Pitch response damped?

[VC]

I'm practicing air refuelling in the JF-17. I'm still really bad at it in general, and the JF-17 is the first plane I am dedicating time to leaning it properly. But when trying to stay steady after connecting, I feel like there is a delay to small pitch inputs that results in me getting into pilot induced oscillations in pitch. I don't use any deadzone, a little bit of curvature to make small inputs more accurately. But sometimes I try to correct a small deviation and nothing happens, then I move the stick a bit more and it leaps in the opposite direction. Is some level of damping a feature of the FCS?

[LJQCN101]

Hi, the control law has a built-in breakout (deadzone) and lag filters to your stick input, to prevent saturating the elevator and destabilising the system, so yeah it does create lags.

 

There's no special refuelling law for the JF-17 and the g-command system doesn't handle so well at lower speeds, so you may want to try refuelling at higher speeds (i.e. 315 kts). Also putting FCS config to AG2 lowers g-onset rate so it might help.

[VC]

Thank you for clarifying that is how the FCS works. I suspected this but wanted to be sure it's not me.

 

I don't usually have a choice what speed the tanker is going, but I will try modifying at least the training mission to make it fly faster. In the "instant action" for air refuelling the tanker is doing 297 knots. For other planes instant action, e.g. F-14, the tanker is at 350 knots, so I will try this with the JF-17 too.

 

And thanks for the tip, will try AG2 mode.

 

I was also thinking to trim nose down, so that I need constant stick back pressure to keep level. Would this essentially bypass the breakout and reduce the input lag?

[Tiger-II]

And thanks for the tip, will try AG2 mode.

 

I was also thinking to trim nose down, so that I need constant stick back pressure to keep level. Would this essentially bypass the breakout and reduce the input lag?

 

It helps, yes, especially if you have a small deadzone for controller (not sim) purposes.

 

I never had any luck ever changing the tanker speed. It always slows down to 280 kts. Annoying. Jets are refuelled at 300-350 kts, typically.