Step 18-23

Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page

Step

BUILDING YOUR FIRST AIRCRAFT

Time to add the landing gear for this aircraft.
We are going to use a simple fixed three
wheel gearing system. Wheel should always
be added front to rear on this table. There
are some rules with landing gear and you
should read these if you are going to do
anything special. (insert link to landing gear
rules here) We are only going to be using the
top three rows for this aircraft.

	GEAR RETRACTABLE is no (we want it to be fixed gear)
	NOSE WHEEL STEERING numbers should all be left at zero. This will leave the nose wheel 'free-castoring' like a shopping cart wheel and we cannot directly control it.
	GEAR ATTACH POINTS -LAT(ft) 0.0 -Nose wheel - centerline -1.0 -Left main wheel(negative) 1.0 -Right main wheel (positive)
	GEAR ATTACH POINTS -LON(ft) 1.5 -Nose wheel -feet back from nose 6.0 -Left wheel - feet back from nose 6.0 -Right wheel - feet back from nose
	GEAR ATTACH POINTS -VRT(ft) -1.0 - Nose - below centerline -1.3 - Left -below centerline -1.3 - Right - below centerline
	RETRACTED - Since this is a fixed gear aircraft we will leave these as zero.
	EXTENDED - FORWARD Since we are going to have the gear going straight down (when viewed from the side) we leave this vaule at zero.
	EXTENDED - RIGHT 0 - nose - straight down -50 - left -to the left (negative right) degrees 50 - right - to the right degrees
	LEG LENGTH (ft) This is how long the legs of the gear are. 3.3 - nose 5.0 - left 5.0 - right
	TIRE RADIUS 0.5 nose -1ft wide tire 0.6 left 0.6 right
	TYPE - all of these will be SINGLE for a single tire.
	RETRACT AXIS ROTATION - Again, fixed gear so this won't matter
	WATER RUDDER - at this time we have no plans to land in the water, intentionally, so we'll leave this alone.

Here is our landing gear. Since we are going to stick a propeller on this thing we needed to make the gear fairly tall. This also allows us to keep the tail from smashing in to the ground too easily.

Engine Time !!!
There is A LOT of data on these next two tables and for sake of time I'm not going to cover jets or rockets here (more on engines link goes here).

Go to STANDARD and ENGINE SPEC1

ENGINE TYPE SELECTION

	# - This is the number of engines you have. You can have from zero (glider) to 4 (747). Note that four engines is a hard-coded limit in x-plane version 5.x
	ENGINE TYPE - You have lots to choose from, but they will all be the same (sorry, no B-36 type aircraft yet). Choices include: -Carbureted Reciprocal - Prop -Fuel Injected - Prop -Turboprop - Prop (suprise) -Low-bypass jet - Jet -High-bypass jet - Jet -Liquid fueled rocket - Rocket -Electric - Prop
	S.F.C - Specific Fuel Consumption - This is how much fuel your aircraft will burn when the motor is running. If this was a 250 HP prop with a SFC of 3 then it would burn 750 pounds of fuel per hour (250 x 3), must be a Buick. Fuel is about 6pounds per gallon.
	MAX THROTTLE - This is how far the throttle can be 'pushed'. If this was a 200hp motor and a had a max throttle of 1.1 then you'd get 220hp when you max it it out.
	MAX REVERSE THROTTLE - This is a value of how much power we can use when we have reversible props or thrust - reverser.

RECIP AND TURBOPROP ENGINE SPECS

	MAXIMUM POWER - This is how much horsepower the engine will produce at sea level.
	GEAR RATIO (ENGINE/PROP) This is where you'd set the prop gearing. Many engines rotate much faster than there propellers. A value of 2 means the propeller spins once for every two rotations of the engine drive shaft.
	CRITICAL ALTITUDE FOR FULL POWER This is the altitude at which the thinning of the atmosphere starts to starve the engine of oxygen and power loss begins. For free breathing engines this would at or near sealevel. For turbo / supercharged engines this can be much higher.
	MAXIMUM MANIFOLD PRESSURE AT SEA LEVEL. This is where you'd insert your manifold pressure. For simple engines this is usually around 29.9 but can be 50 or more on larger engines.
	REDLINE RPM - This is the fastest that the engine it designed to run. If you have gear reduction you'll need to make sure you are using engine and not prop information.
	IDLE RPM - This is how fast the engine runs at zero throttle with the fuel on.
	TOP GREEN RPM - This is the fastest the engine is designed to run during normal operations.
	RPM BOTTOM GREEN - This is the slowest the engine is designed to operate normally. If you operate below this level without carb heat oyu may start icing the engine and lose power.
	REVERSE PITCH EQUIPT - Set this to YES if you have an aircraft with reverable props (C-130). Make sure you also add a value in MAX REVERSE THROTTLE on the left of the menu or X-plane will kick you out.

