Taking David and Mick's B-47 out for a spin. Part 1.

[Sbob]

The book says the pull-up was at 2.5G.

Sometimes, I scare myself.

Before I forget, some quick edits you may want to add. We'll fix a wonky tail strobe and add some cockpit lighting for those night flights.
These edits are quick and easy.

Let's start with the strobe.

Open the aircraft.cfg file for both folders and find the [lights] section. Copy the line below and change the "light.0=" line to:


light.0=1, -69.96, 0.01, 22.85, fx_beacon , //aft


Save and, boom, you're done.

To add cockpit lights, stick with that [lights] section and add the following lines:

light.X=4, 21.00, 0.00, 4.50, fx_dsb_vclight_red, //AC
light.Y=4, 16.00, 0.00, 4.50, fx_dsb_vclight_red, //CO

The [lights] sections are different in the two folders, make sure you change the X and Y values to sequential numbers.
In the Early folder's .cfg file, X is 3 and Y is 4. In the Late folder's .cfg, X is 8 and Y is 9.

You should also check both .cfg files and make sure there is ONLY ONE [lights] section.
I think I found a second, duplicate, [lights] section in the Late folder's .cfg file. Go ahead and remove it, you don't need it.

One quick note, I used the deep red cockpit lights you can find in those DSB freeware aircraft. Feel free to use whatever cockpit light fx file you like. When in doubt, check the [lights] section of a plane you like and look for "light.X=4", the 4 tells you its a cockpit light.

We're almost done. Now, let's put the cherry on top.
We're going to make the 2D panel match the VC at night and its super easy.

You'll want to go into your main EFFECTS folder and find your VC light fx file.
Right-click on it and COPY it to your desktop.
Highlight the copy and right click. Use the OPEN WITH>NOTEPAD option.
You should see a bunch of text.

Look near the bottom of the file in the last section and you'll see lines like this:

Color Start=70, 70, 70, 1
Color End=142, 130, 130, 0

Those first three sets of numbers are the RGB values.
What we want are these:


Color End=142, 130, 130, 0

Write them down somewhere or highlight all three and COPY them. Don't worry about that fourth 0, its just an alpha value and we don't need it.
You can dump that copy you made of the FX file now, we're done using it.

Now, we need to open the panel.cfg files for both B-47 folders (not at the same time, jeeze..).
Down near the bottom again, you'll see this:

[Color]
Day=192,192,192
Night=102,102,102
Luminous=148,136,107

Retype these lines just below but add two "/" characters at the start of each line. You should wind up with something that looks like this:




[Color]
Day=192,192,192
Night=102,102,102
Luminous=148,136,107

//[Color]
//Day=192,192,192
//Night=102,102,102
//Luminous=148,136,107



You want to save some kind of copy or at least a reminder of what the original numbers were. The // part tells FS to ignore everything to the right on that line.
For us, it says that its the original copy and we shouldn't goof with it if we want to try some color combos out. It is VERY handy if you come back to an old project after a couple of years.

Now, lets add the new night lighting that matches the VC. All we need to change is the Night= line to the RGB values we found in the FX file.

[Color]
Day=192,192,192
Night=155,0,0
Luminous=148,136,107

Now, one little problem with this edit is that everything is red and nothing is blue or green. This can cause problems with how the gauges get displayed (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). I have my own personal favorite settings that add some blue and green for the gauges with this deep red color, so what we finally wind up with is this:

[Color]
Day-192,192,192
Night=120,4,4
Luminous=148,136,107

Oh, one extra bonus. Due to how the canopy looks shiny from the inside of the VC, we now have some extra night vision.
It might look like you ate enough carrots to feed a herd of rabbits but remember that FS9 tends to make night time look like its coal black.
Try it for a while and you'll start to appreciate the effect, its a rush and a half to fly through clouds at night.

My only other suggestion for the VC is your view angle. I have FS set up so my VC view is always set to ".5". With the B-47, I kick up one notch to ".75" (I hit the + key once) and the 2D and VC views look almost identical.

[Mick]

Hmmmmm…

Did they have strobe lights back in the days when the B-47 was in service?

