F-16 Nose Wheel Steering Issues

It’s twitchy above 50 kts, but not impossible to stay on the centerline. I’ve set a curve (25) on my pedal’s yaw axis, which really helps. Stay ahead of the plane and you’ll be fine. You can’t relax those feet above taxi speed.

Almost all of the above happened to me too.

After many years without flying flightsims I decided to buy a new and well spect computer and install DCS.

My good old Saitek X52 pro had been eating dust for many years and at first the rudder acted like it had parkinson at center position.

The solution: partly disassemble the stick, inject the potentiometer with a few drops of contactspray, move stick from left to right and back a few minutes, use compressed air to blow out dirt and contactspray, re-assemble the stick, plug in, fire up DCS and........ problem solved.

Next issue was the sensitivity of the nose wheel.

Taxiing at low speeds was ok but at 60kts+ it was much to sensitive, sometimes it even flipped the bird on it's side.

Here is why lining up with the runway centre line is key.

I personaly prefer to disable as soon as I start the take-off roll and let the vertical stabilo do the job from there.

At landings almost the same but in opposite order.. Line up , touch down and keep the nose gear in the air as long as possible. Once it drops, increase wheelbrake power to slow down even more and only switch on the nosewheel at speeds below 60kts. It works best ( for me that is)

I have a very inaccurate twist grip and I find that I also have difficulty maintaining directional control on takeoff in the Viper. I have to start the takeoff with NWS disengaged.

I'm able to keep NWS engaged until about 80KIAS in the Warthog. The Viper feels fine at slow taxiing speeds.

 

Perhaps NWS gain (smaller deflection with increasing airspeed) is not implemented yet?

Easily could be the deflection isnt being decreased with airspeed.

I usually disengage nws about 50-75 IAS and ensuring I dont go full ab from a stop, ease into the throttle and its much more controllable. It is a light airframe to begin with so wind only complicates the issue.

Nooby here with same landing & take off issues.

Just come over from bms & f16 borders on uncontrolable for this.

Firstly, i dont have rudders cos bms allows you to NWS with the joystick no problem, as far as i can see dcs does not give this option ( dont understand why? ) so it looks like i'm forced to buy rudders to have any chance of control or my flying just took a massive step backwards overnight. Can anyone confirm this is the current situation with the f16 as i had no issues flying bms.

Currently using warthog stick & throttle, & if i do need to buy rudders any advice on what kind of quality i should aim for.

Nessie,

you can try using the keyboard rudder commands for movement on the ground, that should get you to and from the runway. I would suggest disengaging NWS before you start the takeoff, and after you have finished the landing roll.

Cheers Random,

Yep i've been using the keyboard as you suggested, but the issues start on the runway, even when NWS is disconected it still wanders a lot more than what i'm used to. And as for landing, that just isn't pretty. I hope its just work in progress & it looks like i'll need rudder pedals but i just wanted to rule out any setting issues till i get more used to DCS.

Appreciate the reply.

Cheers Random,

 

 

Yep i've been using the keyboard as you suggested, but the issues start on the runway, even when NWS is disconected it still wanders a lot more than what i'm used to. And as for landing, that just isn't pretty. I hope its just work in progress & it looks like i'll need rudder pedals but i just wanted to rule out any setting issues till i get more used to DCS.

 

 

Appreciate the reply.

It does wonder way more than it should, there is a bug report out for excessive grip that the jet has. https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=262823 Unfortunately the hack in the thread doesn't work as the files were encrypted.

Not a complete solution, but using Overkill's rudder axis set-up, does help with NWS in the F-16.

I set my deadzone to 4, and curvature to 25.

Here is a link to Overkill's video:

The F-16 and F-5 are similarily sized, while the F-5 is only about half the weight of the F-16, making it more susceptible to wind. Yet the F-5 in DCS doesn't show this behaviour.

Either the F-5 also needs to be made a feather in the wind (even more strongly so than the F-16) or it's a defect.

I tend to lean towards the defect bit.

But hey, this is going to be the most realistic F-16 simulation on the market so let's see ...

Nooby here with same landing & take off issues.

