Communications Center

Mil-Air --- Comm Center

Communications between pilots and management

As I was surfing through web sites I found your site and I was glad to see that you guys established an airlift orientated web site and virtual air force with the theme. I am a person who truly enjoys flying Phill Stokes C-130s, enjoy flying airlift missions and have made several scenery files (Hurlburt Fld, Andrews AFB and El Salvador Special Forces Camps) commend you for the endeavor.
I wish you guys all the luck in the world and I hope your project enjoys a long life and grows to be one of the biggest Virtual air operations going.

Your friend in Flight Sim, - JM
I recently applied for admission into you organization and was accepted. However, I thought you could utilize FS5.1 and upon reading further, I realized you could only use FS95/98. Let me know if I can use my Flight Sim, or do I have to use 95 or 98. - BC
You can use any version of MSFS. There is no restriction from Mil-Air. We recommend FS 98 or 95 'cos it has more scenery & airports. As long as you have them in FS 5.1 it is ok. But some of Mil-Air a/c are not compatible with FS 5.1. - MA
You ask for a recording of the flight. I can't record the flight because my flight recorder was delete by MISTAKE and I can't record anything........ let me know if I can do anything else.. THANK YOU
DURING THE FINALS AT 1.5NM TO LAND, PAUSE THE FLT SIM & PRESS PRINT SCREEN BUTTON. THEN OPEN A PAINT PROGRAMME & SELECT EDIT > PASTE. THEN SAVE THE PICTURE WITH 256 COLORS AS .GIF OR .JPG FILE. ZIP THAT FILE & SEND IT. - MA
I have down'd the lear45 (from the Mil-Air site) for my new pilot check flight. The default FS98 scenery Patrick AFB placed me on a city street in heavy traffic - no base! So I had to construct the base myself from NASA satellite and STS photos, just enough to get me going.
My joystick malfunctioned repeatedly during my first attempts. So I purchased a new but different joystick: a Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS. (This will closely simulate that of the C-17.) Then came the "get-aquainted" issues with the new and different joystick, in addition to Mil-Air's aircraft. Mil-Air's aircraft do have a different "feel" than most other aircraft I have used - great!!

I decided that it would be more realistic to go further than that listed for "check flights" on the Mil-Air site ... a full spectrum get-aquainted series of VFR/IFR/day/night check-flights, to get a good "feel" of the flight performance and envelope of any particular Mil-Air aircraft - even in-flight emergency procedures handling, etc. I like to fly in a realistic setting in FS98, thus allowing for the unexpected to occur during the flight. - CB
I have just submitted my "pilot's application" online. (I use FS98.)
I have noticed what seems to be a positive change of hands of Mil-Air since the first of this year, at which time I offered to help develop a Spec-Ops component for Mil-Air (free of charge, of course).

I would also like to volunteer my time and talents in aircraft/scenery/mission creation, enhancement and testing. I have been working on such for the 16th Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field FL and the Eglin AFB/Reservation and surrounding areas. I live near this and the Eglin Reservation. This is a militarily rich area. I also have some recommendations on how to make Mil-Air mission profiles that are responsive to "current real world" situations and that correspond to the needs of forces-in-the-field or deployment requirements. I am also aware of website space-limits concerns, and can address these issues also. If my talents could of use to Mil-Air, please let me know. - WV
The SP05 mission sounds good in its conception, and well thought out, it will be my pleasure to put it through its paces. NOAA assistance flights are a great concept. NOAA has flights during hurricane season, using the Orion P-3 to drop various meteorological data telemetry/instruments into a storm. They also, in cooperation with NASA, have flights used in researching the sprite-lightning phenomena. For arctic missions, may I also suggest the following aircraft:
LC-130H USAF Snowbird of the 139 AS ( New York Air Guard ) from the "C-130 flight sim headquarters", a site devoted to the mighty Hercules for MS FS 98. - WV
I hadn't noticed before that the missions had to be round trips. I thought they would be OK as long as they connected in some way.
So may I ask why you would like the missions to all be round trips? I think you've done a wonderful job making sure that each operational base has a connecting flight to another operational base in it's route system. This seems to make possible, and even enhance, the possibility of flying from base to base, i.e. TCM to RDR, then flying some routes from RDR, then returning to TCM for some more routes. I will, of course, abide by your rules as you have established them but I was just wondering if there were any particular reasons behind the "round trip only" rule. How about a "must be connected to each other " rule?. - FH
You asked what happened that I was unable to acheive FL800 during the first segment of SP-08. When I attempted to climb from FL780, I began to get stall warnings and the AOA indicator was showing that I was right at the edge of the flight envelope. As I stated in the report, I believe that this was due to my weight as I had departed with full tanks of fuel and had not burned off enough yet. Another factor may have been that I use real weather during all of my flights. During this particular flight, high altitude winds were from 230 at 100 knots. This may have also contributed to the fact that I was unable to climb beyond FL780 but I'm not sure to what extent.
I like the SR-71 panel very much. It's shape is not as realistic as others I have seen which model the actual cockpit better, but the instruments are invaluable. I would much rather have a panel that has all the needed instruments (like this one) than to have a panel that looks realistic but is not as functional.

