Fsx - Ditching

[Huy753]

Hello guys,

Currently I've been trying to ditch a A320 Aircraft, but everytime if I hit the ground/water I keep respawning, how to disable the respawning
so I can ditch normally again? Or isn't that possible? Btw: If I play missions on Flight Simulator X, then i'm apparently not respawning after hitting the water/ground, but the annoying thing is that the mission then will stop... Some help please? Thanks!

[Russell Irwin]

To my knowledge, FSX isn't coded to accurately represent crashes/ditchings. In fact, the only "success" I've had with ditchings is jammed/stuck landing gear. In this scenario, the aircraft will sink into the ground on the side of the landing gear failure. Youtuber Cessna154 had a video in which he landed a 757 with a stuck nose gear without respawning. Other than that, I can't think of anything to help.

[Daube]

In order to be ditch-able, an aircraft must have "scrape" contact points defined in its aircraft.cfg file.
Usually, the planes only have the "gear" contact points, so when the plane body hits the ground, it is immediately recorded as a crash.

[Huy753]

Thanks for answering guys! I really wanted to be able to ditch with a aircraft without respawning, to make it more funnier, anyway I'll take a look at the aircraft.cfg

[Huy753]

In order to be ditch-able, an aircraft must have "scrape" contact points defined in its aircraft.cfg file.
Usually, the planes only have the "gear" contact points, so when the plane body hits the ground, it is immediately recorded as a crash.

Hello daube, I just toke a look at the Aircraft CFG file of the Airbus a320, and what I found is this:

Code: Select all

[contact_points]
point.0=1,  43.00,   0.00,  -9.70, 1600, 0, 1.442, 55.92, 0.6, 2.5, 0.9, 4.0, 4.0, 0, 220.0, 250.0
point.1=1, -11.20, -12.45, -10.30, 1600, 1, 1.442,  0.00, 1.0, 2.5, 0.9, 6.9, 6.9, 2, 220.0, 250.0
point.2=1, -11.20,  12.45, -10.30, 1600, 2, 1.442,  0.00, 1.0, 2.5, 0.9, 7.1, 7.1, 3, 220.0, 250.0
point.3=2, -19.00, -55.00,  4.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 5, 0.0, 0.0
point.4=2, -19.00,  55.00,  4.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 6, 0.0, 0.0
point.5=2, -51.00,   0.00, -2.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 9, 0.0, 0.0
point.6=2,  54.00,   0.00, -2.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 4, 0.0, 0.0
point.7=2, -75.00,   0.00, 31.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 9, 0.0, 0.0

max_number_of_points = 21

static_pitch=0.3        //degrees, pitch when at rest on the ground (+=Up, -=Dn)
static_cg_height=9.2    //feet, altitude of CG when at rest on the ground
gear_system_type=1      //Hydraulic

Can you give me a code or something to add the "scrape contact points"?

Friendly greetings, Huy753.

[Huy753]

In order to be ditch-able, an aircraft must have "scrape" contact points defined in its aircraft.cfg file.
Usually, the planes only have the "gear" contact points, so when the plane body hits the ground, it is immediately recorded as a crash.

Hello daube, I just toke a look at the Aircraft CFG file of the Airbus a320, and what I found is this:

Code: Select all

[contact_points]
point.0=1,  43.00,   0.00,  -9.70, 1600, 0, 1.442, 55.92, 0.6, 2.5, 0.9, 4.0, 4.0, 0, 220.0, 250.0
point.1=1, -11.20, -12.45, -10.30, 1600, 1, 1.442,  0.00, 1.0, 2.5, 0.9, 6.9, 6.9, 2, 220.0, 250.0
point.2=1, -11.20,  12.45, -10.30, 1600, 2, 1.442,  0.00, 1.0, 2.5, 0.9, 7.1, 7.1, 3, 220.0, 250.0
point.3=2, -19.00, -55.00,  4.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 5, 0.0, 0.0
point.4=2, -19.00,  55.00,  4.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 6, 0.0, 0.0
point.5=2, -51.00,   0.00, -2.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 9, 0.0, 0.0
point.6=2,  54.00,   0.00, -2.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 4, 0.0, 0.0
point.7=2, -75.00,   0.00, 31.00,  1000, 0, 0.000,  0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 9, 0.0, 0.0

max_number_of_points = 21

static_pitch=0.3        //degrees, pitch when at rest on the ground (+=Up, -=Dn)
static_cg_height=9.2    //feet, altitude of CG when at rest on the ground
gear_system_type=1      //Hydraulic

Can you give me a code or something to add the "scrape contact points"?

Friendly greetings, Huy753.

Still waiting..