Just come over from bms & f16 borders on uncontrolable for this.

Firstly, i dont have rudders cos bms allows you to NWS with the joystick no problem, as far as i can see dcs does not give this option ( dont understand why? ) so it looks like i'm forced to buy rudders to have any chance of control or my flying just took a massive step backwards overnight. Can anyone confirm this is the current situation with the f16 as i had no issues flying bms.

 

 

Currently using warthog stick & throttle, & if i do need to buy rudders any advice on what kind of quality i should aim for.

Hi, you can try binding your rudder axis with a "Ctrl" modifier in the Adjust Controls menu. So Ctrl+Joystick X activates your rudder. You can then use a program like Joy2Key to bind one of your HOTAS buttons to the Ctrl key. Then, after touchdown, you hold down the Ctrl key and voila your joystick becomes a rudder control axis. Thereafter, when your IAS drops below about 60 kts, switch on NWS and your rudder inputs will control the NWS.

One potential issue is that the roll axis may remain active when you hold down the ctrl key, so at touchdown while your indicated airspeed is still high enough that your aerodynamic surfaces still have control authority, your a left rudder correction may also cause your left wing to roll towards the ground. So you'll have to use a light touch.

One potential solution is to use curves to increase the rudder sensitivity close to the axis, so that large rudder inputs can be made with minimal stick movements (and hence minimal roll inputs).

I haven't tried the above approach myself cos I have rudder pedals, but I think it could work!

While a lot of effort is currently on the Hornet, the Viper is also still getting a lot of love. Here are the items currently being worked on:

Added HACK time

Adjusted strobe light

Updated engine and throttle audio

CNI adjustments

External skins

Improve performance

Damage modeling phase 2

AIM-120 Active and TTI indication adjustments

Adjusted IFF HOTAS commands

Tuning NWS authority

Sadly, unbalanced ground handling, especially during take off and landing is a DCS tradition.

I can make air refueling, carrier landing but during landing, i find myself dancing on the runway lfrom left to right..

When NWS engaged immediately nose landing gear is dancing or vibration at center to left and right quick without input pedals or command input pedals... This pilot make ground abort then i check system i saw issue the same Whats solution for This case?????

Same here, right now I am scared of touching the rudder with NWS on during takeoff (landing is fine? because I can use differential braking with my rudder pedal).

With crosswind I just disengage NWS during takeoff, but according to the manual you do not disengage NWS until you have reached 70 knots...

So definitely a issue that requires ED to take a look at. They said they will fix it but I have seen no improvement with NWS so far. Still VERY hard to use at the moment.

I would rather have ED fix the NWS issue before they continue to work on weapon systems and other stuff.

Also, if you watch some of Wag's Viper videos (those Syria ones for example), you can notice that even Wag was struggling with NWS when he was taxi on the runway.

All this talk and nobody noticed how narrow the F-16 landing gear is ?

A clean F-16 is a dart with the weight of a feather compare to its weight :)

From a real manual as an example on how light the plane might be :)

"Avoid heavy braking below 20 knots at

light GW's. Heavy braking during

these conditions may cause both MLG

WOW switches to momentarily go to

the air position, which causes the

anti�skid system to deactivate the toe

brakes. The WOW switches return to

the ground position after 1�1.5 sec�

onds, restoring braking capability. If

heavy braking resumes, the cycle may

be repeated.

� C NWS disengagements are possible

when taxiing with CG near the

in�flight aft limit."

I don’t think it has anything to do with people’s rudder pedals, I noticed even a high speed taxi has this same ridicules drift to it... I suspect it has something to do with a yaw moment enacted on the plane by engine rpm because this drifting behavior doesn’t happen during a slow crawl taxi at idle RPMs. I noticed it happens when revving up the engine

Also, WOW sensor has nothing to do with this issue as this happens when not using brakes as well as trying to use anti-skid brakes on landing rollout.

