Real world aircraft have thrust axis far from CoM - Why is this so much harder in Stormworks?
I really do mean it: why is this? What about SW makes thrust far above or below center of mass impossible?
For most aircraft, I just move propulsion to be inline with CoM and I'm fine with it.
When I look at real aircraft, having props well above CoM doesn't seem to be such a big deal.
For sea planes, this is always a big fight because you need to keep props out of the water and water out of intakes. I usually compensate by moving batteries, engines, and anything heavy as high as possible. If I make a boat plane like the PBY, I actually have the tail and rear fuselage higher to raise CoM. With props in front, I move CoM back far enough that it floats significantly nose up and put the props far forward to get clearance. But ultimately, I get the props below CoM so putting on throttle pulls the nose up.
I've been working on a pusher prop seaplane and you have to mount props pretty high. I put the batteries in the float sponsons that spawn down for stability at the dock but lift up to the wingtips.
I do have a mental disorder that makes me refuse to use cyclic pitching helicopter props to correct the pitch induced by thrust because I can't think of a single airplane that uses cyclic pitch for pitch attitude control, so I shouldn't need it. Even something like the V22 Osprey which has cyclic control for pitch and yaw while hovering does not use it for forward flight.
But just look at the tail on this PBY. The elevators are level. When I'm pulling a seaplane out of the water in SW, the tail is fully deflected up - and that's with props in line with CoM. Each seaplane hull I make goes through hours of evolution to get the balance just right so it doesn't nosedive under the waves as it's being pushed through water at takeoff speed. Without noticing, I can easily change the CoM enough that no amount of trim on the tail is enough to keep it flying level in the air.
Why is elevator trim not enough for even mildly out of line propulsion? What is different than real life?
I think it's because drag is so high in SW, the thrust required for flight is higher, so the thrust generated by in game props is unreasonably high.
I put my lifting surfaces and control surfaces well above CoM on these planes so the drag they induce (which should go up with speed^2) should act to pitch up. I move center of lift forward of CoM so increased lift at increased speed should pull the plane up. They just don't scale as quickly as thrust does.
I think if I can understand what it is about Stormworks physics that makes it so sensitive to thrust off axis with CoM, then I can do a better job of working around it, or I can finally accept that I must use heli props on my airplanes.