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What's new: February 17, 2006
Editorial:
- Remember that
I extended the deadline to 1st of March, 2006
for the Final Countdown Group Build,
so you have less then 2 more weeks to complete your builds,
or to start a new one! We can give you prizes for finished entries only,
so if you want to go for them, it's time to push it more!
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News by Alert 5:
- India
details wide-ranging wishlist
India is
in the market shopping for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters and
long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
The Indian Navy will seek proposals for eight maritime reconnaissance
aircraft and 16 ASW helicopters.
-
The Hunters on the altar?
J.R.
Labbe from Star-Telegram contends that closing down VFA-201 was a
political move by the Bush administration to satisfy Louisiana.
-
Abandon ship! Anxious Panhandle residents ready for
sunken aircraft carrier
USS
Oriskany will finally sink to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico this
summer to become the world's largest intentionally created man-made
reef.
- Reagan
landing before Bush
USS
Ronald Reagan will hold a passage exercise with INS Viraat off the coast
of Sri Lanka on Feb. 14.
The exercise took
less than a week of planning as both carrier battlegroups were scheduled
to be in the vicinity of Sri Lanka around the same time.
-
Texas city seeks training squadron from Oceana
Officials in Kingsville, Texas, are making a public bid to snare VFA-106
from Oceana.
Kingsville, a city of 25,000 in
south Texas near the Gulf Coast, is home to a naval air station that
trains Navy and Marine pilots.
-
Sea Harriers fly with F-15s one last time
Another
story on the Royal Navy's 801st Air Squadron last detachment with F-15C
Eagles from the USAF 48th Fighter Wing.
-
Navy jet breaks sound barrier and residents' peace
A U.S.
Navy F/A-18 caused panic and fear of a terrorist attack when it went
supersonic doing a maintenance check about 40 miles out in the Gulf of
Mexico.
Emergency dispatchers were flooded with
calls as some thought is was an earthquake while others fear it was an
explosion.
-
Officials say little about jet unit cut
Officials from the U.S. Navy do not want to comment much on the
disestablishment of VFA-201.
-
Marines to replace aging helicopters in Okinawa with
Ospreys
Expect
to see the MV-22 Osprey over the skies of Asia in 2012 when the U.S.
Marine Corps deploys it to Okinawa.
The
marines had originally planned the deployment for 2007 or 2008, but
faced strong opposition in Japan due to safety concerns about the Osprey
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What's new: February 1, 2006
Editorial:
- Remember that
I extended the deadline to 1st of March, 2006
for the Final Countdown Group Build, so you have 1 more month to
complete your builds, or to start a new one! We can give you prizes for
finished entries only, so if you want to go for them, it's time to push
it more!
![](images/banners/banner_8.jpg)
News by Alert 5:
-
Britain threatens to stop spares supply for navy aircraft
British
High Commissioner to India Sir Michael Arthur said spares for Indian
Navy's ageing Islander maritime aircraft will be cut if India sells the
aircraft to Myanmar. He said the supply cut will
not affect the Sea Harriers and Sea King helicopters.
-
Britain to conduct naval, air exercises with India
The
Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy will be conducting exercises with
India this year.
An aircraft carrier group
will conduct an exercise with the Indian Navy in May while the RAF will
send fighters in October.
-
'Hammer From Above' brings Marine aviation to the fore
Retired
F/A-18 pilot, Jay A. Stout, details the U.S. Marine Corps aviation’s
role in Operation Iraqi Freedom in his new book,
Hammer From Above: Marine Air Combat Over Iraq.
-
Second Roosevelt flier marks aviation milestone
The
commanding officer of VF-31 made his 1,000th cable-assisted landing at
12:39 p.m. Jan. 16 in the Persian Gulf.
Capt. William Sizemore, commander of Carrier Air Wing Eight, reached his
1,000th milestone in mid-December.
-
Ike Polishes New Pilots
USS
Dwight D. Eisenhower hosted four training squadrons to help 32 both Navy
and Marine student aviators get carrier qualified.
-
VS-24 Scouts Take S-3B Viking to New Horizons
VS-24
now currently on board USS Theodore Roosevelt has a new mission
besides conducting in-flight refuelling for CVW-8 and surveillance
operations for Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.
They are now flying intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
(ISR) missions in support of British-led coalition ground forces in
southern Iraq as well.
