Carrier Division Two off Cape Cod for Golden Wings 3 or FS9
This scenery places the two Yorktown-class aircraft carriers of the pre-WW2 U.S. Navy with a screen of four cruisers at sea 100 miles due east of Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the tip of Cape Cod. The ships are the Virtual Navy's Task Force 16 relocated and with the Hornet posing as the Yorktown. This package contains the carriers, cruisers, ship wakes, AFCAD files for all six ships and Arrestor Cables catch zones for the carriers. It provides start points on both carriers, on the catapults of all four cruisers, and in the water between the carriers for seaplanes. Also included are flight starts for Paul Clawson's Curtiss SOC Seagull on the catapults of the cruisers and for the plane of your choice on the carriers and authentic repaints of the SOC for aircraft assigned to those cruisers plus one for the personal aircraft of the Admiral commanding CarDiv2. There is also a selection of Golden Wings splash screens featuring the ships and planes of CarDiv2. Carrier Division 2 is being released in celebration of Golden Wings 3, but works just as well in a standard FS9 installation. Catapult floatplane operations require the Carrier Operations Gauge Package and Paul Clawson's Curtiss SOC Seagull or another catapult floatplane. Ships and wake effects by The Virtual Navy, modified AFCAD files, SOC repaints, flights and ship placement by Mick Morrissey. A big Thank You to the Virtual Navy for allowing this use of their ships!
INSTALLATION:
Unzip to a temporary location and drop the "CarDiv2 off Cape Cod" folder into your Addon Scenery folder, then activate it through the Scenery Library.
If you want to use CarDiv2 in both Golden Wings and your regular FS9 installation, you do NOT have to install it twice. You can activate it in both sims from the same folder. (And it doesn't matter which folder.)
Drop the effect file fx_wake_carrier into your Effects folder(s) in your main FS9 and/or FSGW3 folder(s).
IMPORTANT !!!!!:
In both Golden Wings 3, and FS9 there are some lumps in the ocean surface directly under Carrier Division Two! This produces some rather jarring visual effects, like of a carrier sitting on a pylon of water raised above the surface of the sea! To get rid of this effect you must add a flatten switch to your Scenery.cfg file in both Golden Wings 3 and FS9.
After you have activated Carrier Division Two in your Scenery Library, open your Scenery.cfg file with Notepad and scroll down to the Carrier Division Two off Cape Cod entry. You will probably find it all the way at the bottom of the list. Copy this flatten switch into your cfg file starting on the blank line directly below the Carrier Division Two entry.
(Don't worry that your Area number and Layer number or Local string don't match, those will be different for almost everyone, depending on where you placed the scenery folder, how many other sceneries you have installed and how you have them layered. This example is just to show you where the Flatten switch fits in.)
That's all that's required. The rest is optional.
Download and install Paul Clawson's USS Idaho & Curtiss SOC Seagull package from FlightSim or Simviation, and install the repaints in the usual way. There's a text file with the required User Interface sections for the Aircraft.cfg file in the folder with the repaints.
Drop the "Catapult Floatplane Flights" folder into the Flights folder(s) in your main FS9 and/or FSGW3 folder(s).
IMPORTANT:
DO NOT try to load any of these catapult flights unless you have the Curtiss SOC Seagull and repaints installed first, with no modifications to the Titles of the repaints! If you try to load a flight and FS can't find the designated plane it will probably freeze up or crash to desktop!
The flight that starts on each cruiser will load the SOC in an authentic paint of an aircraft assigned to that cruiser. There is also a paint of the personal aircraft assigned to the Admiral in command of Carrier Division Two, in case you want to be the Admiral.
Drop the Vintage Carrier Flights folder into the Flights folder of your main FS9 and/or FSGW3 directory. They provide flight starts on the decks of both of the carriers of CarDiv2. Since I don't know which aircraft everyone has installed, I've set up these flights with the stock Piper Cub. You can open the flight files and scroll down almost half way, to the line that designates the aircraft, and substitute the Title (from the aircraft.cfg file) of the plane and paint of your choice.
