XP11.30+ X-wind, flight dynamics and other improvements.

Hi everyone.

I was asked by some XP11 users if there is a useful flight model that they could practice XWind landings, Spins, L8, Steep turns.. and in general a model that behaves and feels more like real life. Unfortunately the latest LR release 1131 does not fix any of the problems still listed below.

I've tested many of the aftermarket / commercial versions but none are doing a much better job.

The following modifications are an effort to get the Cessna_172SP_G1000, may work on the steam and seaplane, to improve the flight dynamics to perform some of the maneuvers, like XWind take offs and Landings, Spins, better control in flight..,

It also has some pointers on how to set up eyepoint position, remove some the strange noises, like tire skid....

Flight dynamic modifications are limited to the available elements dictated by the developer' blade theory.

By reading the forums LR has decided that they are done with fixing the Flight model, and they are now in a mode where they are just providing the users a Tool to develop and create, it's like Boeing selling their customers a bunch of bolts and hardware ad have them make it work?

After many hours of testing and experimenting with XP11, I found some things that I had to do that may improve it, and many items still need improvement / fixes.

I've compiled some of the data, modifications, to share with some pilots I interface with, and decided post it here also.

See details below about some changes. and see what you may want to include, try to see if any may help you.

Some of my modifications / changes are listed below, and if someone has some feedback on some improvements, errors etc. post here.

System tested on:Win7 Pro 64, 4.3GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia 1080GTX, running in 4K mode, and 90.21 Lateral field of view setting.

XP11.20, 11.31+, 42 in. monitor, Logitech Extreme 3D pro, CH Pro pedals, Logitech Headset.

Scope, what was attempted to be fixed / improved:

Xwind control in flight and during landings, better dynamic stability, give rudder more authority to control heading and bank in flight and during landing and take off, reduces tendency to overbank in steep turns, Spin, Steep turns, Taxi, improvements.

Adjust wing and eye point position for a more real life like position / view.

Reduce Tire noise and reduce nose wheel turn angle.

Remove the Particle smoke that creates a fluttering in the panel in the cpit.

Reduce the abrupt pitch up, and some drag when flaps are lowered.

Improve Straight and Level (SL) flight, correct for right turning tendency in SL.

To Do. Improvements still needed in XP11+:

Note most of these are in the main code and it's not likely they will ever get fixed, or get much better.

Xwind Taxi, Improve Spin, Trim hold airspeed, Over banking in steep turns.

Extend Night light distance.

Remove the Network Error on XP11 start, if no Inet access given to XP1130+.

Remove fog during day light re introduced 11.31

Remove the nasty Noise when C172 gets started and place on the rwy.

Remove Tire during turns, Skid ( see possible solution below)

Fix the Wind Direction / Speed in the LR1000 that stops showing information below 65KIAS or more. Introduced in XP1130 ver.

Fix the pop up objects that show up on short final like underground missile silos opening.

Fix the White distant mountains during low Sun angle, Dusk, Dawn.

Modify the Flight dynamics to get better Trim for Airspeed behavior.

Remove / reduce the forest of High Voltage towers....

Add VFR ground reference points used for navigation.

Remove Contrails that look like bird poo on the windshield ( possible solution exists).

Remove the Red prop circles ( possible solution exists), replace the file Cessna_172SP_G1000_prop_disc_2.png file with one that removes the red circles.

Improve the Cowl, Wing tips view from within the cpit.

Note: Save your C172SP folder ..\X-Plane 11\Aircraft\Laminar Research\Cessna 172SP folder and or any other file that you may modify, before you start, in case you want to revert back to original data.

Start Plane Maker.exe found in your X-Plane11 folder. Select from top menu:

File>Open>Cessna_172SP_G1000.acf>Open Aircraft

Get better response from rudder input for Xwind landings, and in flight, and improve rudder to bank response. Very useful for rudder authority improvement for Xwind, and Spin improvements.

Standard>Wings>wing2>sweep 0.26 dihedral 004.3, was sweep 02.5 and dihedral 001.5 Note: Try different values. This value will Force you to use the proper technique for Xwind, Start full aileron into wind, and reduce as speed increase for Take off. Aileron partial during landing and increase bank as the speed decreases to full into the wind as you slow below 30-40 KIAS on the ground.

Exit>Click on lower X upper left.

Increase the friction to reduce the drift in Xwind.

Standard>Landing Gear>Gear Data>Landing Gear friction coefficient>rolling co friction>0.045. May change from Version to version, test other values, was 0.035

Exit>Click on X upper left

Increase stability for better Xwind control

Standard>Landing Gear>Gear Data>Gear retraction and nose wheel steering>nose wheel full deflection time 01.7 was 0.07

Standard>Landing Gear>Gear Data>>wheel and tire geometry> wheel lateral separation 4.00 was 3.00

Standard>Landing Gear>Gear Data>>wheel and tire geometry>wheel longitudinal separation 4.00 was 3.00

To reduce the tire noise effect / squeal / skid during Taxi and Xwind. Typical in acft 10deg with rudder pedals. Can be reduced further if needed. Also mods to the skid.wav Sound file is possible.

Standard>Landing Gear>Gear Loc>n-w steering slow and fast> 15.0 and 10.0... was 30.0, 10.0

Nose wheel deflection time to minimize the tire noise effect / squeal during Taxi and Xwind.

Removed in Ver. 11.30?-Standard>Control Geometry>Trim&Speed>nosewheel steering full deflection time>1.2 sec.

To minimize the abrupt pitch up due to flaps being extended.

Standard>Control Geometry>Controls>flap and slat deflects.>flap extend and retract time>06.0 and 04.0 was 4.0 and 4.0

Reduce the exaggerated flap pitch action / drag.

