FS Gliders VET

Winch launching in FS

Idea and History

The idea is from Miloš Koch who had a fight with the problem of the winch start already at times of FS6 simulator. He equipped a glider with a little jet engine and a little amount of fuel by writing the entries for a jet drive into the air file. Then he started the glider by pressing CTRL+E for starting the engine, full throttle with F4 and released the glider by putting down the jet engine with CTRL+SHIFT+F1 .

He called this method 'VET' (= Virtual Engine Technology).

After that Miloš Koch still designed various switches as Gauge so that the FS pilot could start without keyboard commands. Releasing the cable was automatically, however, on 300 m fixed and not alterable. Unfortunately, these switches worked only up to FS7 or FS8.
Some later Max Roodveldt designed a switch set for FS9 consisting of 3 components, where the FS pilot could adjust the desired release hight.

Up to the present FSX nothing has changed at the princip of this procedure.

Only 3 operations are required:

1.) Air file: add entries for the VET engine
2.) Aircraft.cfg: add entries for the VET engine
3.) panel.cfg: add entries for the VET gauges

For the correct function of the gauges you have to install FSUIPC, FSSound.dll, SOARRec.dll and mr-yawstring.gau and to make an entry into the FS configuration file in addition. However, this is described below more exactly

How to make the file entries is described below, see 'How to make VET files'.

Winch launching in FSX

See Peter Lürkens Website. Here you can download WinchX!, a freeware-add-on for winch launching in FSX. This works very realistically and can be very much recommended!

VET Technology in FS9

VET switch in FS9

VET Switch

Winch Start with VET switch :

All gliders can be fitted out with Max Roodveldt's VET gauges. The modified panel.cfg's and air dynamic files you find in the folder 'VET' of my FS9 ZIP files, see the picture.
You press the switch, the lamp flashes , a couple of seconds and the glider is starting. The glider disconnect automatically at the desired height shown on the display.

Furthermore check whether the following things are installed in FS9 :
(If you have already installed gliders with Caiset-Gauges , you have nothing to do)

1.) FSUIPC.dll (in the /Modules folder of FS9)
2.) The files 'FSSound.dll' and 'SOARRec.dll' (in the /Modules folder of FS9),
3.) The gauge 'mr-yawstring.gau' (in the Main Gauges folder of FS9)
4.) Following entries in the FS9.cfg:

[OLDMODULES]
SOARRec.dll = 1
FSSound.dll = 1

Download the files (50KB) here

Copying the VET files

VET Technology in FS8

In FS8 the VET switch does't work, therefore:

Winch start by key commands (without VET switch)

First you fit out your glider with the 'VET Engine', you'll find the aircraft dynamic files for that in the folder 'VET' of my FS8 ZIP files (see the picture). You do not need the panel.cfg with the VET gauges because they don't work in FS8.
After the aircraft was loaded, you start the VET Engine with the shortcut CTRL + E and then put the throttle on 'full throttle' or presses the function key F4.(throttle must be in full position during all time).

For about 20 seconds nothing at all happens, but after this time the glider should get into movement. After reaching his take off speed, the glider starts to climb.

When reaching the desired height the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+F1 turns off the VET Engine (disconnect the cable) and after this you can continue a free flight.

If the glider will not get into movement after 20 or 30 seconds - although you had the throttle on 'full throttle' and pressed CTRL+E for starting the VET engine - then load an aircraft with motor (e.g. Cessna) before, hear whether the motor is running and then load your VET glider again.

How to make VET files

Do the VET files by yourself (example: Duo Discus)
by modifying the air file (here: Duo.air) and aircraft.cfg

for editing the air file you need the program AirED of William M. Roth,
for editing the aircraft.cfg you need a normal text editor (e.g. Notepad)

a) Changes on the air file (example: Duo.air) with AirED

1.) Load AirED and choose an air file of one of my gliders which was already fitted out with VET.

2.) Load AirED once more and choose the glider wanted to be modified.
(AirED is now available on the screen 2 times, see the the following illustration)

3.) Now copy the red highlighted entries (records) one by one from the left window into the right one by clicking with the right mouse button on the desired record. A small window opens after that and you choose 'Copy to clipboard'. Then you click somewhere into the right window with the right mouse button, a small window opens again and you choose 'Add from Clippboard'. If the copying process was successful, the record now appears in the right window.

glider already modified

glider to be modified

Notes:
The Records 544 and 545 are copied from the FSX Cessna 172. If these two entries are missing, the glider starts in FSX only when an aircraft with motor and running engine was loaded before.

b) Changing the Aircraft.cfg with text editor

change or add the entries for [general engine datas], [TurbineEngineData], [jet_engine], and [fuel].
Take care that these positions are not listed twice somewhere. These entries can also being copied and inserted from the aircraft.cfg of one of my gliders already fitted out with VET (see my FS9 gliders).

Notes:

Unfortunately, the elevator works only very bad during winch launching in FSX. Therefore it is advisable, to adjust the values for static_thrust (jet engine power) and engine (attack point of the VET machine) by attempts so that the dragging speed during winch launching is as constant as possible on the complete dragging way. Depending on glider type the speed Vmax at the winch can be between 80 and 140 km/h. These values have to be gathered from the flight manuals of the original gliders.

2 examples
Ka7: Vmax = 100 km/h
DG202: Vmax = 130 km/h

If the glider does not roll on correctly on the ground you can set the point of attack of the VET machine more deeper. In this example this point is 1.0 feet below the glider's CoG (center of gravity).

If the climb angle gets too high during winch launching (dragging speed decreases), you should set the attack point of the VET engine a little deeper, in this example on about 0.5 feet.
Flying a glider with flaps you can compensate that by a lower flap position during the dragging process.

If the glider puts the wing down on the ground before beginning winch launching, increase the contact points (+ and -) for the main wheel (Gear Main). See lower picture.

see [contact_points] in aircraft.cfg

c) Required entries into the panel.cfg - with text editor - for the VET switch and its components (example Duo Discus) :
for 2 D panel [window00] and 3D panel [vcockpit01]

Explanations:

gauge15=mr-yawstring!VETswitch,  402,689,16,52

It means:

mr-yawstring!VETswitch = gauge name of VET switch, the numbers behind this determine the position and size of the switch in the panel bitmap

402 = gauge position = 402 pixels from the left panel bitmap edge
689 = gauge position = 689 pixels from the upper panel bitmap edge
16 = width of the VET switch =16 Pixel
52 = height, of the VET switch = 52 Pixel