Aircraft.cgf and .air files

[Mike Thurman]

What the differnce between an aircraft's cgf file and the .air file??

I hear you can make things fall apart, explode, etc. by editing the .air file

[Travis]

I'm not sure about the falling apart and exploding.  But the main difference is that the aircraft.cfg is easily editable and the airfile is not.

That's about all I can see as the difference.  The aircraft.cfg overwrites anything from the airfile that is in the aircraft.cfg as well, so you don't have to edit the airfile to change the flight dynamics.  I think its just so its an easier access system.

[IanK]

Hello Mike,

.cfg is used by FDEdit but with too many bugs where it will rewrite the file in ways you might not like. Best to use 3rd party editors. Only a few things are exclusive to .cfg so most people would find .air more complete.

.air is quite extensive and holds many flight dynamics parameters and tables allowing very faithful flight models to be constructed. The .cfg parameters can only apply some scale factors which can't really correct any bad .air models.

The MS default models are quite crude and can be quite easily changed to make them into a high quality simulator. The C182 is probably the least bad one of the bunch.

MSFS was designed for low speed GA type aircraft and has been extended to supersonic wing borne types. Helicopters are done by a separate module and have somewhat less design capabilities but someone else can confirm that.

Other things that can't be done are hypersonic flight, orbital injections as FL1000 is the limit. No vectored thrust so no hovering or true VTOL.

Some people have done balloons somehow and you can also do boats, automobiles etc.

Ian

[Mike Thurman]

I'm interested in making something other than an aircraft. I've built the visual model for a boat, a boat that does'nt float.

Could you suggest any good tutorials on doing this sort of thing?

[Felix/FFDS]

I'm interested in making something other than an aircraft. I've built the visual model for a boat, a boat that does'nt float.

Could you suggest any good tutorials on doing this sort of thing?

A boat is a non-flying amphibian that can't move on land by itself.

Start with a Caravan amphibian's flight dynamics - and start "deleting" from there - landing gear contact points (keep the floats) - tone down/change engine parameters ... wing area - practically nil...

or start with an existing working boat file...

[Mike Thurman]

I tried that actually one time, but when i put it on water, it bounced off of it and started whirling around as if it were weightless.