atsmith6

Hi I discovered something today that has helped in flying the P-51D big time. For context I fly the sim on maximum realism with rudder assist turned off in the miscellaneous options section for the P-51. For years in various simulators I've mapped trim to a hat switch so that I can use it just like in modern aircraft. However, it's always been annoying that unlike a real aircraft you can't feel the pressure being relieved from the stick. However, today, because the P-51 has trim dials that you turn, I thought why not map my elevator and rudder trim to the two axis rotaries on my stick. I did it as a fancy, not expecting anything, but I was in for a surprise! By putting the elevator and rudder trim on an axis each flying the P-51 straight and level while changing power settings rather dramatically became effortless. That "feel" that's been missing was suddenly just there. It's as easy as flying with rudder assist turned on. Lining up for landing with the power at minimums to hold 120mph, easy. No more wobbling. Also, now that I have analogue control of the rudder trim I find I have almost no need for the aileron trim any more barring weapons release. Probably more correct to say I was using aileron trim in the past incorrectly! Before this I had trouble transitioning from full mil 61/30 to max continuous 45/27 without the plane bobbing about like a frightened pony, understandable given that the X-65F is a centred stick, but annoying when part of your hobby is trying to fly the plane just right. Now, no longer a problem. A little change that made a HUGE difference. To those of you who have been doing this all along simply ignore me. But to those who've been doing rudder and elevator trim on hat switches and buttons, please do yourself a favour and try it on an axis for the P-51. I suspect you'll be pleasantly surprised. There is one tiny caveat of course, before take-off (or even more importantly when jumping into the cockpit mid-flight) you must remember to centre your trim axis on your controller. Otherwise she may just throw you right off! Hope this is useful to someone. Happy flying!

Thanks so much for the replies, and the link to the other thread. I've tried out using the low / normal switch (DCS World 1.2.3 + KA-50 Module) as you guys explained and as pointed out I almost never see the yellow zebra lamp. It does get rid of the overspeed warning sounds on descent, very happy about that! I do find that initiating normal descents (around 1-2m/s) in normal flight even for very short durations will cause a momentary rotor over-speed warning tone. If I'm doing hover practice around the airfield (I hover at around 3m in flight directory mode and hover taxi along the taxi ways etc to learn the feel of hover-based manoeuvring) I get the over-speed warning very often. Is this normal? If so, I'm comfortable that I can move on Once again, many thanks for the replies!

Hi I've looked in the manual and I can't seem to find the reason for and correct use of the engine governor speed control switch on the collective. It can be set to "low" or "normal", but when and why would I use this? Also, during normal flight well within parameters and very basic movements of the flight controls, I get the rotor over-speed warning beep from time to time. The throttles are set to auto and as I said, no extreme manoeuvring. Any ideas? Many thanks in advance!

Thanks for the confirmation that the auto-update is coming. Just for the record: You guys at DCS have made an exceptional simulator. I'm getting no end of joy from the Ka-50 and will start the A-10C soon. Many thanks!

Hi I've recently been learning to fly Ka-50 (wonderful sim!) and have come across a feature of the X-65F that somewhat reduces the workload. The X-65F has a CMS hat switch (thumb hat switch) in the same place as the Ka-50 has the trim button. The following mapping has made life much easier for me: HAT-Fwd - Trimmer Buttom HAT-Back - AP Altitude Hold ON/OFF HAT-Left - Toggle Show/Hide control deflection view HAT-Right - Flight director mode button The reason for being able to switch between flight director mode and non-flight director mode is clear: Flight director gives unopposed free but still stabilised flight. For a non force-feedback stick this is useful, and for a motionless stick like the X-65F a must, in my opinion. I find establishing my route in flight director mode and then trimming, then toggling flight director off, to be the easiest way to establish flight in any direction. Once moving I just hold the trimmer while changing course. The altitude hold button is sometimes necessary when transitioning out of auto-hover. When engaging auto-hover with the pinky switch it turns on, but when disengaging it doesn't turn off. A good safety feature but the need to turn it off for free flight especially when taking evasive action makes it a valuable HOTAS feature. Being able to quickly activate the the control deflection view is vital to me. In the real 'copter you have your stick in it's trimmed position. In the sim with a conventional joystick centre doesn't mean centre, it means trimmed. Where trimmed is isn't intuitively available to the pilot like in the real thing, so being able to toggle this view on and off quickly has made understanding where my controls are totally intuitive again. Hope this helps someone trying to figure this sim out without a force feedback controller. Please take the above with the qualification that I am not a pro at this sim yet.

