RAF Leiston (Station 373), circa WW2 - Suffolk, UK.
For Microsoft Flight Simulator X
Version 1.0.
========================================================================
Ian Pearson, 13th January 2012.


Yet another of the numerous 8th Air Force fields scattered around East Anglia, RAF Leiston has the advantage - or disadvantage - of being barely inland from the North Sea and thus the first place that many damaged aircraft saw as being a refuge.

It is perhaps for this reason that it has so many dispersal areas. Where most stations had around forty, Leiston has, including steel mat stands, over 100 around its perimeter. It didn't start with that many, although provision was made at the time of construction for a "lodger" RAF unit to be based there in addition to the resident USAAF contingent. The RAF never visited, but nonetheless, the steel mats were placed and Leiston ended up with 12 double fighter pens, 38 panhandle dispersals, 12 Blister hangars, 2 T2 hangars and no less than 29 additional steel mat pads. No-one could ever have mistaken Leiston for anywhere else - there's virtually no peri tack space left where they could have put any more parking.

Initially home to the P-47s of the 358th Fighter Group, Leiston was part of a "swap" between 8th and 9th Air Forces, with the P-47s moving to a 9th AF field and being replaced by the 357th FG, who moved their Mustangs from Raydon to Leiston in January 1944.

With the departure of the Fighter Group to occupation duties in Germany following the end of the war, Leiston stood empty until sold off in the 1950s and there is now little remaining of this once hectic airfield. A simple stone monument on the edge of a caravan park marks the men and machines of the 357th. 



Installation:
=============

To get the more accurate buildings, there's a slightly more complex setup than my earliest sceneries. Once you have done this process once, however, it will work for all my RAF airbase sceneries, and you won't have to do it again. Note that if you already have Bill Womack's WW2 buildings, Ted Andrews RAF libraries and my own object libraries installed, you can just follow the steps to install and activate IJP_X3SX.

1) Download the Ted Andrews and Bill Womack FSX object libraries, which can be found via the link in the sidebar at http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk

2) In your [FSX folder]/Addon scenery directory, create a folder called "Ted Andrews" and, inside that, two more called "scenery" and "texture".

3) Extract and copy all the .bgl files from the Ted Andrews library zips into [FSX folder]\Addon Scenery\Ted Andrews\scenery.

4) Extract and copy all the .dds files from tedsraftextures.zip into [FSX folder]\Addon Scenery\Ted Andrews\texture.

5) Extract the contents of "RAF_WWII_Airfield_bldgs.zip" and the enclosed directories "IJP_X3SX" into your [FSX folder]\Addon Scenery directory.

6) Launch FS, and through the Scenery Library editor, add the directories "Addon Scenery\Ted Andrews", "Addon Scenery\IJP_X3SX" and "Addon Scenery\RAF WWII Airfield bldgs" to your sim.



Uninstallation:
===============

Remove the entry from your scenery library, then delete the "IJP_X3SX" folder. If you don't need them for anything else you can also remove "Ted Andrews" and "RAF WWII Airfield bldgs".



Finding RAF Leiston:
====================

The nearest town to RAF Leiston is Saxmundham, which explains the fictional ICAO allocated by John "Bones" Woodside of "X3SX", which I have used for this scenery.

There are no modern or historical navigational aids or airfields (at least that I've recreated yet!) nearby, so unfortunately finding Leiston is back to old fashioned forms of navigation - or you can start there, or use the default map and GPS to help! 

All of the dispersals have MIL_COMBAT parking spots allocated, set up to take a P-47 or smaller aircraft.



Development Tools:
==================

The objects used in this base are from the default libraries of FSX Deluxe and the libraries mentioned below. It has not been tested with FSX Standard, sorry, and will not work in FS9.

Other tools used during the development of this scenery, used with thanks, were:
Airport Design Editor by Scruffyduck Software.
SBuilderX by Luis S.
Ted Andrews scenery libraries for FSX.
WW2 USAAF Vehicles by Larry "Tako Kichi" Green from his Hobbs AAF Scenery.

Information used to build this scenery has come from Google Earth, Virtual Earth, Roger A. Freeman's "The Mighty Eighth War Manual" (unfortunately out of print, previously published by Jane's) and Ken Delve's "The Military Airfields of Britain", specifically the East Anglia book for RAF Leiston. Ken Delve's books are available from Amazon and other sources and are highly recommended for those interested in WW2 airfields around the UK.



Legal Bits and bobs...:
=======================

This file is provided "as is" and with no form of warranty whatsoever. In the somewhat unlikely event that it harms your computer, sets fire to your fishbowl or causes you to not do the washing up and get yelled at, I cannot be held responsible in any way. If you don't like this, please don't install it and no I will NOT do your washing up, I have enough to do myself already, thanks!

Should you have any questions or comments regarding this scenery, please feel free to e-mail me at the address below - I can't guarantee an immediate response, but will try to help as soon as I can. How much help I'll be is another matter altogether.


Have fun!

Ian Pearson
ian@ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk
http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk