An option for a new cockpit and a new canopy glass?

[Fusedspine33]

It is. There is just a few arm chair pilots who think they know better and have very strong feelings, which they have the right to express, but cant accept when the receiver of this expression does not bend to their will..

 

 

 

Why do you feel the need to insult your fellow armchair pilots? You do realize that you are one too when you play this sim. Just because you like it as is doesn’t make those of us that want less worn and readable wrong.

 

 

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[r4y30n]

Warning caution panel annunciators and master warning light need to be more visible please. At a minimum..

 

When you do F-14A, please consider factory fresh!

 

 

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+1 on the master alarm, most of the time when it gets tripped I don’t notice until engine shutdown... Maybe add a bit of bloom to the light to make it pop more?

 

Also +1 on a fresher A model since it should be 10ish years younger.

[IronMike]

I will let this thread go on for a while and then gather all your input and then make 1 tracker for everything.

 

Please note that while we take everything on board, we still need to be able to offer solutions that fit within the rest of artwork. We'll see what we can do.

[Dauntless]

I will let this thread go on for a while and then gather all your input and then make 1 tracker for everything.

 

Please note that while we take everything on board, we still need to be able to offer solutions that fit within the rest of artwork. We'll see what we can do.

 

 

:thumbup:

 

:pilotfly:

[CoBlue]

Please note that while we take everything on board, we still need to be able to offer solutions that fit within the rest of artwork. We'll see what we can do.

There are already 2 good cockpit mods, HB don't need to create anything new.

 

Just tell Japo32 how to make his mod "custom cockpit" compatible.

He's been asking for this since April https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=236035 /Thanx :thumbup:

[IronMike]

We'll check, thank you.

[SDsc0rch]

+1

thanks

[Fusedspine33]

There are already 2 good cockpit mods, HB don't need to create anything new.

 

Just tell Japo32 how to make his mod "custom cockpit" compatible.

He's been asking for this since April https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=236035 /Thanx :thumbup:

 

 

 

The first mod link has a picture that captures the issue with over worn text being unreadable on the right side of the panel. The mod solution is nice but takes it a bit too far in the other direction with overly bright labeling. The forum posts also highlights the issue of not passing MP integrity checks and that mods have to be constantly reinstalled. Yeah I have a OVGME but it is still a PITA doing the dance every week or two. So a developer based solution via an update seems to be the more permanent solution. Hopefully there is a middle ground that will allow those that like worn to mesh with those of us looking for more readability.

 

 

 

 

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[norbot]

I'm so appalled by this that I am not sure by whether I should be respecting what was just said, or to even be annoyed.

 

... But cockpits don't become dirty overnight, that's not how time works. It was over a decade only until the F-14B came into service in the late 1980s, giving 13 years for the time to develop. There would have been plenty of lines for saltwater to corrode the metal and cause the paint to chip as well.

 

Sorry to say it, but I'm quite appalled, too. Where did I say the cockpits became filthy overnight???

[Spiceman]

Here’s how we maintained the cockpit.... a Tomcat has two types of inspections, phase (based on flight hours) and calendar (based on days). Generally speaking, the phase inspections were you’re wear and tear/fatigue type of inspections on the airframe, and the calendar inspections were more functional... strategic vs tactical if you will. Corrosion was a big factor. The 14 day inspection was a wash job. The line shack would bring out their trash cans, wash sticks, turco (soap) and wash the jet. When deployed this was their in-port fun. The 56 day was a spot-paint job. The 210-day was the big one. Full paint job. This was the one where we’d pull all the control boxes and bring them into the shop. We had bottles of Freon (before it was a class A controlled substance) and we’d take the faceplates off and use the Freon with acid brushes to clean the backlighting connectors on the underside. Then we’d spray the boxes innards (moving parts like the rotary switches) down with the Freon. Then we’d touch up the paint. For nicks, we’d spray some paint in the lid from the can then touch up the nicks with the paint and an acid brush. For really bad ones, we’d mask off the lettering with masking tape, or we’d get that whiteout tape from the yeoman that use it for their typewriter mistakes. We’d mask off the letters and paint the whole faceplate. If the lettering was trashed, we’d paint over it and etch out new letters by hand with an awl. You can see evidence/examples of every one of these things in the HB cockpit and it is absolutely realistic. I’m sure the USAF had higher aesthetic standards and I have no doubt they would replace faceplates that looked like ours. We visited Air Force bases, they showed us their jets (I had an F-15 crew chief at Nellis I made friends with give me the grand tour of the F-15 and their maintenance operation). They ran a Cadillac operation compared to us and that’s all good.

 

Our cockpits ran the gamut... we had newer jets with 162xxx bunos and they looked great, and we had jets with 160xxx bunos and they looked every bit like the HB cockpit. Every 210 days the 162xxx jets took a step towards looking like the 160xxx jets. And by the end, they all looked like that. So while the HB cockpit is definitely a well-worn older cockpit, it is most definitely realistic.

