Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2018 23:19:42 GMT -5
One of my favourite US operators, Reeve Aleutian. Probably because I liked their dogged pioneering spirit in the Aleutians and Alaska. So far I have got the DC-3, the Sikorsky S-43, the YS-11, Lockheed Electra and Boeing 727 in Reeve colours but yet to find them for the more recent DC-4 (Flight Replicas) or the DC-6 (PMDG). Anyhow Bob Reeve got good service out of the Sikorsky for nearly 10 years from 1948 to 1957. George Diemers Sikorsky's are great models beautifully done with quite accurate performance it seems to me. Yet another fascinating era in Aviation. Weird passenger boarding on the S-43, set of doors on the roof with steps down into the cabin. Good on water I guess but must have been a pain on land to find a good set of stairs to match. S-43 taxying at Anchorage for the west: ON the way out of Anchorage:
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2018 0:29:07 GMT -5
I neglected to mention that I am trying to track down information on the Reeve Schedules over the years. Only thing I have found so far is a route map and part of a timetable for the DC-3, DC-4, DC-6. It seems they always left Anchorage at 9 am no matter what type, daily, except the DC-3 it went an hour later at 10.00 am. They flew - Anchorage, Kodiak, Cold Bay, Pribilofs, Adak and Attu. My guess is that days flight would overnight at the final destination and then started the reverse return the next day. No five star accommodation for Reeves people. It seems Shemya was for mostly alternate use and the odd freight or charter flight.
A real family company with loyal employees, the Chief Pilot lasted 28 years and Bob Reeves daughter, Janice, was a stewardess and did over 10,000 hours for Reeve before doing management stuff later. Amazing safety record considering where they operated and the notoriously bad Aleutian weather.
|
|
|
Post by Tom/CalClassic on Apr 8, 2018 13:53:47 GMT -5
In my 1951 OAG, they list two flights a week. Unless indicated, arrival/departure times are variable. Equipment type(s) not listed.
No. 1 departs Tuesdays: Anchorage 8 am Port Heiden Cold Bay Sarichef Dutch Harbor Umnak Atka Adak Amchitka (when traffic demands) Shemya (when traffic demands) Attu (when traffic demands)
Then back on Thursday as No. 2, unless the flight continues to Attu, then it departs on Friday: Attu 8 am Shemya (when traffic demands) Amchitka (when traffic demands) Adak Atka (flag stop) Unmak (flag stop) Dutch Harbor Sarichef (flag stop) Cold Bay Port Heiden (flag stop) Anchorage
Flights 3 and 4 are similar, departing Anchorage on Thursdays, and returning on Saturdays. A St. Paul stop is added between Dutch Harbor and Unmak. Sarichef, Atka, Amchitka, and Attu are flag stops on the way out. Flag stops are the same on the way back, with the addition of St. Paul. Also, it says the "sequence of stops is variable". It also says that these flights may be cancelled due to lack of traffic.
I also have schedules for the years between 1955 and 1964, if you are interested in any of those.
Hope this helps,
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2018 3:47:22 GMT -5
Thanks Tom, when you get a chance what the schedules show for those years, 1955-1964 would be appreciated. The schedule I saw was only an excerpt for sale on ebay. Pretty sure 1951 would be the DC-3/C-47 may be the DC-4 but Reeve had some other odd types about as well and was pretty adept at mixing and matching equipment in the early days to fit the loads. I think this is what probably brought them undone in the end, they had some big and ageing aeroplanes (L188 and B727-100) that needed bigger loads, cost more to fix and there passenger/freight traffic had dropped off and off course a lot more competition to get out of the Alaskan-Aleutian triangle, which they could not manage.
OFT - I was pleased to see Bob had a good eye for good aeroplanes, his first Electra was a Qantas then TEAL aircraft, so he would have got a high quality aircraft cheaply and coincidentally I have paints for the aeroplanes when they were with Qantas/TEAL as well, not often you get the chance to do this in the sim world, the same aeroplane, all three operators with the right registrations paints etc.
|
|
|
Post by aharon on Apr 9, 2018 9:07:29 GMT -5
There used to be Reeve Aleuthian virtual airline few years ago but it vanished.
|
|
|
Post by Tom/CalClassic on Apr 9, 2018 15:23:46 GMT -5
Hi,
The 1955 schedule is the same as 1951, with DC-3, Sikorsky, and Grumman amphibian equipment.
