Questions...again!

[skylane]

Hello!

I have a few questions...maybe someone with knwledge about air- and dp-files can help me?

A few weeks ago I had an issue with the VN Catalina: Bombs and torpedoes, when selected, were visible on the plane, but did not show in the bomb count and could not be dropped.
UncleTgt posted a new dp for this aircraft, saying there was something with the gunstations he corrected.
Now I´m having the same issue again with one of Paul Rebuffat´s Bf-109s (Bf-109 G2 JG54 with the dp from the Jabo Update).
I´d like to know what exactly needs to be changed in the dp to correct this and enable use of the stores.

Second, there are some aircraft which can be steered with the rudder during taxi, and some which cannot. I know that the real airplanes were taxied using a combination of differential braking, power and rudder, but this is quite hard to do in the sim with just a joystick and the keyboard..
I would be willing to give up this bit of realism.
Probably it is somewhere in the airfile. I have aired installed on my computer, but I don´t know where to look. Can someone tell me what to change in order to enable steering through the rudder?

I would appreciate any help om these issues!

Cheers,

skylane

[bearcat241]

Get DPED from SimV (any version will do but i like 1.20 best). Open the dp file in DPED and goto the top toolbar > Window menu > select Guns > this opens the tabbed gunstations dialog > look at the 1st tabbed gunstation (0) and punch the Add button to the right of "Weight". This creates a new tab. Look at the top two drop menus. One is Trigger and the other is Spec. Select BOMB for both. Create another new tab and use the same method to select ROCKET. Go back to the top toolbar >choose File > Overwrite > (Yes on prompt) and exit the proggy. Now you have two new gunstations for activating bombs and rockets on the bird.


As for the steering problem, its in the aircraft.cfg, not the air file. Open the cfg with notepad and look at the Contact Points:


[contact_points]
//0 Class
//1 Longitudinal Position (feet)
//2 Lateral Position (feet)
//3 Vertical Position (feet)
//4 Impact Damage Threshold (Feet Per Minute)
//5 Brake Map (0=None, 1=Left, 2=Right)
//6 Wheel Radius (feet)
//7 Steer Angle (degrees)
//8 Static Compression (feet) (0 if rigid)
//9 Max/Static Compression Ratio
//10 Damping Ratio (0=Undamped, 1=Critically Damped)
//11 Extension Time (seconds)
//12 Retraction Time (seconds)
//13 Sound Type
//14 Airspeed limit for retraction (KIAS)
//15 Airspeed that gear gets damage at (KIAS)
point.0=1, 6.96, 0.00, -7.24, 1600, 0, 0.93, 50, 0.55, 3.2, 0.95, 5.0, 5.5, 0, 175, 200
point.1=1, -3.20, -8.12, -6.27, 2200, 1, 1.40, 0.0, 0.65, 3.2, 0.75, 5.5, 6.0, 2, 175, 200
point.2=1, -3.20, 8.12, -6.27, 2200, 2, 1.40, 0.0, 0.65, 3.2, 0.75, 6.5, 6.0, 3, 175, 200
point.3=2, 0.00,-26.25, 0.00, 1200, 0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 5, 0, 0
point.4=2, 0.00, 26.25, 0.00, 1200, 0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 6, 0, 0
point.5=2, -23.00, 0.00, -2.50, 1200, 0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 9, 0, 0
point.6=2, 5.10, 0.00, -4.00, 1200, 0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.0, 4, 0, 0
　
The first line -- point.0 -- is always your tailwheel or nosewheel depending on the landing gear setup. Its the one that controls steering. This control value is the eight in count from the left (the commas separate the values individually). Make sure that all aircraft you fly have a steering angle of 45 degrees or more in point.0 for best ground handling. For adding differential braking as an additional option, copy and paste this to the bottom of your cfg file:

[brakes]
parking_brake = 1 //Parking brake available
toe_brakes_scale = 0.640888698995941 //Brake scalar
differential_braking_scale = 1.10 //Delta on the amount of brake when the rudder pedals deflected

[bearcat241]

FYI, a twist-rudder joystick is always great for ground handling too. And as long as you don't have this feature in your stick for steering, you might consider activating enhanced differential braking by assigning two new keys for left and right brakes.

[skylane]

Thanks a lot for the information, Bearcat! It was very helpful!
I am already using a twist-handle joystick, but without steerable tailwheels that wasn´t of much use...
One can always discover new things about this sim!

Thanks again!