SPLASH SCREENS:
If you're using a splash screen randomizer, just drop the splash screens into the appropriate folder. If you're not using a randomizer, rename the screen you want to use "dlgsplash" and dop it in the Uires folder in your main FSGW3 folder. Don't forget to back up your original first!
You should be aware that splash screen randomizers will only work if your main executable file is named FS9.exe, so if your Golden Wings installation uses another name for the exe file, the randomizer won't find it and won't work. You should also be aware that if you name the exe file in Golden Wings "FS9.exe" you will have to share a common Flight Simulator Documents folder and a common FS9.cfg file between the two sims. This is OK if you run both sims with the same settings, but it is essential that you have a common default flight that uses a plane that exists in both sims. (The stock Piper Cub is a good choice.)
KNOWN ISSUES:
Although the hulls of both carriers are painted the same shade of gray, one of them often looks lighter and may appear to have a white hull in low sunlight around dawn or sunset. I have no idea why and no clue what to do about it. In some lighting conditions both carriers' hulls appear the same shade of gray.
FINDING CARRIER DIVISON TWO FROM THE GO TO AIRPORT MENU:
CarDiv2 will appear under:
Country: Atlantic Ocean
State or Province: North Atlantic
City: Off Cape Cod
There you will find seven airports listed:
CV5C is the USS Yorltown, CV-5
CV6C is the USS Enterprise, CV-6
C24C is the USS Pensacola, CA-24
C29C is the USS Chicago, CA-29
C39C is the USS Quincy, CA-39
C41C is the USS Philadelphia, CL-41
CD2 is "CarDiv2 Afloat," a spot on the water about midway between the carriers, for use as a start point for flights using seaplanes.
Both carriers have start locations on the fantail, ready for a deck run take-off. They also have a few deck edge parking spaces you can select as starting points if you'd prefer to taxi into position. The cruisers' start locations are on their catapults.
FINDING CARRIER DIVISION TWO FROM THE AIR:
Fly 100 miles due east from Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Home in on the carriers' Terminal NDBs:
CV-5 Yorktown: ID = CV5C
ID = CV5C
NDB frequency = 352.0
CV-6 Enterprise:
ID = CV6C
NDB frequency = 312.0
Both carriers have deck lighting for night operations.
I did not provide NDBs for the cruisers. If you can't find the task force using the NDBs on the carriers, having them on the cruisers won't help. Even having them on both carriers is overkill, one would have been enough, but I put them on both ships anyway.
Although the original Task Force 16 carriers had ILS systems, I deleted them from Carrier Division Two because there were no ILS systems aboard pre-war carriers.
ARRESTOR CABLES:
These are the cable catch zones for Rich Hogen's Arrestor Cables program, included with Abacus' Flight Deck III, Vietnam Carrier Operations and WW2 Carrier Operations payware packages. I believe they will also work with the latest version of the freeware Carrier Operations Gauge package, although the use of cable catch zones is optional with that package.
Paste the zones into your ArrCab.dat file and change the X in the first line for each zone to the next number in sequence.
Don't forget that you're starting your deck run behind the cables! Either set ArrCab to only catch you when your tailhook is down, or temporarily disable the cables during launch. Otherwise you'll snag the cables when you roll over them!
CATAPULT FLOATPLANES:
You will need the Carrier Operations Gauge Package, available at SurClaro, SurClaro.com, and probably at SimOuthouse.com and Simviation.com, to shoot your scouts from the catapults on the cruisers. Dowload and install as indicated in the instructions.
Curtiss SOC Seagull:
The SOC Seagull is the only aircraft that is completely authentic for use aboard U.S. Navy cruisers from late 1935 until the end of World War Two. Paul Clawson's fine Seagull model comes in a package with the first version of his battleship U.S.S. Idaho, located in the harbor at Long Beach, California. The Seagull can be shot from the Idaho's catapult and so the panel is already set up to use the Carrier Operations Package's catapult gauge.
Paul's SOC & Idaho package is available at Simviation and FlightSim. I have repainted the Seagull in the colors and markings of the section leaders of almost all the squadrons in the pre-war Navy that flew it, and those repaints are available at FligtSim.
