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Marc’s “Ultra Realistic KRIC”

marc_kric_postMarc Leydecker, yes, you know Marc a.k.a Belga12345 and for me, the SketchUp guru responsible for other great airport projects like KFYJ (Middle Peninsula Regional Airport) and KPVG (Hampton Roads Executive Airport) as well as his NAPS (North Atlantic and Pacific Simulations) participation which was or is it “is” led by Freddy De Pues.

Marc is pleased to inform you that, finally, his creation of the Richmond International Airport (KRIC) is ready and being released via X-Plane.Org, but before that, your personal reporter Angelique has tried to find out all the ins and outs of KRIC. You can read her in-depth impression via this link.

Animating your Airport in 15 minutes

Belga_GroundTrafficOn behalf of Marc Leydecker, I would to inform you about his mini tutorial of how to create animating airport objects based on GroundTraffic. X-Plane has come a long way in scenery development but that being said, most of our airports are static. Those airports should be buzzing with luggage carts, tow tractors, vehicles and equipment. A while-while ago, Marginal released a plugin called GroundTraffic.

Honestly, within 15 minutes, you can create your first animation. So what can be animated …. ANY OBJ file (object), thus: cars, trucks, luggage carts, ships, equipment, trees (that would make no sense), etc. Curious how Marc did it? Then check out his mini-tutorial.

Another “Belga12345” Military Project

marc_mil_truck_fuelThis time another project from SketchUp guru Marc Leydecker aka Belga12345.

No no, this time no screenshots of further implementations of KRIC, neither cockpit hardware interface tutorials. According to Marc “By know I’m stressed enough that good photos are the key to scenery development. That said, on a Friday night, I stumbled on an auction that had a Military Mercedes Refueler up for auction. He couldn’t resist to make some photos which are, as I may say so, just gorgeous and, very important, taken at the right angles. Couldn’t resist it!”

These tankers were popular in the early 1980’s among Europe’s NATO members. Do I have a use for it within X-Plane? Not really … So 12000 polygons later, the truck is done and comes in a static and animated version. The latter has working high-front beams and tail lights provided HDR is ON, lighted fuel control bays, animated fuel control bay doors and working flashing lights. Curious? Check out these exclusive screenshots made on behalf of Marc Leydecker.

Realistic Cessna Flap Gauge linked to X-Plane

belga_flap_gauge_xpMarc Leydecker, well known of his awesome US airports, needs an extraordinary break. Oops, what does this mean? No, he’s not going on a holiday. Instead, he’s trying to link real aviation hardware to X-Plane. You can buy tons of dedicated hardware suitable to work with FSX, P3D and X-Plane, but isn’t it more fun when you do it yourself?

Today the first tutorial from Marc “how to connect a Cessna flap gauge to X-Plane“. According to Marc “Besides the coding, the principal is the same for X-Plane as for Microsoft Flight simulator.” Want to know all about it? Then you should have a look to this Acrobat tutorial. Many thanks Marc that you offer this to the community.

By the way … it all started, but that will take much more time, a couple of weeks ago with Honeywell/Sperry SP-50 Autopilot spare part. These AP’s were popular on 727’s , DC9’s, MD11’s and the SP-50G was used in the Gulfstream. The SP-30, and SP-150 are similar models. Nice thing is … All parts came with airworthy certificates and they almost look brand new. Paid $24 for the FMS, $29 for NAV/COM radios, $49 for autopilot, $49 for HSI, etc. Perhaps later more tutorials about how to deal with this.

Avare Moving map and Flight planner

Avare-Flight-Planner-for-AndroidReceived this incoming article/tutorial from our SketchUp guru Marc Leydecker. It deals with the Avare moving map and flight planner.

According to Marc “You can turn any GSM (cell phone/mobile phone) into a moving map and flight planner. It will even show meteo, taxiways, charts, etc. and CONNECTS to X-Plane. Unfortunately this feature is only avalable for North America.” When you have found or know an option for Europa and/or for Apple iOS equipment, then please let us know. You can grab for free a copy of Marc’s Android tutorial to turn your Android mobile into a moving map and flight planner and much more. Some last words from Marc”Quite amazing as you can even draw notes on the Android screen while using it as a moving map.”