now I must read the manual - who reads manuals these days? - and work out how to properly use your great product.
Best wishes, Roger
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Hello Paddles,
sorry for my late reply, private life and other matters kept me be a bit busy. You are of course right, the Location button
is grey not red, when its not found.
However , I just tried the whole thing again with the latest version 1.05.4 with various aircrafts and carriers and am happy
to report that now everything is working nicely, including recognition of location.
I'm not sure what exactly caused this.Maybe its gone because I began running VLSO as admin.
Anyhow, strongly suspect the error was entirely on my side :)
So you don't have to look into this anymore.
Should I encounter other issues ,I'll try to report more detailed in the future.
Thanks again for this big fun producing software :)
Kind regards,
OLiver
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Hello Paddles,
Many thanks for your help; it was the second option that worked for me. Now I must read the manual - who reads manuals these days? - and work out how to properly use your great product.
Best wishes, Roger
Hi Rog, Greetings from almost 50 years ago now. You will see a lot of my old posts on this forum about Naval Aviation. Online a lot of information about how to go about it is available in PDFs of various sizes. The most complete set may be found on GoogleDrive - a free download that will require free registration to Google first. The main PDF about NavAv and the A4G Skyhawk of the RAN FAA may be found if you follow the directions at this link at the Fleet Air Arm Association of Australia: https://www.faaaa.asn.au/spazsinbad-a4g/
The graphic is from our old RAN/RN yellow page logbooks from WWII as a way of using the old stocks - upon arrival at NAS Nowra beginning of 1969 we were issued 'proper' RAN FAA logbooks with white pages no less. :-)
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Hi Rog, Greetings from almost 50 years ago now.
Hello Phil. Thanks for all that info, I will start exploring.
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For historical interest and perhaps IF there is a suitable SEA VAMPIRE out there for flight sims it may be worth a try to simulate the first pure jet deck landing 03 Dec 1945. The attached 26 page PDF has info about the Sea Vampire single seat variant WITH HOOK and how to go about deck landing same. The PDF has been reprinted to reduce file size which then makes the URLs seen on the page not live but they can be copied & pasted into a browser. There are a few online videos showing the first Sea Vampire deck landing with Eric 'Winkle' Brown at the controls. He went on to amass 2,047 deck landings with an incredible number of aircraft overall. Sadly he died at age 97 a few years ago now. Lots of NavAv Videos from then to NOW here plus the Sea Vampire/Vampire videos.
videos?view_as=public
&
videos?view=0&shelf_id=0&sort=dd
Sea Vampire 1st Deck Landing HMS Ocean 03 December 1945
1st Sea Vampire Deck Landing & Takeoff HMS Ocean 03Dec1945
Eric 'Winkle' Brown 1st Sea Vampire Deck Landing 03 Dec 1945 HMS Ocean
Last RAN Vampire Flight Side No 805 CMDR Lee on 17 Oct 1970
Kiwi Warbird Vampire Formation Low Pass Pilot & Outside Views
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I'm not certain of the number of Vampires now in USofA (I recall seeing some on the tarmac at the San Diego airport back in early 1973). This dual seat RAAF Vampire trainer has just been refurbished to be brought inside (from outside - gack!) at the PIMA museum. Photo at ADFserials.com : http://www.adf-messageboard.com.au/invboard/uploads/post-6-1525731515.jpg "Vampire A79-661 at Pima Air and Space Museum"
The rubber flexible deck landing without wheels Sea Vampire was flown by LCDR Eric 'Winkle' Brown who was injured during the first trials of this madness ashore (but at that time good reasons were thought to exist) but it was 'not to be' thank goodness. :-)
First Deck Landing Sea Vampire F.20 03 Dec 1945 HMS Ocean [BEST QUALITY]
de Havilland F.20 Sea Vampire Flexible Rubber Deck Arrest Test
(http://www.adf-messageboard.com.au/invboard/uploads/post-6-1525731515.jpg)
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...to be brought inside (from outside - gack!) at the PIMA museum.
Having lived, if you can call it that, in Yuma, a hellish town relatively near Pima, for nearly 30 years, I can say that probably the greatest threat to the Vampire in Pima was dust. And heat. The heat in that area is pretty intense, and if it was closed up tight, with the sun beating down on it, you could probably boil water in the cockpit in the middle of the day.
Bring it in, blow it off, wipe the canopy, good to go. The super-fine dust holds on tight, so a soft cloth and some cleaner for the canopy. Same for the instrument faces. I don't care how "sealed" it was, the dust will get in. To EVERY thing. It's going to have dust in places you'd think dust couldn't go. The stuff is incredibly invasive, and it's both abrasive as all heck, AND conductive. :P
Probably have to chase out the wasps, "killer" bees, scorpions and snakes before you could work on it, though. Maybe a nest of fire-ants in the gear wells. You think the DUST is invasive?? HA! The critters are worse. :-\
Maybe it IS better to have brought it inside, if they want it displayable at all...
