Bouncing Floatplanes
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Thread: Bouncing Floatplanes

  1. #1

    Bouncing Floatplanes

    I've found that the majority of floatplanes/seaplanes bounce in the air in free flight if you start on the water.

    This problem can be overcome by adding around a 1ft increase to the COG in the aircraft.cfg.

    The problem arises due to the wave effect on the water and the COG must take the wave height into account, effectively dropping the aircraft onto the water from above the maximum height of the wave.

    I tested this by looking at the Previous flight.FLT in the PILOTS folder after exiting the game at the top and bottom of the wave and calculating the difference.

    Cheers,

    Aussie

  2. #2
    Cheers Aussie. I knew about changing the entry in the aircraft.cfg, just wondered if you knew if you needed to also adjust airfile record 301(I think): fuselage, pilot view height above c of g as well? I know the values in this record can affect how an aircraft loads if chosen as an infrastructure object.

    I find sometimes 1ft just isn't enough , but the resulting "plop" onto the water on loading can be "disconcerting."

  3. #3
    Hi UT,

    I did some extensive testing on the air file COG entry in section #301 and found that it has no impact on the aircraft for takeoff. The aircraft.cfg has a higher priority and overwrites it completely and the only time I noticed that CFS2 uses it is when the aircraft is flying to prevent it hitting the ground. On the ground for takeoff and landing both the player and AI use the aircraft.cfg. I even went to the extent of removing the entry altogether and that's how I realized it's only used once the aircraft is in the air. However, I haven't noticed if it affects the infostructure objects or not so it's probably a good point to make.

    Cheers
    Aussie

  4. #4
    Hi Again UT,

    It has no effect on infrastructure objects and the bouncing only occurs in free flight for some reason. In the missions I've done it doesn't bounce at all even without increasing the COG

    Cheers
    Aussie

  5. #5
    Very interesting discovery, Aussie.

    I remember that long ago I had the bouncing problem also in missions I made. The workaround solution I found at the time was to make the mission start in the Ir, and then hand-edit the starting waypoint to the desired takeoff location, one foot above the elevation (=sea level) and speed 0. On starting the mission the plane would drop down into the water, and you were able to take off from there.

    Maybe not very elegant, but it worked.

  6. #6
    Senior Administrator Rami's Avatar
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    Aussie,

    This is an excellent find, thank you.
    "Rami"

    "Me? I'm just a Sea of Tranquility in an Ocean of Storms, babe."

    My campaign site: http://www.box.net/shared/0k1e1rz29h
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