Contact Points for FS2002 Radial Taildragger?

[CTarana45]

I'm trying to figure out why an aircraft with two main landing gear and a tailskid has
6 contact points in the Aircraft.cfg? Is there something else these are used for in
Fs2002? I need to lower the bird about 4-6 inches on both ends! It does have a VC,
would that need it's own contact points?

Thanks!

ChristopherT

[nevern]

Make a backup and remove the other points that are not required to see if anything bad happens.

Also, a tip I read about, is to move the aircraft lights to the contact point locations so you can visually see where you are placing the contact points.

[CTarana45]

Make a backup and remove the other points that are not required to see if anything bad happens.

Also, a tip I read about, is to move the aircraft lights to the contact point locations so you can visually see where you are placing the contact points.

I'll give that a try, I already messed it up once and had to reinstall it! Moving the lights sounds interesting. When I was modeling
Orbiter addons using Anim8or I used to use brightly lit parts of the mesh to show how everthing was working!

Thanks!

Christopher

[A_Nonamus]

I'm trying to figure out why an aircraft with two main landing gear and a tailskid has
6 contact points in the Aircraft.cfg? Is there something else these are used for in
Fs2002? I need to lower the bird about 4-6 inches on both ends! It does have a VC,
would that need it's own contact points?

Not used for the VC, but there are several types ("classes") of contact points in FS2002. Looking in the Aircraft.cfg for the default aircraft (especially the heavies) will show comment lines that tell what most of them are for, but beware -- there is one particular glaring error that is repeated over and over. I have re-written the [contact_points] comments section with all of the (corrected!) info I could find and copied it as below into most of my planes' aircraft.cfg files:

[contact_points]
//1  Class                        <0=none, 1=wheel, 2=scrape, 3=ski/skid, 4=float, 5=water rudder>
//2  Longitudinal Position        (feet, +=fwd)
//3  Lateral Position             (feet, +=right)
//4  Vertical Position            (feet, +=up)
//5  Impact Damage Threshold      (Feet Per Minute, vertical)
//6  Brake Map                    (0=None, 1=Left, 2=Right)
//7  Wheel Radius                 (feet)
//8  Steer Angle                  (degrees)
//9  Static Compression           (feet - 0 if rigid)
//10 Max/Static Compression Ratio (must be at least 1.0; 1.0='bottomed out' when plane is parked)
//11 Damping Ratio / Water Rudder Effectiveness  (0=Undamped, 1=Critically Damped) / 1.0 = normal
//12 Extension Time               (seconds)
//13 Retraction Time              (seconds)
//14 Sound Type <0=left/center nose/tail wheel, 1=right nosewheel, 2=left mainwheel,
//        3=right mainwheel, 4=nose scrape, 5=left wingtip scrape, 6=right wingtip scrape,
//        7=vertical stabilizer scrape, 8=belly scrape, 9=tail scrape>
//15 Airspeed limit for retraction     (KIAS)
//16 Airspeed that gear gets damage at (KIAS)

I have also renumbered the fields because I normally start counting from one, not zero. The most common error you'll find here is that in many aircraft.cfg files as well as several online posts, floats are said to be class 3. In FS2002, skis and skids are class 3; class 4 is for floats (or hulls of flying boats) -- this may be a change from other FS incarnations. Class 5 (water rudders) is hardly mentioned anywhere. Each place I wrote "wheel" in field 14, also includes tips of skis/skids and floats -- referring to the sounds you'll hear when landing.

I'd guess that the 6 contact points you're seeing are the 3 wheels as class 1, and the 2 wingtips plus the nose/prop as class 2 (scrape points).

Oh, one more note about the wheels: the vertical position (field 4) will be modified by the static compression (field 9) when the plane is at rest on the ground. So if for example an aircraft with tricycle gear has all of its wheels at -5.0 feet below the CG and the static compressions as 1.0 feet, the actual CG height for the parked plane should be 4.0 feet. If all of this plane's contact point data are correct, when you load a flight which was saved in paused condition with this plane parked, and go to Spot view before you unpause it, you will see the wheels sunk into the ground by 1.0 feet. If you stay in this view and unpause it, you should see the wheels "jump" to rest exactly on the ground surface, while the fuselage hardly moves at all.

[CTarana45]

Thanks, A nonamus! I saved a copy of this page because it looks like your version does cover everything
Microsoft missed in the default aircraft. Didn't I see a post somewhere about Contact points being used
to trigger animations?

Thanks!

Christopher

[A_Nonamus]

Update: After making post #4 above, I started getting into the SDKs a bit, and found some slight changes to what I wrote. Here's my latest version of the definition for field 14:

//14 Sound Type <0=centerline or left front gear, 1=auxiliary gear, 2=left main gear,
//        3=right main gear, 4=fuselage scrape, 5=left wing scrape, 6=right wing scrape,
//        7=aux. scrape 1 (top of vert. tail), 8=aux. scrape 2 (belly), 9=tail scrape>

[Adam24]

I think the other contact points are for the wings and fuselage, but I might be wrong. I never edited contact points.