-
'Dazzling' F/A-18E/F radar marred by software faults
While
the new APG-79 AESA radar for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Block II Super Hornet
impressed the U.S. Navy crew, it sometimes frustrate them with multiple
shutdowns and restarts during ongoing evaluations.
The report however states that Raytheon is
expected to resolve the software stability issues before the radar
enters operational service in late 2007.
-
Ditched jet to stay on seabed
Five
F/A-18s from USS Ronald Reagan were diverted to Brisbane International
Airport on Saturday night after a Hornet ditched into the sea while
landing on the carrier.The pilots stayed
overnight in Brisbane and returned to the carrier about noon.
-
Boeing to showcase F-18 at Delhi
Boeing
will bring a F/A-18 flight simulator to the Defexpo 2006 armaments fair
at New Delhi, India.
-
USS Ronald Reagan FA/18-C Aircraft Mishap
The USS
Ronald Reagan has lost its first jet. A single seat F/A-18C Hornet from
VFA-25 ditched into the sea while attempting to land at night.
The incident occurred approximately 120 miles south-east of Brisbane,
Australia, Jan. 28 at approximately 4:17 a.m. PST. The pilot was safely
recovered.
-
Navy Establishes Trial Warrant-Officer-to-Pilot Program
The U.S.
Navy is selecting 30 Chief Warrant Officers to be pilots and naval
flight officers.
-
Navy T-34 Crash Kills Two
A U.S.
Navy T-34C crashed while conducting routine flight training near NAS
Corpus Christi.
Both instructor and student
were killed.
-
Tomassetti focused on VX-23 mission
U.S.
Marine Lt. Col. Art "Turbo" Tomassetti is the new boss at VX-23. He was
the lead government pilot for the
X-35 program.
Tomassetti was the VX-23 chief test pilot before assuming command.
-
Computer problems shut down Boeing assembly lines
Production of Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornets were disrupted Wednesday due
to a computer problem.
The first and second
shift was affected but the third shift work as scheduled.
-
'Banshees' prepare to prowl home
The
USMC's VMAQ-2 is preparing to return home after six months of duty in
support of Operation Iraq Freedom at Al Asad, Iraq.
-
Beijing denies aircraft-carrier rumor
China's
Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council denied a rumor from Taiwan
that China is rebuilding an aircraft carrier.
-
Navy renews plan to cut carrier fleet, documents show
The
Quadrennial Defense Review is expected to renew plans to cut the U.S.
Navy's fleet of aircraft carriers to 11.
-
Hello sailor: US aircraft carrier gets mixed reception
Australian environmentalists are not keen of USS Ronald Reagan's visit
to Brisbane.
Brisbane is a nuclear-free zone
but the port is outside the city's boundaries.
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What's new: January 23, 2006
![](excellence_award_150_yellow.JPG) |
We have the next Editor's Choice -
Excellence Award winner at Aircraft Carrier Builders!
Congratulations to Bill Waldorf! Let's see what the award winner
submission is: |
- Bill Waldorf, and excellent
model ship builder is joining us today! It's a pleasure to me to present
his full scratchbuilt,
1/96 USS
Kalinin Bay CVE-68 escort carrier. This huge model can be found
at the Naval Air Museum
in Pensacola, Fla. Really good job Bill!
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- Jaromir Senft an 53 years old
model builder joins us today, and presents his really nice
Classic
Airframes 1/48 Westland Wyvern with Goffy model update set!
Excellent Job, welcome aboard!
- Michael Stanley returns to us with
his tiny
Hasegawa
1/72 Grumman F-11 Tiger. Nice build of this not that well known
carrier based aircraft!
- Randy L. Smith is here again, and
as usual he presents a full resin kit, this time a
Collect-Aire 1/48 F7U-1 Cutlass. Good job, as usual.
- I review the
Goffy Model 1/48 Westland Wyvern detail set, that contains
cockpit, wheel bay, flaps, arrestor hook, and wingfold elements for the
Classic Airframes kit.
Editorial:
- I'm glad to announce our new
"Additional Sponsor", Goffy
Model
from the Czech Republic, an aftermarket company with wide range of
excellent quality armor and aviation related resin detail sets. I
recommend to visit
www.goffymodel.czweb.org
to see their products!
Any future naval aviation related items of Goffy Model will be reviewed
here at CarrierBuilders first! Please remember that you're always
welcome to talk to our sponsors in the forum!
