Anyone make a busy airport?

Apologize for the OT ... mods can move if desired.

 

lol, thanks for the (vacation) insert. When I was doing FCC stuff I got to spend 48 hours in Guam. There is something weird about being paid to chill on a tropical beach and watch B2's fly overhead.

 

Ah, how things have changed ... Not! Way back in the 60's the B52 wing at Mather AFB were tasked with a wartime deployment. We loaded every one of our Buffs with iron bombs (Mk 82 back then) both internal and external. They took off in a mass formation and it was a sight to see. We then loaded aboard a lot of KC-135's to follow the bomb wing -- that's where I experienced my first explosive decompression :cry:. When we got to Guam, hungry and thirsty and tired, we spent weeks doing nothing but change fuze settings (M904 and M905) as the frag order changed ... sometimes 3 or 4 times daily. It was a long time before they finally committed to actually fly those long bombing missions.

 

I remember a lot about the old Guam. The Navy PX was the place to buy everything! Downtown Agana was not such a big place. Watching the rain squalls miles off the runway as they approached, soaked everyone thoroughly, and then departed to leave behind more heat and humidity. There used to be a store called Jade East on the road from Anderson to Agana ... neat merchandise and good looking store clerks. My first experience with barracks that had slatted windows and light bulbs in the closets (they called them dorms a lot later). A "pitch and putt" golf course that presented you with some of the biggest spiders I've ever seen if you hooked a little into the jungle. Some of the best and hottest beaches I've ever seen (and some of the best sun burn cases). Getting lost driving a jammer (MJ-1 bomb truck) looking for the bomb dump and winding up down town. :megalol: And our favorite recreation on base (besides the insect-plagued outdoor theater) was going to the base ops cafeteria when the commercial jets came in to Anderson ... it's hard to forget those 60's style stewardess uniforms (and no, there were no male flight attendants back then :)).

 

Sorry for the war stories ... it just brought back a lot of memories reading this thread.

I tried making a mission with six flights returning to base around the time you do, its outright insanity. I dont think ATC assigns them orbiting altitudes and some aircraft dont orbit in circles while attempting to land. And there is no specific order, like no number to land scheme so they each try to sneak in front of each other and land.

 

Basically anarchy. So what I did was assign each flight a waypoint 5-8 miles out, then put each into an orbit at 2000 feet plus 1000 feet for each flight. I put a trigger at the far end of the runway, triggered as each aircraft passes it. So each time an aircraft lands the next flight comes out of orbit and contacts ATC. The problem is that I think in this pattern flights drop altitudes as each flights goes on approach. So when the first flight at 2000 feet lands the next flights drops orbit to 2000 and so on all the way up the funnel. I havent figured out how to do it yet, maybe multiple waypoints with orbits at different alts and a single flag to send all the flights to next waypoint and down a thousand feet. Very possible. I think I'll actually attempt to implement this before I finish it. Well see.

 

Another problem is that the player can always sneak in between any of the flights to land. Once the tower gives you clearance to land its dog eat dog to get to the threshold. So even if you make a bunch of traffic, I doubt anyone would wait for it to land. Taking off is another story entirely of course.

The Navy PX was the place to buy everything!

It still is. When I was deployed there for a vacation in '07, the BX on Anderson was basically non-functional, but they were building a brand new one that opened while we were there with perhaps the most dysfunctional food court in existence. Regardless, the PX on the Navy base was still like, the most glorious thing I've ever seen.... second perhaps to Rammstein's BX.

 

There used to be a store called Jade East on the road from Anderson to Agana ... neat merchandise and good looking store clerks.

I don't know about that, but I can tell you that I've never been somewhere where $40 could last you all night... $5 for a beer from the Mamasan... $1 tips all night :D Of course, it's all fun and games until someone's underwear ends up nailed to the ceiling in The Viking.

 

A "pitch and putt" golf course that presented you with some of the biggest spiders I've ever seen if you hooked a little into the jungle.

