What makes helicopter rotors rotate?

[gavinc]

Hi
I have been trying to sort out a minor but annoying (at least to me) feature of helicopters:banghead:. This is the fact that the rotor blades rotate even with the engine off, or so I thought!

When I was converting Greg Pepper's FS2002 Sikorsky S-51 I went prowling for a decent FS2000 or FS98 air file to replace the default one with. That is when I came across Ignacio Mendive's S-51 (which is a CFS2 model) and lo & behold his rotors don't rotate until the engine is turned on.

I dropped Ignacio's air file into Greg's model but the rotors still turn:isadizzy:, next I stripped everything out of Greg's airfile that wasn't in Ignacio's, the rotors still turn:isadizzy:.

Since then I have come across a couple of other models whose rotors actually are controlled by the engine.

Does anyone know what controls this? I am starting to think that it is hard wired into the model.

Thanks
Gavin

[gavinc]

Whoops,
pressed the send button too quickly.
Here are a couple of pictures illustrating what I mean.
UR-51 is Ignacio's model and HP29 is Greg's

[Shessi]

Hi Gavin,
I think you'll find it is in the build of the ac, the spinning texture is part of the mdl.

If you scasm the mdl you'll probably find that the tex is associated with a 0 engine speed or there is no engine speed info and just displays the spinning texture all the time.
It needs to be modified or added so that the spinning blade tex shows at an engine speed ie. 400 rpm. It would be possible to add this section from the working S51 mdl.....

Cheers

Shessi

[Tango_Romeo]

....it's in the animations in the MDL file. :d

[gavinc]

Hi
Thanks for the explanation.
The curious thing is that (at least with this model, haven't done more extensive testing) I can stop the Rotors.
I need to go into the 2d panel and cut the master power and the fuel switch, then the rotor will spin down and I can then do a manual start procedure.

Any ideas? (also - any ideas why I am wasting cycles worrying about trivial things like this????)

Thanks
Gavin

[Tango_Romeo]

Hi
Thanks for the explanation.
The curious thing is that (at least with this model, haven't done more extensive testing) I can stop the Rotors.
I need to go into the 2d panel and cut the master power and the fuel switch, then the rotor will spin down and I can then do a manual start procedure.

Any ideas? (also - any ideas why I am wasting cycles worrying about trivial things like this????)

Thanks
Gavin

These models were originally produced for FS2000 or 2002 where flights begin on the runway with engines running.

In general these models usually start on the ground in CFS2 with either the rotors spinning down and stopping eventually, or with the engine running at idle speed. In air starts, these aircraft tend to start the flight with the enigine off.

After you have flown them for a couple of flights in CFS2, they will sometimes behave normally, however there is no rule that I can give you.

I've never isolated an AIR file or CFG setting to correct it. Though someone else may have.

Ignacio's model has been in my hangar for a long time, and it behaved the same way....BUT for some reason after a couple of weeks of flying she began to behave normally.???????????????

[gavinc]

Thanks for the explanation TR,
I had forgotten that the FS flights normally start with the engine running.

Gavin