[Daube]

I don't know which code it is.
I would simply recommend you to take a look at the aircraft.cfg of several planes, possibly freeware ones, where you'd find the contact points definition AND some comments which indicate which number means what.
Also, on the MS website there might be some explanations on this too...
Take a look here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526949.aspx
And more specifically to the "contact points" page, here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... ocId836373

All that you need is explained there

[Huy753]

I don't know which code it is.
I would simply recommend you to take a look at the aircraft.cfg of several planes, possibly freeware ones, where you'd find the contact points definition AND some comments which indicate which number means what.
Also, on the MS website there might be some explanations on this too...
Take a look here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526949.aspx
And more specifically to the "contact points" page, here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... ocId836373

All that you need is explained there

Hello Daube, Thanks for answering again . I readed the contact points section, but its still a bit complicated
I try to puzzle every piece to add the contact points for scrape, but its very hard to do it for me.
What do they mean with this?

Code: Select all

0 = Center Gear,
    1 = Auxiliary Gear,
    2 = Left Gear,
    3 = Right Gear,
    4 = Fuselage Scrape,
    5 = Left Wing Scrape,
    6 = Right Wing Scrape,
    7 = Aux1 Scrape,
    8 = Aux2 Scrape,
    9 = Tail Scrape.


What do I have to add as contact point to make only Ditching able?

[Daube]

The very first number of a contact point is its class.
The class defines what kind of contact it is. It could be a wheel, or it could be a piece of body (scrape).
For example, in the contact points you posted before, there are 3 entries with class 1, and 5 with class 2.
Following the MSDN documentation, class 1 means wheels. These are the gears.
And class 2 means scrape. This surely includes the tips of the wings for example.

So, to make you plane "ditchable", you must introduce some contact points of class 2, with appropriate coordinates.
I think you could reuse the coordinates of the gears, in which you would simply modify the "vertical position" to make them higher than the deployeg gears.

I said "scrape" class, but honnestly, I do not know if this would be a correct class. Perhaps, "skid" could be a more suitable choice... you'll have to experiement

[Huy753]

The very first number of a contact point is its class.
The class defines what kind of contact it is. It could be a wheel, or it could be a piece of body (scrape).
For example, in the contact points you posted before, there are 3 entries with class 1, and 5 with class 2.
Following the MSDN documentation, class 1 means wheels. These are the gears.
And class 2 means scrape. This surely includes the tips of the wings for example.

So, to make you plane "ditchable", you must introduce some contact points of class 2, with appropriate coordinates.
I think you could reuse the coordinates of the gears, in which you would simply modify the "vertical position" to make them higher than the deployeg gears.

I said "scrape" class, but honnestly, I do not know if this would be a correct class. Perhaps, "skid" could be a more suitable choice... you'll have to experiement

Okay ty for answering , I'll try it out now and hope it works.

[Huy753]

Its working , I can successfully ditch now, but there's a bug.. When I touch the ground, im not respawning but then im driving on the water, litterly.. The gears are touching the water, which means the airplane isn't really IN the water, but driving on the water. Any fixes?

[Daube]

Its working , I can successfully ditch now, but there's a bug.. When I touch the ground, im not respawning but then im driving on the water, litterly.. The gears are touching the water, which means the airplane isn't really IN the water, but driving on the water. Any fixes?

That might be linked to the vertical position of the contact points you created.
Did you set your "skid" (or "floats"... might work as well) contact points higher than the gears contact points ?

[Huy753]

Its working , I can successfully ditch now, but there's a bug.. When I touch the ground, im not respawning but then im driving on the water, litterly.. The gears are touching the water, which means the airplane isn't really IN the water, but driving on the water. Any fixes?

That might be linked to the vertical position of the contact points you created.
Did you set your "skid" (or "floats"... might work as well) contact points higher than the gears contact points ?

Not exactly sure, I just added the contact points with the class of the tail scrape etc, ill paste it here

Code: Select all

point.8=4,  43.00,   0.00,  -9.70, 1600, 0, 1.442, 55.92, 0.6, 2.5, 0.9, 4.0, 4.0, 0, 220.0, 250.0
point.9=7,  43.00,   0.00,  -9.70, 1600, 0, 1.442, 55.92, 0.6, 2.5, 0.9, 4.0, 4.0, 0, 220.0, 250.0
point.10=8, 43.00,   0.00,  -9.70, 1600, 0, 1.442, 55.92, 0.6, 2.5, 0.9, 4.0, 4.0, 0, 220.0, 250.0
point.11=9, 43.00,   0.00,  -9.70, 1600, 0, 1.442, 55.92, 0.6, 2.5, 0.9, 4.0, 4.0, 0, 220.0, 250.0

I added the following contact points:
4 = Fuselage Scrape,
7 = Aux1 Scrape,
8 = Aux2 Scrape,
9 = Tail Scrape.

I'll show you a picture of ditching soon.

[Huy753]

Nvm, its working again. Only with no gears

[Huy753]

Ty for your help