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40 3. SHAPING THE BODY OF AN AIRCRAFT
Figure 3.37: “Open while extended” gear doors on the left and an “attached to strut” gear door on
the right
nosewheel steering is a general term for steering by moving the wheels—it applies to taildraggers
that steer with the tail wheel also.)
Figure 3.38: The steering and nosewheel settings
Beneath the low-speed nosewheel steering parameter is the transition speed. This is the speed
in knots at which you can no longer steer using the brakes, tiller, or nosewheel steering, whichever
the case may be, and must instead steer using the rudder. Above this speed, it would be unsafe to
significantly deflect the steering controls.
Another important set of parameters impacting the aircraft’s ground steering is the landing
gear’s coefficients of friction. These parameters, found in the bottom of the Gear Data tab, are
shown in Figure 3.39. The rolling coefficient of friction (the box on the left) controls how much
friction is produced by the weight of the airplane on the wheels when rolling on pavement. A value
of 0.025 is typical, indicating that the drag of the wheels on the pavement is 0.025 times the weight
of the aircraft when rolling. X-Plane will modify this value automatically when rolling on grass