Standard>Control Geometry>Controls>flap and slat coef.>flat root and tip>0.20 and 0.20 was 0.26, 0.26

To reduce the time it takes for trim action on Pitch, may not be needed in 1131+.

Standard>Control Geometry>Trim&Speed>Trim Deflections for airplanes>elevator trim full deflection time>16.0 sec. was 20.0

Adjust for tendency to turn / bank Right in straight and level flight. Tested in No wind, at ~2730 RPM / full power, 134kts, Standard day 1000ft. MSL, and better T.O. behavior.

Standard>Control Geometry>Trim&Speed> Trim Deflections for airplanes >aileron trim tab adjust 0.005 and >rudder trim tab adjust 0.000. Note may be different in ver11.30 and above.

Version 11.30+ aileron 0.007, elev 0.0 rudder 0.009 may try other small changes, was .005 and .008

Eye Viewpoint adjustment (see Note below).

Cockpit view settings to view L/R wing tips and part of cowl necessary if you want to learn / teach VFR flying.

Note: This settings work with Lateral view of 90.21 and 4K resolution Display settings only, you will need other values if your resolution is different.

To get a better view of the Cowl and wing tips

Standard>Viewpoint>General>Long arm pilot's view point>002.80ft>Lat arm>-000.69ft>vert arm>001.51ft

Version 1130+ Long 2.79, Lat. -.66 Ver 1.50 was 3.50, -080, 1.45

Lower the wings for better view of wing tips.

Standard>Misc objects>Scroll down to Wings.obj and change long, lat, vert. value to 000.09, 000.00, -000.09 was 0000.0

Remove Particle / smoke in cpit cowl etc.

Remove smoke / particles in the cockpit, Plane Maker>Expert>Invisible parts>part visibility > uncheck engine heat and others not needed / wanted.

File>Save

File>Quit

Remove the Skid sound

..\XPlane11\Aircraft\Laminar Research\Cessna 172SP\fmod >Cessna_172SP_G1000.snd

Remove the complete section below in the above file using any Text editor.

#################

# TIRE SKIDDING

#################

Recommended steps for some maneuvers.

Spin

5000 Ft. AGL or above, No wind, Standard day.

Power 1900RPM, Maintain level, Below 80KIAS Flaps Full, Trim for level, Stall should occur around 54KIAS, Start a shallow turn in the direction of Spin, stick full back, at the same time Full Rudder in the direction of spin and, Hold stick back, Speed should not exceed 80KIAS during spin.

Recover

Controls neutral, Stop rotation with Rudder opposite to direction of spin, slowly Pitch up to Horizon and add Power, Do not pitch too high and get in secondary spin.

XWind Taxi / landings procedure.

Take off, start with Aileron into the wind (with this mod you should not need a lot), opposite rudder, add power slowly and as the speed increases decrease the aileron deflection to neutral and pitch up / rotate.

For landing the aileron use is reversed, 200 Ft AGL aileron into the wind and opposite rudder to maintain the longitudinal axis parallel to the center line. Control drift with the aileron and the longitudinal axis parallel to center line with the Rudder. As you touch down increase the aileron deflection as you slow down and use the rudder to stay on the centerline, should Not need much aileron input with this mod..

Note: If you are Not familiar with doing the real life XWind landings procedure properly this model may not help.

XP1130+ Crash / load noise and Fog mods.

Hi everyone.

I decided to find out if there is anything that I can do to resolve / eliminate some of the ludicrous "features" that were included in the XP11 later versions, see previous post.

I was able to reduce some of the overdone fog introduced, mostly, in the 1130 and the cheesy / white distant mountains by using the LUA, file name "Reduce_Fog.lua", see pic below. I was also able to eliminate the noise that reminds me a porky being fixed, high freq squeal, and really scares the young kids if using head sets when the C172Sp and others first get loaded, but not the thump portion that must be in the main code? File: File: XP11Stop_Crash_sound.lua.

There are still too many things to fix, see my previous post, but most are part of the main code and will likely never be fixed.

The most glaring is the wind Speed / Direction indicator in the G1000 that stops showing information at as high as 70KIAS, I am just curious if these guys know the difference between IAS and Ground speed?

If you find any errors, or have other fixes, and these fixes do not work for you post here.

I think I am XPlane-d out, at least for now, I am glad I saved my 1120 version. It looks like this version, and newer, will likely be shelved like all the other XP released versions so far, unless some miracle happens and the development team gets serious about flight simulation.

--[[

--This file Will reduce excessive fog and minimize the milky look of distant mountains in XP11.00++

--Copy all the contents here to a file named AnyName.lua

--Place this file into ..\X-Plane 11\Resources\plugins\FlyWithLua\Scripts

--To use: In XPlane 11, just start XPlane after you've completed the above steps. The script will be automatically loaded.

--]]

--File name: Reduce_Fog.lua

set("sim/private/controls/fog/fog_be_gone", 0.3) --try others 0.5

--[[

--This file Will eliminate the high freq / crash noise in XP11.00++ when a plane gets loaded up.

--Copy all the contents here to a file named AnyName.lua

--Place this file into ..\X-Plane 11\Resources\plugins\FlyWithLua\Scripts

--To use: In XPlane 11, just start XPlane after you've completed the above steps. The script will be automatically loaded.

--]]

--File: XP11Stop_Crash_sound.lua

dataref("xp_sound", "sim/operation/sound/sound_on", "writable")

dataref("flight_time", "sim/time/total_flight_time_sec")

crash = true

function xpmuteFunc()

if xp_sound == 1

then xp_sound = 0

elseif

flight_time > 3

then xp_sound = 1

crash = false

end

end

do_often("if crash then xpmuteFunc() end")