I also noticed this happens when you have any asymmetrical stores loaded on the jet and yes even just the TGP. Quite frankly it is ridiculous how this thing currently handles on the ground, I cannot imagine this being the case IRL as well, the whole F-16 fleet would have been grounded... Just look at the adjustment they made as a concession to pilots to the force sensing side stick, they made it have some movement to it so pilots could reduce tail strikes on takeoff and landings with the jet. C’mon man, the thing isn’t behaving right so instead of debating the physics of a car how about we think of this as a tens million $$ fighter jet designed to takeoff and land and taxi safety? I can’t think of a single air force in the world that would want their jet fleet getting banged up on the ground during taxi and takeoff and landing vs actually getting used in the air.

Like I said, I suspect something related to engine yaw moment plus ground speed perhaps also with some landing gear components like friction or NWS shimmy dampening, honestly it could be alot of things adding up together to give this undesired and uncommanded effect but it is even doing this just trying to taxi straight on the centerline of a taxiway.

Here is a video I made showing the yaw on takeoff

Throwing in my two cents as well since the F-16 is horrid compared to the 18 on take off and landings for this tendency to go four wheeling. The worst for me is on landings. I can control it (most of the time) with massive rudder inputs but then when it slows down to the point where the rudder doesn't have enough authority I have to quickly go to center pedals, turn on NWS and get it under control yet again. Even the 18 doesn't do that on landings. Take offs are no fun time either as I can have to put in quite substantial rudder inputs just to try and keep it centerline on take off. Sad to say but on the super rare times where she doesn't try to go four wheeling I feel like I hit the lottery or something.

I find that adding a little brake at the same time as you steer adds a little stability.

I know it's going to pull to the right, more so with the TGP, so what I do on takeoff is line up just left of centerline, and not go into burner immediately. I give it power until it starts to pull, correct the pull, and when I have it under control, plug in the burner. Landing is not that hard for me to control. I will definitely be glad when ED works this out tho.

This is also very much airfield dependent. I took off from Mezzeh on Syria map and I didn't have to touch the stick. No pods and a balanced load, but straight all the way down the runway. Many runways on Caucasus are also straight and level.

This is also very much airfield dependent. I took off from Mezzeh on Syria map and I didn't have to touch the stick. No pods and a balanced load, but straight all the way down the runway. Many runways on Caucasus are also straight and level.

Indeed. The worst one I've seen on the PG map by far is the Jiroft airfield. If you can keep a 16 on the runway at all or from flipping over on you landing there you are winning. I do believe this horrible drift tendency must be nose wheel related as I've started trying to rotate as soon as possible on take offs now as I've noticed as soon as the nose wheel leaves the runway I can drop all rudder input and she is just fine. Sadly on landings this isn't an option. The bases that are the worst like Jiroft I have to go full opposite rudder and sometimes also just the brake on that one side to try and keep it on the paved surface.

Have we got a fix for this yet. It's got really bad again on DCS. For a while with some updates it seems tuned. 

My viper still pulls to the right on takeoff and even worse with a TGP. 

A slight crosswind of even 1-2kts pushes the Viper. 

Has ED acknowledged an issue?

I just purchased the F-16 during the last sale, and on the ground it is a nightmare to control. I'm using a T-Master HOTAS X and steering with the twist-grip is crazy. Even once I get it straight, when I go hands off it will dive off the right side of the taxiway.

What's worse is that once airborne the haphazard right rudder makes it uncontrollable.

21 minutes ago, flyby169 said:

I just purchased the F-16 during the last sale, and on the ground it is a nightmare to control. I'm using a T-Master HOTAS X and steering with the twist-grip is crazy. Even once I get it straight, when I go hands off it will dive off the right side of the taxiway.

 

What's worse is that once airborne the haphazard right rudder makes it uncontrollable.

You many need to do some mapping.  Chuck's Guides have more information on tuning the axis during setup. 

On 2/22/2021 at 10:32 PM, flyby169 said:

I just purchased the F-16 during the last sale, and on the ground it is a nightmare to control. I'm using a T-Master HOTAS X and steering with the twist-grip is crazy. Even once I get it straight, when I go hands off it will dive off the right side of the taxiway.

 

What's worse is that once airborne the haphazard right rudder makes it uncontrollable.

Try incorporating a slight dead zone on the twist grip.