SOC Colors & Markings Notes:
Please note that during the years the SOC Seagull was stationed aboard the cruisers, the Scouting (later Cruiser Scouting) Squadrons underwent a major reorganization that involved all of them being redesignated and almost all of them adopting new tail colors and patterns. Some of the squadrons changed their colors and patterns at other times, too. Each of the Seagull paints is authentic and accurate for the ship it's assigned to in Carrier Division Two, but the paints do not all depict the same time frame. For example, the plane aboard the U.S.S. Chicago is marked for Scouting Ten, which in later years would be designated Cruiser Scouting Five. The plane aboard the U.S.S. Pensacola wears a solid Aluminum tail, but at a later time VCS-4 changed it's identification marking to a single blue tail band.
CV-5 Yorktown and CV-6 Enterprise formed Carrier Division Two from the time of their commissioning at least until the outbreak of World War Two. The cruisers of the escort screen did not form a single Cruiser Division, but are a mixture of ships from four different CruDivs. They are the ships that made up Task Force 16. I didn't rename them to make an authentic pre-war CruDiv because the ships are of different classes and I don't think there was ever a pre-war Cruiser Divison with such a mixture of ships. Also, the Seagull paints would've all been planes from the same squadron, with the same tail color and pattern, instead of the variety included in this package.
Vought OS2U Kingfisher:
Around 1940 the Seagull was replaced aboard the battleships by the Vought OS2U Kingfisher. Athough the OS2U never went aboard the cruisers, it's still fun to fly it from the cruisers of CarDiv2's screen. Paul released his Kingfisher in a package with his updated Idaho model located in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The location works well with the stock FS9 and GW3 scenery, with FSGenesis Hawaii mesh and landclass, and with Bill Lyons' Golden Hawaii.
Paul's OS2U & Idaho package is available at Simviation and FlightSim. I painted the Kingfisher in the colors of all the section leaders of all the squadrons in the pre-war Navy that flew it, and the paints are available at FlightSim. (They may be at AvSim and SimOuthouse too; I can't remember!)
Tim "Piglet" Conrad also released a fine OS2U Kingfisher, which I repainted in all the same liveries as Paul's Kingfisher. You can find the plane and the paints at FlightSim, SimOuthouse, and AvSim. Piglet's Kingfisher is not set up "straight from the box" to use the catapult gauge. If you want to shoot it from the cruisers, add this line to the end of the gauge list in the Window00 section of the Panel.cfg file:
There are two versions of Piglet's OS2U foatplane, the original and an update with beaching gear that disappears when you key the G key as though retracting your landing gear. Since the beaching gear functions as an amphibian's landing gear, it will be present when the plane is on the catapult and you won't be able to drop it until you've launched. As well as looking really strange, this gives the plane a totally unrealistic sit on the cat, so you'll want to use the original model for cat shots. You can do this and still have a Kingfisher with beaching gear by installing both models as separate aircraft or by adding both models to one aircraft folder, giving them different folder names and editing the aircraft.cfg file as necessary. If you want to have the same paints available with and without beaching gear, make two UI entries in the aircraft.cfg file for each paint, one using each model. Remember that they must have different Titles and Variation names or only one will show up on the Select Aircraft menu.
If some days you feel like a VC and some days you don't, you may want both Paul's and Tim's models. If you do, remember that the Title and Variation Names for all the paints must be different from the ones you use for the other model, even though they're installed separately. In short, whether you have one, two or three OS2U floatplane aircraft, and whether or not you have double UI sections for the same paint in one model folder, each paint of each model must have a different Title and Variation name. FS9 looks at your entire aircraft library and it will not "see" more than one plane with the same Title or Variation name, regardless of whether they're in the same aircraft folder or not.
What works for me is to have Tim's original model and the revised one in a single aircraft folder, with the original simply named "model" and the new one named "model.bg" (for "beaching gear.") In the UI sections I end the Title and Variation names of each paint with BG for the one with the beaching gear. In the Aircraft.cfg file for Paul's Kingfisher I end each Title and Variation name with PC.
Most of you probably didn't have to read the last couple paragraphs, but if you did, I hope I expresssed myself clearly. I know I expressed myself as clearly as I'm capable of, so if it didn't make sense to you, please don't ask me for further clarification - I've explained it the best I can. If you don't understand this stuff, you should go to any of the major download sites and check out their excellent tutorials on installing aircraft and repaints and understanding and editing aircraft.cfg files.
