Simviation Forums

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Example of the [contact points] section of the Aircraft.Cfg of the default Boeing b737-400 in FS9 below :

[contact_points]
point.0=1, 40.00, 0.00, -8.40, 1181.1, 0, 1.442, 55.92, 0.6, 2.5, 0.9, 4.0, 4.0, 0, 220.0, 250.0
point.1=1, -7.75, -8.58, -8.60, 1574.8, 1, 1.442, 0.00, 1.0, 2.5, 0.9, 6.9, 6.9, 2, 220.0, 250.0
point.2=1, -7.75, 8.58, -8.60, 1574.8, 2, 1.442, 0.00, 1.0, 2.5, 0.9, 7.1, 7.1, 3, 220.0, 250.0

point.3=2, -14.17, -47.33, 0.00, 787.4, 0, 0.000, 0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 5, 0.0, 0.0
point.4=2, -14.17, 47.33, 0.00, 787.4, 0, 0.000, 0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 6, 0.0, 0.0
point.5=2, -54.00, 0.00, 2.83, 787.4, 0, 0.000, 0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 9, 0.0, 0.0
point.6=2, 42.67, 0.00, -3.75, 787.4, 0, 0.000, 0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 4, 0.0, 0.0

max_number_of_points = 21

static_pitch=0.04 //degrees, pitch when at rest on the ground (+=Up, -=Dn)
static_cg_height=7.67 //feet, altitude of CG when at rest on the ground
gear_system_type=1 //Hydraulic

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Thanks for the lowdown Microlight!

Microlight...Thanks so much for the in-depth,and to the point suggestion to hopefully fixing that annoying jumping. I'll give it a shot. I have several if not most ac that share this problem. In the air file...the only settings I adjust are// if there's no reverser in the default,I sometimes add reverser thrust values....I add a flight director if there's none...maybe the s few auto pilot settings such as VS hold default...Avionics available and Smoke available. VERY VERY SELDOM do I do anything to the wheel points,unless its to increase the steering angle a little,and I think I changed that on 3 ac only out of a couple hundred ac. If you or others still feel that the tweeks to the air file I have mentioned could have something to do with the jumping,I will try the default settings again in those areas. But,I can download ac and have that problem right off the bat sitting at the gate before any tweeking. On the cfg file,about all I do there is add smoke,lights or change light types,add reversers (I love the roar and added stopping power,even yho the ac may not have had reversers in real life). But,all in all,in my thinking,nothing I tweek should have any effect on the ac in the jumping arena. But,since 90% of the air settings are greek to me,I really have no idea if my tweeking the reversers or adding a flight director would have any lateral effect in other settings.Again,thanks and I will try the default air files and compare results.

Stephan,

Good luck with it, it'll sort you out, I'm sure.

A word on .air files: Adjusting the .air file is largely redundant these days. These data files were Microsoft's original implementation of the Flight Dynamics Engine (FDE) which up to FS2000 were very important as they contained all of the aircraft settings. The aircraft.cfg file merely contained the [fltsim.X] information for each aircraft variant. This all changed with FS2002 which for the first time introduced a whole raft of settings that modified the settings in the .air file. This was extended in FS9 and again in FSX.

The upshot was that many settings in the .air file became largely redundant because the .air file settings (which are loaded first by FS) are over-written by the settings in the .cfg file during aircraft loading. So the changes you made to .air file data such as VS hold, smoke and avionics availability won't affect anything as they are overwritten by what's in the .cfg file. Other critical information such as contact points, primary aerodynamics and engine power are also overwritten. I've demonstrated this by creating a FDE for a three-engine L1011 by using the default unmodified FS9 four-engine B747 .air file, putting all of the modifications (including the reduction in the number of engines) into the .cfg file, and it works perfectly as designed.

BTW, I did say 'largely redundant'; there are a small handful of settings that are not reflected in the .cfg file, which developers use to fine-tune some aspects of the FDE, but the huge bulk can be done through the .cfg file alone.

That's interesting stuff. And the amazing part is... I actually understand what your saying Microlight.

A short story of my usual evening of tweeking the .Cfg ......

..... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .......... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Loved the 'short story' !! Hahahaha!!!

BLAZE wrote:That's interesting stuff. And the amazing part is... I actually understand what your saying Microlight.

A short story of my usual evening of tweeking the .Cfg ......

..... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .......... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been there done that

.....

I like how Microsoft put an explanation next to alot of the important data in the Aircraft.Cfg as default. It's like, from day one it was meant
to be modified. That was mighty nice of them to do.