BUILDING YOUR FIRST AIRCRAFT PART 2

11. If the wing doesn't show it being broken in to sections, it will after we do the control geometry.
12. Now go to STANDARD and VERTICAL
    • STABILIZER 1. This new menu should pop up. You'll see that this is very much like the WING1 section that we just did. The main differences are that this will only create one wing part rather than two (as per the wing) and that by default then DIHED is at 90 degrees (pointed upwards). There are only two other differences:
    • STAB TYPE - There are two options here. Vertical Stab, which is a fixed fin with a rudder built in to the trailing edge. Ruddervator is an all moving tailplane (SR-71 and some STOL aircraft).
    • RUDDER is the only flight control option on this part. If you use Ruddervator you cannot use the rudder checkboxes.
13. Now we can add the tail:
    • SEMI-LENGTH is 5.0ft
    • ROOT CHORD is 4ft. (base of tail)
    • TIP CHORD is 3ft (top of tail)
    • SWEEP is 10degrees (more for looks than anything else. Something this slow doesn't benefit much from wing sweep)
    • DIHED is 90 by default (pointed up)
    • LONG ARM is 18f (where it is attached, in feet, from the nose)
    • LATRL ARM is zero. This keeps it in the center.
    • VERT ARM is 0.7 so that it sits on the top of the fuselage. Note that your own fuselage might not match mine, so you might want to adjust this a little bit.
    • # ELEMENTS stays at 4 (default)
    • RUDDER - Check all four boxes, I want a full rudder on this design.
14. Here is your tail attached.

    SAVE YOUR WORK... X-PLANE DOES NOT HAVE AND UNDO FUNCTION!!!!!!!!!
    Sorry to be a pest about this, but I've lost a lot of work because of this.

15. Go to STANDARD and then to HORIZONTAL STABILIZER. You should now see the menu on the right. Again this is a lot like the WING1 section. There are only a couple differences:
    • STAB TYPE - has two options: STABILIZER which is a conventional, fixed, tailplane with and elevator. STABILATOR is the other option. This give you an all moving tailplane (F-15, F-16, Mig-29, etc...) You cannot put an elevator control on a STABILATOR.
    • MAX STABILIZER TRIM - Many aircraft (Boeing airliners) have an all moving tailplane for trim control. This lets you set the maximum value for the trim pitch.
16. Now we add the tailplane:
    • SEMI-LENGTH is 5ft
    • ROOT CHORD is 3ft (you won't need to duck this one...)
    • TIP CHORD is also 3ft (yes, another rectangle)
    • SWEEP is zero (yawn)
    • DIHED is zero (flat, like the pancake)
    • LONG ARM is 19ft (back from the nose, but you know that by now)
    • LATRL ARM is zero (I want a solid tailplane)
    • VERT ARM is 5.7ft (if you adjusted the VERTICAL STAB to match your fuselage you may need to adjust this value as well, the plan is to make a 'T' tail.
    • ELEVATOR - check all of the boxes.
17. Lets take a quick look, yup, there is the tail. In case you are wondering about the tow white dots in the picture, one is the viewpoint and the other is the center of gravity. You should also see another white dot in the nose (this is the engine). We're getting to it.

    I built this plane first and tested it a little and then made the tutorial. Last time I did one of these tutorial I found myself making too many corrections of my P.O.S. aircraft.

18. Now we go to STANDARD and then all the way to the bottom of the menu to LANDING GEAR. There is a LOT here but I'll try to describe it all:
    • GEAR IS RETRACTABLE- pretty simple. If this is NO then the gear is fixed and won't retract. If this is YES then you can retract the gear (which will require more work on this screen)
    • GEAR CYCLE TIME - This is how long it takes the landing gear to fully retract or fully extend.
    • NOSE WHEEL STEERING - There are three values here:
      1. This is the low speed value. Leave this at zero if you want a free-castoring nose- or tail-wheel. Otherwise this is the maximum deflection for taxiing.
      2. Nose wheel steering transition speed. Below this speed use the number on the left. Above this speed use the value on the right.
      3. This is the high-speed taxiing vaule. This is normally a smaller number (and often zero) than for (1) above.
    • GEAR ATTACH POINTS- Like wings and such landing gear has attach points. This is the 'top' of the 'arm' that the wheel is attached to. LAT is how far to the right of center is attached. LON is how far back from the nose it is attached, and VRT is how far above the center of the aircraft the attach point it (often a negative number and landing gear is usually attached to the bottom of an aircraft)
    • RETRACTED - This is the angle at which the landing gear arm will tak when it is retracted. There are two values for this. FORWARD is in degrees how far forward of straight down (0) the landing gear sticks out. Use negative numbers to get it to swing back. RIGHT is how far to the right of center (0) the landing gear will swing when retracted. If it needs to go to the left use a negative number. (these numbers are not required if the landing gear is fixed)
    • EXTENDED - Just like RETRACTED, but these are the values for when the landing gear is deployed (or fixed).
    • LEG LENGTH - this is how long the arm is from the attach point to the center of the wheel(s) hub.
    • TIRE/SKID RADIUS - This is the radius of the tire(s) you put on this location. A vaule of .5 will give you a 1ft wide tire.
    • TYPE - This is what kind of tires you'll have on this landing gear arm. 1,2,4,6, etc...
    • RETRACT AXIS ROTATION - This allows you to rotate the tire when they retract to get them to tuck away (F-4U Corsair)
    • WATER-RUDDER ARM - This is how far back the water-rudder is attached for seaplanes.
    • WATER-RUDDER AREA- Used for seaplanes, this is the size of the rudder for 'boat operations'.
    • WATER-RUDDER DEFLECTION - This is how much the water-rudder will angle to steer when in the water.