Between a rock and a hard place

[Quickmarch 488]

Good day fellow haulers,

 

I'm between a rock and a hard place.

 

The Rock - 

 

I was planning on leasing an A321 for my top AI aluminum bender, Lauren. However, as this is going to be a sheep and potato hauler I decided to remove the seats to save a bit of weight (this being a tried and true AH method of getting a few more pounds in an aircraft flown by AI pilots). The A321 is listed as having 220 seats, so at an estimated weight of 30lb per seat I'd be picking up 6600 lbs of capacity if I left them in the hangar.

 

I edited the aircraft.cfg file to reflect this change by reducing the empty_weight by 6600 lbs. Easy.

 

When I imported the modified aircraft into AH I was confused to see that it had much more capacity than planned. I was expecting to pick up 6600 lb, not 20,270 lb as was shown by the Registered Aircraft listing in AH. On inspection, the only other thing that has changed is the fuel capacity. Somehow, I'd lost one complete wing tank full of fuel and AH was happy to stuff the empty space with cargo, or at least that's the way it looks. The difference equals exactly the 2400 USG in one wing times 6.7 lb/gal. Maybe I should start hauling bootleg liquor.

 

I've inspected the aircraft.cfg file from top to bottom - all is as it should be. There are five fuel tanks, all with capacities as advertised. I even went so far as to add a dummy tank and all that did was up my tank count from five to six. 

 

If anyone can shed some light on this little gem, I'd be appreciative.

 

The Hard Place -

 

I could just go ahead and lease the airplane which might get me an aircraft with short legs and wide shoulders. All for the paltry sum of $7.5M. 

 

Or - I could start another company with the biggest aircraft possible and trade that in on an A321 somehow. Unfortunately, it sort of looks like I'd have to fly the thing myself which would defeat the purpose because I can trade fuel for capacity anytime.

 

All ideas welcomed.

 

UPDATE:

 

I offloaded the custom aircraft from AH. Then I renamed the saved aircraft-Copy.cfg file back to aircraft.cfg. This should return all to normal, no? NO! I'm getting the same weird figures using the stock aircraft.cfg file - I swear I made no changes to that. Honest!

 

As an aside, I also noticed that the custom aircraft was $1.5M more expensive to lease than the stocker.

 

Maybe someone is telling me not to mess with Mother Nature.

[Slopey 4]

Hi there,

 

The "default" values for the stock Airbus (and all the stock aircraft actually) are not the same as you'd get if you re-import them.  This was done for gameplay reasons to make the purchase of those aircraft at more realistic prices.  Rather than change the input routine, I simply adjusted the default values.

So, if you re-import the aircraft.cfg, you won't get the same values as if you started a new company and used the default details for the Airbus.

 

Dunno what's up with the fuel thank issue, but then I've never looked at importing that aircraft.cfg again.  I'll take a look at it if I get a chance and see if there's anything obvious (check the number of tanks, and that they're delimited properly in the fuel section with commas, not spaces or periods).

 

 

[Quickmarch 488]

Sorry to take so long to pick up the thread, Slopey

 

As you remarked, the tank issue may well be something simple - like a typo.

 

Below, is a cut and paste from the .cfg file. Note that there is a comma missing after 16.8 in the RightMain line. I don't think I had anything to do with this, but you never know. I've returned the comma to it's proper place and I'll try an import to AH.

 

[fuel]

Center1   =  -4.0,   0.0, 0.0, 2150, 0 

LeftMain  =  -6.4, -16.8, 0.0, 2040, 0          

RightMain =  -6.4,  16.8  0.0, 2040, 0            

LeftAux   = -15.2, -37.6, 2.0,  780, 0              

RightAux  = -15.2,  37.6, 2.0,  780, 0

 

Eureka!

 

Not only did the comma fix the missing tank issue, but there must have been some associated internal chicanery that messed up the cargo capacity as well. 

 

Here is the W&B change (for those unfamiliar with this syntax the // remarks out the following text so that it is not read). The fourth line is the original Empty Weight and the two // simply allow it to be left in the code for future reference.

 

[WEIGHT_AND_BALANCE]

max_gross_weight = 187392                      // (pounds)

empty_weight = 87062          //220 seats X 30lb/seat = 6600 lbs removed

//Original empty_weight = 93662                // (pounds)

 

Here's a screenshot of the AH "Registered Aircraft" listing, showing the imported A321 (White) on the top line. The Capacity has been raised by the 6,600lb of seats removed, the fuel quantity is the same as the other A321's and all is well with the world. 

 

 

This whole exercise was so that I could import a repainted A321 - so I'd best get to work doing that. 

 

Lauren (Crash) Pethard, ace #1 AI pilot for QuikAire will get 87062lb of aluminum to mistreat.       

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the battle was lost...

For want of a comma...bzzzzzttttbbbzzzztfrapfrapfrap.

 

Glad you found your lost nail!

[Quickmarch 488]

Thanks to Slopey

 

@Captain Coffee - check out the jokes thread - there's a comma joke in there somewhere.

[Slopey 4]

LOL - you wont believe the rubbish I've seen in Aircraft.cfgs over the years!

 

FSX is incredibly tolerant, AH slightly less so!  AH2 will pay less attention to commas!

 

[Quickmarch 488]

Cheers, Thanks Slopey,

 

It's been an interesting lesson. Darn tough though, to have to check every space/comma/indent when something is wrong with a simulation.

 

I've got another (probably be the subject of another post), but not in AH. It's a trim issue with the Navion. Checking commas.