Lateral drift while diving/strafing

[Airborne506]

I've recently picked up playing the game again after a year or so and in playing career missions and doing ground attack I've noticed this odd lateral movement of the plane once I dive in from level flight or from a turn in. At first I thought it might be a peculiarity of the P47 since it's a bit of an odd duck at low altitude but I see it with other fighters too. I just have the pitch down on the stick as I'm coming in with no movement in the rudder and trying to keep the wings level so I'm not entirely sure what the reason is (wind? Speed?) or if this is common and I'm just not skilled enough yet. I have markers and HUD stuff on and simplified physics, using the logitech extreme 3d. I tried changing the sensitivity of the stick to 0 50 and 100 and it seems to happen no matter what. I took a few vids, apologies for the jerky head movements I don't have trackir (yet). I have been watching Requiems tutorial vids but I can seem to replicate his execution of it. Thanks for anyone's help.

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by Airborne506

[messsucher]

Yeah, cool, in the first video your plane was not exactly horizontally level, but the drift could still be seen. In the second video you were turning a bit on the opposite direction of the drift. I don't believe it is the twist rudder since the drift was so stable. So I think you are not doing it. I would check anyway how the rudder input look like in the keybindings section. There is a clickable box you can click and then see what the game detects as input when you move your joystick.

[RedKestrel]

This is something I notice as well. Two things are happening:

One, in a dive, many aircraft have a yawing tendency, some more than others. The nose points in a different direction than the plane is travelling. This can cause lateral motion. The slip indicator below the gunsight in the P-47 is great for seeing this. Throughout the dive in the P-47 video the plane is yawing, causing the ball to move to the left. You have to apply left rudder ("step on the ball") to stay coordinated so your nose is pointing in your direction of travel.

Two, wind. You notice a crosswind more when diving on a stationary target than you do when maneuvering against other aircraft in the air, when all objects are affected by the same relative wind.

Keep an eye on the ball in a dive, and step on the rudder in the direction of the ball to keep from yawing. If you are strafing in a crosswind, you have to bank slightly or even significantly in the direction of the wind to compensate for drift from the wind. Even a little bit of wind can have a strong effect on your trajectory. 

Engine torque, gyroscopic precession, and aerodynamic effects can all cause the plane to yaw in a certain direction in certain flight attitudes and you have to compensate for that with either rudder or trim. Also, when entering a dive, trim into it so you don't have to hold the stick down so much, this can help with controllability.

[Airborne506]

Awesome, thanks for the help guys! I'm going to adjust my sensitivity a bit and see what's easiest to make adjustments with as I'm going. Now maybe one of my 500 lbers will hit the target as opposed to none haha

[RedKestrel]

45 minutes ago, Airborne506 said:

Awesome, thanks for the help guys! I'm going to adjust my sensitivity a bit and see what's easiest to make adjustments with as I'm going. Now maybe one of my 500 lbers will hit the target as opposed to none haha

Yeah when bombing it is absolutely critical to be in coordinated flight upon release, or the bombs will go aside from where you are aiming. Learned that the hard way over and over...