During the Vietnam War and the Laotian Civil War, Phou Pha Thi mountain was an important strategic outpost which had served both sides at various stages of the conflict. In 1966, the USAF constructed a TACAN site atop Phou Pha Thi and in 1967 the site was upgraded with the air-transportable all-weather AN/TSQ-81 radar bombing control system. This enabled American aircraft to operate in North Vietnam and Laos at night, and in all types of weather. Despite US efforts to maintain the secrecy of the installation, the site ended operations when it was overrun by North Vietnamese forces in March 1968 in an event known as the Battle of Lima Site 85.
(source: Wiki)
Lima Site 85 was a designation of a 700 ft long landing strip down in the valley which was used to bring material, equipment and personnel to the station on the summit of Phou Pha Thi.
With the use of historical pictures, this scenery intends to recreate the landing strip in the valley, radar station and helicopter landing zone at the top of the mountain.
The ICAO code used for the Lima Site 85 landing strip is LS85.
Installation
Unzip to community folder.
For proper visuals and functioning of this scenery, make sure to install:
- all free MSFS World Updates
- Bush & Backcountry Library by Wookie042 https://flightsim.to/file/43061/bush-backcountry-library
- Ethnicfs Misc Scenery Objects by ethnicsf https://flightsim.to/file/45163/ethnicfs-misc-scenery-objects
- Emerald Object Library by rotornut44 (https://emeraldscenerydesign.com/) https://flightsim.to/file/8824/emerald-object-library
Acknowledgements
Thanks goes to the devs of the object libraries above for making them available for use in freeware sceneries and to Thunder (aa howitzer and sanbags), Hunter Ford (105mm howitzer), Louis Noppe (mortar), Kingy (machine gun), joe_carrot (radar dish), DonMoser and Jean-Luc Bouvron (Air America Pilatus), and Jordan Moore and Peter Mercy (Huey).
Disclaimer
This scenery is uploaded to flightsim.to exclusively and upload to other websites is forbidden without a written approval of the author.
The author of this package is not responsible for any damage caused by the use of this package.
This package is free. It is forbidden to distribute it (wholly or partially) for commercial purposes without approval of the author. Furthermore, it is forbidden to alter parts of the sceneries and / or use them in other sceneries without a written approval of the author.
Milan Šmíd, May 2023
version 1.0.0
Thank you. LS85 is an important part of history. The Air America man who shot down the AN-2 with a M-16 and from a AA UH-1 should be at our annual Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association get-together in San Antonio the week of 4 July, 2023.
6 months ago
This is a story I came across in pretty much any account about LS85. What a legend!
6 months ago
apollon01
pelican223