How to make landing gear less bouncy?

[aluc24]

As of 1.1.2, landing gear has 2 new adjustments: Spring and Dampener Strength. Being less-than-knowledgeable in suspensions, I wonder what exactly do they do.

For example, this is my low-tier plane:

http://postimg.org/image/43iy6qrc1/

 

Every time I try to land it, even though I'm going less than 3 m/s vertical speed, and touch down on main landing gear, the nose drops, the front wheel bounces, and as the plane pitches up, the tail hits the ground, destroying the engine.

I wonder how should I play with Spring and Dampener Strength settings to make my wheels less bouncy. I'm sure some other players have had a similar question, so maybe they'll find this topic interesting too.  Looking forward to your answers! Thanks!

[moogoob]

I've never seen those... perhaps time to boot up and play some more with planes. Have you tried upping the dampener strength? Knowing what dampening is, that SHOULD prevent your gear from bouncing back too quickly, and may even prevent bouncing entirely.

[aluc24]

29 minutes ago, moogoob said:

I've never seen those... perhaps time to boot up and play some more with planes. Have you tried upping the dampener strength? Knowing what dampening is, that SHOULD prevent your gear from bouncing back too quickly, and may even prevent bouncing entirely.

It seems to be making a positive effect. But I still don't understand the difference between Damping and Spring Strength. Thought someone here could explain it better.

[N_Molson]

10 minutes ago, aluc24 said:

It seems to be making a positive effect. But I still don't understand the difference between Damping and Spring Strength. Thought someone here could explain it better.

A dampener takes energy and tries to absorb it (typically using hydraulic devices). So a lot of damping means your gear will do its best to absorb kinetic energy on impact.

A spring simply throws back the energy. The stronger the spring the more energy can be sent back (bouncing).

Edited May 1, 2016 by N_Molson

[aluc24]

1 minute ago, N_Molson said:

A dampener takes energy and tries to absorb it (typically using hydraulic devices). So a lot of damping means your gear will do its best to absorb kinetic energy on impact.

A spring simply throws back the energy. The stronger the spring the more energy is sent back (bouncing).

I see, thank you, @N_Molson ! So in my case, I want maximum dampener, and minimum spring strength, right?

[Reactordrone]

27 minutes ago, aluc24 said:

I see, thank you, @N_Molson ! So in my case, I want maximum dampener, and minimum spring strength, right?

Higher spring strength will take more force to compress the spring so the suspension will have lower travel at the same impact force and higher damping will increase the amount of time it takes for the spring to return to its original length.

[GoSlash27]

Higher spring strength will reduce the suspension travel in response to bumps, but will increase the oscillating frequency of the suspension. If this frequency gets too high, you will experience phantom forces. If spring strength is too low, you will experience suspension bottoming out against the stops, making very erratic behavior. You want to set springs as high as you can without causing the kraken to appear.

 Dampers are trickier. 0 is completely undamped. .5 is underdamped, the suspension will overswing exactly once in response to a bump. 1 is critically damped. It is the weakest setting that will not experience an excursion in response to a bump. Above 1 is overdamped. It will take longer to return to normal ride height. 
 If your damper is too loose, you will experience excessive body bounce and wallow in response to uneven terrain. You may experience the suspension crashing against the stops. If your damper is too tight, you will experience the wheels bouncing and skittering off the ground in rough terrain. If your dampers are *way* too tight, you will experience "suspension jacking" in rough terrain; the suspension will get lower and lower until it hits the stop and goes rigid because it doesn't have enough time to return to static ride height.

 Damper adjustments are a balance between keeping the vehicle body stable and keeping the wheels in contact with the surface. I recommend .6 for aircraft and .3 for rovers.

Best,
-Slashy

 

 

 
 

[jupiterbjy]

On 5/6/2016 at 7:20 AM, GoSlash27 said:

If spring strength is too low, you will experience suspension bottoming out against the stops, making very erratic behavior.
You want to set springs as high as you can without causing the kraken to appear.
~~~
Damper adjustments are a balance between keeping the vehicle body stable and keeping the wheels in contact with the surface. I recommend .6 for aircraft and .3 for rovers.

I wouldn't love to revive this old thread, but this literally blew my mind.
I believed I need to set damper to max, spring to min and had nightmares whenever I land a plane believing it's just game problem.

Maybe partially game problem since Auto damper also loved to shoot the plane into nosedive on touchdown. 

 

After all that 7 years of playing this game, I finally learned to land any plane without problem - can't thank much

Still have that one bounce but I think I can just increase spring strength as it looks like it's bottoming out.

Edited February 7, 2022 by jupiterbjy

[Catto]

I hope the guy's still online to see this.. or he figured it out..

I hope the guy's still online to see this.. or he figured it out..

 

 

Yeah he's last online on november of 2021.. He can still get back.