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FDG2 Donationware P-40e drop tank

alpha_1

alpha_1

Charter Member
Hi all;

Question for the experts. I've adjusted the dp file of my existing FDG2 P-40E to show a drop tank and to drop it, no problem. Because the donationware airplane didn't come with a drop tank for CFS2, I need to change the aircraft.cfg file as well. I added the drop tank to the fuel section of the .cfg file. and all seems fine.

Question: Does the aircraft actually know that it has an extra fuel source or is there something further I should be doing?

Any help with this would be appreciated, thanks

Cheers
 
Adding fuel in the aircraft.cfg dosn't work in CFS2. You will need to copy and paste *Fuel Extenal 1 Tank from one one the stock aircraft airfile and put it into the airfile of you P-40 than adjust the capacity and position.
 
P40e drop tank

Thanks Allen. I didn't think it could be that easy. I will take your sage advice and see what I come up with.

Cheers,:running:
 
Also when you copy the *Fuel Extenal 1 Tank and do the changes you will need to open the other fuel tanks and look as the fuel tank number they are using. Your *Fuel Extenal 1 Tank (Drop Tank) can't use a that one of the tanks are using.
 
Drop Tanks problem

'K.......This IS tricky because I don't know much about adding new stuff to the airfile. Just read a brief tutorial about it (and fuel tanks) and it's about as clear as mud.

I'm gonna do more research on this because I don't know how to add a new category, for example. It's very easy to change existing stuff, but I actually didn't know stuff could be added. I'm thinking that I really don't need those drop tanks after all, LOL.

But......nothing ventured, nothing gained. Items 531 and 532 are for the main fuel tanks. According to the tutorial I found, there are two more slots available if I choose to use them. Haven't got a clue at this point.

Thanks all the same, Allen.

Cheers,:isadizzy:
 
P-40E Fuel Systems

Jeepers, got halfway through this post and the power went out. We're suffering from a serious heatwave here and power is getting spotty. As I was saying, I've just done some quick research on the P-40 drop tanks and come up dry (pun not intended). What I DID find, however was a fascinating blog on the merits of the P-40 vs the Zero, the Me109, Spitfire, Mustang, F4U, etc.

http://yarchive.net/mil/p40.html

The P-40, if used properly was more than a match for the Zero. the P-40 had a ceiling of about 15,000 feet and a top speed at S/L better than that of the Zero, according to Erik Shilling in the blog. I don't doubt that he's correct.....He flew them for the AVG.

I've noticed and finally come to understand why, in CFS2 quick combat, the P-40 can beat the Zero most times. It's got a better dive speed and better top speed than the Zero at low altitudes. The Mustangs, F4U's and F6F's were fantastic at higher elevations and the Zero was no match for them at altitude. They were fast, better dive speed, climb rate, etc. But only at higher elevations......tactics, tactics, tactics.

As for the drop tanks. I'll leave that alone for now. I don't have the expertise to add things to the airfile and don't know enough about aircraft design to do anything in a reasonable manner.

Allen, thank you for your efforts in pointing the way to me on this.

Cheers All;:ernae:
 
What you need to do is open Aired twice. Use the first Airedit and open one the the stock aircraft. The A6M2 or A6M5 works well. The other one open your P-40 airfile. Right click on 531 *Fuel Extenal 1 Tank and Copy to Clipboard. Now go back to your P-40 and click on one of the entries. Right click and Add from Clipboard.

Now 531 *Fuel Extenal 1 Tank has been added to the P-40.
 
FDG2 P-40 Drop Tank

Hi all;

Sorry I haven't been back to you on this thread until now, Allen......I've been fighting a brutal cold. In trying to do as you suggest, I've come up with a blank. The stock aircraft that carry extra tanks (drops) as far as I can tell, don't have them in their airfiles. I'm stymied. I've looked at 4 or 5 stock airplanes and have yet to find an external or aux. tank on any of them.

It dawned on me that for most long range missions, it appears that after warping to the last waypoint before action, gives you full tanks. An example of this is DOA v2. Mission 8 is long range and calls for drop tanks. If you select an aircraft that doesn't have a drop tank, the mission will crash. I've only found this with DOA, mind you. To me, this means that these aircraft are not set up with drops in the airfile to begin with. I checked the airfile of the pertinent aircraft for this mission and didn't see any configuration for a drop, yet you must add the drop in order to fly the mission. In other words, the drop tank is crucial to the mission but is technically only eye candy. I always set my airplanes up for automatic fuel management and perhaps that's a problem.

Probably, as you say, due to the limits of the sim, it probably doesn't matter that much, depending on how missions are set up. I'm confused enough at this point to say......enough for now. I'm going to do some more resarch and testing on this.

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers;
 
Both the A6M2 Zero and A6M5 Zeo have 531 *Fuel Extenal 1 Tank. "531 *Fuel Extenal 1 Tank" is used in AirEdit. If you are using another progame I'm not sure how they do it. You can attach the airfile and I can add the basic 531 *Fuel Extenal 1 Tank in AirEdit.

I need to know the capacity of the drop tank. Note: The Drop Tank also has be added to the DP like a weapon. Since 75 gals is the most that P-40s used position shouldn't be a prob.
 
FDG2 P-40 Drop Tank

Hi Allen;

I'm using AirEd Version 1.42 by William Roth. I've had it for years but never tried working with it until now. The dp file is from Sopwith who added a drop tank to a reskinned FDG2 P-40E. That's how I found the drop tank in the first place. I queried him about it, but he's like me, he's a little out of his depth working with airfiles and such.

I've attached some files for you: The DP file for the drop tank; the original FDG2 airfile and aircraft.cfg file. I'm probably not using AirEd the way it should be used because I still can't see the external tank in the Zeros, no matter what I do. When I open the zero airfile, item 531 says: Centre 1 tank" As for the size of the drop, I have no idea but safe to say (no help at all, I'm afraid) it's somewhere between U.S.52gal (DOA) or 75gal.

Eureka! I've apparently added the files in the proper manner. Thank you very much for your help. Looking forward to learning how this is done properly.

Cheers;
 
Reply...

Alpha_1,

Sorry, I just caught this. Maybe I have a screw loose, but I'm pretty sure that when I built that campaign, I revised the FDG model to include a 52-gallon drop tank and the required altered .dp and .air files to make it work. It's in the AIRCRAFT folder.

I'm using AirEd 1.52, and, Allen you've got the process exactly right, except...it's entry 534 you want, called "Fuel CFS2/FS2000 Left Drop Tank." That's the one you want to copy over, and in it, you can set the fuel load in that section of the AirEd file.
 
Those crazy drop tanks

Hi Rami;

Thanks for the heads up on this. God bless Allen for his patience with a dummy such as myself. I've downloaded your attachment and wll put it to good use. Taking a 3 year haitus makes for a lot of catching up to do........in a hurry, LOL.

Cheers Pal;:ernae:
 
I got the entry number wrong sorry but "Fuel Extenal 1 Tank." was right for my AirEdit.
 
AirEdit 1.52

I should've looked for and downloaded the newer version of AirEdit when we started this exercise. My apologies Allen. I just downloaded and installed AirEdit vers.1.52; cranked 'er up and voila!. I could see immediately what you were talking about.

Thanks again for your patience and thanks Rami for gallopin' to the rescue. This has been a good learning experience for me. Looking into the airfile, the config file, the dp file......seeing how it all ties together.....great stuff.

Cheers;:medals:
 
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