Retro New Zealand project

[kiwiusa]

The old and the new .Will look bettr on the RealNZ Wellington I am sure

[Ian Warren]

Now thats a pretty pic! B)

[HardCorePawn]

shame about the annoying little cessna getting in the way.... that pilot needs a good talking to!

but it raises an interesting point, is there anyway to get a 'free' camera in FS, so I can choose my vantage point rather than 'SPOT'?

[Snowman]

Glad you like the pic Ian. We are currently using flyable models for the AI to test it all out, as we are having trouble coming up with appropriate AI aircraft, and their necessary paint jobs. The flyable models have no impact on our sytems FPS wise, but probably would on a lot of peoples computers. The project revolves around 1970s and 1980s New Zealand Commercial traffic. NAC "Wings of the Nation" red/orange, and Air NZ red/orange, and later Air NZ blue/green liveries. Also including Safe Air Bristol 170 Freighter, and Safe Air Hawker-Siddelly Argosy flights as well. Am toying around with the VERY SHORT lived "Skybus" Vickers Viscount 802 at the moment as well. Any ideas on appropriate AI aircraft and paint jobs would be appreciated from anybody. I have Dee Waldrons AI F-27, and there are a few AI B737-200s out ther, but havnt seen AI models for the Bristol,Argosy, or Viscount yet, but am still looking. Also paint jobs for them,Hmmmmmm, now thats the hard part.

Lawrie and Tracy.

[Jenks]

Aah, I remember those days well.

As always, I will be happy to help out with repaints where I can. I'll also have a look at my old pics from back then. I'm sure I have plenty taken at Wellington Airport from that era. I'll post some on the forum if I find any particularly interesting ones.

I think you will struggle to find AI models for the ones you are after. There was a really basic B170 around for FS2002 that may work, but you would probably have to rework the fde to get it to behave properly.

Other aircraft that spring to mind from that era were the Qantas 747SPs (and later 767s) and the Bandeirantes of Eagle Air/Rex etc - in Wellington at least. I'm fairly sure there were various small airlines that used metroliners too. All of these should be available as AI.

Steve

[Alex]

but it raises an interesting point, is there anyway to get a 'free' camera in FS, so I can choose my vantage point rather than 'SPOT'?

Yea, there are a few programs around that can change the default views, a couple of the more well-known ones are;

• igFly Walk and Follow
• Active Camera

Search for these on google and I'm sure you'll come up with something .

Alex

[Snowman]

Gudday Jenks. Yep, i remember those days well too. Remember flying round NZ in DC-3s before the F27s came, and even flying to Aussie on a Lockheed L-188 Electra !! Any help would be greatly appreciated Jenks, particularly with the repaints. NAC Wings of the Nation F-27 and B-732 paints in particular, as these are available in AI model form. Its not looking good for finding the others in AI model form, but i will keep looking. Where did you see the rather basic B-170 do you remeber ?? Might be better than nothing...... I never gave the Bandeirante a thought, i was thinking more along the lines of the bigger domestic fleets, but i might look into that as well (assuming i can find AI model and paint). After all, they were pretty much everywhere back then.

Lawrie.

[Snowman]

Jenks, sorry, forgot to mention also looking for early all over red with white logos livery for NZ Post F-27.

Lawrie.

[ardypilot]

Awesome work- is it possible to assign different AI to different years.

Meaning that if you set your sim date to 1966 instead of 2006, you would see a different set of AI?

If not, then why the heck did M$ include the date feature with fs2004, nothing seems to change in NYC for me when I set the date back to 1930. I still see my same Ultimate Traffic and all the same buildings.

[Snowman]

No, sorry Trolly. Dunno if thats possible in FS9, and if it is, well, i wouldnt have a clue.
Retro traffic will probably come out in the form of flight plans etc, and traffic.bgl files that you just drop into the Scenery/World/Scenery folder, you change the bgl file depending on what era you want to fly in and see appropriately liveried NZ domestic commercial aircraft. for example,..........................., there will be trafficbgls for.....
NAC Wings of the Nation red/orange livery,
Air New Zealand early red/orange livery,
Air New Zealand later blue/green livery,
And mixed in with all three of the above, will be the Safe Air Bristol's and Argosy's.
Am toying with the idea of including the VERY SHORT lived "Skybus" Viscount for a few flights as well.
Still in development and testing, so will be a while. Is a joint project between myself and Kiwiusa.

