Adding Carriers, Flight Deck 4 , 5 Alphasim Big E and others

Yea your probably right, its like how many carriers do you need anyhow? One is tough enough!!!

There is an addon that will allow you to land on a carrier without the need for a carrier with cables and whatnot. It is actually part of the plane once installed. If anyone else remembers the name of it help me out here. I am drawing blanks.... one too many rum filled eggnogs.

Difficult to know where to begin... first of all, I've never heard of the Big E - it appears to be an AI add-on for combat sims, quite dated and no hard decks, correct me if I'm wrong.

Now to FD4 and FD5: Both are compatible with fs9 and fsx. For FD4 to be compatible with fsx an update is required, free of charge for those who already own FD4 for fs9.

Re: installing both, FD4 and FD5 into the same sim seems to have the effect that you lose a few bits and pieces, same happened to me, though they have a similar name and come from the same parents, they don't seem to like each other very much. I also encountered problems with the uninstalling procedure: the scenery (carriers) vanish, but will still be listed and every time you load the sim you get several scenery error messages.

Just to recap the above, I've settled for the FD5 now - whether or not there is actually a way to run both FD4 and FD5 simultaneously I don't know.

Just to clarify: Presently I'm running fs9 and that's what my suggestions apply to. As mentioned above, you can run either FD4 or FD5 in fs9. Additionally, you can operate as many freeware hard-deck carriers as you wish, there will be no conflict if you follow the correct installation procedures.

IMPORTANT: you will need Rob Barendregt's rcbco-20.zip available at avsim. I also have Carr2006 among many others. The thing to remember is that all of the freeware carriers, be they just one or a whole flotilla will need Rob's file to make them operational. You will not succeed if you don't follow the Readme file!!

Now the good news: Once you've installed Rob's file(s) correctly, you won't have to do it again, any freeware carrier(s) you might be adding from now on will be fully operational.

A final word of advice: there are other, outdated files still available but you'll curse yourself when at the end you decide to install the most recent one ie rcbco-20.zip because you'll be spending a lot of time deciding which files to overwrite and which not.

A final word to confuse you even more 😀

One part of installing rcbco-20.zip is the adding of a CAT launch switch in the panel(s) of your choice - it's all explained in the Readme.

Now there is at least one fighter panel out there that has that switch already installed. I personally would NOT take the easy way out and simply install that panel at first because it uses old gauges. Once you've installed rcbco-20.zip, you can still use that panel without the need to install the outdated gauges - remember, you already have everything you need anyway.

Browse through the Screenshot Forum and look for Welshflyer's topics -- you'll get an idea how everything just works dandy. 😎

Tailhook, Good info thanks 😀 ! The Big E is Alphasim's Enterprise. You need FD3 or 4 for this carrier to work. I have carr2006 and rcbco-20.zip, so If I load up carr2006 along with the rcbco file, they will all work? I'll have to rty that again, becasue I'm sure I did not use the rcbco file the first time..... I thought they would pick up on the FD4 cat and arresstor files. Looks like FD5 is using a totally new system 3xwire I think? Anyway
thanks again for the info, I'll give it another go. By the way, FD5 like I said is pretty good.....check it out at the abacus site along with strike force !

Re: The Big E, now I know what you're talking about, I've got the demo alphasim_cvn-65_puertorico.zip from avsim. As it says in the file description it has a hard deck for landing - but you can't take off unless... you install rcbco-20.zip. Having done that, you do not need FD3 or 4 for it to work.

I thought they would pick up on the FD4 cat and arresstor files

Negative. That's the difference between freeware and payware carriers. Just install carr2006 first (don't forget the Ocean Flatten Files), the 'Flights' are optional but good to have. Once you've done that, place any aircraft on deck, just to see that everything's fine with the carriers (you won't be able to take off yet). Now get to work on the rcbco-20.zip and follow it to the letter. Once done, you'll be able to land and take off from any freeware carrier providing you use a panel with the CAT launch switch as mentioned in my previous post.

Looks like FD5 is using a totally new system 3xwire I think?

That, to my understanding is to make the wires visible, but it only works in FSX. I'm using FD5 in fs9 so I can't see the wires 😀

That was what I was trying to remember thanks. That rcbco is pretty amazing too... I have even done a cat launch from KPIT airport, and an arrestor hook landing from there...

realistic, not... but sooo much fun to do.

belgeode wrote:

.. I have even done a cat launch from KPIT airport..

Haha... I do that frequently when I test if a newly added CAT launch switch works properly. For that purpose alone I haven't got the patience to load a carrier -- the default KSEA will do the trick just fine.