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Spitfire Too Sensitive in Pitch? Solution!


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Hello Spitfire pilot!

 

A lot of newcomers to this module find her very twitchy in pitch, with her powerful elevators and neutral static stability.

 

However, much of the fault lies not with EDs modelling, or your skills as a virtual pilot - it comes down to ergonomics and stick geometry, and crucially an enourmous mis-match between the physical dimensions of the real spitfire control column and the average PC desktop joystick controller.

 

The biggest issue here is trying to get your hardware set-up properly using the axis curve editor in the control bindings.

 

Bear in mind the full scale Spitfire control column was some ~900 mm from it's pivot point to the top of the stick; actual test flight data shows that to reach critical AoA from trim neutral required only 3/4" of stick displacement - that's 19.5mm; this equates to ~1.2° of stick rotation. So even in the real aircraft it required something of a light touch.

 

The trouble starts when you scale this down to the 15-20cm moment arm of a typical desktop joystick - that results in a required stick displacement to stall the plane of only 3-4mm.

 

3-4mm!!!

 

This makes it very very difficult to fly.

 

The trick is to adjust your curves so that it gives you a stick displacement more analogous to the real thing.

 

I have a MSFFB2 with a pivot to top stick length of ~19cm and these are my custom control curves:

 

0 2 4 6 8 12 16 22 30 50 100

 

Please see my video for further info:

 

 

Bear in mind that the longer the joystick you use the less shallow that initial gradient on the curve will need to be; ultimately it will take some trial and error on your behalf with the hardware you own to find a sweet spot you are happy with.

 

Hope this makes your Spitfire flying a more controllable and pleasant experience. Good luck!

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  • 10 months later...

This curve value, or any other modification to axis causes drastic changes in trim values. in default linear axis, a little nose up trim(pointing first line up on elevator trim indicator) while taking off prevents undesired pitch up or down. I had difficulty in trimming plane with control curves. with the same take off condition, i had to apply heavy nose down trim to prevent heavy pitch up behaviour. Is this an expected experience with ms ffb2?

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  • 2 months later...
On 11/20/2020 at 11:01 PM, bephanten said:

This curve value, or any other modification to axis causes drastic changes in trim values. in default linear axis, a little nose up trim(pointing first line up on elevator trim indicator) while taking off prevents undesired pitch up or down. I had difficulty in trimming plane with control curves. with the same take off condition, i had to apply heavy nose down trim to prevent heavy pitch up behaviour. Is this an expected experience with ms ffb2?

 

Yes Bephanten. Unfortunately the FFB axis does not compensate for changes to the displacement curvature.

 

I too own an FFB stick. For Takeoff I find I am using 1 division nose down trim (according to the in cockpit Elevator Trim gauge) but then as I adopt a cruise this moves to two divisions nose down. As speed drops for landing approach I go to 2 divisions nose up.

 

Alas this is a known issue with using any axis curvature setting and an FFB stick in DCS. I'd rather have the increased control resolution where it counts and deal with the trim issues as they are manageable, if mildly inconvenient.


Edited by DD_Fenrir
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  • 5 weeks later...

Hi, I have just read this and find it most interesting. I too have been fighting to get my controls adjusted properly. I find in say max power continues setting I have the nose trim up one not notch just top stop the nose dropping as soon a I let the stick go. I spend almost as much time faffing around with control settings as I do flying.

Doc

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