Is this the secret of "feeling real'?? (and a test to p

[Guest]

First, I'm not a pilot (have had a total of maybe 10 minutes controlling a real Cessna 172), so what I'm really looking for is confirmation (or correction) from experienced pilots--here's the point. For a long time, I've just felt some planes in FS2K2 seem to handle more realistically that others, and feel as though you are actually moving through air rather than on rails. Just today, I noticed a particular behavior (in Bill Lyons' delightful Waco) that reminded me of other good feeling planes---and here's the question of experienced pilots--if you fly a real light plane and induce a quick, nearly snap roll right or left maybe 20-30 degrees or so and immediately neutralize the ailerons, what actually does happen?? When you do this in Bill Lyons' planes (and also in Rob Young's airfile-equipped MS Cessna 182's to a lesser extent), the plane continues the roll but with diminishing rate for almost a second, maybe a bit more. To me, this seems very reasonable, because the plane should have a lot of angular momentum about the roll axis, and it doesn't make sense that the roll should stop abruptly. However, in most light planes including the Dreamfleet Archer, PSS Bulldog and other very nice craft, the roll is attenuated very quickly, in some cases (Cessna 185), almost instantly. To me, this makes the planes seem very (artificially)stable and kind of "wooden" in their response, and affects how the plane feels in crosswinds with turbulence. So I'm wondering if this "roll inertia" is a valid criterion for judging the "feel" of a plane,or does it vary so much in reality from plane to plane that it may mean nothing. In any event, I have been having a real ball flying the Waco biplanes and would like to believe they reach a new high in realistic feel. Any thoughts?Richard Ball

[michal 44]

Roll inertia is a valid phenomena. Laws of physics can't be neglected.Michael J.

[Guest]

If you push the yoke right or left the first thing that happens (in a light a/c) is that the nose is gonna turn in the opposite direction. (still waiting to see that in a sim). Then the plane will tend to resume its horizontal position at a rate which, I would venture, is variable depending on the areodynamic characteristics of the a/c, but in my experience (PA 19: VERY light a/c), quite high.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Good post--It's fairly easy to give any light aircraft the type of "feel" you talk about in FS2002. The moment of inertia values in the aircraft.cfg are the parameters to increase, although sometimes you have to compensate by also increasing the aileron effectiveness parameter (or elevator & rudder, depending on the inertia value you adjust). Increasing these values tends to mimic the type of behaviour you mention.I've also noticed that some of the third party flight dynamics improvement files have increased the inertia parameters. Inertia values set too low tend to cause an aircraft to become unstable at higher speeds, even before redline. They also create the "flying on rails" sense that many dislike. Sometimes, this is by design--an A/C designer might prefer to mimic instability when exceeding redline speeds, rather than mimic inertia--in FS it is very hard to do both. I'd rather have realistic inertia. The trick is in getting it "just right". The Flight1 421C comes pretty close....There's a fourth inertia value that, when adjusted, can cause that moment of opposite yaw mentioned in one of the responses to your post. I had one third party A/C that did this, and I was caught by surprise until I saw the entry in the aircaft.cfg....-John