Change Sling Rope length during flight - Question

[rato65]

Hi,

does anybody have an idea how one might use a LUA function to change the sling load rope length or the hook position during flight? I managed to attach the rope to a sideway rescue winch, but i do not find a way to "operate" the winch...but it might be due to my lacking understanding of correct LUA coding so far. Any ideas are very welcome. Model is UH-1.

[rato65]

Can I re-scan the values of HelicopterConst during the flight? I can set the values, but only once. If I could set repeated after changes, it might be possible. But I dont know how to set during the flight...or is it impossible at all?

Btw - loading the load with a winch instead of the central hook is really different in flight beahviour. From what I read from SAR chats, it seems to be somewhat realistic. Maybe it was tried before, then I apologize to bring it up again. I just did not find anything in the forum about this topic.

[flanker0ne]

Nice initiative btw.

[CapableJet7]

Fantastic idea

[gospadin]

Can I re-scan the values of HelicopterConst during the flight? I can set the values, but only once. If I could set repeated after changes, it might be possible. But I dont know how to set during the flight...or is it impossible at all?

 

Those values are just passed to the module at initialization. They'd need to add keybindings/commands to support modification while flying.

[rato65]

Thank you all for your response, keeps me motivated and now i know I have to work myself deeper into LUA and key bindings.

[rato65]

Looks like I would have to know which part of the module actually requests these values at initialization, so I could route this somehow to a command - but that function/part of the module seems not to be accessible with LUA directly, instead it seems to be a part within the dll which is not documented. So for now I do not see how to get further from here...

[Buzzles]

Dirty way, but the length of the rope is set in editor, which means it is stored in the miz file.

 

Could open up the miz file, put in some random gibberish into that field, then try and load the mission in DCS.

I'd expect DCS to crash, but that's a good thing as your crash logs might then give you a clue as to where it went bang and what the method was :)

[rato65]

cool idea, Buzzles. I will check that out and see if it leads somewhere...

[rato65]

After many evenings trying all sorts of things I am really stuck. The mission editor ropelenth values are set to a default of 15 mtrs/30 ft when using some non-valid values or strings instead values to crash DCS - it is ignored. Speaks for the stability, but does not help in this case. Changing the hook positions seems to be impossible after they are initially loaded, at least I find no way.

 

Next idea was - and still is - to animate the cargo (most often a person on the winch) once hooked up. It is anymated anyway, but I could animate the whole winching process. But I cannot find any method or example to animate an argument on a static ground object such as a cargo - except the windsock for example. But that is controlled by the engine and windspeed/direction. There is the explicit function in mission editor called "play argument", and that lists even the cargo, but doesnt work at all, wit no object I tested. Although animation works itself i.e. on the windsock or in the Modelviewer. It is known in the forum, but nobody seems to care anymore.

 

If I could find any way to start playing an animation argument in a static object I am sure I could make winching happen.

So - pleeaasee - if anybody sees this and thinks what a silly guy that he doesnt know - ignore my inefficiency and give me a hint how such animation can be adressed - it would be such a great help.

:-)) and thx for anybody following this idea by reading.

[rato65]

some situation I am working on where winching makes sense :)

[Hueyman]

Hello Rato !

 

I follow your quest and it's really great so far !

Unfortunately I cannot help you in any way, but seeing as you seem to know a lot in this topic, do you think it would be possible to have a longer sling lenght : 150ft longline ?

 

In the external load industry, we often use longer lenghts for various reasons, and this doesn't remove any precision.

 

DCS can be an amazing tool for VRLL ( Vertical Reference Long Line ) but we need longer lenghts.

 

Also, the ideal would be to have electrical release hook at the end of the sling, that we would just have attached all the time to the heli ( in settings ) so we would need to bring the hook to the load precisely.

 

Let me know

 

Hueyman