Taking off from moving carriers

[davidbuderim]

I came across this forum a few days ago and was delighted to find a goldmine of carrier related information. A big thankyou to all the contributors.
It got me thinking again about how to do a tour of duty on moving carriers and I worked out a method (something I've wanted to do for a while but everything I read over the past few months said it couldn't be done).

Basic method:
  The first flight starts at a land base. Fly to the sea.
   After a while place a carrier in front of you, set it moving and land.
   Save the flight as follows:
        Park somewhere near the middle of the carrier, nose to carrier heading.
        Pause
        Save the flight
   Take off and trap until it's time to go, saving after every successful trap.

   Next time:
       Load the flight
       Menu - World-map
                  Set height to 70ft
                  Set airspeed to zero
        Place the carrier at user position
        Set the carrier moving
        Unpause (the plane might roll forward)
        Take off and trap until it's time to go, saving after every successful trap.
                 
Notes:
  Sometimes you need to load the carrier twice (the first time it can be placed miles away for some reason)
  You may or may not need the ArrestorCable program to get a good launch
   Crash mitigation - I have a flight called 1 that I save to just before the break (four keystrokes ; 1 enter enter). If I crash on landing I end up there again (800ft on carrier heading). The carrier will have moved forward a bit but that's OK.
   When you set the height and airspeed you can change the carrier heading at the same time if you need to.
   Fsrecorder works well if you want to do simultaneous launch and/or formation work. Keep the carrier stationary until you're ready to launch and note how many seconds you are into the recording when you set the carrier in motion. For the second plane set the carrier in motion at the same time. DO NOT save after trapping (you can save on the last trap when you no longer wish to use this recording).
   If you forget to pause before saving you'll need to pause pretty quickly after loading.
   The request position is effectively a VOR/DME.
   I use Plan-G to avoid the land. But the default map is probably OK.

I've set up four carriers on tour starting at different Naval bases. Two with FA18s, one with Goshawks and one with Prowlers. I'm having so much fun it shouldn't be legal.
   

[Orion]

It's actually easier if you have an AI carrier that's on its own route.

That way, after the first time you load a flight, land on the carrier and save the flight, you can just come back to it and you'll be able to start on the carrier without any bother setting anything up.  You may need to edit the FLT file and set SimOnGround to False-- I've read that it's required, but it seems to work either way for me.  Just be sure that you don't set it as your default flight, otherwise the carrier will be in a different position.  This is because the default flight, by default, is set to use your computer's system time (I believe you can change this, but I'm not sure).

If you're curious, there's a thread at Sim-Outhouse about this as well: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?54341-Can-you-start-on-a-carrier.

[davidbuderim]

Thanks Orion. I'm certainly curious as this has been bugging me for a while, so its good to know there are other ways. I'm currently sitting on the deck of the scheduled carrier out of Norfolk to Europe, having just landed, saved and reloaded. So thankyou for that. It's certainly a quicker and more realistic start. [I still have to set the height to 70ft but that's OK. I think SimOnGround gets reset every time you save so that's no good for the ongoing tour I'm doing].

Making your own routes looks pretty straightforward so I'll get into that next.

I'll probably be able to do formation flights as well using fsrecorder. Just need to include the taxi in the recording.