Lawrie.

[ardypilot]

Thanks for the reply Lawrie, I look foward to the public release

[Snowman]

Trolley,...there will also be a listing of all the aircraft and paints required to get it going. At present we are testing it with mostly flyable models, not AI, as some of the AI models we need are proving hard to find. Even harder to get NZ paints of them, but Jenks says he may be able to help there, as he has a collection of photos of aircraft at Welly during those eras. The flyable models make no difference FPS wise to my machine, or to Kiwiusa's machine, but being flyable models, they are much more detailed than AI models, and may slow some peoples computers down to a crawl, particularly at a busy airport with lots of AI traffic around. We may release it first, just using the flyable models, and then do the AI model updates later, as paints etc come to hand. Not too sure on that one yet. We thought it best to leave the models out of the packge, to keep the download size to a minimum, for those that have dial-up. They can just download the models from Avsim or Flightsim at their leisure.

Lawrie.

[Ian Warren]

Heck - imagine a Retro 1960's Christchurch Scenery !! ? , right hand F27 is parked buy the original Fire/crash built into the terminal in the late 50's .
This is a photo I really thought worth sharing , I remember the airport this way from this 1964 pic , put me at 2 years young .. but was the same till work started in the early 70's

From the same magazine , this portrait


Bristol Freighters ? .. mm only 1 out there , Mike Stones as u would no , probally the most ideal for AI .

[Snowman]

Nice pics Ian. Thanks for sharing.
Yep, been using Mike Stones B-170 in the testing (in Safe Air Colours of course) and no impact on FPS at all. But have found a nice little AI B-170 and Paint job. Turned up in my e-mail inbox this arvo unexpectadly

Lawrie

[kiwiusa]

Formation flying





F27 Invasion

now if I could just get that with Helicopters over the sounds CHarl

[Snowman]

By the looks of the "F27 Invasion" heading across Cook Straight, id say Woodbourne terminal is in for a busy time.........

[kiwiusa]

Shots using all the 70's/80's packages we have completed








retro mix at nzwn

Nelson
finished just needs testing from me mate Lawrie and we will get it out there!!! whew

[Charl]

Goodonya guys!
Your timing is probably quite good with this, as most people will be revving up gutsier computers for the next-gen FSX.
Couldn't have worked a few years back I suspect, as those models were then state of the art flyables. FPS then as now would've been a major issue.
Ironic, really, you can have retro if you're bleeding-edge equipped!

[Snowman]

Thanks Charl. Its not over yet. Still loads more testing to do, and think we might leave the planes out of the package, and just list whats needed. The package would be toooooooo big otherwise, especially for those poor souls that only have dial-up. Just have flight plans, bgl files , instructions etc..............
Current package will contain red/orange NAC "Wings of the Nation", then the later red/orange Air New Zealand, then the later blue/green Air New Zealand. Also contains Safe Air flights as well, with the Bristol 170 Freighter,and the Hawker Siddelly Argosy. NAC and Air NZ flights made up of the Fokker F-27, and Boeing 737-200. Probable future addon for NZ Post flights, and for curiositys sake, the VERY SHORT lived "Skybus" Viscount, and maybe small feeder lines like Eagle Air etc using Bandierantes etc.
I would like to mabe include at some stage the real early NAC livery on the F27s B732, Viscount, and DC-3. No paint around for the Default DC-3 though. How about it Charl, ????? Wanna pitch in with a paint of the default FS9 DC-3 in NAC "Skyliner" livery ??????? (beg, grovel, plead)

Lawrie.

[Charl]

Hah!
My knees and forehead are raw from all the grovelling I do for paints!
The Warbirds Dak new paint is absolutely No. 1 on the list.
I know Ian Warren is dying to paint the MAAM version but we need a paint of the default DC-3 so badly...