Charley

Yes, that was it, I had a control conflict. Thank you!!

Sorry if this has already been asked, I couldn't find this topic in the forum. Whenever I try the dogfight mission in "instant action , P 51 vs P 51" , my P51 immediately trims the elevator nose down as far down as it can go. This happens while the other P51 flies over me and my view finishes its really annoying initial view adjustment., that I can't control. I can't even correct this control input of the trim going fully down until the program is done going through this initial view adjustment. I can see the cockpit trim wheel moving down, but it's nothing I'm doing. Is there a way to get my P51 to start the quick mission just trimmed to neutral, instead of starting in a dive? Hopefully,thanks for any advice.

When setting up my controls, some of my button assignments aren't recognized at all in game, even though they are entered in the control assignment menu. After failing to get some joystick commands recognized,I also noticed that some of the default key assignments aren't working either, like the left shift F 10 command for labels. I ran the repair DCS function, but it didn't help. Do I need to reinstall?

Sorry it has taken quite awhile to respond after beginning this discussion about temperate effects. I have learned a lot from reading the great responses of everyone. I must admit though, that I think all my trouble was the result of flying a mission that included some mild wind speed & turbulence . After reducing the airspeed & turbulence, I think I failed to click the "save" button that is present in the weather profile. When returning to the mission, I was also returning to the default settings with higher wind speed & turbulence without realizing it. I'm ashamed. Now I realize one thing for sure . Taking off with wind & turbulence makes take offs in perfectly calm weather seem easy. Also, the advice about density altitude made me want to try different density altitudes. Being a Mission Editor virgin, I'm not sure how the default weather settings reflect different density altitudes though. As I understand , "density" in the weather profile refers only to the cloud density. Does anyone know how would I set different density altitudes under "dynamic weather" , and are different DAs already reflected in the "default" seasons?

slight weather changes & take offs I felt very proud of myself with being able to take off in the 190 (after a few practice crashes for warm up). But now, when I try in a mission that includes mild weather differences, take offs are disastrous pretty much all the time. I don't understand. I've tried to examine the weather differences that might influence my take off in different missions, & the only thing that I notice is a slight temperature change from my successful take off missions in perfect weather (20c perfect compared to 15c ). Even with the wind at all altitudes set to zero, I have extreme trouble. In perfect weather , I can hold the aircraft straight & lift off with the nose held down. Not with very slight weather changes though. Another person I fly with online who has success in good weather has also been unable to control the aircraft on take off with these very mild weather changes, so I wonder if it's probably not just me & him who would experience this. My question is, have others noticed this , & is some weather effect on the aircraft over modeled ?

Ok thanks, I did find that enabling the "map only" button under "F10 view options " took care of it for both the in game map & kneeboard.

I would like to make a mission for WW2 planes to practice navigation in bad weather. I'm not understanding how to eliminate the aircraft icon on the F10 map & the kneeboard though (being able to refer to these defeats the purpose of the mission). In the Mission Editor, when I check the "Hidden on map" box for each aircraft , the aircraft icon disappears in the Mission Editor map, but then the F10 map & kneeboard in game still shows the aircraft location. Is there a way to eliminate this?

I don't know what real test figures would prove about turn rate ( I feel proud if I can convert IAS to TAS), but to me, it feels like the turn radius is greatly increased while the turn rate is decreased. Maybe the turn rate feels like it is reduced because I have to be ever so careful to be sensitive with the controls so I don't over control. This brings up another slightly confusing thing for me. The DCS P 51 manual says : "As a general rule, the greater the altitude, the greater the control movement required to achieve the same response. " I find just the opposite to be true in the sim. It seems much more sensitive to control input at altitude. I also found this in a Boeing document about high altitude maneuvering that seems to contradict the DCS manual: http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_02/textonly/fo01txt.html " For example, for the same control surface movement at constant airspeed, an airplane at 35,000 ft (10,670 m) experiences a higher pitch rate than an airplane at 5,000 ft (1,524 m) because there is less aerodynamic damping. The pitch rate is higher, but the resulting change in flight path is not. Therefore, the change in angle of attack is greater, creating more lift and more g. If the control system is designed to provide a fixed ratio of control column force to elevator deflection, it will take less column force to generate the same g as altitude increases. " This seems to confirm that it's accurate that control surfaces should be much more sensitive at altitude. In the end though, I'm still amazed that they could successfully maneuver in dogfighting at 25- 30,000 ft.

These are really good links from Rangi & Oydoron. Thanks! Unfortunately, I couldn't get the one from Solty, it's blocked in The U. S. for some copyright reason. That one I really wish I could also see because it would describe maneuvering at the altitudes I find so extremely mushy on the controls. I'm working my way through the encounter reports for the P 47, but wonder a few things. I read the book "Thunderbolt" by Robert Johnson ( it turned me into a Thunderbolt pilot in my imagination), and remember that he made the comment about one dogfight that he looked at his altimeter and it "showed a height of 20,000 ft. -- according to all the rules, absolute suicide for the P 47". It seems like it would be really hard not to find yourself getting below 20, 000 ft. though. Also, if you did go down close to the deck, it's hard to get back up there to bomber altitude. I'm still trying to learn more about how these real life guys handled different situations. When they didn't have the altitude advantage, did they always dive away? If they were assigned as escort , did they still dive away? Anyway, I think these guys really did maneuver at very high altitudes & also took their planes ( even the P 47), down to lower altitudes , I just don't have the hang of it yet. I also wonder, because it feels so different, if many other people have tried maneuvering their DCS WW2 planes at altitudes greater than 20,000 ft.

