Posts by larrylynx

Hi Kai

From my understanding

R0 is the pivot point

X0 is the inter-dimensional matrix required for the anti gravity portal to be opened or most likely just the 3D matrix for the x axis (exactly what the numbers refer to would be a guess...stat middle end, up down left right in out, shake it all about ? )

TMD files are very frustrating but strangely addictive, mainly, this B'Stard is not going to beat me again, though most of the time it does, a simple fuel gauge is no problem, getting a fuel tank to work I cannot, the code says it should but it just reads zero

K and D values ???????

Steve

Did you actually read post 50

There is one thing a simulator can never give you ( no matter how good it is) and that is the fear factor. We all know if you crash a sim you reload and have another go. if your too heavy on the controls in the hover and if gets away from you there ain't no reload lets try again option

Jan, What I was trying to illustrate is an instructor can pass on all his experience, seat of the pants stuff, a simulator is just a computer program, it will not help you unless another instructor does that job.

Flight sims are great tools but that's all they are, I've built enough of them to know how effective they can be but they don't have that experience to call on, they are in effect a great visual aid and a valuable learning experience but lack that human touch

44 years a helicopter engineer and 1500+ hours flying helicopters and I agree totally, a sim doesn't help you one bit, Instructors push you so far but you learn far more on your own and by your mistakes, when a trip scares you half to death it tends to stick in the memory more

Hi

A helicopter hovering one skid low has nothing to do with the direction of the rotor blades.

A helicopter hangs from the centre of the main rotor hub, (this is not CofG which is a lot lower), unless the tail rotor is raised to this level the helicopter has a cross coupling effect where the tail rotor thrust is below the level of the main rotor hub, this causes the helicopter to effectively lean in the opposite direction, Hence when the helicopter is lifted into the hover it requires a constant cyclic correction to counter act this cross coupling. Some helicopters do offset the mainrotor gearbox to counteract this lean automatically but it's not common

A helicopter that has it's CofG behind the main rotor axis tend to hover tail down, many larger helicopters suffer from this ( more engines etc and not a lot of forward structure). The Blackhawk seems to be very prone which is why the tail rotor is also canted over to one side to provide extra upward thrust at the tail.

Steve

Hi Admin/Developers

Would there be any chance I could have some guidance on how to do the HUD and Afterburners effects. TTX files being more secure than most banks does not help one bit.

The DR400 has neither of these so no help there either, as for the wiki....

Steve

Hi

This is exactly why a helicopter is flown from the righthand seat.

When in the cruise the collective is pretty much left in one position (most if not all have a friction device) leaving the left hand free to adjust the instruments, radios and hold a map, although when comfortable flying helicopters holding the map is done with the right hand. The right hand very rarely leaves the cyclic, some larger helicopters do have cyclic trim but even then it's best not to trust it.

I always remember a piece of advice my instructor gave me when learing to fly heli's

"hold the cyclic like you would another mans bit's, finger and thumb with as little pressure as possible" this advice holds true for a joystick and the R22

Steve

All mine were Gazelle, light as a feather,

I did do one in a Westland Scout, that was like an out of control house brick, the ground rushed towards you at an alarming rate....one was enough for me

Flare.....Check.....Level......Run on

Sounds easy enough but lots of scope for a c**K up, must have done hundreds and I doubt any were perfect

Hi RiftFlyer

Just a slight correction. The governor does not control the throttle it controls the engine rpm at a set throttle position. In gas turbine helicopters the throttle is placed at the flight idle (max throttle) position and it never moves unless you want to perform engine off landings (autorotations) or to shut down. Some have an extra lever (Westland Lynx) which pushes up the the rotor RPM to 107%, never did know why it just did.

Hi Delfin

Helicopters normally require less anti torque (tail rotor) when in forward flight as static lift devices around the tail apply lift to counter act the rotor torque automatically. The Gazelle tail fin is one big wing when viewed from the top, above 30 knots or so you can take your feet off the pedals and it will keep straight

Hi Overloaded

Your right it is, its called phase lag and is about 87 degrees

Steve

A governor, piston or turbine, is set for a given engine RPM.

It's basically a bob weight. As the engine speed increases the weights fly outwards due to centrifugal force, this cause the slider that the weights are attached to, to move upwards, this then slightly restricts the fuel flow to the engine, the engine then slows down slightly. If the engine underspeeds the bob weights move downwards, less centrifugal force and this results in an increase in fuel to the engine. Of course this is happening all the time as load is applied via the pilot or aerodynamic forces on the blades etc.

Some piston helicopters require you to increase or decrease the throttle manually as you increase or decrease collective pitch, rolling on or off the throttle as its called. Enstrom come to mind as do Bell47

Steve

To add just a bit more

Some gas turbine helicopters allow you to manually increase the throttle via the governor, bleeping the throttle we used to call this. Its's normally only for a minor increase/decrease to assist with some power management, Westland Scout and I believe the Bell UH1 and Jet ranger. It's mainly older gas turbines as they had a habit of compressor surging

Does this mean no heli development for developers

Hi Jan

have gone back to my orginal pivot locations as cheating didn't seem right.

After some serious head scratching I came up with this code, maybe childs play for you but a mile stine for me as it didn't crash the sim, of course it doesn't do what I intend

I have an object I'm using as a slide to see what is happening, this fdoes indeed move backwards though far too much. The speedbrake also moves backwards by this same amount and rotates around the wrong axis.

