Bouncing wheels at certain airports in Italy

[Guest abz]

I am flying FS2004. I found an interesting phenomenon while flying at certain airports in Italy. I did a forum search but could not find anything exactly like I am seeing. For example, I was flying out of Milan (Malpensa LIMC). When I take off from either runway there, as the plane accelerates down the runway it just keeps bouncing up and down until liftoff and airborne and then there is smooth flight. If you look at the external plane view as it is going down the runway, you can actually see the wheels bouncing. Now if I use a taxiway at the same airport and take off from that taxiway, the plane accelerates perfectly smoothly down the taxiway until airborne. Absolutely no bouncing. Have also observed this in Palermo and Rome but have never seen it in any US airport where I also fly a lot. Since I really like to fly in Italy, I would love to get this solved if possible. FYI, I have two PCs, one with some addon scenery and the other with a virgin install of FS2004. This weird behavior is identical on both, so it is not related to any addons. Also the bouncing occurs the same with several different planes I tried. Thanks, Al

[Guest ThrottleUp]

Hallo :)I had this same problem with LOWI (Innsbruck) and it was very easy to fix.1. Download the AFCAD program:http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=...ee&CatID=fs20042. Start it up, let it load all the airports and then load the airport you are having a problem with3. Click on the runway to bring up the options window. Change its surface to asphalt.4. Save your changes and exit5. Do a test flight, there should be no bouncing.

[Guest abz]

Nevin: Thank you so much. That AFCAD program is absolutely beautiful. It is so neat to see the details of any runway you want. And changing the surface to asphalt eliminated the bouncing. This problem has bothered me for some time but now it can be corrected. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. Al

[RFields5421 1]

There are a couple of things about the way FS works which contribute to this effect.FS defines Asphalt and Concrete as HARD surfaces - but for some reason treats Bitumus and Macadam as SOFT surfaces - like grass or dirt. That creates the rough surface effect you are seeing because those airports have runways with those surface types.Changing the runway surface to Asphalt or Concrete will stop the effect some of the time. But it also changes the visual of the runway.Runways don't flatten the ground under them.Some times the only way to flatten the ground is to create an apron with AFCAD - under the runway - preferrable Asphalt or Concrete surface type.That will smooth out the bumps and allow you to use the original texture.

[Guest ThrottleUp]

You are very welcome! Im glad it worked allright for you. And yes that AFCAD application is great isnt it. Now you can tweak any airport you want. Just have Google Earth open in one window and AFCAD in the other to get accurate layouts! :)--->>>@ Reggie - thanks for that mate, never knew all that stuff! I am definetly going to give that a try (laying a smooth surface *under* the runway). Thats the problem with this sim - you sit down to FLY but find yourself tweaking tweaking tweaking tweaking....and then tweaking again :)

[Guest abz]

Reggie: Well, when I changed to Asphalt, the visual appearance of the runway looked the same to me. But I am interested in how to lay a hard smooth surface below the original runway? Can this be easily done with this AFCAD program? I just used it for the first time the other day.Nevin: You're right. Not doubt about it - continuous tweaking is the name of the game. Al

[RFields5421 1]

The visual depends upon the texture files in the main texture folder.I don't remember the exact correlation right now.runway11.bmp is Concreterunway12.bmp appears to be Asphaltrunway16.bmprunway18.bmprunway21.bmprunway25.bmpAppear to be some of the other similar surface textures.Tarmac, Macadam, Bitumus and one other texture type are in those files - but I don't know which.There are quite a few replacement runway texture sets available - though most folks only change the Concrete and Asphalt textures - leaving the others alone.As far as how to create an apron with AFCAD - just click on the runway near one corner - go to the next 3 corners - staying within the runway and double click on the last of the four corners. The apron will be created - and it will be hidden under the runway both in the AFCAD view and in FS.