Reflection cylinders

[Dennis the menace]

Hi,

My question to all of you here, is have you ever seen these things, and do you know what they are? I assume these "reflective cylinders" emit some type of radio beacon, light, or possibly both. It does say that they are mobile and that they are painted red and white. I assume the legs are black painted steel. Any thoughts or opinions on what they are and how they are used? I need to model them in GMAX for the new scenery and would like to know what they actually did.

here is a photo of one of them:


here is the website:
www.luftfahrt-erfurt.de/seite71.htm

Thanks,
Mike

[sunny9850]

Hi Mike,

reading the german text the mobile parts are actually related to the "Funk Feuer" portion of the text which is the navigation portion of the landing system discussed being tested and then used at Leipzig during the expo. And runway lighting which apparently was also some mobile arrangement. Since the airport was very close to a russian military base it had mainly been used for aircraft repairs and component assembly but not as a regular traffic airport.

During the Leipzig Expo it was to be used with special permits as a temporary field only. That is why a movable guidance system and radar including personnel was brought in from Dresden, Berlin and Erfurt.

The Reflektions Zylinder are just that...reflective cylinders used on the taxi ways for ground movement only.
Basically a typical low tech approach of the east germans to get the job done without the need to install proper night lighting for a temporary field.

The landing or taxi lights of the aircraft reflects of the cylinders positioned on the sides of the taxi ways to guide the airplanes from the active runway.

They apparently went through all that trouble twice a year including flight testing the landing system in time for the Expo.

Hope this helps.

[Dennis the menace]

Thanks, I'll get to work tonight on making one in gmax. So anybody have any ideas on how to make this object "reflective" in gmax so it shines at night when its hit with light? Or can this even be done?

Mike

[Tom/CalClassic]

Sorry, objects cannot be lit by things like landing lights, only the ground.

[qxtoolman]

Aug 24, 2008 17:34:35 GMT -5 Tom/CalClassic said:

Sorry, objects cannot be lit by things like landing lights, only the ground.

I found that out the "hard way" after buying EZ-Scenery and putting light poles at a couple airports to work on RON planes. It would be nice to light-up ramp areas to work night flights.

[Dennis the menace]

I have decided to give them a "mild" night texture so at least they glow a bit and are not dark drums just sitting there as you taxi by them.

Unfortunatly due to the limitations of scheduling AI, it is not possible to schedule AI only to appear at the time of the fair. Otherwise I would do it.

The only AI that will currently use Leipzig-Schkeuditz airport are a few IL-18s which are too big to use Leipzig-Mockau airport.

[emfrat]

Hi Mike -
I have some Real New Zealand payware. It includes a Wanaka Warbirds airshow scenery. If the date is 16/17/18 Aug (or whatever) the airfield is populated with crowds, marquees and so on, and an airshow traffic.bgl has lots of warbirds doing flypasts and landings. The rest of the time it is just a quiet back-country airstrip.
I have never looked at how this works - I just assumed it was done the same way as various firework displays and volcanic eruptions, which are available as freeware. ( I don't know how they work, either )

Cheers
MikeW

[Dennis the menace]

Well here is one of those cylinders here, at Leipzig-Schkeuditz airport. I think because there are so many of them, and each one is 57 polygons, that I will add an effect to make them only viewable at less than, say, 500 meters. I can't imagine having to set up all these cylinders along taxiways, tnd then take them down and store them after the fair is over, and do this twice a year.

[sunny9850]

Looks very nice ...the picture did not give much of a hint on how large or small those things were but I would imagine just large enough to be seen safely, but small enough not to take too much space when stored and easy enough to transport.

As far as doing all that work on a temporary installation....you have to remember this was east Germany at the height of it's communist days. Unemployment ZERO..so there were plenty of people to do this sort of manual labor and the question of making sense or not was never asked..aloud.

They waited 18 years for one of the crappiest cars ever built....the now immortal Trabbant ;D ;D

[Dennis the menace]

I made these reflection cylinders about 4 feet high and 2.25 feet across. In the world of FS, everything is slightly off. Usually I find to get proper proportions, you have to increase the true scale of scenery from 10 to 15%. If you make things the correct scale, then when you start FS and a plane pulls up, everything looks like Munchkenland. I set the effects so they show up 750 meters from you. At this point, the farthest ones are so small you cant see much detail, and it helps to keep frame rates good.

I loved my Trabbi, a Schilfgrun 601S It still sits in Erfurt in the garage, one day I want it to bring it over here. I had fun times in that car and made some nice trips to Rügen and Vogtland. Ughh it hardly seems like 20 years has passed. For those who may not know what a Trabant is, it is an ingenious 2 cylinder 2 cycle car produced in the German Democratic Republic from 1955 to 1991. It had a 2 cycle engine with only 5 moving parts, and a type of fiberglass body made from resin and wool. It had fully independent suspension and was air cooled, and one person could lift the engine out by himself to work on it.

Speaking of Trabants, whats a scenery without them?
Leipzig-Mockau airport


Mike

[sunny9850]

601S ...Light Blue with a white roof. I won that one in a impromptu race at the Sachsen Ring in Plauen with my friend. In the period after the opening of the border as you probably know you could by a almost brand new one for next to nothing.

That one is still parked at the Citroen Dealership my friend owns in Falkenstein.

Engineering wise it had a few "neat" features but a lot of shortcomings as well if we're honest. There was a reason why the DKW and Auto Union 2 strokers were the last of their kind in the west


But now back to your regularly scheduled program ;D ;D