Can anyone suggest why some of my flying boats float on water (like Walrus) while others sink (like Do18) ?

fs2000 or earlier aircraft arnt designed for water landings, if its one of trhose then thats why

Hi,

The floatability is controled within the [Contact points] section of the "aircraft.cfg" file.  Go to this section which looks like this

point.0 = 1.000, -25.200, 0.000, -3.300, 3500.000, 0.000, 0.800, 25.000, 0.200, 1.5, 0.800, 5.000, 5.000, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000

  The first number after the = sign designates the undercarriage type.  1.000 = a wheel and 4.000 =  a float. 

Change all the 1.000 to 4.000 , save the file and reload the plane.

If the plane does not float right, you'll need to change the next 3 numbers in the sequence as these determine the position of the wheel/ float in the model. 

In the above case "-25.200" is a tailwheel 25 feet back from the central datum, "0.000" means this wheel is aligned laterally with the fuselage and "-3.300" means it's 3 feet below the datum point.

You can change the numbers and add other points, e.g. 4 points to create a "box" like a hull or external float.

I hope this helps.

Degsy

Quote:

Use Slew mode (Y key) to position the aircraft. If it's in the air hit F1 to put you on the water. Then hit Y again & save the flight for next time.

This is most likely a problem with the scrape points or maybe the floats are too low causing a prop strike. You won't be able to restart the engine if the prop's damaged. Converting an FS2000 floatplane to work properly in FS2002  can take a lot of time & patience. It would be much better if you can find a proper FS2002 floatplane. That should work without all these problems.