Main Gear Touchdown Sound
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Touching down smoothly is a satisfying way to end a flight, something that has always eluded me with the Arrow when touching down on tarmac, or so I thought until now, and has to some extent marred my enjoyment of the Arrow.
I can touch down sweetly on grass in the Arrow but whatever I try on tarmac with the Arrow I have always had the sound of the mains touching then about a second later the sound of the mains touching again, which I have until now interpreted as a small bounce (not satisfying). Then I hear the nosewheel touchdown sound as expected when that comes down (just one touchdown sound from the nosewheel).
I've compared my landings with real life Arrow landings on YouTube and tried to replicate the same landing parameters but have always had (and been frustrated by) the sound of that small bounce on tarmac no matter how gently I land.
However, I've just got Sky Dolly and now watching my landings externally I can see that both the mains are touching at the same time (level landing) without any bounce and they are both already on the ground when I hear the second touchdown sound. Then I hear the nosewheel touchdown sound separately when that comes down (just one touchdown sound from the nosewheel).
I know each main makes it's own touchdown sound and if one wheel touched a second before the other I should hear two separate sounds. But I shouldn't be hearing two main touchdown sounds a second apart when both mains touch together.
On grass I only hear one mains touchdown sound (different sound) for a smooth level landing, hence grass landings have been more satisfying than tarmac landings with the Arrow.
In other aircraft (e.g. Asobo C152 and others) I only hear one touchdown sound when the mains land smoothly (level landing), as expected and as in videos of real life landings. That is not what I hear with the Arrow and it occurred to me that this could be due the sound file(s) being used for the mains touchdown.
Can this be changed please so that we hear one mains touchdown sound for a smooth level landing on tarmac?
(Ticket raised) -
@sender46 I have been struggling with exactly the same thing for months. About 1 in 12 flights I can get a landing without the perceived bounce sound, but I've been driving myself crazy trying to land consistently without a bounce and haven't been successful. If what you've described is affecting the turbo III as well (which I fly more often) then that would explain it.
Interestingly, when I land in a strong-ish crosswind (like >10kts), I usually don't get the "bounce" effect.
Here's a thread from nearly a year ago discussing it- https://community.justflight.com/topic/1912/greaser-landing-possible.
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@n293wk said in Main Gear Touchdown Sound:
Interestingly, when I land in a strong-ish crosswind (like >10kts), I usually don't get the "bounce" effect.
Interesting, I haven't noticed that. I'll check whether I'm getting the same.
Thinking about this further, I'm wondering whether each main gear has its own separate tarmac touchdown sound file. If so and they're not synchronised (i.e. both have the same sound but with somehow a one second delay at the beginning of one of those sound files before the sound is actually heard) that would account for what I'm hearing. If that's the case I imagine that would be easy to fix.
I don't know if that's what's happening and it may be that something else is causing what I'm hearing. I'll see if I can find the tarmac touchdown sound file(s) to check for that.
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@n293wk I've used Wwise Unpacker to extract the sound files from the JustFlight_PA28R.PC.PCK file and listened to 673 sound files but I haven't been able to pick out which are tarmac touchdown sound files.
I just landed the Arrow in a 10kt crosswind. Being banked into the wind, one main touched down first with no bounce (and just one touchdown sound for that wheel, no "bounce" sound effect) then the other main touched down with no bounce (again just one touchdown sound for that wheel, no "bounce" sound effect). For each main, the corresponding touchdown sound appeared to coincide correctly with the wheel touching the tarmac (i.e. no one second delay on either of them).
So I agree with you that for a crosswind landing (with each main touching down separately) I did not get the 'bounce" sound effect.
The fact that each main touched down separately and the touchdown sound for each main coincided correctly with each wheel touching down pretty much rules out my theory that there may be a one second delay at the beginning of a touchdown sound file.
So what is causing the mains "bounce" sound effect on a smooth level touchdown on tarmac? Hoping Just Flight can resolve this.
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The Smartcars app ( their version of Acars) in my Virtual Airline, will tell you if you bounced a landing, even a bit. My guess is if you hear a sound like a bounce, you are probably bouncing the landing. Try carrying a bit of power once you get to around 10 feet above the runway and see if the bounce sound disappears.
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@bobsk8 It seems that you've missed the point of this thread.
As I said, I know I'm not bouncing because I've watched it in Sky Dolly (no guessing) and my landings are smooth. It's the touchdown sound that makes it sound like a bounce that is wrong.