Huey Pendular Action - New To DCS

[Bell Driver]

New to DCS. Question on joystick setting in the Huey. I'm a helicopter pilot in real life although i have not flowen a real Huey. I have flown OH58s Jet Rangers AS350s Bell 47s and R22s. 

 

I have a puma flight trainer and I'm loving it very programmable. I'm having a hard time controlling the Huey as it is very sensitive; in the pendular action area. I have the force trim off and I'm familiar with force trim I've used it I'll on the OH58s. No dead zones programmed in setting at the moment. 

 

I have read all the posts on the fourms about this and have not found anything that explains this over exaggerated  pendular action.  Yes helicopters are unstable and initially hard to fly, but once you hit the hover button in training they do become more stable. 

 

Any advice on settings or tricks to make flying the Huey more enjoyable? 

 

Thanks 

[Tanuki44]

The sensitivity of the roll and pitch axes can be adjusted by decreasing the saturation Y value,

it is by testing that you will find what the most correspond to your hardware and your sensations of pilot in real life.

 

A topic here :

 

 

[Bell Driver]

Great! Thanks for the reply, ill try that change in roll and pitch. 

[Bell Driver]

Messed around and find Sat Y at 80 with dead zones of 2 hover closer... thanks again.. I'll keep fine tuning it ...

[Tanuki44]

The deadzone is on center of the joystick, but the equilibrium of the helico is never on the center, I preferred to let 0.

[jumphigh]

Without DCS' style of force trim you need all the way on the cyclic with the Huey. Don't restrict maximum throw (saturation) on cyclic axes! At least on fast forward flight you have to push the stick almost all the way to the front – what you can't do with a saturation of 80% on the pitch axis.

[Tanuki44]

This is an example  for pitch or roll :

 

My Cyclic mechanical course : -35° to +35° for 100% in Windows Joystick manager

In RealLife Cyclic course is : -10° to  +10°

Setting Saturation X to get the most cyclical when it is positioned at + or -10°, (here 70 is the value that corresponds to 10°)

beyond this position the value will not exceed 100%

Saturation Y is used for the sensitivity of the Cyclic, depending on the sensors and hardware, which may explain that 100%, Gazelle is uncontrollable 

In the case of my cyclic, Saturation Y cannot exceed 25%, beyond it's flying on your back constantly.

 

In summary :

Saturation X = Amplitude

Saturation Y = Sensitivity

 

Then everyone settles to their liking 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Tanuki44

[Quadg]

once you get used to flying the huey and getting her in trim the pendular action becomes a lot less to non existent .

I think its exaggerated in the sim to give the pilot feedback that they are not getting from "feels"/"seat of the pants"

 

its as much about getting your feet in trim as well as the cyclic. ie the whole airframe. balancing the two.

after 1000s of hours I fly her smooth. and I'm not constantly stirring the soup with the cyclic.

 

i fly with no curves or saturation, on a short joystick, with no spring and a good set of pedals.

think of the wobble as trim feedback. and its either cyclic or pedals that are slightly out.

 

[Tanuki44]

Yes, but flying with a short joystick or a replica of a true cyclic is different in the settings because of the amplitudes of movements.

[randomTOTEN]

I suggest against manipulating saturation values. You either make your joystick more sensitive, or you loose range of control motion. I suggest you experiment with control curves to compensate for hardware geometry/sensor quality. The overwhelming majority of users use this technique across multiple simulators and decades of simulation.