This
is a simple technique in use by many plane-builders that intends
to stiffen or soften the landing gears struts. As Plane-Maker
still does not let the user adjust this values personally, the
only way is tweaking them by editing the ACF file directly.
How-to steps:
- Use
the ACF2TXT utility to convert the ACF file to TXT format;
- Inside
the TXT file there are three sets of arrays that keep the values
for the landing gear struts behaviors. These arrays are:
gearcon[n] = compressing ratio
geardmp[n] = dumping factor
gearstatdef[n] = static deflection
- Editing
these values will make the gear struts harder or soft and yet
more or less bouncing too. The only array elements related to
gear struts are those from #25 to #29 corresponding respectively
to struts #1 to #5 in the Plane-Maker landing gear editing pane;
- Use
the ACF2TXT utility to convert the TXT file back to ACF format.
Caution:
Once the plane is modified and converted back to ACF format it
cannot be saved through Plane-Maker because doing so will reset
all the values for the landing gear based on Plane-Maker's defaults.
Taking the Quetzalcoatl plane as a technique demonstrator,
the original values set by Plane-Maker v5.54, for the nose landing
gear, were:
gearcon[25]
= 21349.5
geardmp[25] = 2134.95
gearstatdef[25] = 1.07122
Putting
all the 50,000 lb plane's weight over its landing gear assembly
makes this nose arm very compressed, causing difficult in takeoffs
and landing procedures, as shown in the following image:
After
editing manually the values for the nose landing gear strut arm,
doubling the former gear compressing ratio value and reducing
the gear dumping factor value, the plane assumed a more rational
attitude, as shown below:
