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Editing Fighters Anthology
Help and Tutorials

A brief intro to flight models.

Each table of the total flight envelope is a visual range of where that aircraft can fly at any given G force. The aircraft can fly anywhere inside the "hump" that is formed by the lines. The hump can be broken into several parts: the left rising side is the minimum speed that the aircraft can fly at the given altitudes. The top line is the aircraft's maximum altitude at various speeds, and the right line is the aircraft's maximum speed at the corresponding altitudes. As the aircraft's possible regime of flight varies according to how many G forces it is experiencing, there exists a different envelope chart for each G force. Note that all speeds in the envelope chart are in feet per second. Be aware that the "Structural Speed Limits" editable via the "Controls" menu for the aircraft affects the max speed attainable by the aircraft's structure. So if you edit the envelope to enable an aircraft to fly at greater speed, be advised that you should check that the aircraft's structure can attain that speed. I'm not exactly sure of the units for the structural speeds, but they seem to be kilometers per hour or feet per second.


How to edit aircraft's flight models through the .PT file.

Roll rate can be controlled through the .PT file. Pitch and turning capability is primarily controlled by the envelope, but through the .PT file you can control the "pitch follow through"; that is, the effect after you return the stick to neutral. Below is a .PT file segment with the info marked. The marked lines correspond to pitching down and pitching up, respectively, and the higher the value the longer the aircraft continues pitch movement.

;---------------- START OF PLANE_TYPE ----------------

dword $11
ptr env
word -3
word 5
word 1173
word 1466
word -73
word 0
word 73
word 73
word -146
word 146
word 7
word 7
word -146
word 146
word 73
word 73
word -225 <------ Roll rate one direction
word 225 <------ Roll rate the other direction
word 286 <------- Pitch
word 571 <------- Pitch
word 0
word 0
word 5
word 5
word -45
word 45
word 90
word 90
word 30
word 70
word 12
word 210
word -2
word 2
word 2
word 6
word 10
word 128
word 35
word -90
word 90
word 286 <------- Pitch down
word 571 <------- Pitch up
word -90
word 90
word 286 <------- Pitch down
word 571 <------- Pitch up
word -90
word 90
word 286 <------- Pitch down
word 571 <------- Pitch up
word 512
word 1280
word 500
word 50
word 1


How to quickly transfer aircrafts' flight models through the .PT file.

Say for instance you have edited the flight model of a MiG-29, and now you want to apply those changes to all of your other MiG-29 variants. You could write down all of your envelope points and values, but there is a faster and easier way: directly through the .PT files. Back up the .PT files of the aircraft you are copying TO first. It may be neccessary if something goes wrong. In the modified aircraft's .PT file (the F-22 is used as an example), scroll down past "Start of plane type", past the hardpoint references, until you reach:

":env

;--- envelope for G = -4"

copy everything from here until you reach:

"word 0
dword 0
;-------------------------------- F-22
; 4G area = 0.425500
; 5G area = 0.379500
; 6G area = 0.323187
; 7G area = 0.277750
; 8G area = 0.221350
; 9G area = 0.164350
; 80 = rating for F-22

;---------------- END OF PLANE_TYPE ----------------"

Then past it into the target aircraft's .PT file from ":env" to ";-----end of plane type", overwriting the Alpha Jet's data. Then, go to just after "Start of Plane type" in the target aircraft's .PT, and adjust the 3rd and 4th lines to correlate with the new G tables.

";---------------- START OF PLANE_TYPE ----------------

dword $91
ptr env
word -4 <<<<<<------MINIMUM G
word 9" <<<<<<------MAXIMUM G

Now why did I saw back up the .PT files? Be careful that you don't change the spaces at the end of the file or anywhere between lines, as a change from the normal could result in FA crashing when attempting to load a mission.

Copyright © 2001 John K. Peterson. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.