Gun platform stability

[Rattlesnake]

I’m struggling a touch to get as much stability as I want out of FC. By this I mean the ability to hold the sight on the cockpit area steadily at very close range in a tail chase, instead of the sight wandering around and through it.

I use a Sidewinder FFB. In RoF there were a lot of options for fine tuning the control axis, which I used to make all planes nose-heavy with neutral stick, to where the nose had to be held up with back pressure and would drop with relaxation of pressure. This makes aiming easier for me personally.

In FC you cannot do this AFAIK, and the planes are in fact tail-heavy on the stick under most conditions.

Any tips?

[HagarTheHorrible]

Not to get at you personally but I’m rather glad it’s not possible to tweak the life and character out of the aircraft, it’s all part of the challenge.  Flying WW1 crates is, should be, about overcoming the limitations and idiosyncratic nature of different types, or even individual aircraft and not necessarily just having an aircraft that flies at a certain speed or climbs at a certain rate so that we can can get a personal kick out of shooting down  ever more aircraft.

Edited April 7, 2019 by HagarTheHorrible

[BMA_Hellbender]

6 hours ago, Rattlesnake said:

In FC you cannot do this AFAIK, and the planes are in fact tail-heavy on the stick under most conditions.

Any tips?

 

The Pfalz D.IIIa and Sopwith Dolphin are both steady gun platforms.

 

It says so here, so it must be true:

 

 

If RoF is anything to go by, the upcoming S.E.5a, Albatros D.Va and two-seaters are all also rather stable. The absolute stability champion is the Pfalz D.XII, which we're not getting yet.

[Rattlesnake]

4 hours ago, HagarTheHorrible said:

Not to get at you personally but I’m rather glad it’s not possible to tweak the life and character out of the aircraft, it’s all part of the challenge.  Flying WW1 crates is, should be, about overcoming the limitations and idiosyncratic nature of different types, or even individual aircraft and not necessarily just having an aircraft that flies at a certain speed or climbs at a certain rate so that we can can get a personal kick out of shooting down  ever more aircraft.

There was and is no “tweaking out” actual   handling traits through fiddling with the axis. Gyroscopic precession, adverse yaw etc will still vary and have to be dealt with through pilot technique.

 

The instability I speak of is not really a product of airplane handling characteristics, as evidenced by the fact that the Spad and other stationary engines (or even WWII planes in many respects) give no less trouble than the rotaries. . Rather it’s the  product of trying to operate virtual aircraft control surfaces with small joysticks whose total travel from stop to stop is only a few inches, versus the travel distances of a real control stick. It’s an age-old problem of PC flight sims and one of the reasons for the saying “Sims are harder to fly than airplanes”.

 

If I can make an analogy, imagine trying to play trombone accurately if the total travel of the slide covering the entire range were only about 2 inches. Or maybe a better analogy would be trying to drive accurately if only 2 inches of wheel travel controlled the entire steering travel of the car’s front wheels. But those things would probably be easier, as you’d be operating in one axis as opposed to three.

 

FFB helps a bit, but I’ve already got that base covered.

 

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by Rattlesnake

[Zooropa_Fly]

You know you can set a basic curve for Pitch, Yaw and Roll in the Plane controls menu ?

It's a global setting that affects all planes, and works symetrically which is a shame re. the Camel !

There are options to extend stick travel so maybe you could set your sights that..

 

DXII is stability king for me in RoF also, looking forward to hopefully getting that in FC next module.. as long as there's multi-seaters around.

 

S!

Edited April 7, 2019 by Zooropa_Fly

[Dutch2]

Same here, I did have the Pfalz DXII when it was available in the RoF store and do hope it will be in FC2 or wathever version. 

[unreasonable]

So much depends on your joystick. I have a Logitech G940, which has FFB and an adjustable spring centre. I have found that having a little centering spring  turned on helps, but not so much that the constant stick forwards required for level flight is much of a strain on the wrist. Get that right and the aiming stability is also sorted. Unfortunately it is getting a bit old and the throttle tends to spike, making it hard to maintain an rpm/boost level inside engine limits.

 

Some people also use stick extensions; if I was building a new cockpit from scratch I would look at that.

 

 

[SeaW0lf]

1 hour ago, unreasonable said:

Unfortunately it is getting a bit old and the throttle tends to spike

 

Have you checked the posts talking about mods and adjustments for the G940? The G940 in particular was ill designed and you have to adjust some things to make it last. The spikes are usually due to the wires that tend to hyperextend and break. You have to open and unscrew some things to let them lose. And you can always fix the wires and get the throttle and the axis to work as it should.

 

And I agree, some centering force helps in some cases.

[unreasonable]

3 minutes ago, SeaW0lf said:

Have you checked the posts talking about mods and adjustments for the G940?

 

I have seen some of those threads and appreciate the heads-up: I am sure you are right about what needs to be done.  The trouble is that my elder brother did all the mechanical stuff so I specialized in art and concepts..... so now I need to hire someone to change a light bulb, never mind repair electronic gear!

[BMA_Hellbender]

5 minutes ago, unreasonable said:

 

I have seen some of those threads and appreciate the heads-up: I am sure you are right about what needs to be done.  The trouble is that my elder brother did all the mechanical stuff so I specialized in art and concepts..... so now I need to hire someone to change a light bulb, never mind repair electronic gear!

 

Get a used MSFFB2 off eBay (and a spare), MFG Crosswind pedals and a throttle (I have a Saitek X52 Pro, a Warthog throttle is probably better, though I like having rotary dials for radiator, mixture, prop pitch etc.).

 

Forget about what it will cost you, just do it. Sell a kidney if you have to.

[unreasonable]

3 minutes ago, J5_Bender said:

 

 

 

Forget about what it will cost you, just do it. Sell a kidney if you have to.

 

I am saving up to buy a new liver....

[Rattlesnake]

I came across this. Looks interesting but complicated for someone with no experience mechanik’ing on electronics.https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=152723

[Zooropa_Fly]

I'd just buy a Virpil. No need to saw up your chair!