Autopilot Damper on/off?

[Aluminum Donkey]

Greetings Earthlings

 

 

Has anyone had any luck playing with the damper? I know the key combo is LAlt+1, but all it does is press the upper left button of the 6 autopilot buttons. The light on the button stays on, and nothing happens, the plane doesn't handle any differently. Autopilot Reset has no effect either.

 

I haven't had any luck pulling Cobras in the MiG, and figured the damper is the culprit, but I can't seem to turn it off :)

Any ideas? Is this a feature to be implemented in the future, or am I ignoring/forgetting something?

 

 

AD

[Lixma 06]

Hold L-ALT+9 (iirc) for 3 seconds. All the lights will go out and the warning will kick in.

 

It's no fun, trust me.

[Aluminum Donkey]

Hold L-ALT+9 (iirc) for 3 seconds. All the lights will go out and the warning will kick in.

 

It's no fun, trust me.

 

 

Woohoo, thanks so much! I was figuring it was something like that right after I posted the message :)

 

 

AD

[Aluminum Donkey]

It's no fun, trust me.

 

 

 

 

You kidding me, that was a hoot :)

[OnlyforDCS]

Is it on or off by default?

[Vatikus]

ON

[Icebeat]

why L-ALT+9 instead of LAlt+1, and what is the name of the keybinding command?

[Shadow KT]

why L-ALT+9 instead of LAlt+1, and what is the name of the keybinding command?

 

Go to your settings and press L-Alt + 9 and you will find out how it is called

[Top Jockey]

Hello again,

 

When one engages:

 

"stick deflection limiter" (key Y)

"Reset / DAMPER disable" (keys LAlt + 9, for more than 3 secs.)

 

I can't quite understand what exactly happens in therms of:

 

- pitch ;

- Angle of Atack limits ;

- instantaneous turn-rate.

 

edit:

 

Is the "Y" function for the MIG-29, the same as the "S" for the Su-27 ?

Edited October 12, 2018 by Top Jockey

[Lixma 06]

Hello again,

 

When one engages:

"stick deflection limiter" (key Y)

"Reset / DAMPER disable" (key LAlt + 9, for more than 3 secs.)

 

I can't quite understand what exactly happens in therms of:

 

- pitch ;

- Angle of Atack limits ;

- instantaneous turn-rate.

 

Open the controls indicator (RCTRL-ENTER) and watch what happens when you pull the stick right back - you'll see the plane pushing back against the stick. Disabling the deflection limiter turns this off.

[Top Jockey]

Open the controls indicator (RCTRL-ENTER) and watch what happens when you pull the stick right back - you'll see the plane pushing back against the stick. Disabling the deflection limiter turns this off.

 

Very good reference to understand what this system does!

 

I believe it tries to limit the maximum AoA to 26º or something.

 

In my case there must be some kind of bug, as to keep the limiter disabled, I must keep the key pressed all the time...

Edited October 12, 2018 by Top Jockey

[Lixma 06]

Same here - I think it's supposed to be a temporary override (which suggests the real-life control might be found on the HOTAS), and if we want to shut it off completely it's RALT-9 for 3 seconds.

[Top Jockey]

Same here - I think it's supposed to be a temporary override (which suggests the real-life control might be found on the HOTAS), and if we want to shut it off completely it's RALT-9 for 3 seconds.

 

Now I'm confused here...

 

Shouldn't it be Left Alt instead ?

 

Either way are you saying that it's the same as keeping the key "Y" pressed all the time ?

[Lixma 06]

Something-ALT :)

 

Either way are you saying that it's the same as keeping the key "Y" pressed all the time ?

 

Yes, but if you do the plane will start complaining at you.

[Top Jockey]

Something-ALT :)

 

 

 

Yes, but if you do the plane will start complaining at you.

 

Yeah it also disables every auto-pilot and some sort of flight stability modes.

[Aluminum Donkey]

Now I'm confused here...

 

Shouldn't it be Left Alt instead ?

 

Either way are you saying that it's the same as keeping the key "Y" pressed all the time ?

 

 

Nope. Pressing Left-Alt +9 for 3 seconds disables the pitch damper, which a part of the autopilot that's normally always on by default. There will be a constant "beep-beep-beep" warning tone, and the red caution light will stay on--you have to mute it by pressing R_Shift +N. Now, the MiG will be very 'twitchy' in pitch response. Tiny fore-and-aft movements of the stick, especially at low speeds, result in the plane trying to bite its own tail off :) Pretty entertaining, but not well-suited for normal flight, including dogfighting.

 

 

 

Pressing Y (or a mapped button) to disable the stick deflection limiter has nothing to do with this--its an entirely different function. It overrides the stick kicker--a device which bumps the flight stick forward when exceeding a certain AoA, about 25-28 degrees I believe. You have to hold Y or the button down to override it--in the real MiG-29, it's accomplished by the pilot pulling back very hard on the stick to force it past the limiter.

