Classic British Flight Sim

Hi...

Downloaded J.E.Narcizo's Piper PA-18 Super Cub V3 and must say that I like it very much. Don't use the standard Cessna sounds though, I copied the Piper J-3 sounds into this great Super Cub, much closer to reality.

However, I do have a little "problem" with the tail wheel of the standard PA-18 version, the PA-18A Tundra one is OK.
In the PA-18 version the tailwheel is hidden for 50% in the tarmac.
I know I have to change the contact points settings in the aircraft.cfg file to correct this (get the wheel a little bit higher, so it is ON the tarmac and not IN it) but I haven't got a clue what I have to change.
Anyone out there that can get me on the right track?
Thankxxx in advance...

Grtz.
tonka

Johan,

Open the Aircraft.cfg file for your aircraft and scroll down to the [contact_points] section...The first three lines will look something like this:-

point.0=1, -15.00, 0.0, -1.05, 1200, 0, 0.238, 60.0, 0.300, 2.5, 0.20, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0
point.1=1, 1.24, -3.0, -5.25, 1600, 1, 0.728, 0.0, 0.54, 2.5, 0.65, 0.0, 0.0, 2.0, 0.0, 0.0
point.2=1, 1.24, 3.0, -5.25, 1600, 2, 0.728, 0.0, 0.54, 2.5, 0.65, 0.0, 0.0, 3.0, 0.0, 0.0

Those three lines are the three wheels and the first (point.0) is the tailwheel.

The number you should change is the fourth piece of data (-1.05 in this case) as that is the "Vertical Position" of that wheel relative to a datum point in the aircraft.

You need to change it by about a foot the first time to see in which direction it works (in the case above, I would change it from -1.05 to -2.05 feet). You should now SAVE the file and start FS and get the aircraft...Has the tail wheel moved up or down relative to the ground?...This will tell you if you have moved it in the right direction.

Keep FS running but use ALT+Tab to drop it down on the Taskbar...Now make a further change to the number (remember it is FEET) and SAVE the file again.

Now click on the FS icon on the Taskbar to bring back FS...NOTHING will have changed until you change to another aircraft and then change back to your Super Cub...Now you will see what effect that last change has made.

Repeat with smaller and smaller adjustments till you have it just resting on the ground. (You must change aircraft and back to the Super Cub each time to see the effect of the change and you MUST remember to SAVE the Aircraft.cfg file after each change).

You will soon get it fixed

EDIT...Johan, I downloaded that Super Cub and adjusted it...it needs the following adjustments:-

[contact_points]
point.0= 1.0, -14.90, 0.0, -2.250, 1500.000, 0.00, 0.30, 60.0, 0.25, 2.50, 0.70, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
point.1= 1.0, 1.00, -4.5, -5.180, 2500.000, 1.00, 0.50, 0.0, 0.30, 2.50, 0.70, 0.00, 0.00, 2.00, 0.00, 0.00
point.2= 1.0, 1.00, 4.5, -5.180, 2500.000, 2.00, 0.50, 0.0, 0.30, 2.50, 0.70, 0.00, 0.00, 3.00, 0.00, 0.00

The -2.250 and -5.180 numbers are the only changes from the original - 2.150 and -5.280

I did not think much of the panel as the Ball does not work and the central compass just has a blank face so there is no actual heading information in the cockpit. I would probably replace the needle and ball instrument with perhaps one from Rick's Chipmunk and fit a new compass on the coaming. It seems to fly quite nicely :flying:

Further EDIT...It seems that this forum converts three zeros into an icon 000

Hi Peter...

Thanks for the quick response!
Changes are made and everything's perfect now.

BTW. just checked and I have no problems at all with the compass and the ball, they work fine on my pc.

Only things on the panel I would like to change is the cessna_182.oil.1 on the left of the speed indicator, but I can't figure out what kind of gauge is underneath it on the bmp file. The Bendix_king.vor1 gauge on the right side of the panel that is now on top of the original oil temp and pressure gauge should go as well to be replaced with one that matches the origanal gauge, if I only knew where to find it...


Grtz.
tonka

Viper wrote:BTW. just checked and I have no problems at all with the compass and the ball, they work fine on my pc.

Yes...I found that the compass specified is not on my system, so I fitted the J3 Cub's Compass with ball in place of that Turn and Slip and got rid of the blank Compass Bitmap. I also noticed that there was a clock specified for the right side of the panel and I don't have that particular clock in my system either so I substituted the very nice little clock out of DM's Hunters. I have been enjoying flying it around and discovered that if you engage the Autopilot when near the localiser and then press CTRL+A then it will fly an auto ILS approach with no problems. I quite like how it flies and will use it locally for scouting around. Also did some night flying and liked it but the landing light did not seem to light the ground...I might fit a shockwave light on :flying:

EDIT...Mine looks like this at night now:-

Hi Peter...

Looking at your panel picture I think we are talking about different Piper Super Cubs.
The panel in my version is a photorealistic rendition of the PA-18 panel and looks quite different from the one in your post.
Mine looks like this:



If we are indeed talking of a different PA-18, the one I use is downloadable as PA18_V3.ZIP at Flightsim.com.
There's also a very nice alternate panel available at AVSIM.COM: hp_piper-pa18-panel.zip

Grtz.
tonka

This Plane is pure Payware quality! I added some light switches using panel studio, cant figure out to put the switches on the overhead (sides) VC view though but still amazing

Viper wrote:Hi Peter...

Looking at your panel picture I think we are talking about different Piper Super Cubs.
The panel in my version is a photorealistic rendition of the PA-18 panel and looks quite different from the one in your post.
If we are indeed talking of a different PA-18, the one I use is downloadable as PA18_V3.ZIP at Flightsim.com.
There's also a very nice alternate panel available at AVSIM.COM: hp_piper-pa18-panel.zip

Yes indeed,

The one I downloaded is an earlier version...I'm just downloading your version now...Thanks :flying:

Hey guys, when making changes to aircraft rather than exiting to the main menu, changing to another aircraft and so on, try assigning a key combination for "Reload User Aircraft. I use "Ctrl - ," Much faster but with the caution that it does not always work. I make quite a few panel changes for my own use and using my key combination it will usually reload the panel with the changes. Today I had to adjust the Radio configuration in an aircraft.cfg file and I used the key combination to reload and the change was made. I am not sure if it will work for other aircraft.cfg parameters. Sometimes you have to hit the key combo more than once, and if that fails you can resort to the main menu routine. Even doing that, I rarely find it necessary to change to another aircraft - just go to the main menu and return with the same aircraft.

On panels, if you open a window in the panel that is not open by default on loading - eg the GPS or Radio Stack, then hit your Reload User Aircraft key, you will know when the panel has reloaded because the opened window will close just as if you had loaded the aircraft from scratch.

This is for FS9, I don't have a clue about anything to do with the darkside.

Hi...

For those, interested in the hp_piper-pa18-panel.zip "alternative" panel for this Super Cub, available at AVSIM.COM, here are some impressions of what it looks like. The first one is the VC, the second one is the 2D panel.
Too bad that the oil pressure & temp gauge on the right side of the panel is not actual there, what you see is the bitmap, but I am confident someone will come up with a solution...





Grtz.
tonka

Johan,

The oil pressure and temp gauge does work (both needles)...If your does not then check in your Flight Simulator 9/Gauges folder that you have the file called "FP_PA18.CAB" and that it is 156 KB and dated 30/06/2008.

You will probably find that you can not switch the Pitot Heat on as the switch will not move...You need to make one tiny change in the .air file to make this work :flying: