UKMIL Buccaneer - Again

[expat]

Anyone notice how very squishy the landing gear suspension is? Taxiing is a laugh but problematic as the slightest turn wants to keel over the a/c and you can easily scrape the wingtip if your not careful! Getting out to take off however is a real chore. Suspect the contact points somewhere need to and can be stiffened up to fix this?
Otherwise the plane in the air is very stable and fun to fly and trims wonderfully so you almost don't need an autopilot.

Back on the AP subject - in addition to a GPS/NAV switch that doesn't move, I also find the speed in the speed hold gets frozen at 320 knts or something like that intermittently but don't know what's causing this.

Others are discussing and flying this overlooked aircraft so welcome your thoughts.

[Ascua]

Hi Expat
I'm no expert by a long shot, but looking in the SDK Aircraft Configuration Files, in the section "contact_points" it says:


Each contact point contains a series of values that define the characteristics of the point, separated by commas. A contact point has 16 parameters, described in the following table:


And then, for Parameter 11:

11 (0.90)

Damping Ratio

This ratio describes how well the ground reaction oscillations are damped. A value of 1.0 is considered critically damped, meaning there will be little or no osciallation. A damping ratio of 0.0 is considered undamped, meaning that the oscillations will continue with a constant magnitude. Negative values result in an unstable ground handling situation, and values greater than 1.0 might also cause instabilities by being “over” damped. Typical values range from 0.6 to 0.95.

Looks to me that it could be the solution you are looking for?

Obviously to be used on the undercarriage points only

Cheers

[expat]

Very helpful - I will give it a go - thanks!

[Josh Patterson]

Anyone notice how very squishy the landing gear suspension is? Taxiing is a laugh but problematic as the slightest turn wants to keel over the a/c and you can easily scrape the wingtip if your not careful! Getting out to take off however is a real chore. Suspect the contact points somewhere need to and can be stiffened up to fix this?
Otherwise the plane in the air is very stable and fun to fly and trims wonderfully so you almost don't need an autopilot.

Back on the AP subject - in addition to a GPS/NAV switch that doesn't move, I also find the speed in the speed hold gets frozen at 320 knts or something like that intermittently but don't know what's causing this.

Others are discussing and flying this overlooked aircraft so welcome your thoughts.

Here, make these changes in your aircraft.cfg. In your weight and balance section change the 2 to a 0 in the empty_weight_CG_position line. In the contact points section (be aware UKMIL starts counting at 0 instead of 1 so their damping numbers are actually in column 10, not 11.) go to column 2 and change points 1 and 2 from -5.5 and 5.5 to -8.5 and 8.5. (This has the effect of giving your main gear a little bit wider track.) Then in column 10 change points 0,1 and 2 to 1.5, 0.95 & 0.95. That'll stiffen up your gear. The SDK says don't go over 1 but I took the nose gear (point 0) to 1.5 and I still get a lot of nose dive under hard braking. You could play with the number to see how high you can take it. You should be able to keep the shiny side up while taxying now! (The steering needs some help too, but I have yet to play with it.)

[expat]

Sorry, have been away. That's much better - thank you for your very good help!