It occurred to me that if my F-18 is loaded up with this giant array of weapons, it would be considerably heavier. Any suggestions on how to add an appropriate weight to the fighter?

boeing247 wrote on Apr 11^th, 2011 at 4:55am:

You need to enter the details in the WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE section of the aircraft.cfg. The blue text shows you where to add the lines/info:

[WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE]
max_gross_weight = 56000.0                      // (pounds)
empty_weight = 24500.0                          // (pounds)

;Moments of Inertia
empty_weight_pitch_MOI   = 62300
empty_weight_roll_MOI    = 16645
empty_weight_yaw_MOI     = 71170
empty_weight_coupled_MOI = 0.0

reference_datum_position     =   29.00,  0, 0    // (feet) distance from FlightSim Reference position, which is: (1/4 chord, centerline, waterline)
empty_weight_CG_position     =  -34.20,  0, -0.6    // (feet) longitudinal, lateral, vertical distance from specified datum

max_number_of_stations = 50

station_load.0  = 200, -16.0, 0, 0.0     // Weight(lbs), longitudinal, lateral, vertical positions from datum (feet)
station_load.n = weight, longitudinal (x), lateral (y), vertical (z)

station_name.0  = "Pilot"      
station_name.n = "Weapon name"

I think/hope that that is what you were asking for.

Mark

The distances are in feet, from the center of the model, usually 1/3 of the distance, from the front, of the wing root chord where it meets the center line (nose to tail) of the fuselage. I don't actually know the distance from that point to where the weapons actually go, but for a good idea, check out the location of the LeftTip fuel tank:

LeftTip   =  -35.3, -5.5, 1.0,  85, 0.0   ;Left Wing  //Longitudinal (feet), Lateral (feet), Vertical (feet), Usable(gallons), Unusable (gallons)
Ignore the red text as that is referring to gallons (tank capacity) and the unusable amount of fuel.

So if you place a rocket there, it will, most likely, be inside the wing. You will need to drop it down a bit. I just don't know how much.

One thing you need to be aware of is that if you give it the armament weight, after expending all your ammo, you will need to remove the weight from the aircraft after you are done. Oh the fun and games!

Mark

There is a way. Captain Sim have done this with the Cargo Loaders on the 707-300C, 727 Freighter, 757 Freighter & 767 Freighter, as well as with the Payload Manager used on the F/A-18D & F117 in XLoad. I don't know how easy it would be, if at all possible, for non Captain Sim aircraft.

Mark