Use of the rudders

With the A-10, it's a good idea to gradually push the pedal and not do it in a single, fast push because that can kick the plane out of balance.

Yep, a few times I've stomped on the left rudder when I've thought that my pedal alignment was out, and it's sometimes been ... exciting. Exciting as in sounding the AoA alarm and making the jet nearly drop out of the sky like a startled pigeon.

Hey Guys: Thanks to everyone's feedback. I purchased the Saitek Combat Rudder pedals. (Really like the feel & quality.) No brakes, but I see the posts about inverting the settings. However, my main issue is the rudder sensitivity. Super sensitive even after changing the sensitivity settings on their Smart Technology SW in both directions. Basically, I can't even fly with the pedals attached, even when not touching the pedals. Are there any internal settings in DCS Warthog that need to be adjusted as well? Something's just not right.

Hi, I got some good advice from cichlidfan awhile back.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1352343&postcount=7

I hope this helps you as it helped me.

edit the rest of the thread:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=82930

Hey Guys: Thanks to everyone's feedback. I purchased the Saitek Combat Rudder pedals. (Really like the feel & quality.) No brakes, but I see the posts about inverting the settings. However, my main issue is the rudder sensitivity. Super sensitive even after changing the sensitivity settings on their Smart Technology SW in both directions. Basically, I can't even fly with the pedals attached, even when not touching the pedals. Are there any internal settings in DCS Warthog that need to be adjusted as well? Something's just not right.

Yes..

Options>controls>A-10C Sim>Axis commands> Click on your rudder axis and click the Axis Trim button at the bottom of the page you're on. Go to the curvature slider and adjust to 20 or so and hit ok.. Fly around a little bit and play around with the curvature number to suit your needs. The Curvature slider will dampen out small changes on the rudder but will give you full deflection of the controls at the extreme ends.

Saturation sliders will dampen out the full range of rudder but will not give you full motion of the rudder at the extreme ends.

Personally, I use curvature slider. I can make fine adjustments on the rudder with small inputs, but have full rudder range if I ever need it.

-Damien

Thanks so much for your input. Greatly appreciated. I'll give it a go tonight!

No problem.

-Damien

I don't have any rudders, so what do you recommend, setting up an axis or two buttons?

Thanks.

I don't have any rudders, so what do you recommend, setting up an axis or two buttons?

 

Thanks.

Most definitely an axis. If you have a twist stick use that.

Most definitely an axis. If you have a twist stick use that.

Thanks, mine is a CH Fighterstick + ProThrottle, so I can map it into the mini-stick.

The main problem with the rudder in any flight sim is that resistance doesn't increase with airspeed like it does in real life. This means you can be hurtling along at 300 knots and a quick dab of the pedals will result in full rudder reflection, making you swing wildly from side to side.

In real life, the pressure of the airflow rushing past the rudder keeps it centered and as this pressure increases with airspeed, so does the force needed to overcome it. Unfortunately there isn't any way to simulate this without force feedback.

If your joystick twists for rudder movement you have to have Nosewheel Steering engaged to turn the front wheel.

 

If you have the HOTAS Warthog, it has no twist-function that I know of and you will need rudder pedals.

A work around for this, if you have TMWH, is to remap the left/right function on your TMWH flight-stick for your countermeasure selection to left/right for rudder instead. Yes, you lose the ability to toggle your A,B,C etc program on the stick, but you can still select that on the rocker switch in cockpit manually via mouse click. Also, I usually use "semi" for that anyway, so the CMS system is going to auto select the mode I should be on automatically depending on the threat, so you really are not sacrificing much by putting rudders on that function. This way you can still use all the other key functions for Chaff/Flare/etc. Not realistic yes, and all be it not axis fine control, but at least you have some form of rudder control/nose wheel control on the TMWH stick itself for ground steering/gun runs/cross wind landings until you can splurge for pedals vs taking hands off HOTAS for something else like the keyboard (bleck). :joystick:

Enable "auto rudder" in special menu. Need't rudder anymore:D

I've been trying to understand this too. Even though the A-10 has SAS, my understanding is its NOT the equivalent of auto-rudder (though you can enable the software solution for it in the menu).

However I definitely find that the A-10 behaves much better when rolling, and especially when rolling in on targets, with a little rudder. It cleans up the adverse yaw and that "wobble" you get. Personally it seems to work for me by:

1. Initiating roll and rudder together

2. Allow stick to return to centre.

3. Centre the rudder shortly after.

This removes that wobble and annoying drift when lining up for gun runs (as long as you have rolled out level).

Rudder also helps increase the roll rate. Yaw damper being less than effective is not a totally unrealistic thing too I might add. The Bombardier/de Havilland Dash 8 Q-400 has a Yaw Damper that you wouldn't even notice if you didn't turn it on. Funny thing is that this is a FBW aircraf too!

Nice thing about the A-10 is that unlike the Dash 8 you don't actually have to trim the rudder. Now how much of the performance of the A-10's yaw SAS channels is realistic I can't say, but its not as if the current performance is implausible.

At the end of the day the A-10 is still a stick and rudder aircraft so putting a little rudder into your turns and rolls is all part of typical airmanship.