> I'm a bit concerned about the physics model of flightgear. Are there certain > physical limitations built into the sim, that makes paraglider physics > impossible to model? I'm thinking particularly about the pendulum effect. Of > course, everything is possible when you have access to the source > code, but you know what I mean... > > Or is this simply a matter of improving David's paraglider model?
There are several physics models for FlightGear. The main ones, JSBSim and YASim are, I believe, both capable of handling a paraglider. However, it is also possible that two of the other FDMs, LaRCSim and UIUC-Larcsim could be useful. Andy Ross (author of YASim) would be able to tell you about modeling a paraglider with YASim (which uses aircraft geometry and performance figures to model flight physics, to give a very broad description of that approach). The JSBSim model, to my knowledge, has not been used much, and is a rough, first-cut, model. I have a hunch that some tweaking will give you a better match for what you expect, and the first thing I'd change is the location of the CG and the aero reference point. If neither of the two (YASim and JSBSim) are appropriate for your expectations, you can code a special flight model in C within LaRCSim or perhaps set up a special model in UIUC-LaRCSim, although I am not very familiar with that. The point is, (and I say this from the point of view of someone who works with flight simulators every day) with the total set of four FDMs (flight dynamics model) you will have the ability to model a paraglider. But it will require some work and study on your part. Jon -- Project Coordinator JSBSim Flight Dynamics Model http://www.jsbsim.org _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