I am gagging for them to release the study sims mentioned in that interview. The quality of their KA-50 and A-10C is astounding. These guys will definitely get my money at every release :) They are, simply put, making my dreams come true!

Thank you mate. Very much appreciated :)

Re: ATC in Sim Mode without a HOTAS controller (SOLVED) Thank you CEPEGA! Seems the last hurdle was my own silliness. I did look it up in the options and then wrote it down wrong, DUH! This has now empowered me to have my start-up checklist run though startup with ATC approval, request taxi and request takeoff all in sim mode. Very much appreciated! When I've some more experience with this sim (I intend to learn it and it's associated procedures thoroughly) I hope I can return the favour :) Kind Regards Anthony

Re: ATC in Sim Mode without a HOTAS controller Thanks CEPEGA and Tyger You guys have helped me get a little further. My radio was definitely tuned to the wrong freq and I didn't get squelch until the APU was running and APU Gen set to PWR. Those documents are awesome! Added to my collection. I am still having the same problem though. Let me tell you what I've changed to since getting your advice: 1. Battery ON, Inverter to STBY, Lamp Test, Fuel Gauge test, O2 on, O2 test. 2. Start APU, wait for 100% then switch APU Gen to PWR. 3. CDU and EGI to ON (I'm following the new checklist in the files CEPEGA recommended). 4. UHF function dial to BOTH 5. Press Squelch (there is a noisy squelch sound now that I've updated my startup procedure) 6. Set AM an FM dials to TK 7. Set AM Freq to 132.00 Mhz 7. Press '\', F5 for ATC, F1 for Senaki, F3 for Request startup Again, the request sounds out but there is no response from the tower. If I use RSHIFT Num+ to simulate HOTAS MIC switch forward there is no effect. Any further help would be appreciated Thanks for the welcome to the forum! A

Hi all First off, I have searched this forum for answers as well as looking at the tutorials including the excellent tutorials by WarriorX, but not found the answer to my specific problem with ATC. Basically, I can use the comms easily in easy comms mode, but not at all in simulation mode. Here's what I do: 1. Create an empty mission with my plane at Senaki set to ramp start. 2. Save and start the mission. 3. Battery ON, Inverter to STBY, Lamp Test, Fuel Gauge test, O2 on, O2 test 4. VHF AM to TR 5. VHF FM to TR 6. VHF AM Frequency to 108.90 Mhz (Senaki according to p 649 of flight manual) 7. UHF Radio switch to MAIN Now I press '\' and get the ATC menu. I hit F5 for ATC, F1 for "Senaki...", F3 for Request startup. The call to the tower does happen so he does say "Enfield 11 request startup". But there's no reply. If I repeat the above procedure on easy comms mode there is a reply. I've tried with the keyboard shortcut for HOTAS MIC switch Fwd (RTSHIFT Num+) but that doesn't bring up a comms menu at all. I have also tried starting the APU and using APU Gen power instead of the battery before starting up the radios but the same result. Is it just that the sim level communication is not available unless you use the correct HOTAS controller? Or am I doing something incorrect above, you know, missing something. I've tried to be complete as possible above but if there's any information missing I'll be happy to provide it. Many thanks for taking the time to read this Anthony