Student needing advice

[fzfq3m]

Alright

 

I decided to walk before start running... I mean I can take this helo and fly it around, shoot at some targets and land safely... but even with the three AP channels turned on I'm still fighting the aircraft :joystick:

 

I uploaded a track (a short one, just a few minutes) where I tried to make a controlled hoover and i wanted to know if somebody can play it and give some advice about how to improve my hoovering skill (and my flying skill in general)

 

don't know if is just me but I think that my joystick is too sensible, and haven't mess with sensitivity cause I read somewhere in this forum that modifyning axis curves can cause non desired effects on Force feedback and trimmer.

 

BTW i don't know why the cockpit camera always starts pointing to the left pilot's knees... This doesn't affect me on normal missions but I can't play training missions cause the camera refuses to move until I take control

 

Regards

 

Thanks in advance :thumbup:

Controlled_Hoover _try14.trk

Edited April 17, 2010 by fzfq3m

[EtherealN]

To be honest, I think your main problem is that you are correcting too much and is probably not used to the fact that it takes a while for your cyclic/pedal input to be put into effect - this leads to a lot of oscillating where you try to correct for things that you should just let play out. Your control movements are also slightly on the rough side, but this might be a stick problem.

 

I'm attaching a track I made through taking control right at the start of your track - see the gentle control movements and my attempts at only making corrections when I really "have to".

beverygentle.trk

[Pyroflash]

I don't know about your training camera problem, but I may be able to offer some tips on how to properly initiate a hover.

 

First, make sure that your aircraft is trimmed into a hover. This can be done by slowing your aircraft down to 0 speed, then holding down the "t" key, and then keeping your nose pointed at a 0 degree pitch. once your aircraft is properly trimmed, you can initiate a good hover at any time by slowing your aircraft down to anywhere between 0-30 kph, and then pressing "leftctrl + t". This should bring you into a stable hover.

[EtherealN]

Pyro, 0 degree pitch causes the helicopter to fly forward at 50+ km/h.

 

And you should never rely on an old trim setting. Something as simple as reduced fuel weight can upset centre-of-mass enough to cause that to be way off. You need to manually enter over - that is, configure yourself to drift into a hover, then trim to hold that, then you can engage the auto-hover once that's stable.

 

But you should always transition to hover manually.

[JasBird]

I wouldn't mess with the trim in the beginning when learining to hover. Try 10% deadzone on pitch and bank axis for the cyclic, and a curvature of atleast 25%.

 

When in combat and for hovering I use the Flight Director(LCtrl A), because it doesn't feel like "Autopilot" is fighting agains me.

[fzfq3m]

Thanks for the anwsers guys

 

EtherealN: I played your track then mine a couple of time each (both from inside an outside the shark) and I can see your point... and you were rigth I was trying to correct a lot mainly because I wanted to make an almost perfect vertical hoover. In the tutorial the guy starts the hoover and the helo doesn't translate too much from its starting position. BTW in your track I ddidn't hear the trimmer so I'm guessing that you didn't used it (Am i wrong)

 

I also added that 10% of dead zone to my pitch/bank/roll axis (they were at 0% dead zone) hoping to encrease smoothness, but as EtherealN says. there may be something wrong with my joystick: I did a test I used the same mission/track, enabled the axis monitor (RCtrl + Enter), and slowly started to encrease collective while holding the brakes... for some reason the shark starts to bank left and pitch right even when the axis monitor says that all my

pitch/bank/roll axis are centered...

 

I know that when starting the hoover I need to push the ciclyc forward to counter-act the default triming but that tendency to bank to the left is driving me crazy... Replaying the track from outside view I can see thatin my cas the

forward wheel starts pointing to the left and turns to left a bit more after I started to increase colllective...

 

I'm going to make some test to my joysticck/pedals to see if they are mal functioning... i saw somme pics about a joystick tester

called Precision Tester or 7 Precision Tester, but I was unable to find it... if someones know where can I find it pleease let me

know...

 

note: i uploaded another track,,, this time I tried to make what you did (hoover then 180º right turn, etc)

 

Regards

metryingtobegentlle.trk

[JasBird]

 

I also added that 10% of dead zone to my pitch/bank/roll axis (they were at 0% dead zone) hoping to encrease smoothness, but as EtherealN says. there may be something wrong with my joystick: I did a test I used the same mission/track, enabled the axis monitor (RCtrl + Enter), and slowly started to encrease collective while holding the brakes... for some reason the shark starts to bank left and pitch right even when the axis monitor says that all my

pitch/bank/roll axis are centered...

 

 

Firstly some USB devices don't like to be connected to USB Hubs and USB ports on the front panel of your computer. My Thrustmaster joystick is responding very strange when plugged in the front, but the Sidewinder is fine. I have a steering wheel aswell that won't work unless I use USB connectin at the back of the PC.

 

I would also recommend try some curvature on the bank/pitch axis. I use about 25% on my Thrustmaster otherwise it's oversensetive. With the Sidewinder I can do fine without curvature.

 

Helicopters are forces fighting against each other. Make one change with one controller and it will affect the other. Say if you fly a helicopter with an anticlockwise rotating main rotor. If you raise the collective the blades wants to flap more and the highest point is at your 12 o'clock. The effect will come 90 degrees later (on your 9 o'clock(rotor spins anticlockwise)) so the nose will want to come up and the helicopter will pitch to the right. And you would have to add left pedal to stay in balanse because more collective/power wants to spin the helicopter in opposite direction(clockwise) and the ratio between main and tail rotor is about 1:6, so more left pedal is needed.

 

Cheers

[EtherealN]

Correct, I didn't use the trimmer, though the main reason for this is that I hadn't set up a profile for the shark on my new HOTAS yet so I tried to make do without.