Very happy to provide an escort when you are close to my part of the world!  🙂  

Centennial (KAPA) to Mountain Home Air Force Base (KMUO)   Pre-flight done, reday to start the finely tuned Merlin 70. Glad to be flying again and on the way home.   Holding short for Runway 17L.  Beautiful scenery!   Advancing throttle for take off on runway 17L.   Climbing out through 9,300 ft on runway heading.   8 minutes flight time.  At 11,000 ft altitude.  Will have to keep an eye on the terrain ahead.   Turned slightly left of direct course to stay in the canyon.  At 11,700 ft altitude.   Using Oxygen, decided to get back on course and climb over the hills.  At 14,000 ft to clear the terrain.   15 minutes flight time.  Back down to a more normal 11,400 ft altitude.   23 minutes of flight time so far.   30 minutes elapsed time.   1 hour of flight and almost exactly half way there.   15 minutes later.  Still watching the terrain carefully.   Flying over Logan Utah.   Now over Twin Falls Idaho.   Cockpit instrument view.  Oil temperature and all other values are behaving as expected.   Top of Descent point.  Glenns Ferry is in the background off my right wing.   Down to 3,600 ft altitude.   Cockpit view.  Can barely see the runway lights in the haze ahead.   Runway in sight ahead.  Coming in with a slightly banked approach so I can see the runway clearly.  Landing on Runway 30 in about 1 minute.   Over the numbers for runway 30.   Landing a bit longer on purpose to avoid the arrestor cable laid across the runway.  If this was a Seafire variant rathar than a standard Spitfire, I would give the arrestor cable a go.   Landed after 2 hours and 1 minute flight time.   Parked at Mountain Home AFB (KMUO).  Next to the longest line of F-15's I have ever seen anywhere! Next stop Bremerton (KPWT).  Home Sweet Home!  

cj75s,   As johnhinson already points out, this is not as easy as you may think. I have no experience with what leuen above writes.   These basics will already make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to create a working AI helipad as part of any addon scenery object and that includes offshore platforms. The main reasons for this is because any AI VTOL take off/landing will always need to take place via a specially created "airport runway" and as far as I know that's the only way. However, the FS9 definition of a runway is rather "flexable" in that it can technically be made very short but can also be made to be invisible so that the underlying visible scenery is not disturbed. You will also need a specially dedicated parking position somewhere and a taxiway including a "hold short position" just before that runway. Also, don't forget the two so called "start positions" and (most important) that the helipad itself will need to be hardened, otherwise any heli, AI or flyable, will always fall through it.   There are methods for "hardening" such an addon scenery object's helipad but such a helpad can then only be used for flyable VTOL heli's and does not need to be classified as an official airfield.   However, having active AI VTOL heli's take off and land anywhere at all, is at existing airfields/airports, which must then include one or more specifically created (parking coded) parking positions.   Good luck Hans

Thanks guys, might take a gander at that Heli2009   cheers  

Kit,   Please feel free to use the [Club Chachapoya] Label for your upcoming RTW; just put it in at the beginning of the Thread Title. If you plan on coming through the States I'll follow along, too!   Melo The Perfect Landing does rustle up some good grub. Haven't been there for anything but Breakfast, though. Glad to see you as always! 

Wonderful!

Thanks !! Just what I was hoping for.

To get helicopters to hoovering almost like real ones, you have to use Heli2009 of Flight1. The bad point is, that heli traffic can't be followed like other aircraft shown with Traffic Toolbox. Positively said, all helicopters can be used, and there is no need to create separate Afcads. It works from any place you want.   That's an example using Heli2009:     Once there was a Mil-8 which hoovered at beginning of the runway, flow at low altitude over the runways for about 1000 ft and then took off.   Bernard

This was the original plan as my wife and I were going on vacation to visit her sister and husband in Carmel, California for most of the week.   Unfortunately things did not go acording to plan.  On one of the two RW flights to and from Monterey, CA we both ran afoul of C-19.  Luckily our relatives were able to avoid it.   I wish it had been this AVRO Anson C-19 we encountered, but alas it was a very nasty variety of a different C-19 instead. So in the RW I have been severly under the weather until now.   In Centennial Colorado, Ray and his team have completed a full engine overhaul on the Merlin Mk 70 engine.  Two of the pistons had to be re-bored.  And one of the Intercooler parts had to be rebuilt from scratch.  But Ray has given his seal of approval on the engine.  His team flew back to Fort Collins with my thanks for a job well done!   And a high point of my time in Centennial Colorado were the delicious meals with VP2.   I will definitely be back to the Perfect Landing anytime I happen to be in the area.   So I am ready to finish my journey to Bremerton Washington and finally get home.   Next stop is Mountain Home Air Force Base (KMUO) in Idaho.  I heard that there are a few F-15's parked there.  And from there it is a relatively short hop home to Bremerton.  

I do not think there is provision in FS2004 for AI helicopters, and generally they will use a runway like other aircraft.   I believe various modifications have been made to make take-off a little more realistic but I doubt they would cope with something as small as an offshore platform realistically, if at all. Search the libraries and see what you can find. John

Hi   I am trying to get a helicopter (ai) to do a vertical take off as real ones do say up to 20 feet and then fly horizontal to gain airspeed and take off. This is so I can get them to take off from a helipad on an offshore platform correctly. Is there a way to do this.   Thanks  

Nice run Darryl Your centerline landing was noticed! Now if my consistency could be improved.....  

Grau   I followed your instructions re MCX and it worked a treat.   Thank you so much guys for all the help.  

Interesting concept for the CH-47;   "AURORA, Colorado—Piasecki Aircraft says an updated version of long-running concept studies of a radically modified Boeing CH-47 Chinook combining the helicopter’s existing twin-rotor system with a tiltwing and twin tilting ducted fans has become more relevant with the U.S. Army’s growing drive for longer range troop transport and logistics support."     https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/piasecki-refreshes-hybrid-chinook-concept  

Just a Little Trip...from Corona, CA to Winslow, AZ. If you want to see the full-sized image [CLICK THE PIC]. Hopefully, you enjoyed these images, your commentary is appreciated...Darryl