FSX USS Patoka AV-6 Scenery

Scenery USS Patoka AV-6. USS Patoka AV6 was a support ship for the famous USN dirigibles of the 1920's and 30's. This scenery package will add the Patoka to five locations that were actually used by the Patoka. The package is designed for use with the USS Macon ZRS-5 (AIRMACON.ZIP). By Piotr Lowicki, Dan Dunn, Jeffery Shaeffer, Jim Dhaenens, Wayne Tudor, Earl Watkins, John Stinstrom, Bill Mackay.

USS Patoka, a 16,800-ton oiler, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Commissioned in October 1919, she transported oil fuel from the United States to European ports during the next few years, as well as performing other support services in both the Atlantic and Pacific. In 1924 Patoka was modified as a tender for the Navy's rigid airships, receiving a distinctive mooring mast on her stern and facilities for handling seaplanes. She was subsequently used as an operational and experimental base by three of the Navy's great dirigibles, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) in 1924-1925, USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) in 1925-1932, and USS Akron (ZRS-4) in 1932.

Decommissioned in August 1933, Patoka remained in reserve for six years. Reclassified as a seaplane tender (AV-6) in October 1939, she was recommissioned a month later and served briefly in that role, primarily in the Atlantic area. In June 1940, she returned to her original mission as an oiler, and was again designated AO-9. By late 1941, after carrying oil and other cargo in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas during the previous year and a half, Patoka had taken station at Recife, Brazil. She served there for most of World War II as a supply and repair ship for U.S. Naval forces operating in the South Atlantic. She also was employed as a personal and logistics transport during this time, and in early 1942 patrolled off Brazil in an effort to intercept enemy ships bringing vital cargo from the Japanese Empire to Europe.

In 1945 Patoka was refitted to serve as a tender for minecraft in the Pacific. Given the new hull number AG-125 in August, she spent the last four months of the year, and the first part of 1946, supporting mine clearance and other aspects of the occupation of Japan. USS Patoka returned to the United States in March 1946 and was decommissioned at the beginning of June. Soon transferred to the War Shipping Administration and stricken from the list of Naval vessels, she was sold for scrapping in March 1948. (Department of the Navy - Naval Historical Center).

Patoka Specifications:
Displacement 16,800 tons
Length 417 ft 10 in (127.4 m)
Beam 60 ft (18m)
Draught 26 ft 2 in (8.0 m)
Speed 11 kts.
Complement 168
Armament 2 x 5 in, 4 x 40 mm
Cargo Capacity 146,000 barrels
Propulsion turbine, single screw, 6,000 hp

INSTALLATION:

NOTE: First of all, if you haven't done so already, download and install the Macon airship, following the installation instructions given in that package.

1. Download and unzip the file, "USS Patoka.ZIP" into a temporary folder. The following files and folders will be created:

* "README FIRST.txt" file (you are reading it now).

* "File description.doc"

* "NAS Patoka Panama Roads" folder (scenery and texture files - this folder contains the library object model file of Patoka).

* "NAS Patoka Narragansett Bay" folder (scenery and texture files).

* "NAS Patoka Old Plantation Flats" (scenery and texture files).

* "NAS Patoka Pensacola Bay" (scenery and texture files).

* "NAS Patoka San Francisco Bay" (scenery and texture files).

2. Copy and paste ALL OF THE FOLDERS listed above, just as they are into your FSX Addon Scenery folder.

3. Start up FSX, and add each of the folders listed above in Step 1 to the FSX Scenery Library, and check the Enabled boxes for each one.

4. If all goes well with your installation, you will find that you have 5 new airport entries residing in your FSX Airports list. They are:

Airport ID: MPAO
Airport Name: USS Patoka Panama Roads
Coordinates: Lat N08* 51.00' Lon W79* 30.09'
Heading: 095 Degrees magnetic

Airport ID: KAPO
Airport Name: USS Patoka Narragansett Bay
Coordinates: Lat N41* 33.42' Lon W71* 19.96'
Heading: 200 Degrees magnetic

Airport ID: VGAO
Airport Name: USS Patoka Old Plantation Flats
Coordinates: Lat N37* 15.91' Lon W76* 02.00'
Heading: 011 Degrees magnetic

Airport ID: KNAO
Airport Name: USS Patoka Pensacola Bay
Coordinates: Lat N30* 21.10' Lon W87* 13.06'
Heading: 160 Degrees magnetic

Airport ID: KSAO
Airport Name: USS Patoka San Francisco Bay
Coordinates: Lat N37* 52.88' Lon W122* 22.86'
Heading: 307 Degrees magnetic

NOTE: These airports do not have runways. Nor do they contain any navigational information such as an ILS, VOR or DME. Simply put, Patoka is surrounded by an invisable landing area providing a convenient method for docking the Macon airship to Patoka's mooring mast.

