Simviation Forums

Hey all, so heres the deal. I really enjoy flying the Sopwith Camel. However, I am not crazy about the fact that theres NO BRAKES on the damned thing. How did them boys get this thing stopped in the old days? Anyhow, Call me a wuss if ya want, but I would like to install some brakes on mine, can this be done? If so , how would I go about it. Any help greatly appreciated.

Open the Camels aircraft.cfg file in notepad. Then add the following lines at the end;

[brakes]
toe_brakes_scale=0.640889
parking_brake=1

Save it and then fire up FS and you'll have brakes. Personally I like it without brakes, just hold the aircraft above stalling speed and gently let her kiss the tarmac and kill the throttle

[quote]Hey all, so heres the deal. I really enjoy flying the Sopwith Camel. However, I am not crazy about the fact that theres NO BRAKES on the damned thing. How did them boys get this thing stopped in the old days? Anyhow, Call me a wuss if ya want, but I would like to install some brakes on mine, can this be done? If so , how would I go about it. Any help greatly appreciated.

Call me a wuss if ya want,

Travis - you're a wuss.

I haven't tried the default Camel for a long time but if the flight model is reasonably accurate you shouldn't need brakes, not for landings anyway. It will stop soon enough if you do it properly. With most taildraggers I prefer the gool ol' 3-pointers. I like a low approach under power - just like I land my R/C models which are all taildraggers. Use the elevator to control your airspeed. The whole idea is to hold off, keeping it in the air as long as possible, not plonk it on the ground. Then at the right point chop the throttle holding the stick back in your tummy. Stall it those last few inches onto the runway. Perfick & beautiful to watch. It should stop on a sixpence. None of this wheely nonsense running the full length of the runway.

PS. If you use brakes on a Camel while landing it would most likely flip over on its back.

...Hagar..if the Wuss wants brakes then let him have brakes lol.........I just wonder how many "mods" were done to "real" aircraft in the old days..(modern days too for all that)...I'd like to wager that more than one Camel ran into the back of the hanger because it didn't have the means to stop quick enough

...Hagar..if the Wuss wants brakes then let him have brakes lol.........

OK, I'm all for personal choice.

I just wonder how many "mods" were done to "real" aircraft in the old days..(modern days too for all that)...I'd like to wager that more than one Camel ran into the back of the hanger because it didn't have the means to stop quick enough

That's quite possible but at least it has a throttle. Most WWI aircraft had a blip switch on the joystick to control the engine revs by cutting the ignition. The engine either ran flat out or not at all. Now that's what I call difficult although a rotary engine being "blipped" makes a wonderful sound. Quite unique.

I taxied Tiger Moths every working day for 2 years & never ran into a hangar or anything else. They had no brakes but just like the Camel were fitted with a tailskid to slow them down as soon as you cut the throttle. These old taildraggers were intended to operate from grass, not tarmac runways. That makes a horrible scraping noise with sparks flying everywhere & is also a tad expensive on tailskids. Don't let the CO or the poor old mechanics see you doing it.

..LOL...weren't life WONDERFUL..commoner

Thanks for the help guys, Guess I walked right into the wuss thing huh, lol. Don't get me wrong I can fly it without them, but I have a tendency to come in a little hot, and have taken out more than one hanger if ya know what I mean.  I also think they would be useful during taxi, especially in tight, crowded areas. I'll check it out, thanks a lot guys.
                                                     Travis

Hey ozzy72, ok so I went in to the aircraft.cfg file and made the modification you suggested above (pasted it directly from your post, word for word) , and still no brakes.  Any suggestions?

Did you save it?

Yup, I sure did.

I was wondering about this. I haven't checked it out myself but you might need to enable the brakes in the AIR file. If you haven't done this before try AirEd from the Aircraft Design section.

[quote]Hey ozzy72, ok so I went in to the aircraft.cfg file and made the modification you suggested above (pasted it directly from your post, word for word) , and still no brakes.

Pullin hair out on this one now, what I did was I added the specs ozzy72 posted above to the end of the aircraft.cfg file, spaced 1 line down from the flaps.

[brakes]
toe_brakes_scale=0.640889
parking_brake=1

What about what Hagar mentioned above about the AIR file, Now when I open this file with notepad, all I see is code, (squares and stuff) if I had to modify this file how would I read it?

Alaska....open the aircraft.cfg and look  CAREFULLY down the list....I am sure you will find the original entry viz...

[brakes]
parking_brake = 0      
toe_brakes_scale = 0.0

...or similar on there somewhere...REPLACE that with ozzy's text and delete the entry you made at the bottom of the list....I feel sure you won't need the air file changeing but to look at that you will need a small program called AirEd which you can download from here (maybe) or some other download site...You could copy and paste the contents of your CFG file here for us to see or email it to me if you wish..commoner..