![](images/spomsors/goffy.jpg)
News by Alert 5:
-
Gujarat keen to scrap 'toxic' Clemenceau
The Gujarat Maritime Board is asking the French to provide it with
technical experts to remove toxic materials from aircraft carrier
Clemenceau.
-
Lakehurst races to upgrade 'brakes' for carrier landings
The
arresting gear that brings an aircraft to a stop in seconds on an
aircraft carrier has finally entered the digital age.
Researchers at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst are using
computers to control the arresting machinery. The computer will replace
the hand crank to compensate for the weight of the aircraft that's about
to land. It will also reset the cable after the plane lands.
-
VMFA-251, VFA-86 soar through first week at NAS Fallon,
Nev.
VMFA-251
and VFA-86 were at Naval Air Station Fallon from Jan. 9-14 as part of
the workout before their deployment as Carrier Air Wing 1.
-
F/A-18C Crashes Near Naval Air Station El Centro
An
F/A-18C from VFA-97 crashed approximately five miles north of Naval Air
Station El Centro on Jan. 18.
The pilot, who
was on a routine training mission, was killed.
-
Pilots say goodbye to favored trainer
The T-2
Buckeye will leave the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School sometime this summer
after more than 30 years of service.
The T-2
was first introduced to the school in 1972 to replace the T-1.
-
Night Vision Capability For Navy Seahawks
Australian Navy’s Seahawk helicopter squadrons will have night vision
capability in two years time.
All 16
Seahawks will have their external lighting upgraded as well.
-
Govt to examine Clemenceau on arrival
The
Indian Government will examine former French aircraft carrier Clemenceau
for toxic materials before allowing it to enter Indian waters.
The Central Pollution Control Board will inspect the ship.
-
Friends Hold Vigil For Navy Pilot Missing For 15 Years
Fifteen
years after Lt. Cmdr. Scott Speicher's F/A-18 Hornet was shot down over
Iraq, his friends and those wanting the U.S. government to keep
searching for him held a "Not Home Yet" vigil for him Tuesday night.
A joint Iraq-U.S. committee has just finished its work on determining
his fate and the results will be announced by the Pentagon.
-
Indian Navy's sureveillance capabilities get a boost
The
Indian Navy has received one of its Il-38 that was sent to Russia for
modernisation.
The updated aircraft carries
the Sea Dragon patrol suite that can track over 30 targets at a time
from a distance of up to 320 km. A total of three aircraft are
modernised.
-
Carrier’s fuel spill contained
USS
Kitty Hawk leaked an undetermined amount of diesel oil while in the port
of Yokosuka.
The U.S. Navy says the spill
was minimal.
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What's new: January 18, 2006
Editorial:
- To improve our site, I started a
poll in the General Discussion forum about your habits when visiting
this site. Please take 1 minute, and vote in the poll, as you can help
me to make this site better, and more effective. This site is made for
you, so you can have effect how it's running by voting, and letting me
know your thoughts!
- In our new forum system, there's a
voting option. Feel free to add your vote for models, links or anything
else in the given topic! If you need help regarding this, drop me a mail
and I'll do my best.
News by Alert 5:
-
Clemenceau can’t enter till Feb 13: SC
India's
Supreme Court has banned former French carrier Clemenceau from entering
Indian waters till Feb. 13.
-
NAS Fallon outlines construction projects to runway,
range
NAS
Fallon's commanding officer, Capt. Scott Ryder has a list of five
construction projects to improve the base.
He wants to make improvements to the B-20 range, lengthen and widen
Runway 7-25, build a centralized air traffic control facility, combine
the base's structure fire and crash fire equipment into one house and
build a new central administration facility.
-
AgustaWestland Awarded Major Contract Under Merlin
Capability Sustainment Plus Programme
AgustaWestland has been awarded a major contract for the upgrade of 30
EH101 Merlin HM Mk1 helicopters.
AgustaWestland will replace existing hydraulic units with electrical
actuators called Helicopter Electro Actuation Technology (HEAT).
-
Ship sails murky waters
Egypt
refused to let the decommissioned French aircraft carrier Clemenceau
to pass through the Suez Canal for scrap in India.
The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency wants Paris to provided
documents that proved the ship was not violating standards set in
the Basle Convention on the cross-border trade in toxic waste.
