FSX Senaca Tweaks

!! REMEMBER THE GOLDEN RULE !!!! DO NOT FORGET TO MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF YOUR AIRCRAFT.CFG FILE BEFORE MODIFYING !!I recently purcahsed the Carenado Piper PA34 Seneca II for FS2004, and was immediately dismayed to see it bounce violently up and down as it gathered speed along the runway. However, after adding the updated aircraft.cfg file from the Carenado web site to cure the problem, I found that it handled in the air much better than the FSX version, which I've found to be a little twitchy.In an attempt to improve the flight dynamics of the FSX Seneca I tried an experiment in which I copied all the data sections from the updated FS2004 aircraft.cfg - apart from the sections relating to the aircraft's liveries ([fltsim.0] etc) - and pasted them over the data sections in the FSX aircraft.cfg (you do not need to copy the [General] section because it is identical in both versions. To my surprise not only did this modification NOT make a mess of the FSX Seneca as I'd expected because of the large differences between some of the figures in both cfg files, but it made the plane fly perfectly like it does in FS2004!I did find, after my modification, that the nosewheel was buried in the ground slightly, so I replaced the first line in the Contact Points section (the one beginning with: point.0 =) with that from the FSX aircraft.cfg file (of which I had made a backup copy before making any alterations), and the wheel now sits on top of the ground.Before my modification I used to have to increase the elevator trim to +8% to get the plane to rotate, and even then its speed was around the 80 knots mark before it would lift its nosewheel off the ground rather than my checklist's recommendation of 71 knots. Now, it will rotate - as does the FS2004 version - at 71 knots with only +4.1% up elevator trim.If you find it difficult to see over the top of the panel in the virtual cockpit, then edit the [Views] section in the aircraft.cfg file so that it looks like the lines below:-[Views]//eyepoint = -4.9, -1.07, 1.50 //Longitudinal, Lateral, Vertical (feet)eyepoint = -4.9, -1.07, 1.65 //Longitudinal, Lateral, Vertical (feet)If you don't like my modified view then delete the second line, and also delete the two forward slashes (//) at the beginning of the first to make it operable again.Finally, if you would like the choice of flying the aircraft with either two-bladed or three-bladed props for each livery then copy the following sections and paste them into your aircraft.cfg file:-[fltsim.0]title=PA-34 SENECA II BLANK - 3 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=panel=sound=texture=kb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=ui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="Paint 1"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail0.jpg[fltsim.1]title=PA-34 SENECA II BLANK - 2 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=1panel=sound=texture=kb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=ui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="Paint 1"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail0.jpg[fltsim.2]title=PA-34 SENECA II SUNSET STRIPS - 3 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=panel=sound=texture=stripskb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=N232KAui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="SUNSET STRIPS - 3 Blade Prop"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail1.jpg[fltsim.3]title=PA-34 SENECA II SUNSET STRIPS - 2 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=1panel=sound=texture=stripskb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=N232KAui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="SUNSET STRIPS - 2 Blade Prop"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail1.jpg[fltsim.4]title=PA-34 SENECA II GREEN FOREST - 3 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=panel=sound=texture=GREEN FORESTkb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=DGVBSui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="GREEN FOREST - 3 Blade Prop"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail2.jpg[fltsim.5]title=PA-34 SENECA II GREEN FOREST - 2 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=1panel=sound=texture=GREEN FORESTkb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=DGVBSui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="GREEN FOREST - 2 Blade Prop"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail2.jpg[fltsim.6]title=PA-34 SENECA II OLD BEIGE - 3 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=panel=sound=texture=OLDBEIGEkb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=N258DLui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="OLD BEIGE - 3 Blade Prop"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail3.jpg[fltsim.7]title=PA-34 SENECA II OLD BEIGE - 2 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=1panel=sound=texture=OLDBEIGEkb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=N258DLui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="OLD BEIGE - 2 Blade Prop"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail3.jpgI got the idea for the 2 & 3-bladed props after downloading and adding to my FS2004 Seneca the excellent blue G-DARA livery by Hector Perez Gonzalez ([email protected]) which has this option. His livery will also work in FSX so long as you create a texture folder called texture.G-DARA in the FSX Seneca folder, then copy all the files from the Seneca's main texture folder into this new folder before copying the G-DARA texture and thumbnail.jpg files into it and saying Yes to overwrite the files.To avoid having to edit the fltsim sections for the G-DARA livery (to make them compatible with FSX) if you add it to your FSX Seneca, just copy the two sections below and paste them after the last livery section in your aircraft.cfg file (fltsim.8 in the first section below is only relevant if you have used the fltsim sections above, otherwise the two G-DARA sections should be numbered 4 and 5 respectively):[fltsim.8]title=PA-34 PIPER SENECA II G-DARA - 3 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=panel=sound=texture=G-DARAkb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=G-DARAui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="G-DARA - 3 Blade Prop"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Piper Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1[fltsim.9]title=PA-34 PIPER SENECA II G-DARA - 2 Blade Propsim=Seneca_Carenadomodel=1panel=sound=texture=G-DARAkb_checklists=seneca_checkkb_reference=seneca_refatc_id=G-DARAui_manufacturer="Carenado"ui_type="Seneca"ui_variation="G-DARA - 2 Blade Prop"ui_typerole="Twin Engine Prop"ui_createdby="Carenado"description="The Piper Seneca is made since 1970 and some 4500 were made since then. It has six seats in a pretty large cabin, two turbocharged counterrotating engines producing 200hp up to 12,000 ft. Certification for flights into known icing conditions and the nice single engine behaviour made the Seneca a popular multi engine trainer."visual_damage=1