The rest of this table will be covered under the engines tables elsewhere on this site.

Lets add our engine.

	# of engines = 1
	TYPE - Carbureted Recip (stole it off a Cessna)
	SFC = 00.430 (I know the screenshot is wrong. If you cycle through the engines you'll see the value inserted)
	MAX THROTTLE is 1.0.
	MAX REVERSE THROTTLE is 1.0 even though this is not a reverse capable aircraft (doesn't hurt to set it)
	MAX POWER is 150hp
	GEAR RATIO is 1 (no gearing from engine to prop)
	CRITICAL ALTITUDE 1000ft. Above this altitude the engine will start to lose power.
	MAXIMUM MANIFOLD PRESSURE is 30, simple engine.
	REDLINE RPM is 2800 rpm
	IDLE RPM is 400 rpm
	RPM TOP GREEN is 2600 rpm
	RPM BOTTOM GREEN is 1700 RPM
	REVERSE PITCH is NO

Now we can look and the second table. Go to STANDARD and ENGINE SPEC2. One of the biggest changes to 5.60 was lumping fixed-wing and helicopter creation in to one set of tables. Not much has changed, it has just moved around a lot.

	PROP1 PROP2 PROP3 PROP4 these are the columns for engines 1-4.
	NUMBER OF BLADES AND ROTATION - This is the number of blade you'll have (from 2 to 9) and is set in the leftmost box under prop1. The second box sets CW (clockwise) or CCW (counterclockwise) rotation of the blade. This is if you were to view the spinning from behind the plane.
	LOCATION FEET POSITIVE BEHIND REFERENCE - This is the same as LON from the wings. This is where the propeller hub will be.
	LOCATION FEET POSITIVE RIGHT OF REFERENCE This is the same as LATRL ARM with wings. If this was a multi-engine aircraft you'd use negative numbers for the left side engines and positive number for the right side engines.
	LOCATION FEET POSITIVE ABOVE REFERENCE This is same as the VERT ARM in wings. This is how high above the centerline the propeller hub is.
	FORWARD PROP OR ENGINE CANT. This lets you mount the motor pointing up or down. Zero is straight ahead. Each engine can be mounted in a different direction.
	SIDE PROP OR ENGINE CANT This lets you angle the engines to the left or right. Each engine can be mounted in a different direction.
	PROP RADIUS IN FEET - This is how long a single blade for a propeller is from hub to tip. All blade must be the same.
	PROP CHORD IN INCHES - This is how wide the blades are in inches
	MINIMUM/FLAT PITCH - Used on adjustable propellers. This is the flatest angle the prop will be with the propeller pitch control all of the way forward.
	MAXIMUM/OPEN PITCH - This is the sharpest angle that the blade will take with the blade pitch control all of the way back.
	DESIGN RPM - This is the RPM that the prop was design to be effecient. On fixed props this is pretty straight forward, variable pitch props have more options.
	DESIGN SPEED - This is the speed the aircraft should be (ideally) at the DESIGN RPM.
	ACFT TYPE - This is where you set AIRPLANE, HELICOPTER, or GRYO-COPTER
	PROP TYPE - This is where you choose FIXED, CONSTANT SPEED, MANUAL PITCH, or COLLECTIVE
	PROP MASS compared to Aluminum. 1.0 is Aluminum. Default is 0.5 (plastic?)
	TAIL ROTOR RATIO is the number of times that the tail rotor rotates for each rotation of the main rotor blades.
	AUTOFEATHER after engine failure. If this is checked the prop blades go to a near 90 degree angle to reduce drag should the engine it is attached to shut down.

Step 24-29