helicopter landing gear problem

**rickmalmsten** · 12-18-2003, 04:43 PM

I've been unable to retract the landing gear on helicopters (equiped with retractable gear). I never did anything about it as far as trouble shooting or searching this forum. Then this past week I noticed (quite by accident) when I pause the sim, the gear retract! They won't come back down again until the sim is paused again.

Anyone else have this problem? Is there a fix? My fixed wing aircraft have no problem retracting or extending their gear, only helo's!

Thanks.

Check Six!!!!!
Rick

**panzerschiffe** · 12-18-2003, 04:46 PM

It's not a problem. Microsoft seemed to assume that people would never bother designing helicopters that could retract their gear, and so helicopter designers have to use a trick which involves pausing the sim to allow the helicopter's gear to retract and extend. Without pausing, it's impossible for helicopters to have retracting gear.

It's pretty retarded of MS but oh well.

**habsfan100** · 12-18-2003, 10:20 PM

"It's pretty retarded of MS but oh well."
It's pretty hard for the programmers at Microsft to predict what addons will come out. Since Microsoft dosen't have a stock retractable gear helicopter, I assume that a)Microsoft weren't aware of the problem or b)Ignored it. If b is the case, your quote is quite right.

**Ridge_Runner_5** · 12-18-2003, 10:23 PM

There have been helos with retractable gear as early as FS95 (I had a few) so B is the likely option...

**habsfan100** · 12-19-2003, 08:43 AM

Yes, now that I think about it, you're probably right ridge_runner.

**rickmalmsten** · 12-20-2003, 04:14 PM

Thanks for your feed-back folks. It seems absured that you have to pause the sim to retract helo gear. I would think the program code for gear retraction would be the same no matter what your're flying.

In fact, the code IS working for gear retraction for helo's (as the animation works perfectly when the sim is paused). So what's different when the sim isn't paused?

Interesting that the brakes and parking brake still work!

I'm sure there is someone out there a lot smarter than me who knows something about the technical aspect of this problem (or beter yet... knows how to fix it)!

Still, you have to admit, it's an awesome sim!!

Check Six!!!!!
Rick

**panzerschiffe** · 12-20-2003, 04:41 PM

>In fact, the code IS working for gear retraction for helo's
>(as the animation works perfectly when the sim is paused).

If it really was working, then the sim wouldn't have to be paused to allow the gear to retract/extend.

>So what's different when the sim isn't paused?

The gear doesn't move, at all.

**rickmalmsten** · 12-21-2003, 07:00 PM

Albaro,

What I mean by the following:

>In fact, the code IS working for gear retraction for helo's
>(as the animation works perfectly when the sim is paused).

is that when I raise the gear handle (or hit the G key) the correct instructions are sent to the sim to raise the gear. It's just that you just have to be paused to see the effect. So obviously the code to raise the gear is still there.

What I mean by the following:

>So what's different when the sim isn't paused?

is that aparently something is blocking the instructions to raise the gear (with the sim running), and is not blocking the instruction to raise the gear when the sim is paused. What is it that's blocking the instruction?

Why this problem exists and what can be done about it is the whole point of this thread.