-
Aircraft carrier Oriskany heading for the
deep
The
decommissioned aircraft carrier the USS Oriskany will be sunk in the
Gulf of Mexico by June 1.
It will become a
fishing reef.
-
T-39 Crash Site Found
The U.S.
Navy has found the crash site of the T-39 Sabreliner that failed to
return to Naval Air Station Pensacola Jan. 10.
-
New Secretary of the Navy gets operator’s view of V-22
The new
U.S. Secretary of the Navy flew in the cockpit jump seat of a V-22 flown
by VMX-22 recently.
Col. Glenn Walters,
VMX-22 commanding officer, piloted the Osprey with Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matt
Rising.
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What's new: January 10, 2006 - First update this year. Happy new year to
everyone!
-
David Longhitano joined us. For
a kick start he posted a really nice article about building his
beautiful
Revell 1/48
Rafale M. Really good job, thank you for the perfect submission!
- Andrew George returned to us with
this Lee 1/72
E-2C Hawkeye. This bird is in the famous Screwtops markings.
- Ken Mackenzie is here today, with
a conversion project. This is a
1/350 USS Constellation CVA-64 converted from the 1/350 USS
Enterprise kit.
- John Bishop is back now with
some really nice shots of 2
F4U-5
Corsairs. He took these shots at
Valparaiso IN airshow in 2003
Editorial:
- FORUM IS BACK!
After a long break, I bought a
1 year license of a non-opensource forum, (on my own private cost
again), and spent my last week of the holiday to make it operational,
and to import the old database (posts, topics, user details, permissions
and so on). Now it's
working, and you can continue using it! PLEASE LOG IN AND CHECK
YOUR USER DETAILS! Also please feel free to let the fellow community
members know about your birthday by setting it in your profile :)
I removed
suspicious registrations (with suspicious names with 0 posts), probably
automatic bot registrations for spamming - please check if you're one is
working! If you experience any problems with the forum, please
contact me
immediately!
Please note that the newsletter system changed last year, and you have
to subscribe to the newsletter
independently from the forum!
- There's a new Calendar feature
in the new community forum.
This will be the new one, and
the old one (that is accessible from the side menu) will be removed
soon, and it will point to the new one as well! Feel free to post any
modeling, naval aviation or carrier related events, historical
anniversaries and so on to this calendar! Also you can post your private
reminders aswell, if you set it to private, only you'll be able to see
it.
I'm looking for someone who would join the community staff, and would
love to be the moderator and the key person for the calendar! If you
feel you'd like to do it by heart, please
contact me, and we'll discuss the details!
Upcoming events will be displayed on this opening page in the near
future.
- DONATIONS NEEDED!
As I'm covering the domain
registration and maintenance, the website hosting, and the forum on my
own private cost, it's more and more necessary to make donations to
support the site's operations, and growth. The ACB website is almost 1
year old, and all the expenses was covered on my private cost.
Every cent is a help to maintain the site, and to make it more and more
advanced, and safer. We need to step further in the service this year,
as ACB is growing, and the current service subscription would not allow
us growing further too much. As for an example If every member would
donate 1 dollar / month, that would give the site a big boost in all
terms. I know it's not working like this, but If you feel that you'd
like to make a donation, please contact me to discuss the details! I'm
about to set up a PayPal option to make donations easier. I'll insert
the donation form in one of the upcoming updates. If you prefer a
different way that PayPal, please
contact me!
Remember, if you can donate even only 5-10 dollars, it's still a big
help for the site, and it's still only a magazine's price...!
When donation is made, I'll post it in the news, until the donor
requests to remain anonymous. (we'll discuss it in case)
- Link section is active!
Please
feel free to post your non-commercial links to the appropriate place.
No registration is needed to post, but the forum is moderated by Mr. Dan
Linton and me, so your link submission will appear only after one of us
approved it. Please read the read me section before post to see what's
the correct format for posting a link! Also you can learn about
searching in the links section.
- New welcome page is set up. This
is for having more space for sponsors in a different category than the
highlighted ones above. You can simply click on the Enter the site
button, as you did just before or you can still click on the Homeport
button on the top left in the side menu!
Donation made:
I'd like to say thank you for Mr.
Dan Linton (who is building the 1/144 USS Nimitz here) for his
incredible $100 donation! The new
1 year forum license is mostly from this donation! Thank you Dan, you did a
great service for the community!
