Flying Boats

[RAFAIR100]

Can anyone suggest why some of my flying boats float on water (like Walrus) while others sink (like Do18) ?

[legoalex2000]

it's possible the author didn't or forgot to write the float command on the .air or aircraft.cfg file.

[daz1]

fs2000 or earlier aircraft arnt designed for water landings, if its one of trhose then thats why

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

try the Hama cruise ship available over at Avsim

[Degsy]

Hi,

The floatability is controled within the [Contact points] section of the "aircraft.cfg" file.  Go to this section which looks like this

point.0 = 1.000, -25.200, 0.000, -3.300, 3500.000, 0.000, 0.800, 25.000, 0.200, 1.5, 0.800, 5.000, 5.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000

 The first number after the = sign designates the undercarriage type.  1.000 = a wheel and 4.000 =  a float.  

Change all the 1.000 to 4.000 , save the file and reload the plane.

If the plane does not float right, you'll need to change the next 3 numbers in the sequence as these determine the position of the wheel/ float in the model.  

In the above case "-25.200" is a tailwheel 25 feet back from the central datum, "0.000" means this wheel is aligned laterally with the fuselage and "-3.300" means it's 3 feet below the datum point.

You can change the numbers and add other points, e.g. 4 points to create a "box" like a hull or external float.

I hope this helps.

Degsy

[RAFAIR100]

Degsy.    Thank you for your very helpful comments.        My flying boats now all float and all land on water correctly.    Two problems remain.     First is that, as soon as they touch the water, all engines stop and cannot be restarted

[Hagar]

[quote]I have been starting on an airfield and then using 'map view'to move the aircraft over to a water site.

[RAFAIR100]

Thanks for all the help.       My 'boats' now float, and I can get them into the water.      If I could just figure out how to keep the engines running after touchdown on water, and how to get them started again, I'd have it made.

[Hagar]

This is most likely a problem with the scrape points or maybe the floats are too low causing a prop strike. You won't be able to restart the engine if the prop's damaged. Converting an FS2000 floatplane to work properly in FS2002  can take a lot of time & patience. It would be much better if you can find a proper FS2002 floatplane. That should work without all these problems.