|
|
Post by okami on Mar 3, 2010 16:02:10 GMT -5
I've been sporadically test-flying my new computer, and so far it's behaving great! Since I wanted to test how she displays and refreshes the scenery at "high speed", I took something, well, fast. I admit it's not a classic airliner, but it would at least have shared the skies with them.   Republic F-84G-6-RE 51-9961 "FZ-56" was a 10th Wing, Belgian Air Force aircraft, which was assigned to both 23 and 31 Squadron. Here it is during the latter part of its Belgian career, sporting the colours of 31 "Tiger" Squadron (nowadays an F-16AM unit).  Delivered in 1952, FZ-56 was retired from Belgian Air Force service in March 1957 under "Project Swapshop", which saw the Belgian Thunderjets replaced by F-84F Thunderstreaks. Most "Swapshop" Thunderjets found a second career with other operators, such as the Danish, Greek, Turkish, Portuguese, Yugoslav, Thai and Iranian Air Forces. FZ-56, however, was stored at Chateauroux AB and scrapped. By the way, the testflight showed the new computer to be well up to its task.  |
|
|
|
Post by Tom/CalClassic on Mar 3, 2010 17:33:48 GMT -5
You new computer is looking great! |
|
|
|
Post by okami on Mar 3, 2010 18:14:56 GMT -5
It does, doesn't it? ;D I tried in slew mode to see where it would start having trouble keeping the scenery up with the plane, and that was at about... 12000+ Mph. And something tells me that isn't going to happen anytime soon...  |
|
|
|
Post by coenraad on Mar 3, 2010 18:57:30 GMT -5
Is that FSX or FS9? Nice plane by the way. I loved the Thunderstreak , the follow up on the Thunderjet. |
|
|
|
Post by jesse on Mar 3, 2010 20:12:38 GMT -5
In our early Air Force jargon, that was the original Flying stove Pipe. ;D Long after I left the 78th Fighter Group at Hamilton AFB, they were flying this version of the F-84, having shed the P-51D Mustangs.
Jesse
|
|
|
|
Post by okami on Mar 3, 2010 20:12:58 GMT -5
Is that FSX or FS9? Nice plane by the way. I loved the Thunderstreak , the follow up on the Thunderjet. It is FS9, though it can also be used in FSX. The plane's by Jens B. Kristensen; the texture is part of a Belgian Air Force Thunderjet package by Paul J. Kellens (other textures are for 1, 22, 23 and 27 Squadron, and the 10th Wing Commander's aircraft). Oddly enough Paul's package has textures for all of 10th Wing aircraft (23, 27 & 31 Sqdn), but just one each for the 2nd (1, 2 & 3 Sqdn) and 9th Wing (22, 26 & 30 Sqdn), and none for 42 Sqdn... I'm thinking of getting the Streak next... |
|
|
|
Post by coenraad on Mar 3, 2010 21:27:51 GMT -5
I'm slowly getting serious thoughts of downgrading from FSX to FS9, as it still looks very okay, has more addons etc, and runs smoother..
|
|
|
|
Post by okami on Mar 4, 2010 17:46:45 GMT -5
In our early Air Force jargon, that was the original Flying stove Pipe. ;D Long after I left the 78th Fighter Group at Hamilton AFB, they were flying this version of the F-84, having shed the P-51D Mustangs. Jesse Hi Jesse, I missed out on your post!  In our Air Force, the Thunderjets replaced the Spitfire 14 - at least for the Squadrons of the 2nd and 10th Wing; the 9th Wing was founded with the type. They didn't enjoy an all too good reputation, though, as 64 (out of 234) were lost in its 5 years of service. Its replacement already started in August 1955 (barely 4 years after the first F-84E, and 3 years after the first 'G had arrived) by the Thunderstreak.  FU-6 52-7133, an F-84F-51-RE, was one of those first Thunderstreaks, which entered service with 3rd Squadron, 2nd Wing at Florennes, the first unit to re-equip.  Its career started with a bang - literally! Delivered on the 17th of August, 1955, it broke the sound barrier together with FU-4/YL-B on the 30th of August, becoming the first Belgian Air Force aircraft to do so.  It had a quite eventful career after that. 15 years and 4 liveries later, it was stored at Koksijde on December 17th, 1970 with 2447.35 flying hours. It was officially SOC on January 17th, 1972, and after a short spell as a decoy at Beauvechain it was exchanged to a UK museum. It's currently at RAF Cosford, painted up as a USAF Thunderbirds 'Streak. Today's flight marked the first time I ever broke the sound barrier on FS9... Mach 1.03 in a dive! |
|
|
|
Post by coenraad on Mar 4, 2010 21:24:56 GMT -5
Nice one. Cool plane.
|
|
|
|
Post by okami on Mar 5, 2010 17:44:32 GMT -5
In my continuing slightly off-topic topic, I tried another mil download today: the Hawker Sea Hawk.  I actually intended to download the Hunter, but it appears the installer that comes with the Huntpak zips is incompatible with Windows 7, so... Anyway, I found it was a pleasant little jet, if not a bit short on fuel reserves. Much to my astonishment, the automatic calculator indicated a maximum fuel reserve for 34 minutes while I was on full throttle on take off, though it did "increase" to 46 minutes as soon as I throttled back when I got airborne! And that was with the reserve tanks as well...  I did a circuit around Valkenburg (EHVB), flying northwards to Schiphol, turning 180° towards the sea, flying back to the entry of Rotterdam port, and executing another 180° back to Valkenburg where I landed again. Despite the reasonable short flight, not more than a quarter of an hour, I used up a quarter of my fuel - 142 gallons, with 417 gallons left in my tanks. Talking about fuel management... |
|
|
|
Post by coenraad on Mar 5, 2010 18:48:21 GMT -5
Nice picture mate, i like the Seahawk, it is a nice plane. If i recal correct the real plane also had a rather small radius. The second picture does not load for me though  |
|
|
|
Post by okami on Mar 5, 2010 20:29:32 GMT -5
Hi Coenraad, I just reposted the second picture, hopefully you will be able to see it now. I'm also adding this one, of a Royal Netherlands Navy Sea Hawk going around from a deck landing aboard R81 "Karel Doorman".  Regards, Nikko |
|