Vought O2U Corsair:
The Vought O2U/O3U Corsair series were the standard U.S. Navy catapult floatplanes of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The O3U replaced the O2U around the turn of the decade. Some of the cruisers in CarDiv2 are old enough to have operated Corsairs, but the O2U and O3U were long gone from the fleet before the carriers Yorktown and Enterprise entered service.
There is a Vought O2U Corsair available in the CFS-2 Aircraft section at the SimOuthouse. It loses it's prop in FS9, but otherwise works well on some systems, though not on others. I did a series of repaints for this plane and they're available on FlightSim and AvSim. I modified the panel on my copy, so it wouldn't help you much if I provided the line from my panel.cfg file to add the catapult gauge, since the location would probably interfere with some other gauge. You can do this yourself easily enough by following the instructions in the Carrier Operations Gauge Package.
Aichi E13A1 Type 0 "Jake"
OK, it never flew from American cruisers, but it's a catapult floatplane and it's fun to fly from the cruisers of CarDiv2's screen. There's a FS9 conversion of Akemi Mizoguchi's CFS-2 Jake available at the SimOuthouse. To add the catapult gauge, add this line to the end of the gauge list in the [Window00] section of the Panel.cfg file:
Just as inappropriate as the Jake, and just as much fun, is Kazunori Ito's Mitsubishi "Pete," available at AvSim and I believe at FlightSim and Simviation. To add the catapult gauge, add this line to the end of the gauge list in the [Window00] section of the Panel.cfg file:
Most seaplanes can be given the catapult gauge and shot from the catapults on the Virtual Navy's cruisers or Paul Clawson's battleships. The instructions with the Carrier Operations Gauge Package explain how to add the catapult gauge to any panel.Unfortunately, amphibians don't work very well as catapult planes in FS9, so we can't realistically catapult such planes as the Grumman J2F Duck or the Supermarine Walrus, even though those amphibs were capable of catapult launching in the real world. That's because, like the version of Piglet's OS2U with beaching gear, they appear on the cat with their gear down, in the attitude they would have if parked on the ground, and they won't retract their gear until they're airborne. This isn't a flaw in the models, it's just the way FS9 works, and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it.
CARRIER AIRCRAFT:
There are too many great models of Golden Age carier planes available to fly from the carriers of CarDiv2 for me to comment on all of them here. My comments will be limited to those that were actually assigned to the Yorktown and Enterprise Air Groups from the time CV-5 and CV-6 joined the fleet until the adoption of camouflage for U.S. Navy tactical aircraft.
CV-5 and CV-6 joined the fleet in 1937, when many of the great Golden Age Navy aircraft were no longer in service, and their Air Groups operated a limited number of types. Both Air Groups flew a variety of older types while working up, but they never took those aircraft to sea with the fleet.
Fighting Squadron Five of the Yorktown Air Group initially flew the Grumman F2F-1, of which there is no model available, but within a year had upgraded to the F3F-3, which they flew until after the advent of camouflage. VF-6 of the Enterprise Air Group flew the F3F-2 exclusively during the pre-camo period.
There are no models of the F3F specifically for FS9, but there are two for FS2002 that can be used in FS9. One is freeware by Paul Clawson and the other is payware by Aeroplane Heaven.
Paul's F3F lacks a VC; whether that matters depends on how you feel about Virtual Cockpits. It's an excellent model, and I have repainted it in the markings of all the Navy and Marine units that flew it (plus some that flew only the earlier F3F-1.) You can find the plane at FlightSim or Simviation, and you can find the repaints at FlightSim or AvSim.
Aeroplane Heaven's F3F is a fabulous model with outstanding 2D and virtual cockpits, but it comes with a set of ludicrously innacurate liveries that consist of a random selection of mismatched squadron and section markings, all pasted over a bizzare basic color scheme of gray fuselage with blue wings! I have repainted it in the authentic liveries of the two Navy and one of the two Marine squadrons that flew the late-model F3F. You can get the plane from Aeroplane Heaven and you can find the repaints at the SimOuthouse.
