The A2A Simulations Community

Yes, that would explain why it's mostly the starboard gear that gets damaged.

Thanks,
Steve

In talking with Scott we decided we might not have coded for pivot stress on the ground. Not sure but checking. We're leaning toward the airspeed being a factor over Vg with that high drag index on the main wheels as they pivot 90 degrees to the relative wind. If it helps I do know the real P40 has a yaw due to assymetrical gear extension/retraction that can be felt and that is within the gear speed range. Anything above Vg could easily stress out a gear leg.
Dudley Henriques

Also, using the slew to come off the runway is almost a sure way to over-stress the landing gear when you release the slew, as you start in the air at a pretty high speed. If you want to use the slew, get off the runway, get the gear up, then use it.

Scott.

_________________
A2A Simulations Inc.

See, that's one reason I think you guys are the best. You take everyone seriously and try and help. I did do about five takeoffs and landings last night, being very careful to stay under Vg, and also making sure I wasn't pivoting on one gear and guess what.....NO gear damage!! I'll do some more testing tonight but now I feel it WAS my ground handlng bad habits that were probably the main contributor and not the actual runway touchdowns.

Steve

Thanks Scott, and that would maybe also explain the problem when using "Recorder". Looking forward to breaking the P-51

Steve

Did some more testing tonight and I'm now pretty satisfied that I was "barking up the wrong tree" on the gear damage. I was concentrating on "greasing" the landings and not paying enough attention to taxiing and maybe not getting the gear up before passing Vg. Sorry if I caused anyone any undo stress or work. Let me say again though thanks to bigjuicyspider, Dudley, Scott, and everyone who responded. Never thought I could have so much fun trying NOT to break something

Steve

Glad you have it sorted out and rest assured that you weren't the cause of any stress here. Please feel free to post on any problem you either have or believe you might have with an A2A product here on the forums.

Producing good products is only the beginning of the A2A experience. If you own an A2A product you are a member of the A2A family and your thoughts, opinions, and concerns are welcome here at any time.

Best to you
Dudley Henriques

I have had the same problem with the plane....I do fly a P-40 N for our local air museum. and the landing gear on it is pretty rugged, But nothing like the landing gear on the P-51.
According to some pilots who fly the earlier models of the P-40, this was an issue during the war....Many of these planes were field fitted with more durable struts and gear parts as they became available....Or could be salvaged from other wrecked aircraft.....
Many of these birds had been fitted with the gear from F4U1-A's by the planes mechanics.
Many pilots would watch for where corsairs went down, in hopes they could not only retrieve the pilot but the landing gears as well as other parts that were scarce.....
Our museum has some of the original struts set up in a life size diorama from early P-40's, and yes some are bent, from hard landings, a couple of them even have bullet holes in them....
Remember metal was a scarce commodity during the war years....And every type of metal known to man was being utalized for the war effort....
We have found planes with tin props, aluminum props, as well as brass, steel. We have found props made from the skin of scraped aircraft as well....Clearly made in the field in order to keep a bird airborn for battle....
So yes the gear on some of these planes were more on the side of being substandard to most other landing gears....
When we aquired our P-47 razorback from the airforce, it had the landing gear from a dauntless on one side and one from what we could gather from an Avenger cut down and modified to fit, on the other side

rc flyer wrote: "Never thought I could have so much fun trying NOT to break something"

That's what I enjoy the most from A2A, trying not to damage or replace things. The real fun starts when you have enough hours on the engine then the compression starts to go as you wear out the pistons maybe we need a mechanic to shout at us everytime we mistreat his "Baby" ...that could be fun!!..

Great to hear that the problem is solved, and interesting to read some history from trucker 17.

Happy flights

M. Jordan

First off, you sir are a very fortunate man . So, looks like A2A is right on target with the earlier P-40 then. Guess I'll have to crash my Aircraft Factory Corsair and strip the gear .

Steve

I just read through this on a whim, and one thing to note that weak landing gear on side loading wasn't unusual during WWII. The A-26 Invader and P-60 Black Widow both suffered from problems with their nose gear folding if you side loaded them very much. The A-20 had some problem, but not as much as its connection was a bit more rugged.

Gear that folds aft, especially on fighters and aircraft with thin fuselages, can't have widely spaced trunions which reduces the area over which you can spread the load plus has the additional disadvantage on aircraft like the P-40 and P-60 where the gear also rotates 90 degrees during retraction. The mechanisms for doing this restricts how you can brace the gear, making it another weak point. On the Corsair, it had wider-spaced trunions simply because it could. The wing structure was such that you could spread the trunions somwhat. Also, the gear used much thicker walled cylinders, which helped as well. The P-51 has no problem at all because it can use much of the forward half of the wing for the upper trunions and thus fight the fore-aft forces well, and the fact it folds inward allows the drag links to be quite strong and thus keep the problems from side loading under control. It wasn't a "cure-all" though. There were plenty of P-51's that suffered landing gear failures from landing sideways.

_________________

Hey everyone.
I have gotten a msg from scott concerning the post in this topic. I tried to call him and got no answer.
So to cut things short here.
In my post i commented on the landing gear of the plane.....I was not putting A2A's p-40 with accusim down, as i love this aircraft and fly it all the time.
What i had attempted to do was to say that ( if they A2A was keeping to the authentisity of the aircraft charectoristics, then this would be correct for the plane, and that many P-40's were modified in the field my their mechanics during the war.)
If i had offended anyone here, or at A2A, or Accusim. It was not intentional, and i am sorry.

With this i have decided not to comment on anything else within this forum.
Craig.(Trucker17)

That's strange. Can't speak for anybody else, but I didn't see anything over-the-top about your field-mod post, at least the one that is still posted above.

_________________
1)i7 980x 4.35 ghz, gtx 470s SLI, Matrox th2go, Creative x-fi
2)i7 2600k, Gigabyte z68x, gtx 285s sli

I see nothing improper at all in anything you have contributed here. Please feel free to post comment at any time.
In fact, it's comment both pro and con from customers that make it possible for A2A to produce a superior product.
Dudley Henriques

The way it read to me was as a confirmation that the original P-40 landing gear could be damaged just as the A2A one can be. I am not sure where the confusion comes from.

_________________