The 1957 schedule is quite different, with a mixture of DC-3 and DC-4 flights. Monday Flt. 11 DC-3 Anchorage 1:30 pm Kodiak King Salmon Port Heiden Cold Bay
Tuesday Flt. 1 DC-4 Anchorage 8 am Kodiak Cold Bay Adak Amchitka Shemya Attu
Flt. 111 DC-3 Cold Bay Sarichef Chernofski St. George
Flt. 222 DC-3 Unmak Chernofski Dutch Harbor Sarichef Cold Bay
Wednesday Flt. 33 DC-3 Same as Flt. 11 on Monday
Flt. 2 DC-4 Attu Shemya Amchitka Adak 8:30 am Atka Umnak Cold Bay Kodiak Anchorage
Flt. 22 DC-3 Cold Bay Port Heiden King Salmon Anchorage
Thursday Flt. 3 DC-4 Same as Flt. 1 on Tuesday
Flt. 333 DC-3 Cold Bay Sarichef Dutch Harbor St. George St. Paul Umnak
Friday Flt. 4 DC-4 Same as Flt. 2 on Wednesday
Saturday Flt. 444 DC-3 Umnak St. Paul St. George Chernofski Dutch Harbor Sarichef Cold Bay
Flt. 44 DC-3 Cold Bay Port Heiden King Salmon Kodiak Anchorage
For all flights, many stops are "as traffic demands".
1958 is similar, with the addition of Nikolski and Port Moller to some DC-3 flights.
1959 added Sand Point and Driftwood Bay to some DC-3 flights.
1960 added General Petroleum 1 to the DC-3 flights.
1961 removed General Petroleum 1.
1962 changed everything, with many more times listed. It was the following:
Monday Flt. 7 DC-4 Anchorage 9 am Kodiak 10:25/10:45 am Cold Bay 1:10/2:10 pm St. Paul 3:00 pm
Flt. 8 DC-4 St. Paul 3:30 pm Anchorage 8:00 am
Flt. 11 DC-3 Anchorage 10:00am King Salmon Port Heiden 12:45/12:55 pm Port Moller 1:35/1:45 pm Sand Point 2:10/2:20 pm Cold Bay 3:00 pm
Flt. 10 Goose Cold Bay King Cove Falst Pass Cold Bay
Tuesday Flt. 11 DC-3 Cold Bay 1:00 pm Sarichef Dutch Harbor Driftwood Bay Chernofski Umnak Nikolski Umnak
Flt. 1 DC-6 Anchorage 9:00 am Cold Bay 11:45 am/12:45 pm Adak 2:10/3:10 pm Shemya Attu 5:05/5:15 pm Shemya 5:30 pm
Wednesday Flt. 3 DC-4 Anchorage 9:00 am Kodiak 10:25/10:45 am Port Heiden Cold Bay 1:10/2:10 pm Adak 4:30 pm
Flt. 22 DC-3 Nikolski Umnak 8:00 am Chernofski Driftwood Bay Dutch Harbor Sarichef Cold Bay Sand Point 12:30/1:15 pm Port Moller 1:25/2:00 pm Port Heiden 2:50/3;00 pm King Salmon Anchorage 6:00 pm
Flt. 2 DC-6 Shemya 8:00 am Adak 0930/10:30 am Cold Bay Anchorage 4:00 pm
Flt. 20 Goose Cold Bay 10:00 am Chignik Lake 11:15/11:30 am Chignik Lagoon 11:40/11:55 am Chignik 12:00/12:20 pm Perryville 12:35/12:40 pm Cold Bay 2:00 pm
Thursday Flt. 55 DC-3 Same as Flt. 11 on Monday
Flt. 4 DC-4 Adak 8:00 am Cold Bay Kodiak 2:05/2:25 pm Anchorage 3:45 pm
Friday Flt 55 DC-3 Same as Flt. 11 on Tuesday
Flt. 5 DC-6 Same as Flight 1 on Tuesday
Saturday Flt. 6 DC-6 Same as Flt. 2 on Wednesday, with an untimed stop at Kodiak
Flt. 66 DC-3 Same as Flt. 22 on Wednesday, with untimed stops at St. Paul and St. George.
1963 and 1964 are essentially the same as 1962. In 1964 all DC-4 flights were flown by DC-6s, and they dropped St. George.
Hope this helps,
|
|
|
Post by Tom/CalClassic on Apr 10, 2018 9:56:56 GMT -5
PS. The "DC-6" listed in the 1962 timetable was actually a DC-6B, N65L, purchased in 1/62.
|
|
|
Post by darrenvox on Apr 10, 2018 14:11:29 GMT -5
Interesting
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2018 5:27:50 GMT -5
Thanks very much Tom, all that work and the information is truly appreciated. Gives me heaps to fiddle about with now doing different runs in different aeroplanes. Great! Doing these runs in the DC-3 is a real workout with real weather being provided. The winds and turbulence can be something else.
