New to this stuff so please bare with my ignorance...I'm working on a test FSX aircraft as a learning experience. Having no clue how to start an aircraft project from scratch, I copied the FSX Cessna's folder, renamed it & have been modifying things here & there.I replaced the Cessna's MDL file with one I created in 3DS MAX. Everything was going fine until I came to animating the gear. As the Cessna has fixed gear, my new animated gear will not retract. I know I have the MDL set up more or less correct. My MDL's gear retracts fine when I use it with a default FSX aircraft that has retractable gear. But pressing "G" does nothing when I run it with the Cessna's files.I've looked through the CFG files, looked at the AIR file, where is this sort of thing set? Cheers,Nodd

//11 Extension Time (seconds)//12 Retraction Time (seconds)In the contact points definitions , if there is a 0 in the above the gear remains fixed.

Thanks 67C VJPL.Assuming you're talking about the aircraft.cfg file, I took a look at the contact_points section. I can see where the notes are for //11 Extension Time (seconds) & //12 Retraction Time (seconds) are but below that in the actual contact_points area I don't see anything that corresponds to either an 11 or 12, just a bunch of coordinates.I checked a few other aircraft.cfg, ones that I know have retractable gear & I still don't see any actual extension/retraction times. Again please forgive my noobness.

Nevermind. Someone in another forum explained it to me a little clearer. Here's basically what they said for anyone else who's kinda fuzzy on this stuff:In the contact_points section for the Cessna & maybe other aircraft:point.0 is the nose gearpoint.1 is left main gearpoint.2 is right main gear_____________________________ //0 Class //1 Longitudinal Position (feet) //2 Lateral Position (feet) //3 Vertical Position (feet) //4 Impact Damage Threshold (Feet Per Minute) //5 Brake Map (0=None, 1=Left, 2=Right) //6 Wheel Radius (feet) //7 Steer Angle (degrees) //8 Static Compression (feet) (0 if rigid) //9 Max/Static Compression Ratio //10 Damping Ratio (0=Undamped, 1=Critically Damped) //11 Extension Time (seconds) //12 Retraction Time (seconds) //13 Sound Type{contact_points}point.0 = 1, 0.90, 0.00, -4.09, 1500, 0, 0.5, 22.0, 0.25, 2.5, 0.7, 5.0, 5.0, 0point.1 = 1, -4.70, -4.50, -4.01, 3500, 1, 0.5, 0.0, 0.3, 2.5, 0.7, 5.0, 5.0, 2point.2 = 1, -4.70, 4.50, -4.01, 3500, 2, 0.5, 0.0, 0.3, 2.5, 0.7, 5.0, 5.0, 3_____________________________The 12th number after the = is gear extension time in seconds. The 13th is retraction time (note its off by 1 because the // list starts with 0, not 1 (could they have made this more confusing hehe)).So I entered 5.0 for each of the three gear extension/retraction values & presto, my animated gear now works. Thanks again for the advise. Hope this thread helps others who are as clueless as I.

hehe - No wonder the post looked familiar.All the replies basically said the same thing - you can animate the heck out of the model, but if you dont tell it to Flight Simulator, it isn't going to happen.The main thing a new modeller (and some of us that are supposedly experienced) need to keep in mind is that HOW it looks has no bearing on HOW it "flies".

*smile* yes one thing at a time though. My brain already hurts enough.I'll get into flight dynamics & whatnot shortly. I still have a long way to go figuring out the modeling end of things. Thanks again to everyone that's helped me so far.