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3.5. SHAPING THE LANDING GEAR 37 Figure 3.34: The portion of the Gear Data tab relevant to retractable gears number of times you must “pump” the button in X-Plane for the gear to actually extend. This field is located just to the right of the “gear is retractable” checkbox, as seen in Figure 3.34. To the right of the “gear is retractable” checkbox is the “max gear door size” parameter. This sets the maximum width of the gear doors in feet. The gear doors are created in the five Doors tabs up at the top of the dialog box, which we will discuss momentarily. Beneath the max gear door size is the “additional gear flatplate area.” When the gear is extended, X-Plane will automatically add drag based on the frontal area of the struts, the wheels, and the doors in its flight model. However, any time a gear door opens up to let a wheel out, it also opens the gear wells. These wells disrupt the airflow over the craft, so you should enter the frontal area of the inside of this well here so that X-Plane can calculate the drag generated by it. What’s left to create on the retractable gears? The gear doors, of course! Move to one of the Doors tabs at the top of the Landing Gear dialog box to begin creating these. (It doesn’t matter which Doors tab, though Doors 1 is a logical place to start.) Each Doors tab contains four boxes, each box able to create one gear door. Each of the doors is created in the same way. At the top of the gear’s box is the “copy from” drop-down menu, labeled 1 in Figure 3.35. To copy the geometry, location, and texture from another gear door to this one, just click the dropdown button here and click the number of the gear door you want to copy from. (Note that, for the purpose of copying, the doors are numbered beginning with 1 in the upper left of the Door 1 tab. Figure 3.36 shows the numbering pattern; the upper left box in the Doors 2 tab is gear door number 5, and the lower right box in the Doors 3 tab is door number 12.) If you are not copying the gear door’s geometry, you must start by selecting the door’s type. The drop down box labeled 2 in Figure 3.35 selects between four different door types. Any gear door box that you are not using should have a type of “none” set for it. The “open while extended” door type creates a door that opens around the extending landing gear, as seen in the left half of Figure 3.37. The “attached to strut” type creates a door that is stuck to the leg of the gear, as seen in the right half of Figure 3.37.
38 3. SHAPING THE BODY OF AN AIRCRAFT Figure 3.35: The controls to create a single gear door Finally, the “closed while extended” door type creates a gear door that closes when the gear is extended. This is useful for minimizing the drag associated with the gear well, which would otherwise be open to the air and disrupting the airflow over the craft. After setting the door type, it makes sense to jump down to the door geometry box, labeled 6 in Figure 3.35. Gear doors in X-Plane are 2-dimensional, composed of up to four points. Click away from any existing points to create a new one, and click a point and drag it to change the door’s geometry. After creating at least a rough model of the door’s shape, you can position the door on the aircraft and set its opening and closing angles. To begin positioning the door, you can set its heading (that is, the direction the door is pointing). This is done using the axis of rotation parameter, located beneath the gear door type and labeled 3 in Figure 3.35. A heading of 90 degrees makes the door point straight ahead, presenting the least surface area possible in flight. Next are the standard location controls, labeled 4 in Figure 3.35. These are presented here in longitudinal-lateral-vertical order, from left to right. For information on using these controls, see the section “How Positions Are Set in Plane Maker” at the beginning of this chapter. Beneath the location controls are the door’s open and closed angles, labeled 5 in Figure 3.35. The parameter on the left is the door’s angle when the gear is retracted; the one on the right is its angle when the gear is extended. Positive values here will cause the door to hinge to the right of the reference point, while negative values will cause it to hinge to the left. The final settings in each gear door’s box (labeled 7 in Figure 3.35) are related to its paint textures. Information on working with the paint is found in Chapter 8, in the section “Creating a Basic Paint Job.”
Page 1 and 2: U L T R A -R E A L IS T IC F L IG H
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS iii The Body Data Box . .
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS v 9 Performing a Test Flig
Page 7 and 8: 1. About This Manual (this page) 2.
Page 9 and 10: 2 1. INTRODUCTION TO PLANE MAKER 1.
Page 11 and 12: 4 2. THE PLANE MAKER INTERFACE 2.3
Page 13 and 14: 6 2. THE PLANE MAKER INTERFACE Spec
Page 15 and 16: 8 2. THE PLANE MAKER INTERFACE Figu
Page 17 and 18: 10 3. SHAPING THE BODY OF AN AIRCRA
Page 43: 36 3. SHAPING THE BODY OF AN AIRCRA
Page 53 and 54: 4 Working with the Aircraft’s Sys
Page 55 and 56: 48 4. WORKING WITH THE AIRCRAFT’S
Page 77 and 78: 70 5. CREATING AN INSTRUMENT PANEL
Page 83 and 84: 76 6. MODIFYING AN AIRCRAFT’S PRO
Page 91 and 92: 84 7. MODELING ADDITIONAL FEATURES
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88 8. MODIFYING THE APPEARANCE OF A
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9 Performing a Test Flight At some
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Glossary of Terms .acf file - an ai
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98 GLOSSARY OF TERMS Figure 4: An A
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