Since becoming interested in flight sims, one thing I have noticed is that fighter combat in sims usually starts or quickly descends to low altitudes (1000 - 5000 ft). This seems to happen so naturally & easily. What I'm curious about is whether this was also true in real life WW2. There's a couple of things I would like to ask the real life guys, if I could: When I fly in a P51 (in sim ) at an altitude of 28 - 30,000ft, I feel like it's an effort to keep my plane flying stable & stay in nice formation., let alone maneuver. The controls become very mushy at altitude. My question is: How could these planes be effective in a dogfight at this altitude with such mushy control? Another question is: Did the combat usually descend to such low altitudes in real life? If it did, were the escorted bombers abandoned while the fighters descended in combat? If the fighter was a plane designed for best performance at high altitude , such as the P 47 or P 51, did they have strict orders not to pursue below a certain altitude, or to simply stay with the bombers ? These are things I've wondered about, the main question being : how could anybody effectively dogfight at high altitudes, when it seems like the plane wants to flop around like a fish?

Help! I'm wondering if it's ever going to be possible to do a good take off. I can't keep the wings level during the take off roll to save my life. Does anyone know why the wings keep dipping one side or the other & scraping on the ground before take off? Why don't they just stay level?

Thank you for the time you spent on this Charley Owl! It helps so much when people in the know share what they know.

This is very helpful! Thanks. Oh yes, I wish they were printer friendlier too.

Thanks for this advice Blaze & El Hadji. I did the "invert " option for my brakes it makes the correct brake work and also so far, they don't stick!

Trying to fix a problem with my P51 ,recently I ran the unins000.exe file for DCS. I got a message that the program didn't fully uninstall . When I reinstalled DCS & the P51 module, the same problem exists( wheel brakes stick in on position & sometimes work in left - right reverse. Can the P51 module be uninstalled & reinstalled by itself, without uninstalling DCS World? Is there any DCS repair tool? Is there any file I can rebuild in the P51 module to fix this problem?

The brakes on my P51 seem to acting very strangely recently. Usually both wheel brakes get stuck in the on position for no reason (no activation by me), sometimes only one brake gets stuck & then other times the right side brake acts as the left & vice versa when I'm trying to use them. I can also see this with the flight control monitor -right control + enter. I have become so frustrated with this that I uninstalled & reinstalled DCS & P51 , but got a message that it didn't fully uninstall. The P51 came back with the same control settings & the same problem. Does anybody have any idea what I can do to fix this?

I hesitate to ask this because I think it might be a dumb question, but I need to ask. I don't see any FW 190 in my game. How do I put it in the sim?

Echo38, I am amazed that you don't use any curves! What kind of joystick & set up do you have? I don't really feel like I have a good understanding of curves & saturation X & Y yet, but I started out with no curves & did absolutely terrible. I couldn't even breathe on the controls without a huge input, especially the rudders. I have Saitek rudder pedals & Saitek X52 ( not the Pro, the "Amateur").

Much thanks to everyone for the much needed advice,and especially for the invitation to join the Virtual Aerobatics server. If you guys don't really mind I think I will give that a try in a day or two. I will try to listen to a few more of those in-game tutorials first & then try jumping in ( I need to crash in private a few more times) . Thanks again to everyone.

I just got this sim a few weeks ago & like it, just can't fly it. I can finally take off & land after adjusting the rudder curve. Maneuvering though, seems absolutely impossible. Trying to dogfight that instant AI guy , I can only do the mildest of climbs before stalling. Most of the time I can barely raise the nose of the plane without having it shudder. Same thing with turning, I have to be oh, so careful. Meanwhile , that AI guy climbs 10 times as fast as me & flies rings around me. I think I even saw him give me an obscene gesture. I don't really know what I'm doing wrong. Also, I noticed in someone else's post a mention of "Tacview & ACMI" . It sounds like something that might help, but I don't know what it is. Is it something in my game, or is it something I put in the game? Is there any place online that teaches newbies how to fly this sim? I don't want to get in the way of the people that know what they're doing.

Thanks very much for the replies. You guys fixed it!

I'm brand new to the sim & thought things were going well setting up my controls, but now my Trackir is no longer recognized in the sim. I don't know what I did to cause this. Right now even though Trackir is listed as a category , it doesn't have any commands listed below in its category. To tell the truth, I'm not sure if it had commands listed in its category before, it had just been recognized automatically before. I tried unplugging the Trackir USB for 1 min , but it didn't help. Also, under the "view cockpit " settings I see " camera transpose mode on/off" is highlighted in red , indicating a conflict. I don't know what it conflicts with though, it's the only thing in red. Its only command setting is for keyboard " Lshift + F1". What's wrong here? I know these are probably simple new guy questions but I'm really not getting how to fix it. Any help is appreciated.