P-51: First Impressions

[MonsterZero]

Looks gorgeous and sounds are awesome but what's up with the pitch axis stability? As I bring the stick towards me, even using the most gentle motions, the aircraft immediately stalls and rolls, generally to the left. The stalls are pretty violent.

 

Any ideas?

[ophiuchus]

Track would be very helpful in understanding your problem. Maybe those movements aren't gentle enough? Or maybe configuration of your controllers causes this behavior? Any details on the type of stick you are using?

[Nealius]

Probably pulling to hard. At greater than 250mph you should be able to pull 4Gs or more without a problem at lower altitudes. I noticed at higher altitudes you have to be really gentle on the stick.

[Fishbreath]

It's probably just unfamiliarity with the Mustang—4-5g at 250-350mph and low-level is about all you can do without exceeding AoA limits.

[Anatoli-Kagari9]

Been there... done that...

 

Nowadays I even check the settings because sometimes I think it changed to game mode with assisted rudder... Its' all so damn easy now, provided you respect it's limits :-)

[ARM505]

Again, IRL aircraft like this respond (especially at high speed) to what feels like mere pressure that you apply to the stick. And in turn, the stick 'hardens up' as the IAS increases, which you can easily feel. In a sim you have none, or very little of this feedback, and a tiny short-throw stick. So what feels like an effortless and reasonable stick deflection on your sim stick would be way too much IRL.

[Ich666]

On a FFB stick you can feel the stick getting stiffer (as weird as this sounds) and it starts to shake a tiny bit as you approach stall. For non-FFB sticks you have to watch the aircraft pretty closely for vibrations.

[bilbosmeggins]

It might be worth just checking the axis assignments as the sim likes to be a bit random out of the box. When I first tried the mustang I found that the throttle had been assigned to control the rudder. Just a thought......

[Fakaro]

Your control settings could be overly sensitive. You might want to check that first. It sounds like you're generating too much pitch rate, causing an accelerated stall.

 

As for the real P-51, at low altitudes, at around 350mph, it should easily reach it's design load limits of 6.4G at max gross weight. I have 5 hours in Crazy Horse (working on my P-51 LOA), and have had no trouble flying it to the design limits.

[MonsterZero]

On a FFB stick you can feel the stick getting stiffer (as weird as this sounds) and it starts to shake a tiny bit as you approach stall. For non-FFB sticks you have to watch the aircraft pretty closely for vibrations.

 

Any good force feedback sticks out there? I have MS Sidewinder somewhere, haven't used it in a while. I'm currently wired for Saitek X52 but I will consider switching to FF just to fly the Mustang.

 

Damn, the Logitech FF system with the throttle was beautiful, but it's out of production, forever, and people are asking hundreds of dollars for it, $1000 for a brand new one.

Edited July 1, 2013 by MonsterZero

[Python]

I think we all had this problem, I maintain that it spins out far too easily but then I don't own an P51 so what do I know ;) Reduce your sensitivities, clear all other control options that may be set for axis movement and then practice, practice, practice! :thumbup:

[sobek]

Damn, the Logitech FF system with the throttle was beautiful, but it's out of production, forever, and people are asking hundreds of dollars for it, $1000 for a brand new one.

 

Which is ridiculous since everything that is not the sticks x and y axis is of rather poor quality on that stick. Especially the firmware.