Don't even joke. I don't consider myself someone who's afraid of spiders, but those beastly ****ing banana spiders are on a whole new level of unspeakable horror. We were doing a highway cleanup effort and I went to go snag some McDonalds bags (mother****ing Guamanians love them some Micky-Ds) and immediately before I crashed into it, I saw the biggest, ugliest, meanest looking effing spider I've ever seen in my life. If I was a hobbit this would be Shelob.

 

I proceeded to have the most epic freakout of my life right there along the highway.

 

Anyway... All that and you didn't even mention the disgusting plague of toads everywhere? Working on top of a jet and having a tree snake *fall out of the rafters of the hangar* and plop on the jet next to you?

I totally unterstand that more traffic will give you a more reality feeling. But I'm afraid that you will have much less fps with more traffic.

 

How does the situation look like in the Nevada theatre? During Red Flag, there are many other planes (fighters, tankers, AWACS, carriage) operating on the airbases, so there will hopefully be much more traffic ;)

Anyway... All that and you didn't even mention the disgusting plague of toads everywhere? Working on top of a jet and having a tree snake *fall out of the rafters of the hangar* and plop on the jet next to you?

 

TBH, I don't remember the toads ... lots of lizards though.

 

The thing that changed my life over there was sitting under the bomb bay of a buff eating cold hotdogs and noodles swimming in a plate full of rainwater ... saw a truck sitting nearby with the occupants all warm and dry and asked who they were. "Oh, that 's those EOD guys ... they got it made!" I had my cross training request in within the week. :D

Well, everywhere I have deployed over the years, has always been a beehive of activity on the ramp and base. My last deployment was the 1st Gulf war with the F-4 Wild Weasel's from George AFB, Ca.... and Shaikh Isa AB in Bahrain was a very busy place.

 

 

I was there as well. Was a Combat Comm Tech at the time all over that place. And yes it was busy.

 

~Rave

Rave,

 

When I was deployed to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia [Khobar Towers] (during the 1st Gulf War) - we had the Brits, French, and US fighters/bombers flying non-stop all day/night for several months. Was a very exciting time for sure. It was the SCUDs that really scared me the most during that timeframe.

 

BTW: Combat Comm - wouldn't have been from the 2nd Combat Com Grp from Patrick AFB, FL by any chance?

Edited December 19, 2012 by bradleyjs

Rave,

 

When I was deployed to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia [Khobar Towers] (during the 1st Gulf War) - we had the Brits, French, and US fighters/bombers flying non-stop all day/night for several months. Was a very exciting time for sure. It was the SCUDs that really scared me the most during that timeframe.

 

BTW: Combat Comm - wouldn't have been from the 2nd Combat Com Grp from Patrick AFB, FL by any chance?

 

Yup the flight line in Bahrain was the same way. And yup, those Scud alarms were like the bogey man to some of us trained killers ...:helpsmilie: Yeaaa Patriots!!

 

I was from the 3rd group out of Tinker AFB, OK. Tent City!

Edited December 27, 2012 by ravenone

Any way you might know to have vehicles driving along the same closed path for an undefined period of time (like 'orbit' for the ground)? This would help me a lot to generate realistic ground traffic.

Make a defined amount of waypoints and give the last waypoint a task "switch waypoint", so that the next waypoint for the unit/group will be the first in your circle

Make a defined amount of waypoints and give the last waypoint a task "switch waypoint", so that the next waypoint for the unit/group will be the first in your circle

 

Switch waypoint is not available for ground groups. Though I suspect with CA and the ability to change ground WP it should probably be possible.

Isn't? I am at the office, couldn't check now..

Well, otherwise just make so many waypoints in a circle that you have a sufficient amount of circles, not infinite, but "infinite enough"...

Isn't? I am at the office, couldn't check now..

Well, otherwise just make so many waypoints in a circle that you have a sufficient amount of circles, not infinite, but "infinite enough"...

 

LOL. Yes, that's what I am doing right now. A bit time consuming though, and I suspect also that this might take a toll on framerate.

Thanks for you help.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1759211&posted=1#post1759211

 

Yes I thought the same thing :)