Increasing Fuel Capacity

[turbofire]

I recently downloaded a dirigible (rigid airship). It works well and has great dynamics. However, I also discovered that it holds only 136 gallons of gas total, two 68 gallon fuel tanks. My question. How can one increase the number of tanks, the number of tanks on an aircraft, or both. I looked in the .air file and didn't see anything there. It does not seem to be a panel function. The only place left is the textures, I guess, but I have no clue as to how to open a texture file to even look. I would appreciate any help, thanks.

I posted this on the FS2000 forum. Received "0" responses. So, thought I would try here.

[jwenting]

try the aircraft.cfg file. That's where the size and location of fuel tanks is configured (if memory serves).
You won't of course SEE them (if they're supposed to be external) as the visuals are all compiled code and can't be changed, but you will have the effect of more fuel and thus more weight and possibly changed balance.

[ED_4]

It would be very unwise to change the weight of the dirigibles as this will affect its ability to fly like it's supposed to. What would be more advisable is to change the fuel flow. This will just adjust the amount of fuel burned for the same fuel carried without affecting your weight balance. For aircraft like blimps and dirigibles this is what I would do. The result is pretty much equivalent to increasing your range without affecting your weight.

[yankeeflyer72]

To increase fuel capacity in any aircraft. Go into the aircraft.cfg for the plane you want to change. Find the [fuel] section. There will be an entry for each fuel tank the aircraft carries as to capacity. Add the amount you wish to change it to for each tank. Take this additional amount and multiply it by 6.7lbs (the weight of a gallon of avgas). Take the additional total for each tank, add them together. From here you then go to the [weight and balance] area of your .cfg and find the empty weight of your aircraft. Subtract from this weight the weight of the additional fuel. This compensates for the addtional fuel weight and doesn`t change the aircrafts Max. T/O Weight, MTOW. This also will maintain the aircrafts CG because in essence, nothing is being changed as far as weight and balance.

[turbofire]

Thanks to those who responded. I especially want to thank yankeeflyer72 for the excellent brief tutorial on how to increase fuel tank capacity. If I might be so bold, perhaps the admin for this board could add yankeeflyer72's response to the "How To" section on the FlighSim site.

However, there is one small itsy problem. Here is the aircraft file:

[fltsim.0]
JABIndex=1
title=The Akron, U.S.N. Rigid Airship
sim=The Akron Prototype
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=
checklists=


[forcefeedback]
gear_bump_nose_magnitude=6000
gear_bump_nose_direction=18000
gear_bump_nose_duration=250000
gear_bump_left_magnitude=6000
gear_bump_left_direction=35500
gear_bump_left_duration=250000
gear_bump_right_magnitude=6000
gear_bump_right_direction=00500
gear_bump_right_duration=250000
ground_bumps_magnitude1=3250
ground_bumps_angle1=8900
ground_bumps_intercept1=5.0
ground_bumps_slope1=0.48
ground_bumps_magnitude2=750
ground_bumps_angle2=9100
ground_bumps_intercept2=0.075
ground_bumps_slope2=1.0
crash_magnitude1=10000
crash_direction1=01000
crash_magnitude2=10000
crash_direction2=9000
crash_period2=75000
crash_duration2=2500000

um, there doesn't seem to be a "fuel" section. I am not sure how the above actually configures the aircraft. I would appreciate knowing excactly what program the .air file is opened with. Thanks

[InsyleM]

If this is FS2000?
and its not in the aircraft.cfg file,
then its probably in the .air file.
You need a special editor search
Flightsim for FDE Flight Dynamics Editor.
Information in the aircraft.cfg seems to override
the .air file, however, information missing in the .cfg
is retrieved from the .air instead.
-Jonathan