That sinking feeling again...

[Bazza]

For the first time in many years I had a plane sink into the tarmac after a flawless (?) touch-down.

I am aware that this topic crops up almost as regularly as "what will be in the new FS10."    I found that it my case the cause is as follows....for the benefit of any "newbies."

I was flying a plane with fixed undercarriage, Socata Trinidad.   I had endeavoured to raise the undercarriage by mistake, realised my error when I heard the usual retracting sound, shot outside for a look and found the wheels were still down.      On landing, despite the wheels being in full view, the software obviously told the program that they weren't there and we sogged into the ground.

On hitting the lower undercarriage switch again the plane raised itself out of the tarmac and bounced back into place.

I have seen many explanations for this effect over the years but don't recall ever seeing this posted as the cause.    This may be old news to other veterans out there but may save someone else some head-scratching.      I have seen it posted that thiis problem failed to exist after FS2002...

[Hagar]

Hi Bazza. It's possible the Socata is configured as having retractable gear. This should be easy enough to check in Aircraft.cfg. Here's the contact_points section of the default C172.

[contact_points]
point.0 = 1,

[Bazza]

Thanks Doug.............

I've had a quick look at it but there are 8 points and I don't think I'll muck around with it.

Obviously the answer is "leave the b...... lever alone" as you suggest.

Just thought it may interest someone as this "sinking" topic has popped up right back from FS98 days.   My old mate Grumpy used to give advice  on it.

Have a good Xmas Doug.

[Hagar]

[quote]Just thought it may interest someone as this "sinking" topic has popped up right back from FS98 days.

[TacitBlue]

Now what I find interesting is that I had a Socata Tobago with the same problem. It was made way before this newest Socata, the one you were flying. I wonder if they were made by the same person. Also, isn't there an entry in either the .cfg or .air file something like  "undercarriage type  0" and you could change it to 1 to make it retractable?

[Bazza]

Interesting point, however, the gear looks like it is fairly firmly fixed and shouldn't be uplifted.....

In the interests of reality, ( which is the main reason I persist in flying about in single prop engined aircraft - knowing bloody well I could never fly anything else) I think I'll just leave things as they are.

Having said that, I would like to go on record as having 3 (three) hours flying Cerssna 152's and 172's, and 2 hours in the glider you see underneath.    This places me in the top 10% of simmers, where dreams often exceed reality.

......sneaks off to do a short tour in RNZAF Hercules....

:-/ :-/

[Hagar]

Interesting point, however, the gear looks like it is fairly firmly fixed and shouldn't be uplifted.....

The visual & flight models are separate entities. FS9 can only do what it's told by the AIR file + Aircraft.cfg. If these say it has retractable gear then FS9 treats it as a retractable gear type whether it actually has retractable gear or not.

Since FS2002 many AIR file entries are duplicated in Aircraft.cfg. The CFG entries take precedence if they're modified so I think tweaking those contact_points entries should fix this little problem. It would do no harm to try it.

[Hagar]

I downloaded the Tobago to check it out. I think this is your answer & confirms what I said earlier.

[contact_points]
point.0=1.000, 4.083, 0.000, -2.950, 1181.102, 0.000, 0.522, 42.000, 0.180, 2.500, 0.7, 3.500, 3.500, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.1=1.000, -1.417, -4.100, -2.94, 1574.803, 1.000, 0.522, 0.000, 0.229, 2.500, 0.7, 4.700, 4.700, 2.000, 0.000, 0.000
point.2=1.000, -1.417, 4.100, -2.94, 1574.803, 2.000, 0.522, 0.000, 0.229, 2.500, 0.7, 5.200, 5.200, 3.000, 0.000, 0.000

Change the entries in red to 0.0, 0.0 & that should fix it.

PS. Please note it's 11 commas not 10. I goofed.

[Bazza]

Thanks for your trouble Doug, that'll be my project straight after lunch....

regards, Baz