Simviation Forums

Hi guys - hopefully you can sort a small problem I've been having...

When using a couple of my addon aircraft - specifically the UKMIL Harrier and the Aero L39 - the start of the flight is announced by them dropping onto their parking place from a few feet in the air. With the Harrier, it's not such a problem - presumably thanks to its tougher undercarriage, all that happens is a thud and screech of tyres. The L39 isn't quite as durable, though - the impact collapses either one of the mainwheels or the nosewheel unless I turn all damage off!

I've scoured info on contact points, but without extending the wheel contact points downwards so the aircraft looks like it's hovering, I haven't found any solutions. Any ideas? I should say that this happens no matter which airport I start from (some of my terrain is nonstandard) so the problem seems to be aircraft-related.

Actually, while I think about it, is there any way to increase the power of an aircraft's wheelbrakes? I also have a few aircraft whose brakes aren't powerful enough to hold them stationary even when the throttle is at idle. It makes queuing for takeoff kind of interesting...

Thanks in advance!

I seem to recall having this floating drop thing with FS2002, but it was a long time back, so don't remember any real details.

I'm quite sure you can fix the crashing problem by revising one or two values in the aircraft.cfg file. Under the section named Contact_Points, the following need attention:

static_cg_height =
static_pitch =

The current values are where the aircraft is initially positioned before any of the contact points are used. Experiment first with the height value -- later you can fine tune both numbers until you're satisfied.

Please let us know if this was helpful

Regards,
JerryH

Thanks JerryH, that was spot on!

I dropped the Harrier by 0.5 and the L39 by 1.0 - now the Harrier sits flush and the L39 just bobs its nose slightly. Now I can live out the fantasy of back when I saw actual L39s for sale on iwantoneofthose.com!

And thanks from me too, I've always wondered what those two lines were about.