I guess my Reeve Aleutian flights will have to use cross-hired DC-4s and DC-6's until somebody does a paint for them, the paint kits for the recent releases are way to complex for my skills and programs.
|
|
|
Post by Tom/CalClassic on Apr 11, 2018 10:09:46 GMT -5
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2018 3:00:54 GMT -5
Thanks Tom for the links, I no longer have the JBK/CalClassic DC-4 or DC-6, they were put into honourable retirement when the FR DC-4/C-54 and the PMDG DC-6 came out, now I am spoilt I cannot go back.
I will try and use these paints as templates. I am slowly learning about this repaint business. The big change lately is all this layering, bump maps, specular maps etc they use, which I find quite confusing especially when your looking at the textures to try and find a small part that is painted but for some reason buried in a heap of others inconspicuously. I must admit the older sim models were a lot easier to paint and work with (well some). The Aleutian Sikorsky is my work (still working on it to tidy it up). Interestingly these were the colours they used for the Sikorsky even though settled on the blue red stripe style for most of their other aircraft, I never found a colour photo of the S43 on the net anywhere but did locate a company poster celebrating 50 years of Reeve and the S43 was depicted as this bright almost dayglo orange.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2018 6:57:30 GMT -5
Footnote to the Reeve world. I have been hunting around for a mesh/LC to give the Aleutians a more realistic appearance in FSX. The default scenery terrain is well basic in terms of hills, mountains and general look, not surprising given the limited public data for mesh compilation in this area. Most if not all of the payware addons basically leave out this chain of islands from the end of Alaska almost to Russia-Japan. There was and is an Aerosoft product but apart from some eye candy at some airports (most of which I have covered with other addons) it was really not all that much better especially with ORBX Global and ORBX Global Vector to drive the textures and LC world wide.
Anyhow I came across this mesh - CGIAR-CSI v4.1 (wexSRTMv4.1_Aleuts.zip) a 90 metre SRTM mesh compile by Wayne Evans in the UK. It did the trick it has worked nicely and has actually transformed the Aleutian Islands very well. They definitely look a whole lot better now and checked against the various add ons I have collected and installed for this area has caused no scenery display issues at all. I also found another site that seems to have done a lot of scenery work in these out of the way places in this area of Alaska, but yet to be able to download some of their stuff as you have to get a log in to do it and still awaiting a response.
On a lighter note, checking out Shemya Airport, what do I find there now but some CC AI on the ramp. Always a surprise in store.
|
|
|
Post by aharon on Apr 17, 2018 9:08:43 GMT -5
screenshots?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2018 5:21:30 GMT -5
Will do shortly bit behind with other obligations at the moment. So not for a few days probably. I have lots of screenshots taken as I do when ever I fly in that area with the default FSX so you will be able to see the difference.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2018 6:26:02 GMT -5
OK this is probably the best two, same aircraft same direction of flight, same area about 20nm NE of PADK. First shot is the default FSX taken as a screenshot in about 2016. The second is the screenshot taken today after the installation of the Aleutian mesh. Both had ORBX Global installed at the time but the other thing I am noticing with a good mesh is that a lot of ground objects that are now displaying that I have not really seen before. I cannot explain why this is because all my Aleutian scenery is airports as there has been no general area scenery done for the Aleutians to my knowledge. There is a qualitative difference in the shape and form of all the island and bays and it is displaying the textures better as well. I think it has improved the area significantly. I might add that I have tried STRM meshes before but there is a caveat with those meshes about imperfections in the satellite data and I did not really see a qualitative difference with them installed in the sim in my humble opinion, they are ok but have too many little problems which is why they are marked with the caveat they contain imperfections or errors. As FSX is a 76m standard the other issue is that a lot meshes are no better and therefore there will be no improvement in the LOD to the standard in FSX. Alas these meshes are no good for earlier sim versions because of the difference in the way the world was modelled. This mesh is not a STRM mesh but compiled from new or other satellite data by researchers at Cambridge University. As far as I am concerned it demonstrates how a quality mesh can really pick up the sim area and geographical display especially if you have good LC and texture mods such as ORBX Global and Global Vector. Before mesh was installed: After mesh was installed: As you can see in the bottom attachment there is now a couple of small buildings, two towers and a boat, no idea how come they are now showing on the scenery but happy they are. My guess is that elevation errors in the default probably masked them or had them hidden perhaps. Attachments:
|
|