Two yaw axis settings: NWS and Rudder

[Frostiken]

One problem I've never gotten over is the 'perfect' setting for pedal curves. While on the ground, NWS is extremely sensitive, to the extent that it's almost impossible to control the plane while on the runway, which requires very, very fine adjustments. This forces me to set up curves.

 

Unfortunately, curves aren't a great solution, because this will also alter my rudder authority, so I'm forced to compromise. Ideally I would keep the NWS curve very low so that through 95% of the range of motion, my level of control is very slight, with perhaps only the very end of the pedal 'full rudder' for making the sharpest turns.

 

The reason I can't do this is, of course, because at very fine curve settings, the rudders have very little effect on the aircraft. This forces me to an uncomfortable compromise, with very little yaw authority around the deadzone for NWS, and higher levels at the edges. What this means is that there's a fine point where both my rudders and NWS are completely out of tune. As I cross this threshold, my NWS becomes more and more sensitive, making it almost impossible to control, while the rudder becomes less and less operative.

 

This forces the player to dedicate half the pedals curve to NWS for sensitive movements (staying on the runway) and the other half for rudder, which isn't an ideal solution.

 

Would it be possible then to actually associate NWS with its own axis? Since NWS and rudders are essentially mutually exclusive (you only use NWS while at low speed on the ground, so there'd be no real control conflict)?

 

This way I could dedicate the rudder axis to properly control the aircraft with the pedals while in the air, and once I land and drop speed enough to engage NWS, it turns the nose wheel with the levels dictated by the axis associated with it, which would be set up for very fine maneuvers. Of course, if you really wanted the same curve for both, nothing would really stop you from just putting the same values for each.

[Frostiken]

Full rudder authority is useful for departures from controlled flight though. You don't often need it, but when you do you will need all the control you can get - which you can't if you have your authority watered down because NWS is totally uncontrollable otherwise.

 

Adding another axis and simply assigning pedals to both of them (is already possible with other axis - you can control your whole stick with the pedals if you wanted :D) seems a pretty simple solution to this. Additionally, consider times you have to fly without Yaw SAS due to damage or manual reversion flight controls.

[ivanwfr]

Frostiken, if your HOTAS is a TM Warthog and you're not against using TARGET script you can get exactly what you want and even better.

 

But, as most simmers take good care to keep away from input scripting for some reason, I won't get into any level of details before I know it would not be useless.

 

Curve and deadzone can be reliably tuned real-time, based on some user action or even lua-exported sim's events. All kinds of features can be tested and improved.

 

And realism is just an fancy idea when you look at what we're doing in front of our screens and keyboards. I'm rather looking at all those "not so realistic adjustable input" as some means to compensate for all that we miss from the real thing.

 

So what'll be?

[Frostiken]

Well I think most people haven't used TARGET because it's uncharted territory... is it even fully functional yet? I'm not above scripting, I use it quite extensively on my CH setup, but I'm a total knob at trailblazing complicated shit like this :P

[cichlidfan]

What is not fair (and hopeless) is asking ED to spend extra effort to intentionally depart from realism to make a fantasy decoupled pair of controls. It's not the right thing to do for any one.

 

Either what we experience is correct in which case it is our job to become better pilots or it needs improvement to simulate reality better.

 

I agree, just have to develop a very light foot on the ground. For me that may take a while.

 

At least here we don't have to counter prop spin. That's giving me hell too...but that would be another topic, and sim, altogether.:D