I use the FMS system which is built into Squawkbox for my GPS needs. Since I fly all of my flights online with ATC control with Squawkbox, I figure there is not much purpose to having an additional separate GPS running. - FH
I have just started flying for MilAir and am piloting the C130E. I have my own baby...its a C130H that I used to fly for the 60th VAW at Travis AFB. I am requesting if it is possible to use this bird for future missions. Thought I would send a snapshot of the C130H I am now flying for Mil-AIR. I have repainted it with my tailcode & pilot #, etc. This is the one I will be using for domestic missions but I am currently making 'camo' textures for use in combat missions or other parts of the world. - DB

A question first - recording of N1/fuel flows. As I am sure you are aware , these vary greatly in the climb and cruise. Is there a particular point in each that you want the reading or is not especially important? - VH

I think I must have misstated my problem with the L1011, I am not having any problems with take-off, I just didn't think it could hold 208,884 lbs. of fuel, and the fuel flow seems a bit high at 2250 pph at idle sitting on the runway. I know this aircraft is configurable as a tanker but that's a whole lot of wieght. - BM
YES, IT IS A LOT. L1011'S WINGS CENTER #1 & #3 TANKS CARRY 110000 LBS. 2L & 2R TANKS PLUS 1A,3A TANKS CARRY 48000 LBS. THAT IS L1011'S NORMAL FUEL LOAD. APART FROM THAT RAF K-1 CAN USE ITS EXTRA CARRYING FUEL IN THE FRONT & REAR CARGO HOLD TANKS. SO IT CAN CARRY & USE A FUEL LOAD OF 208884 LBS OR EVEN MORE! - MA
I AM SURE YOU DID NOT READ ENGINE'S N1 RPM CORRECTLY. ITS READING CAN NEVER GO OVER 110%. PLS CHECK IT MORE CAREFULLY. RATE OF CLIMB ALSO SAME. IF YOU ARE CLIMBING AT 2000'/MIN YOU SHOULD REACH 15000' WITHIN 8 MIN. (15000/2000=7.5MIN). YOU WILL UNDERSTAND IT AFTER FEW FLIGHTS. I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO SOUND VERY TECHNICAL. I WANT ALL MIL-AIR PILOTS TO ENJOY THEIR FLYING. YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO DEEP TO UNDERSTAND BASICS OF FLYING. PLS GO THROUGH MS FLTSIM 98 ONLINE HELP. THEN YOU CAN UNDERSTAND EVERY THING THAT IS ESSENTIAL. - MA

I've been carefully studying the Mil-Air web site, and I'd like to clarify my understanding of membership requirements. I already "fly" for a small regional VA, which is a lot of fun, but I'd to simultaneously fly bigger birds on longer routes, and as an ex-Air Force member, I'm attracted to your operation. Since all VA's are a little different, I thought I'd better make sure what I'm committing to.
As I understand it, I join by submiting a pilot application. Once accepted, I then complete a check ride in any aircraft authorized for Flight engineer rank, and submit that. I then find any flight I like in your mission catalog, flying from any base in your system, and submit a mission request, then complete the flight, and submit a pirep. I must do this at least once per month to stay current.

Once my flight of the month is completed, I may fly any of the Awats missions I choose, and the hours flown will count towards my total Mil-Air hours. Once I have sufficient hours for any particular promotion, I can fly any of the newly authorized aircraft as soon as I complete a check flight in them. I'm not required to promote to the next rank, but am eligible to do so once all of the requirements have been met. Have I got that right? - SB

Yes. 100% - MA
I'm very impressed with the ACF, I got a much better feel for the aircraft than with the standard check flight. I don't know if it is being caused by something on my end or with the E4B, but the autopilot was very flakey while trying to hold a course, I got a lot of rocking from side to side and had to use the wing level. And it would jump about 10 feet or so every now and then, and with the autopilot adjusting the trim to compensate it was like hitting a pothole in a truck with bad shocks. After landing at NASA I got nuked 3 times in a row on the runway after landing, during taxi when the plane would jump about 20 feet straight into the air, and crash of course, for no apparent reason. That was a pretty strange experience to say the least. Once again congratulations on the fine job you did with the ACF, it will be the standard in my book from here on out. - BAM

I just checked on the Mil-Air and I have to say that it looks great. Hope everything is going well for you. I noticed that the site hits have increased along with all the other things that were added since I handed it over to you. I feel good about that decision knowing that it would be done well but now it's fantastic! - MH

This aircraft wallows around like a pig with all 4 tanks at 100%. Accelleration is sluggish, climb is slow and painful, and sudden turns cause rapid and significant altitude loss. Stalls with this fuel load at about 100 clean, 85 "dirty." Stalls are very sudden with no warning. Stall recovery is difficult- full-power is needed, but at full throttle the engines overheat almost immediately. The only stall recovery that worked was diving hard to gain airspeed; I needed at least 6000' to do this. (She falls like a rock.)
Landing: After 1 hour test flight,the main tanks were still at 100%; the aircraft was very difficult to land without hard bouncing. After two attempts, I lightened fuel load to 20% and shot a third landing; it landed very nicely with that. The long range provided by the extra tanks will be handy, but the aircraft must be handled very gently until some of the fuel is burned off. I suspect that proper trip fuel planning will be very critical with this aircraft. On the plus side, when she's handled carefully, no sudden maneuvers, etc, she handles very stable and well- a very pleasant, stable aircraft to fly. - SB

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