~S~
You don't mention which flight sim you're working in, but in CFS2 you can define a 'virtual' tailhook in the aircraft.cfg file
You won't see it animate because it has not been created and animated as part of the .mdl file, but it will work.
Open aircraft.cfg in a text editor (notepad will do, but I favour editplus -
http://www.editplus.com) and add the following:
[TAILHOOK]
tailhook_length = L
tailhook_position = X, Y, Z
cable_force_adjust = 1.0
L is the length of the tailhook in feet (most of them seem to be 4 feet in length, but you could try longer - I'm not sure how this would affect safety on landing)
X, Y & Z are the x, y & z coordinates of the tailhook's pivot point (where it joins the aircraft) all measured in feet from the aircraft's 'datum position' (0,0,0). Note that the x position and almost certainly the z position are going to be minus values - the x value will be some feet behind the datum point and the z value will be a couple of below it. The y value should probably be 0 - i.e, right on the centre line of the aircraft.
cable_force_adjust sets the cable tension of the arresting cable for this aircraft. The default value is 1.0. I have found that some of the AI-flyable aircraft benefit from a reduction in this value - you may need to experiment. Adjust in increments of 0.1 (0.9 is 90% of the default value, 1.1 is 110% of same). If you keep pulling your tail off, the value needs to come down...
I'm not sure if it is significant where you place this entry in the aircraft.cfg file. I have it between the [exits] and [electrical] sections and it works fine.
Special thanks to Caleb Flerck's outstanding guide to this and many other aspects of CFS2 aircraft (
http://www.cfgse.calebflerk.com/). It's the root of all my knowledge in this area (such as it is...
)
~S~
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