Miserable fricken place, Southern Arizona. Hated every minute of it...
Pat☺
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Thanks for the environment update Pat. I'm guessing that the boneyard is not far away from there for US Aircraft? But they get sealed up tight from all accounts. There is a new sealant going around for the 'gate guardians' which I hope does the job for a long time, however the Vampire & Sea Venom for example are special cases (unless you know of some other wooden fuselage US jet aircraft?). By the by I guess but have a look at what lies beneath the silver paint on top of the canvas [the canvas could strip in flight making alarming noises banging on the fuselage] covering the Vampire fuselage.... (probably could stand the dry heat of that locale reasonably well though - apart from the assorted hazards cited above). Not sure if this photo is still at the URL but anyway: Better photo than I remembered because I cropped it as shown....
Photo by Brenden: http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7441332
“De Havilland Vampire T.35 A79-603 at RAAF Pearce Air Force Base - YPEA 19 May 2012” https://cdn.jetphotos.com/full/3/93762_1345888030.jpg
The engine is in a metal tube aft of cockpit 'nacelle' which is wood as described. The wings and tail booms are metal thank goodness. :-) US use 'vinyl adhesive wraps' now - see two page PDF attached with one page this and a page about the rubber deck Vampire'. USN carried out their own rubber deck trials explicated in the PDF.
(https://cdn.jetphotos.com/full/3/93762_1345888030.jpg)
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Hi Guys,
Where can I find an airfield(s) for carrier landing practise and qualification in P3Dv4?
TIA, Roger
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I'm guessing that the boneyard is not far away from there for US Aircraft? But they get sealed up tight from all accounts.
Pretty close by. Over at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. And the sealant they use is commonly referred to as "cocooning". It's a sort of foam they spray the entire plane with that seals it up tighter than a drum with a very durable and UV resistant plastic foam. That's not to say the critters don't burrow into it. Ants, beetles, mice of different sorts, you name it. That stuff is a royal PITA to get off, too.
They brought an A-4 to MCAS Yuma to decocoon it for display at the front gate(It's still there to this day!). It had been with VMFAT-102 back when I was stationed there, so they wouldn't have had to repaint it, at least. Unfortunately, the idiots that cocooned it left, of all things, not only fuel in the tanks, but a charged LOX converter in it! Friggen dangerous as hell. At least they had pulled the seat, so that wasn't a problem, but that LOX converter...shudder.
I actually saw my second, or current, wife for the first time when she was one of the civvies that was decocooning it. She was straddling the nose, forward of the windscreen, working on the cocooning around the windscreen. All I saw of her was her tushie, and a truly fine one it is! I was working at VMFAT-401 at the time. The E-Shop I was in was responsible for the O2 systems, including refilling them. We used a tug to pull the O2 cylinders on a trailer to the various planes that needed it. I must have pulled that trailer past the A-4 a dozen times, just to have a chance at seeing the girl decocooning it. ;D
Lowery, check Paddles blog page, where you DL the vLSO from. Over on the right side, down a bit. I believe he has several FCLP fields that will work. AND are vLSO enabled.
Worth a look. Otherwise, there are a number of them. There is NAS Pensacola which has a field laid out on one of the runways, just as El Centro in California does. There's MCAS Miriamar, they have a field are laid out on a side area. And OLF Coupeville, very near NAS Whidbey Island is specifically for FCLP, and the list goes on.
I personally use either OLF Coupeville, or El Centro, which I lived close to for nearly 30 years. Handy for going to watch the Blue Angels practise :D
Hope that helps a little...
Pat☺
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Nice story Phantom - now we know what the TWEAK is all about (tushie related?). :-) Those interested in my NavAv PDFs or videos can always find them via the FAAAA page/URL under my icon on this forum (I don't have photos in my flight gear as at the time taking photos was verboten <sigh> those were the times). Nice head shot Roger. ::) As mentioned in many of my posts - first starting with FCLP by day then at least some FCLP at dusk (so there is some ground viz) or if confident NIGHT FCLP is really helpful before going to the carrier. Going straight to the carrier as a new deck lander in the sim can really breed bad habits or disappointment. Anything goes in a sim - to be seen on some youtube videos. :-)
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Guys,
Another vLSO 1.0.7.0 update is here (http://drive.google.com/open?id=1MgyZnwuKJ0n0BrXZ3bTNkRpa34anEc-I).