If anyone has any ideas about these I'd be very grateful. 1. I've produced a new start-up smoke effect for my Connie design, but now the other small piston engined aircraft share the same effect. The Aircraft Container SDK tells us that different effects can be assigned in the aircraft.cfg file. Here's an example:(EFFECTS) square brackets of course!wake=fx_wakewater=fx_spraydirt=fx_tchdrtconcrete=fx_sparkstouchdown=fx_tchdwn, 1startup=fx_engfire_llandrotorwash=fx_dirtspray_lwaterrotorwash=fx_wtrspray_l This should show flames on startup! But it doesn't work, it still shows the default startup smoke. Surely the SDK can't be telling fibs? Any ideas? 2. It occurred to me that a low-flying aircraft should kick up a dust cloud (or spray over the sea), similar to the helicopter. In the example above I've added the necessary lines, but nothing shows. After a little investigation I think the .air file causes the helicopter to show the effect, so that may be a dead end. But is it possible to trigger such an effect by some other means? The Effects SDK doesn't say much about how to trigger effects from specified conditions. Any ideas? Many thanks. Best regards, Chris Wright

You said the .air file possibly causes the effect. That brings to mind that if you don't edit the aircraft.cfg with FSEdit you won't get any of these effects since only then the .air file is updated too. Backdraw an this is that if there have been modifications made by AIRED directly to the .air file they will most likely be destroyed.Just my thoughts, perhaps worth a try.Best regardsDoc

Doc, thanks for your thoughts. I found that the air file probably enables the effect for the helicopter. But I couldn't see anything in FSedit that would enable it, so there's no way I could enable it for another aircraft. Probably the only thing that would make this possible would be a detailed air file SDK. Best regards, Chris

Air file don't have effects information, you must modify this in visual model.

I first tried importing another aircraft's model file into the helicopter and the effect still worked, so it eliminated the model file. But when I imported another air file it didn't work. That's why I think it's the air file that controls the effect. I note that when you change the helicopter throttle setting (e.g. when on the ground) the effect changes. It may be that the effect is controlled by the computed rotor downwash magnitude. If so then it might explain why the air file is involved. Best regards, Chris