Rudder pedals question.

[artmustel]

Hi folks. I've been here in DCS or a month or so. The other day I found a very old set of rudder pedals at a local thrift store, they are Thrustmaster Elite. Well they are not usb but I had at home a gameport to usb adapter from Radio Shack. It worked great, and the pedals worked fine too however they don't have a spring tension knob or anything and they were hard to move because the strong springs, so I opened bottom and disengaged both springs (there is one for each feet). Now it works very smoothly but of course pedals won't come back to center, I have to do it with my feet. Now my question...how are real life aircraft rudder pedals, are they self centering? (lol i started playing here totally clueless). Also, should I leave it without springs, or would it be a better idea to find some "softer" springs and install them? The original ones are really hard to move and they make a lot of noise. Is self centering an absolute need or t is possible to go without it?

[cichlidfan]

Fixed wing aircraft appear to have self centering pedals because of the airstream making the rudder want to return to the position that offers the least resistance. Helicopters do not see this effect so the pedals have no forces encouraging them to return to center.

[Nooch]

Yes real life rudder pedals are self centering. The only difference is that in a real plane the more airspeed you get, the more resistance you have when pushing on them. Also when you trim your rudder in real life it will move the default (come back to center) position of your pedals accordingly.