Exploding Wingmen

[alcanallen]

This is strange,sometimes taking off in a mission one of my wingmen go`s off with a bang and burns,can anyone put some light on this peculiar event?
alcanallen.

[Daiwilletti]

Hi alcanallen,

there are one or two minor variables to this, but in the stock situation, your wingmen are line astern behind you before takeoff. The distance between the aircraft on the end of the runway is defined in the objects folder in the specific runway.xml file used for the airbase.

Sometimes the distance between a/c is a bit small, especially on shorter runways. I find increasing the distance reduces these prangs.

The other influence is that the AI know when you open the throttle, and release the brakes to take off as leader of your flight. If you brake at all during the takeoff, to correct the yaw or somesuch, a/c behind you will brake too. Trouble is, some a/c like spitfires or 109s have a narrow distance between undercarriage so they can crash responding to your manoeuvers. The other thing that often happens is No. 3 a/c prangs into the back of No.2 a/c either before or soon after you launch off down the runway.

Seems the AI are fairly highly strung, probably suffering from PTSD.

[swpierce]

What type of aircraft are you using when this happens?

[alcanallen]

Hi,i use mainly the Spitfire 1a & b in ETO 5 BoB Missions of which have plenty to keep me going.
alcanallen.

[gosd]

I have this mission:"Operazione Solstizio # 3" from Corrado
When I start the mission the two Re_2000_ga who are in front of me on the flight deck fall in the water on take off.
Can this be prevented ?

[swpierce]

Hi,i use mainly the Spitfire 1a & b in ETO 5 BoB Missions of which have plenty to keep me going.
alcanallen.

I think the Spitfires are bouncing their tailwheel too hard on takeoff. I had the same problem and this is how I fixed it:
Open the aircraft xdp file in Notepad, go to the "damagebox_tail" section and change the center_gear Points to 250. It probably doesn't need that high of an entry but I have not experimented to determine the minimum.

[alcanallen]

Thanks will try,had another big bang yesterday !

[Daiwilletti]

I think the Spitfires are bouncing their tailwheel too hard on takeoff. I had the same problem and this is how I fixed it:
Open the aircraft xdp file in Notepad, go to the "damagebox_tail" section and change the center_gear Points to 250. It probably doesn't need that high of an entry but I have not experimented to determine the minimum.

Hi swpierce, IIRC some other aircraft as well as the spitfire have the tendency to lose the tail wheel too easily. Awful sound when your tail starts to drag on the ground!

Another way to fix the problem would presumably be to beef up the figures in the Contact Points section of the aircraft.cfg. A thread on this ages ago may be able to be found by searching.

When taking off as the lead of some spitfires on the runway, try touching a brake part way down the runway, eg. to correct yaw. Likely as not one of the Spits behind you will blow up. I'm pretty sure the AI brake if the flight leader touches the brake when taking off. I found that by using other techniques to control yaw, the "blowing up" problem was reduced.

[swpierce]

I think the tailwheel is an unusual component as it should be much more easily damaged by enemy fire than by ground contact but the difference can't be modeled.

[Daiwilletti]

I think the tailwheel is an unusual component as it should be much more easily damaged by enemy fire than by ground contact but the difference can't be modeled.

hi swpierce,

just had a look at a post by Majormagee in the knowledgebase sticky. He usefully provides the list of contact points for the aircraft.cfg file:
Just for reference:

[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)

IIRC it is set 4, Impact Damage Threshold, which can be tweaked to stop the tail wheel from breaking too easily on landing/takeoff. To me, it looks like this category does separate the damage caused by ground contact from damage caused by enemy fire?

HTH,

[swpierce]

hi swpierce,

just had a look at a post by Majormagee in the knowledgebase sticky. He usefully provides the list of contact points for the aircraft.cfg file:
Just for reference:

[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)

IIRC it is set 4, Impact Damage Threshold, which can be tweaked to stop the tail wheel from breaking too easily on landing/takeoff. To me, it looks like this category does separate the damage caused by ground contact from damage caused by enemy fire?

HTH,

I agree. It looks like you can finely adjust the impact damage threshold on the tailwheel which would be more precise than my suggestion.