And now...the Dumb Question of the Week

Drzook

Drzook

Charter Member
Hey all,
I am in the process of rediscovering Rick Piper's fantastic A-22 Foxbat, without a doubt one of the best LSA's out there for FS2004. The only major issue that when there was only one pilot the plane banks to the left unless there was almost no gas in the left tank due to the shift to the CoG. IIRC when it first came out there was some discussion on this and someone here uploaded a revised cfg file to fix it. This brings up two questions:
1) If there is only one person in a small two-seater (side-by-side) does the real thing bank to the left without any control input; if it does is it to the same extent as the A-22 is showing?
2) Does anyone have that revised cfg file?
Many thanks in advance :)

PS-FSNordic's Evektor EV97's Rotax sound is INCREDIBLE for the A-22.
 
While I am no pilot, and have never flown in a real airplane....I do have a basic understanding of physics and silly putty. In a Light Sport Aviation aircraft, with side by side seating, I do believe that having just the pilot in the plane would have some effect on the roll characteristics of the aircraft...meaning that if a LSA had only a pilot sitting on the left side of the plane, the plane would tend to bank to that side even in the absence of any flight control input. The heavier the pilot, the greater the effect would become. And this is where the silly putty comes in to action. In the absence of a second passenger, you would take a great big wad of silly putty and press it all over yourself...making a duplicate of yourself. And then you would sit the silly putty you in the right hand seat..and presto, your LSA will now fly level and straight.

You can send my Nobel Prize for Applied Stupidity to the following address:

1349 Smartie Fartie Lane
Dunceville, California 90412

OBIO
 
Drzook said:
Hey all,
1) If there is only one person in a small two-seater (side-by-side) does the real thing bank to the left without any control input; if it does is it to the same extent as the A-22 is showing?

PS-FSNordic's Evektor EV97's Rotax sound is INCREDIBLE for the A-22.
Click to expand...

Something that I havent really noticed - depends really on the type - but if flown solo with fuel in both tanks, may need a little bit of trimming, but no noticeable amount of input is required.

Have just re-installed my sim after a three month break and the Eurostar was the first to be installed (after the Austers of course!). Have over 30 hours in this LSA and love flying the virtual version. Have only sampled the Foxbat once, but think might make the sound mod as you suggest.

Best wishes,

Martin
 
I think I got it figured out:
In the weight and balance section the pilot and co-pilot's centers of gravity are two feet from the center. Now I know the Foxbat/Valor has a wide cabin but two feet out equates to having at least one butt cheek in the breeze. I made the following mod bringing in the pilot and co-pilot by a foot and will try it out soon:

//station_load.0= "170, -0.27, -2.0, -1.3, Pilot"
station_load.0= "170, -0.27, -1.0, -1.3, Pilot"
//station_load.1= "170, -0.27, 2.0, -1.3, Passenger"
station_load.1= "170, -0.27, 1.0, -1.3, Passenger"
station_load.2= "20, 0.0, 0.0, -0.9, Luggage"
station_load.3= "4, 0.0, 0.0, -3.5, Wheelspats"
station_load.4= "5, 0.0, 0.0, 2.2, lightingKit"

As for the silly putty--not a bad idea but after some time in the hot sun it just wouldn't look that good (not that I've tried it or anything-I'm just saying hypothetically speaking of course)
 
OK just did a test flight with the new pilot/copilot locations and it is much better. Still drifts to the left with only one pilot but not nearly as bad; I would almost go so far to say it is more realistic now. Now to figure out how to do aileron trim with a laptop without a numeric keypad (off to resetting joystick commands...):jump:
 
I read recently that someone didnt like the flight characteristics of a certain aeroplane and so changed them to something that they could relate to. Life isnt like that and aeroplanes arent either....each flies that little bit differently - even in the same type - and thats something that a simulator such as this will never be able to replicate.

Martin
 
This kinda off topic. Before being married..... I drove a Porchwagen 914. I did some upgrades to the suspension. But to make it handle "just right" I loaded 165 lbs of weight in the drivers seat and adjusted all 4 corners. Made BIG difference in handling. I course it was messed up with a passenger, but I didn't do things things like steer with the throttle when caring passengers on winding roads. But I could see how a small AC would handle differently with a pilot only versus pilot and someone dumb enough to go along for the ride.
 
Nothing at all dumb about flying in LSAs! :)

What with the way that the price of aviation is increasing (fuel especially), they are the way forward for General Aviation. I've only sampled a few but love the Eurostar (30+ hours) and the new Piper Sportscruiser. They may be small, but they get us into the air and very efficiently too. And in this day and age thats what we want - cheap flying!!

Best wishes,

Martin
 
I recall flying Ercoupes (two of them, owned by two different friends) and they would tend to bank left just a little when flown with the right seat empty. It was very subtle, not anything you'd really notice unless you took your hands off the wheel.

They could be flown with the canopy open, and you could steer by sticking your hand out one side or the other. That wasn't subtle at all; they'd turn quite well.
 
T6flyer said:
Nothing at all dumb about flying in LSAs! :)

What with the way that the price of aviation is increasing (fuel especially), they are the way forward for General Aviation. I've only sampled a few but love the Eurostar (30+ hours) and the new Piper Sportscruiser. They may be small, but they get us into the air and very efficiently too. And in this day and age thats what we want - cheap flying!!

Best wishes,

Martin
Click to expand...

Hmm..don't think anyone had ventured as far as calling flying LSAs dumb. The price tag for a factory new LSA however that's a bit of a different story.
Yes they get two people around on 4-6 gal/h and with reasonable speed....somewhere around 90-110 kts. But $80.000, usually more actually, for that ???

Somehow they all are missing the boat...or rather thanks to lawyers and idiotic courts that allow frivolous suits to proceed they ended up missing the boat and the entire ocean.

If someone today could build a new J-3 Cub and sell it for $30k there really would be a great new market....as it is I am afraid it is another opportunity missed to bring more people into real airplanes.

I am lucky enough to have a very nice Saratoga at my disposal. But I would love to have a Cub, Super or not, as an option for those days when 2 people and an hour or two of gas for a bit of aerial wandering are all I need to feel alive. Flying let's you feel alive like nothing else you will ever do. And the airplane you use to get there makes almost no difference.

On the topic at hand though...one of the reasons the little Cessna 150/152 had an on/off type only fuel valve and not a left/off/right selector was that even the comparatively small amount of gas if completely unbalanced can make the airplane tiring to fly.

I had the "pleasure" once flying a wounded 152 back from San Diego after the right wing fuel drain got knocked off by someone....draining most of the tanks contents on the ramp.
The student got himself picked up by a friend in a car until he could get word from the "boss lady" what to do.

She gave me a ride down and I flew the little bug home on the left tank. So most of the weight was indeed left of center. And the little bird sure did want to hang a left all the way back home. Again...not a huge deal but inconvenient.

Forgetting to switch tanks in Sara for a long period of time or a similar scenario would be much worse. You can feel 13-16 gal worth of difference in her. Especially the first 20 on each tank because they get drawn from the outboard portion of each wing tank. So about 80-100lbs roughly 5ft out from centerline is quite a bit.

Need to buy lots and lots of putty :D :D

Stefan
 
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