Saitek ProFlight "smoothness"

[G_Seattle]

Hi Pete,

First of all, let me tell you that buying FSUIPC was the best money spent on any FS addon :grin:

I have been fiddling for hours to configure my Saitek ProFLight + additional quadrant, all through FSUIPC directly.

The results are great, I am having a TON of fun!

I had one question, regarding the elevator/aileron axis. I am playing with the curve as I find the yoke quite sluggish especially on the aileron axis.

But the thing is I find the yoke to lack smoothness, not sure how to explain....there is no inertia, it feels a bit choppy. Hmmmm am I making sense? Looking for a bit more realistic feel.

Perhaps it's inherent to the yoke?

Anyway, thanks for any suggestion and keep up the GREAT work!

Guillaume

P.S: Pete may I give a suggestion for the next version of FSUIPC? Having a little GUI to copy profiles to airplanes would be great! Fpor instance you could pick a profile, pick an aircraft and choose to apply or remove. that would be a great time saver :)

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[Pete Dowson]

I had one question, regarding the elevator/aileron axis. I am playing with the curve as I find the yoke quite sluggish especially on the aileron axis.

Aileron responsiveness varies hugely with aircraft. A stunt plane or jet fighter responds very quickly to slight movements whilst an airliner responds much more sedately and needs quite a bit of initial aileron to get over its huge inertia.

But the thing is I find the yoke to lack smoothness, not sure how to explain....there is no inertia, it feels a bit choppy.

If you change the slope to make it steep around the centre area you are losing sensitivity -- there will be less different aileron positions in a given range of movement. You can't have it both ways. Most folks prefer a flattened centre, less responsiveness in terms of aircraft movement, but correspondingly more delicacy, more different positions per amount of movement.

If you like you can experiment with reducing the "Delta" value in the axis assignments tab in FSUIPC. That determines the minimum input difference which will be recognised. Too small and it will be jittery, but if the unit has got a good high resolution pot you could halve or quarter it.

Hmmmm am I making sense? Looking for a bit more realistic feel.

Realistic in comparison to what? Which aircraft have you flown for real? You presumably know it will be different for different sorts of aircraft?

If by "choppy" you mean "jittery", like back and forth or in jumps and spurts, that certainly wouldn't be correct and would indicate something wrong, possibly with the connections or the unit itself -- like dirty pots, poor power supply, that sort of thing.

Regards

Pete

[G_Seattle]

If you change the slope to make it steep around the centre area you are losing sensitivity -- there will be less different aileron positions in a given range of movement. You can't have it both ways. Most folks prefer a flattened centre, less responsiveness in terms of aircraft movement, but correspondingly more delicacy, more different positions per amount of movement. If you like you can experiment with reducing the "Delta" value in the axis assignments tab in FSUIPC. That determines the minimum input difference which will be recognised. Too small and it will be jittery, but if the unit has got a good high resolution pot you could halve or quarter it.

Yes I have started experimenting with the Delta, and it seems that a smaller number works best as a rule for my setup.

Realistic in comparison to what? Which aircraft have you flown for real? You presumably know it will be different for different sorts of aircraft?

Yes, I'm a real life pilot with experience on small and heavy aircrafts. Perhaps I expect too much of a $150 yoke, which I must say is not bad at all. I'm sure part of the difficulty is to get my calibration right. If there are any Saitek users who found great settings, I'd be interested to know what delta/curve parameters you are using.

Come to think of it, I think my issue has to do with FSX flight modeling rather than the controller. I was looking for a bit more inertia/aerodynamic effects in the turns, instead of the planes not budging during a turn. I think it is more apparent on the GA planes, for instance I find the 152/172 lacking realism, but that bothers me less on a heavy.

Thanks Pete

Guillaume

Edited April 6, 2011 by G_Seattle

[Pete Dowson]

Come to think of it, I think my issue has to do with FSX flight modeling rather than the controller. I was looking for a bit more inertia/aerodynamic effects in the turns, instead of the planes not budging during a turn. I think it is more apparent on the GA planes, for instance I find the 152/172 lacking realism, but that bothers me less on a heavy.

you can probably adjust any specific aircraft's performance by experimenting with parameters in its Aircraft.CFG file. For instance things like

(these are from the default C172 in FSX):

;Moments of Inertia

empty_weight_pitch_MOI=1400.0

empty_weight_roll_MOI=1137.0

empty_weight_yaw_MOI=2360.0

empty_weight_coupled_MOI=0.0

and even more likely:

[flight_tuning]

cruise_lift_scalar=1.0

parasite_drag_scalar=1.0

induced_drag_scalar=1.0

elevator_effectiveness=1.0

aileron_effectiveness=1.0

rudder_effectiveness=1.0

pitch_stability=1.0

roll_stability=1.0

yaw_stability=1.0

elevator_trim_effectiveness=1.0

aileron_trim_effectiveness=1.0

rudder_trim_effectiveness=1.0

Regards

Pete