SAVED FLIGHTS:

Included in this package is a seperate saved flight for each of the five locations. Just unzip "Patoka Saved Flights", and take all the data files and add them to your Documents\ "Flight Simulator X Files" folder. There are three files for each saved filght.

In order to have Macon's flight dynamics work properly the ship has to weight virtually nothing. The trade-off (problem) with this is that if we start at one of the USS Patoka locations, Macon will be moving forward when she starts (she has no drag on the invisible runway) and you will run through the mooring mast in front of you before you can apply the brakes. To solve this we have provided these saved flights, which will start you (with the engines on) at each of the five locations. You will start with your nose up to the mooring mast, parking brakes on, angled away from the ship with full bouyancy (flaps) already selected and engines running. When you are ready, "Push Back" (you do NOt have to release the parking brakes until you are airborne and away from the mast). As you (the Officer of the Deck) are normally standing on the left (port) side of the control car, you would bring the mooring mast past the Macon's port side as soon as you start to move forward - so you will want to use "Shift + P" (Push Back) to back away from the mooring mast. Shift +P again, as soon as you see that you have enough distance to clear the mooring mast. You can then apply full right rudder (full left rudder at "Old Plantation Flats") and then add full power to "Up Ship" (take off) normally. Release the brakes when clear of Patoka.

ABOUT THIS SCENERY PACKAGE:

Over the years thousands of scenery objects have been produced for the many versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Most scenery objects are representative of airports, buildings, etc. Occasionally something comes along that is out of the ordinary. USS Patoka AO-9 is one of those. That's because she was in real life, and is in Flight Simulator one of a kind. A floating mooring tower for ridgid airships.

This model is representative of Patoka's configuration as she was during the late 1920's to her decommissioning in 1933. Patoka as a static scenery object, is depicted sitting at anchor at 5 different geographic locations. The decision to place the ship model at these specific locations was an effort to replicate as closely as possible known areas that Patoka had frequented during her tenure as an airship tender.

In the 1920's and 30's navigational devices for aircraft, specifically ridgid airships consisted primarily of those devices used aboard surface ships, such as sextants, chronometers, etc. The lack of an ILS system precluded the ability to easily land or dock such aircraft. With this in mind and the requirements of Flight Simulator, a system of identifying Patoka within the game as well as making it possible to dock at her mooring tower was devised. In effect Patoka is it's own airport, within this scenery with fictional airport ID's.

The model was built using FSDS V3.5.1 and was designed for use in FSX. In an attempt to keep frame rates at an acceptable level, some detail was sacrificed in it's construction. The intent of this model was to provide a means for those who enjoy flying rigid air ships a means of docking to Patoka's mooring mast. In addition, to keep the overall scenery file size to a minimum, only one ship model file "patoka_obj.bgl" is included with this package. It is located in the "NAS Patoka Panama Roads" scenery folder. All other scenery locations reference this model file, and accurately place the ship where it is suppose to be when a specified geographic location is selected.

Patoka's mooring mast was one of those odd ball experiments that the military conducts from time to time. That piece of Naval history is little known by the general public. But none the less, it served a vital function in it's time.

RECOMMENDED DOCKING PROCEDURES:

Please read the documentation on flying the airship Macon, included in the USS Macon download, for information on docking procedures. The airport consists of an invisible landing area surrounding the ship at an elevation high enough to allow for Macon to sit on the landing area. When positioned correctly, Macon's nose will appear to be docked at the very top of Patoka's mooring mast. To assist with your approach to Patoka's mooring mast, a visual reference consisting of 2 small stationary boats have been placed about 1000' aft of Patoka, one to port and one to stbd of Patoka. Each is 400' to port and stbd of Patoka's centerline.

I hope you enjoy this model of Patoka as much as I enjoyed building her.

FCCS Earl A. Watkins USN (Ret)

THE Naval Aircraft Factory, 2010

Earl Watkins

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