 

 

So, the two functions are entirely separate.

AD

[Lixma 06]

Ah, so 'Y' just disables the 'kicker' thingy.

[Top Jockey]

Nope. Pressing Left-Alt +9 for 3 seconds disables the pitch damper, which a part of the autopilot that's normally always on by default. There will be a constant "beep-beep-beep" warning tone, and the red caution light will stay on--you have to mute it by pressing R_Shift +N. Now, the MiG will be very 'twitchy' in pitch response. Tiny fore-and-aft movements of the stick, especially at low speeds, result in the plane trying to bite its own tail off :) Pretty entertaining, but not well-suited for normal flight, including dogfighting.

 

 

 

Pressing Y (or a mapped button) to disable the stick deflection limiter has nothing to do with this--its an entirely different function. It overrides the stick kicker--a device which bumps the flight stick forward when exceeding a certain AoA, about 25-28 degrees I believe. You have to hold Y or the button down to override it--in the real MiG-29, it's accomplished by the pilot pulling back very hard on the stick to force it past the limiter.

 

 

So, the two functions are entirely separate.

AD

 

Ok, indeed I did get the impression that it were two different functions, but didn't understood the exact nature of each one.

 

About the "stick deflection limiter", Lixma 06 already explained.

 

Regarding the "pitch damper", I didn't know what it did exactly.

Yes the red caution light appears, and the audio warning tone does also.

 

So we can say that the disabling the "pitch damper", allows an higher instantaneous turn rate ?

 

 

Part of the doubt is because these two functions are in some ways similar, they both allow to "push" the limits of normal flight - something that in an F-16 for instance is somewhat restrained.

[Lixma 06]

 

So we can say that the disabling the "pitch damper", allows an higher instantaneous turn rate ?

 

 

It's basically the 'Let me do a Kobra' switch.

[Svend_Dellepude]

IRL you just pull harder on the stick to override the deflection limiter. To simulate this in game you have to hold 'Y' while having the stick past the threshold.

[Aluminum Donkey]

Ok, indeed I did get the impression that it were two different functions, but didn't understood the exact nature of each one.

 

About the "stick deflection limiter", Lixma 06 already explained.

 

Regarding the "pitch damper", I didn't know what it did exactly.

Yes the red caution light appears, and the audio warning tone does also.

 

So we can say that the disabling the "pitch damper", allows an higher instantaneous turn rate ?

 

 

Part of the doubt is because these two functions are in some ways similar, they both allow to "push" the limits of normal flight - something that in an F-16 for instance is somewhat restrained.

 

 

Disabling the pitch damper doesn't allow you to turn tighter. What the damper does is reduce the pitch 'wobbling' (oscillating) by damping it out using the control surfaces. So, the plane flies more smoothly when making pitch inputs.

Like the Flanker, it's on by default. The MiG is capable of a very high rate of pitch change, and it oscillates a lot without it, so it's normally left on all the time when the plane is being flown. That's why you hear the warning when it's off.

 

The only reason to disable it is if there's a problem with the autopilot. But if you want, you can fly without it--L_Alt+9 for 3 seconds. The 29 is really 'hairy' in pitch without it :)

 

 

 

AD

[VC]

Is the pitch "kicker" the cause of the nose bouncing around a turn? E.g. if I hold the stick hard back I get a very fast instantaneous turn, followed by a pause, then hard turn resumes, repeat.

 

 

Also, are either of these functions restricting pitching down? It seems once you go above ~1,000 km/h IAS you can hold the stick all the way forward and the plane barely reacts, you can just about get it into a slow dive after holding the stick forward for a dozen seconds. I assume this is a feature but I want to understand better what's going on.

[Ironhand]

...

 

Also, are either of these functions restricting pitching down? It seems once you go above ~1,000 km/h IAS you can hold the stick all the way forward and the plane barely reacts, you can just about get it into a slow dive after holding the stick forward for a dozen seconds. I assume this is a feature but I want to understand better what's going on.

From Yo-Yo. It's about the 5th or 6th sentence down... https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3651693&postcount=22

[Dudikoff]

From Yo-Yo. It's about the 5th or 6th sentence down... https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3651693&postcount=22

 

I'm no expert, but I don't see a direct explanation on why the plane gives only a few degrees of negative pitch deflection on the horizontal stabilators.

 

There's this line: IAS and altitude dependant gear ratio from the stick to stabilator;, but I've experienced the same limits at different speed and altitudes.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Dudikoff

[VC]

From Yo-Yo. It's about the 5th or 6th sentence down... https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3651693&postcount=22

 

This is fine, but I release the stick and the nose doesn't pitch up. I know there's another post much more recently in that thread about trim taking up the available travel of the stabiliser, but as far as I'm aware I wasn't trimmed or on autopilot.

 

Edit: looks like yo-yo was talking about low altitude, I wasn't low.

 

Edit 2: re-read and got the explanation on page 15 of the main FM thread.

Edited October 15, 2018 by VC