A couple of OFF "cheats" for you.

[Bullethead 12]

Hmmm, this is an old book. It should now be public domain. Strange that I can't find a free PDF of it, but I haven't yet looked all that hard.

 

Nope, it's still copyrighted. Damn Sonny Bono!

 

For those interested, here's a table showing the copyright status of books under US law, depending on when they where published and whether or not they were renewed under the pre-Bono system.

 

http://www.copyrightguru.com/copyright_duration_table.html

[Hasse Wind 46]

I like this one: http://www.archive.org/stream/practicalflying00andegoog#page/n9/mode/2up

 

Speaking of drinking and flying, I try to avoid that. "Try" being the operative word.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

There are 209398484 amounts (+/-) of data to check and several human errors in contact points is unavoidable.

 

Also all that going through 3+ versions of OFF and the fact that each one has to be measured and entered manually including x,y,z and +/- to indicate direction and with slightly varing models variants. Just the contacts alone (and the 2000 tests per craft) where enough to drive me insane let alone the FM testing.

 

Also through 20 or 30 or can't remember versions of AirWrench (a fantastic program by Jerry, but like all good programs still has some bugs over the years). At some point Airwrench unfortunately actually altered many numbers of contacts due to a bug which copied the PREVIOUS aircraft contacts cfg settings to the next one. Boy that was a joyous moment discovering that and then redoing them ALL

 

It will make NO difference to any issue above if you adjust the upper wing contact by .3 of a meter believe me. When we come to check things like contacts again send me anything you find HPW please, much appreciated.

 

Sorry, Pol, did not mean in any way to criticize. I understand that it is not humanely possible to keep track of every piece of data that is in OFF. Then we have to consider the hundreds (probably thousands) of hours of testing that has to be done to make sure everything is working the way it was designed. IOW, a certain number of things are going to slip under the radar, even for a bunch of perfectionists that the OFF bunch surely is already.

 

I have also experienced the occasional bugs introduced by Airwrench. As a matter of fact, my Alb DIII will no longer work in QC because I checked the box for contact lights and clicked the update contact points button because I wanted to see the contact lights on the QC model. Somewhere Airwrench inserted an invisible byte or bit and now the "craft is no longer certified for OFF." So, no lights, no aircraft! It's okay, though, because I can copy over a backup copy of my .cfg file and get the plane back--I think!

[+Polovski 456]

No worries HPW there will be errors even though we check and recheck stuff as we go, always unexpected ways to mess things up let alone the human brain fuzzing!

 

Yes BH I'm sure you have had those moments, I wouldn't care if I hadn't spent so long trying things out checking for wheels on the ground thousands of, and then wing scrape tests etc. Problem was going back to older backups was no good as it had been corrupting for some time :/

[DukeIronHand 8]

 

Less common but more dangerous is the sudden application of a lot of rudder, causing a rapid yaw. This causes unequal lift and will roll you over due to the outboard wing speeding up and the inboard wing slowing down during the yaw. If you're already close to stall speed, the inboard wing can actually stall, resulting in a snaproll instead of a barrel roll.

 

 

In re-reading your post I will say this explains the wing touching the ground quite nicely. Still don't think it should be a fatal incident 3' off the ground though...hehe

 

And a salute to the Devs if the OFF FM is actually modelling this!

[+Polovski 456]

Some good things in there at least :)

 

BTW silly accidents even at low speed can kill people we know that from all things in life. Even just falling over can kill. IIRC one of Cecil Lewis' friends was taxing on the airfield and was killed when his craft hit a pot hole and flipped. All those bullets with intent did nothing, but a simple pot hole on the ground got him.

[Bullethead 12]

BTW silly accidents even at low speed can kill people we know that from all things in life. Even just falling over can kill. IIRC one of Cecil Lewis' friends was taxing on the airfield and was killed when his craft hit a pot hole and flipped. All those bullets with intent did nothing, but a simple pot hole on the ground got him.

 

I recall reading something like that, too. But in the fire service, I've seen people killed on bikes and skateboards that were only doing about 10mph--they landed on their heads. I've seen people killed in 20mph fenderbenders. One was an unrestrained infant bounced from mother's arms off the dashboard, the other just happened to have his neck jerked the wrong way. But OTOH, I've seen people walk away from 80mph wrecks that utterly destroyed their cars.

 

Thus, I don't particularly mind when I die in a landing accident in OFF. It could happen and the goal is to avoid having any part of the plane touch the ground except the wheels. If you can do that, then you don't have to worry about dying in a minor accident

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

But OTOH, I've seen people walk away from 80mph wrecks that utterly destroyed their cars.

How about 100 mph?

 

 

 

This happened about 5 miles from my house. The kid was 17 and was being chased by police shortly after being released on bail for some kind of argument with his girlfriend. He was apparently angry about being arrested and started driving recklessly. He only spent two days in the hospital.

[Bullethead 12]

[/font]

How about 100 mph?

 

Live, occasionally, usually not. Walk away, not yet, but I'm sure I'll see it someday.

 

This happened about 5 miles from my house. The kid was 17 and was being chased by police shortly after being released on bail for some kind of argument with his girlfriend. He was apparently angry about being arrested and started driving recklessly. He only spent two days in the hospital.

 

Damn, that gives me flashbacks. I saw a very similar thing about 15 years ago on I-35W southbound between Dallas and Hillsboro. A guy came flying by me, got in the median, and went straight into an overpass column. Hut he never got airborne, hit it head-on, and stuck there. The front and rear bumpers of his car were nearly touching, the doors were wrapped around the column. I stopped, got out, and was in the process of saying "Dammmnnnnn.........." when the pursuing cop arrived and told me to move along. Needless to say, that guy was sponged up.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

I saw a similarly grusome one back in 1972. Heading up I-94 to St. Cloud from Minneapolis, (a very rural stretch of interstate back then), a guy comes flying past in a lime green Dodge Charger RT 440 Magnum. He had it to the boards and was likely doing about 130mph when he went screaming by me, with two Minnesota state troopers in hot pursuit about half a mile behind. I lost sight of them as they slipped over a small hill about two miles in front of me, and then a minute later I saw a plume of black smoke rising from the horizion. When I arrived at the crash the Charger, (or what was once a Charger rather), was wedged into the bottom of an overpass, where the concrete retaining ramp meets the bottom of the bridge deck. It was now no larger than a refrigerator, and thick oily smoke rolled out of the remains. The skidmarks from where he apparently lost control on a long curve to where he hit the bridge weren't but about 100' long, so he was still likely going in excess of 100mph when the impact occurred.

 

I wondered afterwards if they just buried him in the car.

 

.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

If you look closely at the video, you can see the kid's body flying through the air and then skidding across the lanes of the interstate into the right median.

 

The Angels were certainly with him on that day.

[33LIMA 972]

That was an excellent piece of advice you typed up on forced (or non-forced) landings back there, BH. Even if only bits of it come back to me the next time I'm desperately trying to avoid screwing up yet another forced landing, I'm sure it'll help.

[Bullethead 12]

That was an excellent piece of advice you typed up on forced (or non-forced) landings back there, BH. Even if only bits of it come back to me the next time I'm desperately trying to avoid screwing up yet another forced landing, I'm sure it'll help.

 

Thanks. If there's 1 thing in OFF I cna claim a lot of experience with, it's ATTEMPTING to land with extensive damage :).