Two idjit problems (gWax and airfile)

[Travis]

First, is it possible to make a control surface respond to commands for the rudder and elevators?  I want to make a fully-moving tail for my Demoiselle.

Second, the gear doesn't register!
I have the sections laid out exactly as they should be!  I even put them on another aircraft and tested them, and they worked.  But when I add them to the Demoiselle file, it just collapses onto the scrape points after I enter the sim.  The contact points entries are as follows:

[contact_points]
max_number_of_points = 7
point.0 = 3, -8.27508, 0, -2.4560833, 1500, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0
point.1 = 1, 1.5525, -1.14075, -2.337833, 1500, 2, 3.00899, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0
point.2 = 1, 1.5525, 1.14075, -2.337833, 1500, 1, 3.00899, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
point.3= 2, 0.00, -19.000, -3.600, 787.402, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 5.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.4= 2, 0.00, 19.000, -3.600, 787.402, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 6.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.5= 2, -9.25, 0.000, -1.300, 787.402, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 9.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.6= 2, 2.167, 0.000, -2.167, 787.402, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000, 4.000, 0.000, 0.000
static_cg_height= 2.50908
static_pitch     = 0.000
tailwheel_lock=1

The ones in bold are the gear.  The first is a rear skid and the other two are front wheels.  The reference datum is correct, as is the static cg.

[RIC_BARKER]

Make sure you have the impact theshhold set high enough for the gear, this is in FPM.

As for animating the tail, just animate the while thing as an elevator.

[Travis]

As for animating the tail, just animate the while thing as an elevator.

And that should make it move as a rudder as well?

[RIC_BARKER]

So you mean the entire tail (central rudder and both HStabs) moves as one bit?

I'm not familiar with the Demoiselle, but I presume this is what you mean?

Anyway, if that is the case you need to animate it in the same way as a flexing wing. Animate the elevators as usual, and place a small (too small to see) box on the axis of your rudder. Tag this as a rudder, but make it a child part of the elevators, so the axis of the rudder "moves" when the elevators do. Now animate your rudder, but make it a child part of the little box.

That should do the trick.

Ric B.

[Travis]

Thank you all for your help, and here's another question:

This is a Minbari Flyer from the TV show Babylon 5.  I am trying to get it to sit on the runway, and everything works fine when the engines are running.



But when I shut the engines off, it falls through the ground, like so:



The contact points all work when I am running the engines, and it takes off like it is supposed to, but it just messes up when the engines are off.  It must be something with the CG or reference datum.

The static_cg_height in the contact points section is set at 2.18408, which would control how it is set at the beginning of a flight and during slew mode, right?

The reference_datum_position is set at 0,0,0 which would seem to be right if I wanted to have the reference for the rest of the stuff in the aircraft.cfg file to be the center of the aircraft in Gmax, correct?  The center of it is shown here:



Does this make sense, or is it impossible to tell from this info?

[RIC_BARKER]

That's odd. It looks like a static CG height problem.

Remember when setting the static CG height, use the value from the reference datum (0,0,0) to the bottom of the tyres with the oleos (does that thing have oleos?!! lol) fully extended, ie, with the lading gear suspension FULLY extended, with no weight on it.

Also, make sure the static pitch is set correctly, this is the angle the aircraft is dropped at when the sim starts or you slew. Positive angles impart a nose up attitude, and are measured in degrees.

Again also, make sure the maximum vertical speed the gear can handle is high enough to absorb the "drop" from the start position (suspension extended) to it's rest position at MRW (maximum ramp weight).

Ric B.

[Travis]

I just thought I would show eveyone what they helped me create!

Thanks to all who helped out and gave me the info I needed.

The Santos-Dumont Demoiselle so far:



The gear is totally animated, as are all the control surfaces (special thanks to Ric_Barker for the full tail animation.  Works great!).  Animated throttle and mixture controls and stick.  And the pilot's head moves with the aielerons!

Many thanks to Katahu for his human figure, which I modified slightly .  I now have a figure I can use for almost any aircraft.  Expect to see it in other additions, coming soon!

The next step is figuring out how to get the hand, forearm and bicep to move with the stick and still stay attached to the pilot, and then I might attempt texturing . . .

Comments and suggestions are most welcome!

[RIC_BARKER]

Looks great!

If you want to make your pilot's arm move with the stick, you basically do the same as you did for your rudder...

Make your pilot's hand and forearm a child part of your stick, with the part axis at the elbow. Make the upper arm a child part of the forearm, with the part axis in the shoulder. Animate them with keyframes, and you can move them around so they stay "attached" to the pilots body. The lower arm will follow the stick movements, and the upper arm will follow the lower arm's movements.

Hope that helps,

Ric B.