Can you look over the code and correct it for me as I'm on the point of giving up

Many thanks Steve

<[graphics_input][ServoAirBrakeTrans][]

<[uint32][InputID][ServoAirBrake.Output]>

>

<[graphics_translation][AirBrakeRightTrans][]

<[string8][Input][ServoAirBrakeTrans.Output]>

<[tmvector3d][Axis][-1.0000 0.0000 0.0000]>

>

<[rigidbodygraphics][AirBrakeRight][]

<[uint32][PositionID][Fuselage.R]>

<[uint32][OrientationID][Fuselage.Q]>

<[string8][GeometryList][ RightSpeedBrakePiston ]>

<[string8][InputTransform][AirBrakeRightTrans.Output]>

>

<[torsionlinkgraphics][AirBrakeRightFront][]

<[string8][Graphics0][Fuselage]>

<[string8][Graphics1][AirBrakeRight]>

<[tmvector3f][Joint0][ -2.6687 -0.5802 0.2810 ]>

<[tmvector3f][Joint1][ -3.0779 -0.6536 0.1872 ]>

<[tmvector3f][Joint2][ -3.569 -0.5258 1.419 ]>

<[string8][GeometryList][ RightSpeedBrake ]>

<[uint32][AttachTo][1]>

>

Finally got the B'stards to work

Hi Jan

Being a complete novice I tried various codes to achieve what you suggested but it always failed to load in the sim, so I decided to cheat a little

I moved the speedbrake hinge outside of the fuselage, this allowed the impression of moving backwards as well as rotating outwards.

I managed to attach the brace to the speedbrake and although it does rotate towards the fuselage it doesn't do this enough as per the screenie. Here is my coding, no laughing please

/////////////Speedbrakes

<[hingedbodygraphics][AirBrakeRight][]

<[uint32][PositionID][Fuselage.R]>

<[uint32][OrientationID][Fuselage.Q]>

<[string8][GeometryList][ RightSpeedBrake ]>

<[uint32][AngleID][ServoAirBrake.Output]>

<[tmvector3d][Axis][0.0 0.0 -1.0]>

<[tmvector3d][Pivot][-2.8016 -0.7192 0.2810 ]>

<[float64][AngleMax][1.0]>

>

<[linkagegraphics][AirBrakeRightBrace][]

<[string8][Graphics0][Fuselage]>

<[string8][Graphics1][AirBrakeRight]>

<[string8][GeometryList][ RightSpeedBrakeBrace ]>

<[tmvector3f][Joint0][ -3.569 -0.542 1.419 ]>

<[tmvector3f][Joint1][ -3.0779 -0.6536 0.1872 ]>

<[uint32][AttachTo][2]>

>

<[hingedbodygraphics][AirBrakeLeft][]

<[uint32][PositionID][Fuselage.R]>

<[uint32][OrientationID][Fuselage.Q]>

<[string8][GeometryList][ LeftSpeedBrake ]>

<[string8][AngleID][ServoAirBrake.Output]>

<[tmvector3d][Axis][0.0 0.0 1.0]>

<[tmvector3d][Pivot][-2.8016 0.7192 0.2810]>

<[float64][AngleMax][1.0]>

>

<[linkagegraphics][AirBrakeLeftBrace][]

<[string8][Graphics0][Fuselage]>

<[string8][Graphics1][AirBrakeLeft]>

<[string8][GeometryList][ LeftSpeedBrakeBrace ]>

<[tmvector3f][Joint0][ -3.569 0.542 1.419 ]>

<[tmvector3f][Joint1][ -3.0779 0.6536 0.1872 ]>

<[uint32][AttachTo][2]>

>

How can I increase this rotation so it goes back to the fuselage

Steve

Don't know about slowing it down but it certainly slows me down

Work is still progressing and modelling nearly complete, still have textures to finish and specular, bump etc

TMD is really slow progress and having a chest infection hasn't help, joys of getting old

Hi Jan

A simple one for you...speedbrakes

I can get the speedbrakes to simply rotate outwards, unfortunately on a Starfighter they do not do this, they move backwards and rotate outwards. A piston at the front effectively pushes against a brace and it all does its thing. I know where all the pivots should end up in numerical terms but entries in the TMD are ......confusing

Speedbrake rotates 60 degrees and translates (slides) backwards 0.2279 along the fuselage inside a slide

Brace rotates 45 degrees and slides forwards 0.276 in the fueselage

Piston rotates 55 degrees to speedbrake whilst extending

Any pointers would be apprectiated

Steve

Hi Nickhod

Whilst you are looking at aircraft design may I suggest a TMD err toolkit, can't really think of another thing to call

The TMD file seems to have lots of entries that are similar in structure but refer to different objects, systems etc, so perhaps a graphical interface to call standard code snipets might help get people started, as an example.

I want to start the electrics system so a graphical tree like system could assist with questions that lead to the TMD outputs

Details of system, voltage, loads, (piston or Jet) etc

Do you want a battery switch...give position, type and direction

Do you want generators or alternators..switch position, type, direction how many,

load gauges..needle pivot point, direction, rotation angle, scale (0 to 30 volts example)

etc etc with other systems, instruments until we have enough info to output the TMD entries

Whilst this may not give us a final TMD file it will get things started, also control.tmd entries could be generated

May this is just pie in the sky but there has to be a better way than ploughing through lines of code looking for similar stuff to copy across

Steve

Guess I might have to cheat with the Starfighter, add some extra thrust whilst no one is looking

The biggest problems when modelling or painting humans is we are all experts, we know instantly when something is wrong, it can be a few millimetres but we just know. A very good reason why I started painting animals and not portraits.

Kai, stick a helmet, a visor and an oxygen mask on him like I did, yep, I may be old but not stupid unless it comes to the TMD file