I don’t know when they came in, but I’m suspicious that they came in that early. I was just a kid in those days and I have no direct recollection. I have the idea that they came along in the sixties but I’m really unsure about that.

I do know that I didn’t see anything that looked like a strobe light in any of the gazillion photos I perused during the project but that doesn’t prove anything. I wasn’t looking for that kind of details.

Maybe David will chime in. He spent years up close and personal with B-47s. I’ll bet he remembers.

[this4dave2]

Hi All

No strobe lights!

However in about 1959 and 1960 there was a modification done on all B-47's (at least at Mcconnell AFB) to install rotating beacons on the top of the vertical stabilizer and on the bottom just forward of the front landing gear wheel well. The rotating beacons of that time consisted of two light bulbs positioned 180 degrees apart that rotated by an electric motor and gears inside of a red cover.

If it worked like the one attached? It did it did

I think that now days what was a rotating beacon has been replaced by a red strobe light and most people refer to them as strobe lights weather or not they are in fact strobes

I think Bob was only correcting the location of the aft beacon to correspond to the model light

David

[Sbob]

I wrote "strobe lights" because, well, modern times.
They are supposed to be rotating beacons and I have tried some beacon mods in the past, but they all look like strobes in FS.
Anyone have any good candidates for red rotating beacons?

BTW, sorry if that last post ran a little long (again) but I wanted to show how to make the VC nightlights match with the 2D panel.

One thing I forgot to include was how I positioned the VC lights, believe it or not I hit those locations on the first try.
The key is to find the [Views] section in the Aircraft.cfg file and use the "eyepoint" values as a "ballpark" location.
I then moved the first VC light slightly lower and slightly behind the "eyepoint" and tested it out. For the back seat, I used the same numbers but moved it 3 or 4 feet back.
The back seat is purely cosmetic for external views. I thought about adding a third light for "George" on the lower deck. maybe even making it "antique yellow" or green, but I was concerned about getting "light leaks" in the VC view. Maybe somewhere down the road?

Oh, you can use that process I ran through in my last post to make your own VC/cockpit lights. Just play around with those three RGB digits in the fx file.

[Mick]

Yes, modern times indeed!

Many times I’ve growled at the TV, “That’s not a strobe!” as some clueless narrator refers to a beacon or just a light that just sits there glowing motionless as a strobe.

[Sbob]

I get a kick out of watching an old "period" TV show or movie where a police car or fire engine screams past, with its modern Whalen siren.

[Sbob]

Most of you have probably seen this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2iU_VdHD3M

Its a handy prep video for flying the B-47 (and the B-52), basically any of the "flat fliers".

Things to remember-

-Stall speed is always dependent on gross weight. It pays to make your own speed vs weight graph and keep it handy. * Don't forget to set your trim for take off and landing, this setting will depend on gross weight. You don't want to use trim to compensate for a bad approach, rather set the trim first and THEN "fly into" your approach.

-NEVER land on the front wheels first. The B-47 does best when the forward and rear main gear touch at the same time. For the B-52, try to touch the rears down one or two seconds before the fronts. This is why IT IS CRITICAL to center the pitch and bank display (ie, "the ball" ) on David and Mick's B-47 prior to take off.

-Memorizing weights, speeds, and procedures is great BUT it doesn't replace a good "seat of the pants" feel for the plane. The only way to get there is to build experience over time. This is even more critical when flying Alphasim's B-52 and the B-47 is a great "intro" plane. Once you build that level of experience, you'll want to maintain it and these types of aircraft make for a fun time if you want to try flying in "career mode".**

-ALWAYS take off and land using full flaps.

-You really want to use a Real Weather program for these aircraft. Minot AFB (the home of the Variable Crosswinds) might be bleak but it WILL make you into a better pilot.



*- I can show you how to make your own Speed VS Weight (and Trim) graph using a ruler and a 3X5 index card. There is NO WAY you will be able to memorize what speed you need to take off and land at a given weight. The graph makes this a LOT easier, just keep it near your controllers and remember to USE it.

**- You'll want to fly a full training mission (including Flight Planning) each week unless you're on Alert Duty which is a whole 'nother barrel of fish. Alert Duty may be a lot more than you thought it was. There's more to it than just being locked up in the alert shack for a week.