FSX Contrails - Can they be moved

[Sean Harrison]

Is there any way to adjust the position of the starting location of contrails in FSX?

 

I have a PAD CL604 and unfortunately the trails start forming up near the nose of the aircraft, a little higher than the winglets, but the right distance out.

 

I'd love to be able to move them onto the winglets....

[Neil Farrington]

Is there any way to adjust the position of the starting location of contrails in FSX?

 

I have a PAD CL604 and unfortunately the trails start forming up near the nose of the aircraft, a little higher than the winglets, but the right distance out.

 

I'd love to be able to move them onto the winglets....

Under the [GeneralEngineData] section of the aircraft.cfg file, you will need to ensure that the engine coordinates are correct. The position of the contrails is directly related to the coordinates listed for the engines.

[Sean Harrison]

Thanks Neil, will that effect thrust lines and stability on the aircraft by moving those values?

[Neil Farrington]

Thrust lines? Not quite sure what you mean there - it may be a confusion with terminology:

On reading your first post again, I believe you may be mixing up contrails (which you are referring to as thrust lines?), which trail behind the engines, to the wingtip vortices, which appear behind the wingtips. You'll need to clarify whether we're talking about contrails, or wingtip vortices, as you mentioned both.

 

Changing the engine position will most likely start messing with the physics, although simply testing it out with extreme values would confirm this. Given that engine positions are usually correct, and that you're most likely referring to the wingtip vortices, it will actually be the [airplane_geometry] section that you need to focus on, in particular wing_pos_apex_lon and wing_pos_apex_vert.

It may be beneficial to use aircraft modification software so that you can actually see all of the reference points, and see where things aren't quite right.

[Sean Harrison]

Yes that is correct the vapour/condensation trails on the wing tips.

 

So if I change those values will it effect the handling/geometry of the aircraft?

 

Currently the vortices start up near the nose, the ACFT.cfg has these values

 

wing_pos_apex_lon=7.900

 

So im guessing that is near the nose of the acft???? I'm just a bit worried if i reduce that to the wing root it may upset the dynamics.

[Neil Farrington]

Changing the values may alter the physics slightly, although I honestly don't know - as mentioned before, you can simply set these to weird/extreme values to test if the physics change. Everything is reversible, remember.

 

The values given are in relation to a central reference point, and will be highly different depending on the aircraft. There's no way of knowing where they need to go without using some form of software, which will help you visualise the aircraft and the recorded values.

 

That's really all I can bring to the table on this discussion - I know what's wrong, but I can't provide any additional advice on how to fix it.

If you wind up getting frustrated with playing about with the .cfg file or an aircraft editor, you could always try contacting PAD about it, given that an issue like this would be their own problem.

[Sean Harrison]

Thanks Neil. I really appreciate your comments.