DC-7C Aircraft.cfg Contact Points

[Defender]

Hi all,

The DC-7C is one of my favourite aircraft although until now I found the ground steering had an annoying tendency to wander and I also noticed that the touchdown smoke and skid marks did not align with the actual wheel positions.   

Turns out that the contact points on the '7C version I'm using are based on the DC-7B and earlier whereas on the '7C the main wheels are 5 feet further outboard and the nosewheel 40 inches further forward. The current download is version 6 dated December 2019 and in that version the main wheel points, but not the nosewheel, are now correct but some of you like me may be using one of the earlier download versions in which case it's worth checking the contact points as below.

In the aircraft.cfg which can be opened with notepad, go to the [Contact Points] section and if necessary correct the numbers shown in bold below,

point.0=1.000, 33.800, 0.000, -10.000, 2000.000, 0.000, 1.500, 70.000, 0.45, 1.300, 0.898, 4.000, 10.000, 1.000, 174, 174

point.1=1.000, -2.400, -17.400, -10.060, 1500.000, 1.000, 2.000, 0.000, 1.000, 1.300, 0.898, 4.000, 10.000, 2.000, 174, 185

point.2=1.000, -2.400, 17.400, -10.060, 1500.000, 2.000, 2.000, 0.000, 1.000, 1.300, 0.898, 4.000, 11.000, 3.000, 174, 185

If you're reluctant to work on the aircraft.cfg the option is to download Tom's latest DC-7C version which gives you the correct main wheel positions but not the nosewheel. 

Hopefully you will now find taxying the aircraft a bit easier as well as having the effects in the right place.

Bill  

[Dan]

Thanks for the tip, Bill!

Dan

[wolfgang69]

Thanks, Bill, I´ll update my aircraft accordingly.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Thanks Bill, guess we missed the nose wheel.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Since updating files is now so easy, I have updated the DC-7C and DC-7CF Base Packs with the new contact points. Nothing else has changed since 2019.