I always use AirEd for airfile tweakage...it's logical to want to use the actual (or perceived) values where these are available, e.g., drag coefficients, but I found that it is better (for me anyway) to test and retest the aircraft, adjusting the figures gently until something close to the desired effect is found. For my own concept aircraft, I had originally  entered all the "proper" lift and control surfaces carefully calculated with respect to the aircraft's design, and it wouldn't fly, despite having a configuration similar to any other modern combat jet. Lack of FBW may have something to do with that...anyway, getting back to the start of this reply, I found that a noticeable (although not powerful) effect with gear drag was achieved by entering a value of 102. There is also an entry available for gear pitch effect under the same section (1101). Also, changing one entry often affects others, so it may be necessary to modify one or more other items in addition to the one you are trying to correct. Good luck

Harold,

FSEdit is one of the worst pieces of FS software I've ever come across! I agree with CAFedm and have used AirEd for the last few years and would recommend that you stick with it.

The following might help you with setting the gear drag setting. If you look in section 1101 Primary Aerodynamics, you'll see a number of different sections: the first is Misc., the second is G limits, and the third is Drag. The third entry in this section is for Landing Gear, which for my FD for the 737 Experience I set at 66. To give you a feel for other settings, the default FS9 Cessna 172 has a setting of 14 and the default 747 is set at 51.

My advice? Double the landing gear drag figure until it makes a noticeable difference, and then tune from there.

Which plane are you trying to modify?

The aircraft I am trying to modify (actually still designing) is my own design, the HD –1 Swift.  Check it out at www.dickert.ca/swift or here in the Download pages MAIN> FS2004>CIVIL JETS.    It is still a work in progress but complete enough to have a blast with, so I made it available to people.  I still need to get the Virtual Cockpit working but am having problems with Gmax on that issue.  Also, I only got a few of the textures mapped so far. 
The Flight Dynamics file is also my own design.  I started working with FSEdit before I learned about the other programs available, and have managed to get the aircraft flying the way I envisioned with a handful of exceptions.
1)      It is still pitch sensitive at vary high altitude, but real aircraft also behave this way.  I have not figured out how to make it more stable.
2)      Idle thrust is a problem.  All these flight dynamics programs allow a designer to load max thrust but do not also allow you to specify an idle thrust.  Idle thrust is simply a factor of max.  My aircraft has such a radical ratio of thrust to weight that it will not slow down enough, making for a long landing approach, and difficult landing.  The only suggestion people have given me is to reduce max thrust, which is something I do not want to do.
3)      There is no way to control the amount of speed brakes applied.  The simulation does not recognize the difference between speed brakes, spoilers, ground spoilers and spoilerons.  I have checked the box for spoilerons, but this setting makes the aircraft’s speed brakes deploy when they should not.  Optimally I would want a control for various amounts of speed brake deployment, with the spoilers deploying near the end of the control leavers movement.  The spoilerons are separate and should deploy with aileron movement.  When on landing approach, the speed brakes need to be deployed to get the aircraft to slow down.  I could use a higher drag setting there.  The spoilers would be available for fine adjustments of approach angle and speed when thrust is already at idle.  Both the spoilers and spoilerons should pop out to full deployment at the point of touch down on landing (acting as ground spoilers at the point of WOW – weight on wheels) preventing a bounced landing just like on a full sized jet.  The next thing about all these drag devises including flaps, is that in the case of a go-around, they should all retract with thrust leave movement above some fixed setting (85% thrust for example would mean, you want to get way from the ground, so tuck everything in).  I guess this will need some programming.  Any takers out there?
4)      Gear drag.  There is non as the flight dynamics file currents is.  When I open the file in AirEd, it shows a figure of 49 in section 1101 Primary Aerodynamics box that “Microlight” is talking about, yet the gear deployment has no effect on speed.  I doubled the number and still, there was no effect.  I added drag in AirWrench and the gear drag appeared but the aircraft flew like a bag of dirt, with a whole host of other difficulties.
5)      As an alternative to less idle thrust, I thought adding drag to the spoilers, gear, and flaps would give me the shorter landing performance I envisioned.  Current speed over the fence is 100 KIAS, with a touch down speed of 90 KIAS, which I think is quite reasonable considering I land the CRJ 200 and CRJ 705 at speeds of 130KIS to 145KIAS in real life depending on landing weight.  The problem is that there is so much thrust at idle on my aircraft, that you still need 10,000ft to slow down to a stop.  AirED didn’t have an effect on this.  HELP!!!  I’d love someone to download the aircraft and play with the file to help me out with this.

So at the current state of development, I have an aircraft with very snappy performance that goes like a bat out of hell (which is what I want), but with these lingering problems.  It is designed to be the antithesis of an airliner or jet fighter.  It’s designed to thumb your nose at ATC, for highspeed contour flying in the Mountains, and to break virtual windows.

Harold,

I'll download the plane, have a look at the FD and see what I can suggest.



EDIT: Just had a look, and tried a few things. Sorry, but I agree with the others who have suggested that you reduce max thrust. Biggest issue is that it has such a high thrust/weight ratio that even with the ground brakes on at idle, the plane still moves forward on the ground (you can almost hear the tyres squealing!) You can even take off at idle with only a burst of throttle to get the ground speed up, and then reducing it again. It will climb at idle thrust, at around 2000 fpm! In level flight at idle thrust, the speed stabilises at around 340kts, so it's no wonder that you're having to use extreme drag to slow the plane down enough to land it. I'll have a play to see if I can come up with any suggestions. (I like the pilot's see-through shirt, however!!)