I have an aircraft that the main gear doesn't sit on the surface of the runway. Is there a way to fix this?

 

I have an aircraft that the main gear doesn't sit on the surface of the runway. Is there a way to fix this?

Yes...in your aircraft.cfg....the center of gravity is set too far back, behind the wing. It's making your steerage lite, and lifting the body of the aircraft backward. I had this with a 737...that as soon as I moved, the plane would strump down upon its tail section.  I had to move the center of gravity forward...and then all was well.

I would hesitate to move the cg around as that will affect the flight model as well. 

 

Probably a Contact Points issue if the wheels are sitting above or below the ground surface.

You adjust these in the aircraft.cfg file using notepad, for example, in the [contact_points] section.

 

From the stock C172:

[contact_points]

point.0 = 1,  0.90,  0.00, -4.09, 1500, 0, 0.5, 22.0, 0.25,2.5, 0.7, 0.0, 0.0, 0

point.1 = 1, -4.70, -4.50, -4.01, 3500, 1, 0.5,  0.0, 0.3, 2.5, 0.7, 0.0, 0.0, 2

point.2 = 1, -4.70,  4.50, -4.01, 3500, 2, 0.5,  0.0, 0.3, 2.5, 0.7, 0.0, 0.0, 3

point.3 = 2, -3.90, -18.0,  3.00, 1800, 0, 0.0,  0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 5

point.4 = 2, -3.90   18.0,  3.00, 1800, 0, 0.0,  0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 6

point.5=  2,-20.23,   0.0,  0.30, 1800, 0, 0.0,  0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 9

point.6=  2,  1.48,   0.0, -2.17, 1800, 0, 0.0,  0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 4

point.7=  2,-22.80,   0.0,  5.83, 1800, 0, 0.0,  0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 7

point.8=  2, -4.90,   0.0, -2.00, 1800, 0, 0.0,  0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 8 

 

Go here to learn which numbers apply to what:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-nz/library/cc526949.aspx#mozTocId836373

Thank You for your help. I'm not to good at config file changes but I'll play with it and see what happens.

(working on 737-700)

You are welcome...

You can make cfg changes to aircraft while the sim is running.

After you've saved the file, go back into the sim and reload the aircraft.

On some systems you need to load another aircraft, then reload to make sure it is the refreshed copy you see.