 

I’m not weighing in on the argument of make it look new or not, just explaining how they get that way and that it’s perfectly normal looking from a realism perspective. I personally like the HB cockpit because to me it feels like home, many more jets looked that way than looked shiny and new.

 

P.S. while most of our jets looked like the HB cockpit, I can’t for the life of me remember ever seeing a gripe written up on an aesthetic/readability issue. Not that no aircrew ever thought about it, I’m sure, but more than likely they were scared to death of the endless ribbing they’d take for it in the ready room. A good skipper looked after the maintenance guys, and not wanting to create work for them. I saw one JO make a joke about fat fingering the log book after a flight and padding the hours, and the skipper overheard it and tore him a new a**hole in front of everybody.

 

P.P.S. If there was one thing in the cockpit that I would suggest addressing it’s that here and there, there’s a little rust. We weren’t big on aesthetics, but rust A) rarely forms and B) would be taken care of. I can see how a museum piece might get some rust, but in the real world, the canopies are open and aired out all the time, the ECS dries any moisture, etc. and you will never find rust in a cockpit or anywhere else on a Navy airplane.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Spiceman

[Victory205]

Here’s how we maintained the cockpit.... a Tomcat has two types of inspections, phase (based on flight hours) and calendar (based on days). Generally speaking, the phase inspections were you’re wear and tear/fatigue type of inspections on the airframe, and the calendar inspections were more functional... strategic vs tactical if you will. Corrosion was a big factor. The 14 day inspection was a wash job. The line shack would bring out their trash cans, wash sticks, turco (soap) and wash the jet. When deployed this was their in-port fun. The 56 day was a spot-paint job. The 210-day was the big one. Full paint job. This was the one where we’d pull all the control boxes and bring them into the shop. We had bottles of Freon (before it was a class A controlled substance) and we’d take the faceplates off and use the Freon with acid brushes to clean the backlighting connectors on the underside. Then we’d spray the boxes innards (moving parts like the rotary switches) down with the Freon. Then we’d touch up the paint. For nicks, we’d spray some paint in the lid from the can then touch up the nicks with the paint and an acid brush. For really bad ones, we’d mask off the lettering with masking tape, or we’d get that whiteout tape from the yeoman that use it for their typewriter mistakes. We’d mask off the letters and paint the whole faceplate. If the lettering was trashed, we’d paint over it and etch out new letters by hand with an awl. You can see evidence/examples of every one of these things in the HB cockpit and it is absolutely realistic. I’m sure the USAF had higher aesthetic standards and I have no doubt they would replace faceplates that looked like ours. We visited Air Force bases, they showed us their jets (I had an F-15 crew chief at Nellis I made friends with give me the grand tour of the F-15 and their maintenance operation). They ran a Cadillac operation compared to us and that’s all good.

 

Our cockpits ran the gamut... we had newer jets with 162xxx bunos and they looked great, and we had jets with 160xxx bunos and they looked every bit like the HB cockpit. Every 210 days the 162xxx jets took a step towards looking like the 160xxx jets. And by the end, they all looked like that. So while the HB cockpit is definitely a well-worn older cockpit, it is most definitely realistic.

 

I’m not weighing in on the argument of make it look new or not, just explaining how they get that way and that it’s perfectly normal looking from a realism perspective. I personally like the HB cockpit because to me it feels like home, many more jets looked that way than looked shiny and new.

 

P.S. while most of our jets looked like the HB cockpit, I can’t for the life of me remember ever seeing a gripe written up on an aesthetic/readability issue. Not that no aircrew ever thought about it, I’m sure, but more than likely they were scared to death of the endless ribbing they’d take for it in the ready room. A good skipper looked after the maintenance guys, and not wanting to create work for them. I saw one JO make a joke about fat fingering the log book after a flight and padding the hours, and the skipper overheard it and tore him a new a**hole in front of everybody.

 

P.P.S. If there was one thing in the cockpit that I would suggest addressing it’s that here and there, there’s a little rust. We weren’t big on aesthetics, but rust A) rarely forms and B) would be taken care of. I can see how a museum piece might get some rust, but in the real world, the canopies are open and aired out all the time, the ECS dries any moisture, etc. and you will never find rust in a cockpit or anywhere else on a Navy airplane.

 

Concur.

 

Did you do the Northern Wedding cruise in 1986 and the around the Horn Med Cruise in 1987, leaving Nimitz on the West Coast? Blue Nose/Shellback?

[Spiceman]

Concur.

 

Did you do the Northern Wedding cruise in 1986 and the around the Horn Med Cruise in 1987, leaving Nimitz on the West Coast? Blue Nose/Shellback?

 

Yes... both of them... perhaps we both blew greasy water out of a padeye? It was a fun way to spend my 21st birthday.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Spiceman