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Propeller Flight Core

Propeller Flight Core (PFC) is a lightweight, multiplayer-ready propeller-aircraft flight model for Arma Reforger. It provides a custom per-surface aerodynamic simulation layered on top of Enfusion's rigid body, packaged as a minimal, reusable core that other aircraft mods can build on.

The reference airframe shipped with the core is a Cessna 172 built on the vanilla Wheeled_Base.et.

Scope

PFC is deliberately minimal. It is the flight core only - per-surface lift/drag, thrust, angular damping, wind, instrument signals, and the networking to make all of that work on a dedicated server. It intentionally has no gear/flap/trim controllers, cargo, weapons, or cockpit systems. Those belong in a variant built on top of the core (see Building a Variant).

What it does

  • Per-surface aerodynamics - each wing/tail panel computes its own lift and drag (Khan & Nahon 2015 linear-to-flat-plate model) and applies it as a rigid-body impulse at the surface position.
  • Always-on engine - RPM spools toward idle + throttle·(max−idle); thrust scales from 0 at idle to full at max RPM. No start sequence (that is variant territory).
  • Wind & gusts - airspeed is computed relative to the air mass, so crosswind produces sideslip / weathervaning and a head/tailwind splits IAS from groundspeed. A near-ground gradient and smooth gusts add buffeting.
  • Instrument signals - publishes the standard vanilla gauge signals (airspeed, altitude, AGL, climb rate, RPM, pitch/bank/heading, G-load, control-surface angles) for HUDs and cockpit instruments.
  • MP / dedicated-server ready - the owner client (or the server when unmanned) is authoritative; remote proxies receive replicated transform + velocity and locally drive their visuals.
  • Shared "Airplane" controls - defines the Airplane_* action set and the Airplane tab in the Controls menu, reused by every flight mod built on the core.
  • Helicopter-style free look - mouse always free-looks; gamepad pans with the Freelook modifier held and keeps the camera where it was released (see Input & Controls).
  • Extensible by subclass - protected variant hooks (spool, thrust, drag, surface deflection, per-surface airflow, end-of-tick) let a variant swap individual pieces of the sim without forking it. The Jet Flight Core mod builds its jet flight model this way (see Building a Variant).

Key facts
Mod GUID 69A8A34027DA65C5
Script class prefix PFC_
Reference prefab Prefabs/Vehicles/Cessna172.et (inherits Wheeled_Base.et)
Test world Worlds/MP_Test.ent
Dependency Arma Reforger core (58D0FB3206B6F859)

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