Both carriers' Torpedo Squadrons, VT-5 and VT-6, operated the Douglas TBD Devastator throughout the pre-camo era. Paul Clawson's TBD for FS9 is an outstanding model, and I have repainted it in the liveries of all the pre-war Navy squadrons that flew it. You can find the plane at FlightSim, Simviation and the Sim Outhouse. The repaints are available at FlightSim and the SimOuthouse.
The only Scout Bomber operated by VS-5 and VS-6 during the pre-camo period was the Curtiss SBC-3 Helldiver. There is no SBC-3 for either FS9 nor FS2002. Jess Lambert ("Cerberus") released a very nice SBC-3 for CFS-2, which I repainted in the liveries of all the pre-war Navy squadrons that operated it. The repaints were released on AvSim and FlightSim, but I don't think the model is available anywhere anymore. It loses its prop in FS9.
Paul Clawson released a beautiful SBC-4 for FS9, and I repainted it in the colors and markings of the squadron leaders of VS-2 (the only active duty squadron to fly it) and several reserve units. The SBC-4 looks quite different from the -3 because of it's fatter, shorter and blunter nose and its bigger vertical tail, but it's the only SBC we have to fly from CarDiv2, and it's a must-have model for Golden Age Navair affecionados.
The only dive bomber flown by VB-5 and VB-6 before the adoption of camouflage was the Northrop BT-1, for which there has never been a model for any sim as far as I know. (Paul and Piglet, are you reading this...???)
Along with the planes of their Air Groups, U.S. Navy carriers of the pre-war era all operated a few utility planes that were owned by the ship's Air Department. Ubiquitous among them was the Grumman J2F Duck, depicted with a fabulous model by Paul Clawson. As with his other pre-war Navy modls, I've painted Paul's Duck in a variety of authentic liveries. You can find the Duck at FlightSim, Simviation and the SimOuthouse. The repaints are available at FlightSim, the SimOuthouse and Avsim.
The perfect flying boat to fly from the waterborne start points between the carriers is Paul Clawson's Consolidated PB2Y Coronado. I've repainted the PB2Y in two authentic pre-war liveries. The model is available at FlightSim, the SimOuthouse and Simviation; the paints are at FlightSim and the SimOuthouse.
Henry William released a fairly accurate and very attractive pre-war repaint of Mike Stone's Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina. The amphibian Catalina didn't really come along until after the advent of camouflage, so the repaint really belongs on an earlier PBY-5 seaplane. But we don't have a pure seaplane Catalina, and Mike's amphibian is a fine model. You can find the PBY at AvSim, FlightSim, Simviation, and Mike's own website at http://www.pmstone.com, and I think the repaint is available on AvSim and FlightSim.
MAKE MORE CARRIER DIVISION TWOs:
Download Paul Clawson's CV-3 Saratoga AND the update from the Sim Outhouse, FlightSim or Simviation. It contains the software and instructions for relocating the ship anywhere in the world of FS9. The process also works for The Virtual Navy's Task Force 16. Download Task Force 16 from the SimOuthouse, FlightSim or Simviation and get to work!
Note that when you relocate the ships, if you assign the same coordinates to the ship and its wake, the ship will be centered in the wake. You must offset the wake to put the bow wave at the ship's bow. This involves a lot of tedious trial and error, but the result is worth it. (The Sara download doesn't include a wake effect, so use the one included here.)
LEGAL:
These files are freeware and must remain so. They are released subject to the same restrictions expressed in The Virtual Navy's original Task Force 16 ReadMe file, included in this archive.
These files are released with no warranty. By downloading and installing them you accept all responsibility for any consequences, real or imagined.
CREDITS:
Ship models, textures and wake effect by The Virtual Navy
Carrier relocation by Mick Morrissey
AFCAD files modified and enhanced by Mick Morrissey
SOC Repaints by Mick Morrissey
Flight start situations by Mick Morrissey
SUPPORT:
Post a message to Mick in the SimOuthouse's FS2002/2004 General Discussion forum or The Old Hangar's Golden Wings Support Forum, or e-mail me at the address below.