News by Alert 5:
-
Miramar MCAS part of consolidation plan
The U.S.
Marine Corps Air Bases Western Area has been deactivated as part of a
consolidation begun by the Marine Corps last year.
The Western Area command overseen the operations of Marine air stations
at Miramar, Camp Pendleton and the base in Yuma, Arizona.
-
French ship: SC panel says you can’t dock until you
come clean
The
Indian Supreme Court monitoring committee on hazardous waste
management said that decommissioned French aircraft carrier
Clemenceau should not be allowed within 200 km of India’s exclusive
economic zone until there was full disclosure on the amount of
asbestos on board. The committee members
also decided that in case the ship is, in future, allowed into
India, it will have to pay a bank guarantee of Rs 80 crore.
-
Marines, Sikorsky To Start Intensive CH-53K
Competitions
The U.S.
Navy-Marine Corps and Sikorsky Aircraft will begin a series of
competitions over the next several months for the Marine Heavy Lift
Replacement helicopter program. They
will source for the engines, avionics and even the airframe. First
flight of the CH-53K is expected in November 2011.
-
U.S. says bomb hit wrong house in Iraq
The U.S.
military has confirmed that a bomb from a U.S. Navy F-14 missed its
target by 65 feet and hit the wrong home. Six civilians were killed.
Only the father and daughter of the family survived. U.S. military
officials said they are investigating why the wrong building was hit.
-
New adversary detachment stands up in Key West
The
USN's adversary squadron, VFC-13, has established a detachment of 12
F-5Ns permanently at Naval Air Station Key West.
They will fly adversary training missions against carrier battle groups
during their pre-deployment exercises.
-
NAVAIR provides troops with eye in the sky
The
story on how NAVAIR beat a tight schedule to install ROVER capability on
the F-14D in one month.
-
Bulldogs clamp down on insurgency
The
Bulldogs of VMFA 223 with their AV-8Bs has been busy since arriving in
western Iraq last August.
-
Museum simulators let everyone fly
Anyone
who wants to fly an F-14 Tomcat can now do so at the Patuxent River
Naval Air Museum.
The museum has acquired
two F-14 Tomcat cockpit simulators and for $40, customers get a
20-minute brief, a quick cockpit brief and approximately a 30-minute
flight.
-
Navy, Air Force Maneuver To Save JSF Alternate Engine
Industry
veterans say that the move by the U.S. Navy to stop funding the
development of the F136 is a calculated move to draw lawmakers into
adding money to keep the program in existence.
This is not the first time the alternate engine program has been killed
only to be revived by the Congress.
-
USS Ronald Reagan Departs on Maiden Deployment
USS
Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) departed San Diego Jan. 4 for its maiden
deployment. It will deploy to the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf.
-
Tensions rise as U.S. strike reportedly kills seven Iraqi
civilians
Most
American media choose not to report this yesterday but word is that an
F-14 strike has killed seven civilians and four were wounded in Beiji,
Iraq on Monday.
The U.S. military would only
say that an UAV spotted three people planting a roadside bomb and that
Navy F-14s were called in. The three were traced to a building and
a F-14 strafed and hit it with a precision bomb.
-
Days before death, pilot wrote about ‘blanking out’
Investigators believe that an Indian Navy Sea Harrier pilot may have
become disoriented and crashed his plane while on the take-off roll.
They could not isolate a cause as there is little material evidence left
from the crash.
-
Greenpeace members held after protest
A dozen
of Greenpeace activists were detained on Tuesday by Indian police during
a protest over plans to scrap French carrier Clemenceau in Gujarat next
month.
-
Naval Chief to commission UAV squadron on Jan 6
The
Indian Navy's first UAV squadron will be commission into service on Jan.
6 by the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash.
-
India rejects proposal for ship-based Hawkeye
India's
aircraft carriers will not be operating any E-2Cs from their decks as
the country prefer to operate AEW&Cs from land.
-
Navy faces VXX helicopter crunch
The U.S.
Navy is confident in delivering the Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland
VH-71A in 2009.
The most difficult part is a
shift to an all-aluminium airframe to meet USN’s crash worthiness
standards.
-
Former Navy pilot publishes his 4th novel
Former
U.S. Navy fighter pilot and Vietnam War veteran, Mike Basford, has
published his fourth novel, A Desperate Land.
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