Scupper

I'm not sure if my post above was clear enough, since no-one has answered it. The Activation Guide says, "It's important to note that deactivations are utilized to save your activations when altering your PC hardware/software." It then says if you exceed 12 points (e.g. by replacing the CPU), an activation will be required. Does that mean that you cannot avoid using up an activation if you do a major upgrade (in which case there's no point going to the trouble of deactivating)? The guide says "Before conducting a PC upgrade/OS re-install, you can deactivate the product and when complete, reactivate without a loss of activations." It seems a bit contradictory to me.

Does this mean that if I'm replacing my CPU, motherboard and RAM, there's no point in deactivating my modules and then reactivating them in the new system? Presumably it does. So the main reason to deactivate would be if you're reinstalling your operating system for some reason?

Doesn't seem to have made any difference, - I uninstalled the X52 in USBDeview, rebooted and plugged it in again but after W7 automatically reinstalled the driver, it's still off-centre, particularly in pitch. Thanks for the good suggestion though.

Many thanks for the suggestion but the option to calibrate isn't available to me, - I just get these tabs: Test, Deadzones, LEDs, MFD and About, none of which calibrate. I've figured out a work-around, which is to just trim the cyclic, so I guess I'll just have to do that for all the aircraft I fly. I'd still be interested in any more suggestions on how to calibrate the stick.

I'm trying to use my Saitek X52 Pro for cyclic in the Huey but when the Saitek stick is physically centred, it's quite far off centre in the axis tune graph in both pitch and roll. It used to be easy to calibrate using Windows but there doesn't seem to be any option to do that anymore (that I can find). I've tried restarting the PC (W7) with the stick plugged in, which I understand runs an automatic calibration function in newer sticks (mine is quite old). The Huey is difficult to fly with the stick like this. Any suggestions appreciated.

I have an X52 Pro and use curves of 21 on the X and Y axes, - I think it makes things a lot easier. Having no curves would be fine if you had a long stick like in the real aircraft but on my X52 it's way too twitchy, - why make life difficult for yourself? I think I have about 12 on the rudder.

Big improvement to the flight model for me: less twitchy in the hover and easier to avoid VRS when landing. First try with 1.2.6 and for the very first time, I've been able to land on my aim point instead of 600m down the runway or some such, and in one piece. Suddenly this feels like a real flying machine instead of an exercise in frustration. :thumbup: Big thanks to whoever is behind this change!

That's why people use curves. By playing around with them you can get to a point where a small movement on your short joystick makes a tiny adjustment to the control surfaces, replicating the sensitivity of a longer stick. Some people here scoff at them but I find they smooth things out a lot with small corrections.

Hmm, - thanks for your comments. I think you're right about dead zones: I'll try without them, - but I personally think that curves can aid control when you have a short joystick. The real helicopter has quite a long arm on the stick and small corrections are probably quite easy. With a short stick like my Saitek X52 Pro, the tiniest movement of my hand creates a proportionately quite large movement of the aircraft's controls, so by using curves you can replicate the action of a long cyclic stick. Of course big corrections can get quite messy... but if you're on the ball you shouldn't need them, right? There was video posted somewhere here recently (remember Hueys landing in bamboo thickets?) where a pilot talked about keeping cyclic movements within the size of a silver dollar or something. With my X52 stick and no curves, moving the diameter of a silver dollar would induce a large cyclic movement, so in my opinion, curves can add to finesse, though I suspect there are entrenched views about this on both sides and I'm sorry I've gone bit off the original poster's topic. I suppose the best thing is to experiment with them and see if they work for you.

Care to explain? They seem a pretty good idea to me, with such a twitchy aircraft.

By the time your change in height registers on the altimeter or the VSI, you've already gone up or down and the aircraft's attitude is out of sync with straight and level flight. To avoid unwanted changes in altitude, assuming you have some airspeed, you need primarily to watch the attitude indicator/artificial horizon. Keep the top centre of the 'W' in the centre of the thingy and you will stay at the right height.

Wow, - thanks, Alpha. The axis tune option was greyed out to me before but thanks to your reply I just found that you have to click in the cell itself in the column of whatever controls it, then buttons become active and you have all this great control over curves and things.

I seem to remember reading that it's most realistic to have the throttle (collective) axis reversed when flying helicopters so that you pull to increase lift rather than push. Is that true? If it is, can anyone explain how to do it with the Saitek X52 Pro? I'm flying the Huey, or trying to.

Do you still have to be American? And does it matter that I'm 51 and a bit short-sighted? :joystick:

It's awesome. Your wingman is at 4 O'clock or something and you can't see him, but lean forward a bit and look round the side of the window and there he is!