FSX scenery default NAS Nowra is excellent - cool!

[FlyNavy]

I've resisted upgrading or even using any version of Ms Flight Simulator for some time. The interface and all the fiddling about with it bugs me a lot. Nevertheless now I have the FSX installed and was pleasantly surprised with the default scenery. I'll look to see if there is any addon scenery packs for the Nowra area.

Attached is a screenshot with all the scenery details at the maximum. It shows the "Hole in the Wall" south of Nowra, approached via a long valley from the north. If you take off down RW21 at Nowra - fly at about 2000-2500 feet you will see the high point in the distance on the runway heading of approx. 210 magnetic. Some distance away you will see the valley to fly down to then see the view in the photo. Fly through into a big bowl on the other side then turn left sharply to flypast the "Pidgeon House" mountain nearby on your way to the coast, then track north to Jervis Bay then track west back to NAS Nowra.

[FlyNavy]

Google Overhead for directions:

[FlyNavy]

Old Fsim2004 with addon Oz scenery view similar to first JPG above. This time it has a 'test' RAZBAM A4G cockpit view. Sadly this version never made it to sale for unknown reasons:

[FlyNavy]

The real deal looking south into the bowl in top middle of photo:

[mcmaster]

FN In the Supersonic (still) Life teaser that is embedded in your pdf there is a clip near the beginning at 1:44 to be precise which shows an A4 flying down a valley past the video photographer then the a/c rolls left to nearly inverted and pulls down and left. seems an amazing thing in that the ground beyond must really fall away or you would think he would get very close to the ground in recovering from the manouvre. Do you know where this point is, was it a common photo point and is that "bowl" you refer to what the A4 is flying into. I cant imagine there was easy access for film people in that area as it looks pretty wild country.

[mcmaster]

re FSX i got it a while back and was not that impressed as it taxed my sysyem yet the graphics looked cartoonish or something. have revisted recently with new system and like you find it pretty good. the accelertion expansion also gives you the hornet and a carrier but without the ability to add wing stores. neat little graphic candy like when the runway is wet the spray blows with the wind direction and also neat wet runway taxiway effects. Nowra does look good and have ben doing some IlS approaches on 21? to keep the eye in. Might check out the hole iin the wall later - Thanks

[FlyNavy]

McMac, I'll have to get that Acclereration pack then. My estimation of what you describe about the camera viewpoint would be near the top of Pidgeon House Mountain or on one edge of the Hole in the Wall. Probably the camera crew was helicoptered to that point. Navy Helos have landed on top of Pidgeon House. One landed right on top of the survey marker doing some considerable damage to the helo at the time. :-( Otherwise the country was known as 'tiger country' with very inhospitable sandstone cliffs and valleys with all those tabletop sandstone plateaus and the odd mountain form.

The 'bowl' at the southern end of the hole in the wall is spectacular, especially on the first flight down the valley and through the wall. WOW! ;D

[mcmaster]

sounds like quite a playground for low flying! Was it the official low flying area for the RAN at Nowra and RNZAF when there? I suppose it is still used now by RAN helos and maybe the army helos at holsworthy.
i pretty sure the RAAF uses a low flying area around Bulahdelah up to Gloucester area not far from Willi.
The helo makes sense to drop people off as i suppose one was on standby in case someone had to eject. The RAAF outsourced helo support i guess the navy does that as its bread and butter.
BTW the accelcretion pack for FSX also adds a merlin whirlyflapper, racing p-51 mustangs and red bull air race. and the hornet also has RAAF 3 squadron markings available in the defaault package which im sure you'll always fly emblazoned with.

[FlyNavy]

The RAN jets could fly anywhere in the training area except over built up areas and special notorious areas we would avoid. The training area was south of Nowra so as not to conflict with the helo training and low flying area north of Nowra. Not much North up to the top of Seven Mile Beach perhaps and inland whereas the jet area was out to Braidwood and due south then out to sea and north again. We would never fly up the beaches at low level as that was sure to get phone calls. There were a few chicken farms near Nowra but we generally were never at low level near NAS Nowra due to the traffic in those days except with special ATC permission on special sorties.

So to answer your question we could fly anywhere low or not. There was a rule about flying through the 'hole in the wall'. All aircraft would fly south down the valley through the wall and NEVER in the opposite direction. If helos went south they would be squawking position if any fixed wing were in the area because generally they were north in their exclusive training area which fixed wing might only traverse on Fleet Support exercises only.

There was a designated rescue helo that could be flying locally also. No point in having one on the ground during flying hours although one might be on standby in out of hours flying.

I only tolerate the RAAF because 1. They trained me to fly and 2. an ex-Navy pilot will be the CAF soon. ;D

OOPS and 3. The RAAF have been flying USN aircraft for a generation now and will do so for another generation so that gets a tick in my book.

[mcmaster]

;D ;D

"3. The RAAF have been flying USN aircraft for a generation now and will do so for another generation so that gets a tick in my book"

and I'm sure you are including the F111 which was born on a pitching deck and the RAAF was flying USN and RAN aircarft for a time when the macchis were ....er stol...transferred.

[FlyNavy]

QUE? F111 born on a pitching deck? That is a stretch?

[mcmaster]

Yes a stretch maybe but consider that the General Dynamics /Grumman F111B was to be US navy's air defence fighter to replace the F4 in the 1960's. Yes it was a flop but the legendary AIM-54 Phoenix and AWG-9 radar were developed in the F111B but as this failed the F14 was designed around these systems.
The US Dept of Defence in the Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX) program wanted a broadly common aircraft to meet the USAF and US Navy requirement and spawned the F-111A and F-111B. Although the B turned out a Topdog that gave way to the Tomcat much of the F-111's ultimate design would have had a navy influence from the outset eg the beefy undercarriage, low profile tail to fit below decks and other things cant think of right now. While it may be a bit much to say born at sea maybe ok to say - born as a twin at sea then adopted out. ;D

[FlyNavy]

You mean deformed mean pig of a machine? ;D

[mcmaster]

deformed? you talking about Me?

[mcmaster]

just because my probe got stuck in a bucket!

[FlyNavy]

Is that AMARC camoflage with a concrete bucket on the nose because otherwise it looks tail heavy.

[mcmaster]

not sure - this was the caption with the image "F-111B´Â F6D¿¡ žÀç ¿¹Á¤À̾ú´ø TF30 ¿£Áø¿¡ ¾ÖÇÁÅÍ ¹ö³Ê¸¦ Ãß°¡ÇÑ TF-30-P-1À» 2±â ÀåºñÇÑ º´·É º¹ÁÂÀÇ" Think its written in hurstvilleese anyway - Dont they all sit back like that?

[FlyNavy]

Just sit back and relax? Now where have I heard that before. Fsim is a heck of a place to download large files from BTW so I've given up for today.

[mcmaster]

"hole in the wall" SW of Nowra in FSX running with ORBX FTX AU Blue scenery and freeware mesh and captain sim hornet LoadX. Mesh complexity at 80%.

[FlyNavy]

WOW! That is very good realisticallywise. Hope GENESIS gets to ozmesh soonish. Thanks MacMac.