Hello fellow simmers!I have one question: when I set the pax in FS2k4 C172 (default or RealAir 172) to have only the pilot, it gets a strong tendency to roll to the left. If I have a pilot and copilot, it flies ok. I do understand that changes in pax settings affects the CG thus affecting flying characteristics, but my question is: is the roll tendency that strong in a real 172?I'm not a real world pilot so I'd like some light from the gurus...ThanksMarcelo

FS kind of over does the effects of lateral CG. I always add pilot and copilot weights, divide by two and enter that, so to keep them even.

So this applies to all ac in fs9? Like if load up a Caravan with 6 pax and have the pilot weigh 20 pounds more than any other pax than it will also fly like the left wing is made of lead? :-OI thought the introduction of the pax config was a very nice feature in fs9, but it seems that it doesn't work as intended... (another bug?)Thanks for the reply, though.Marcelo

FS2002 was the same way. In FS2002 I always edited the aircraft.cfg with my custom load before a flight. It's not a big deal, just make sure the left and right sides are equal. If you want to simulate a 200 lb. pilot and a 120 lb. copilot, just enter 160 for each side.If you don't want to do that, an easy fix you can do is edit the aircraft.cfg file and change the lateral distances to 0.This is the W/B section from the default 172:station_load.0 = "170, -3.0, -1.5, 0.0, Pilot"station_load.1 = "170, -3.0, 1.5, 0.0, Front Passenger"station_load.2 = "0, -6.2, -1.5, 0.0, Rear Passenger"station_load.3 = "0, -6.2, 1.5, 0.0, Rear Passenger"station_load.4 = "0, -8.0, 0.0, 0.0, Baggage"Change the third numbers to 0.0 and it won't affect the lateral CG anymore.

Many developers regularly shift weight to non standard positions for the stated reason above that both lateral and (I think)longditudinal shifts tend to make FS over-react.Partly for this reason we placed the baggage in the RealAir 172 actually in front of the pilot in order to stop excessive tail heavy flying if the user put too much baggage in the hold.One persistent poster in another forum (the name of which I will spare you) peppered that forum with relentless and long winded diatribes entirely rubbishing our work (having not actually flown our 172) just because we put the baggage hold a couple or so feet away from it's nominal position.In retrospect we should perhaps have brought the pilots in closer too, to stop the excessive roll with uneven loadings. Just goes to show, sim aircraft don't always work with the "correct" values, which is why tweaking is a global activity!Rob Young

Okay... that sounds like a good interim solution until MS comes up with a fix for this. Maybe we could reduce the over-reacting of FS9 by changing the 3rd number to a value close but not zero. In this way we keep the effects on lateral CG but with a more real-life behavior.Thanks for the suggestions!!Marcelo

That's what I thought Rob, that this is a bug in FS9, since RA's ac and default ac tend to have that behavior.For RA's 172, I didn't know you shifted the baggage area... interesting solution.As I said in the other reply, maybe we can change the default 1.5 to something like 0.3 or 0.5 and still keep the lateral effect but with less intensity.Thanks for the post and also thanks for the great work you've done!Marcelo

But the 172 does tend to roll to the left....and the Yaw is very pronouced too..in the real 172. I understand that the Left Yawing is less pronounced in the Piper.Infact... after performing manuevers in the 172 for an hour or so...my right leg hurts....cause of the constant Right rudder that I have to apply.Only when cruseing... do I not have to use the right rudder. cause the Engine block is positioned such a way..(Right of the longetudenal (spl?) axis to offset the left rolling tendency..I find the Real172 do that part fairly well. JMO.But I need to try the weight shift.. tending to exagerate the roll even more.

I find this to be a problem with the new Maule that was released as well. If anybody knows how to load balance that airplane I would appreciate it. I never use the FS9 weight and balance editor because I think its buggy and will ruin a well planned FDE.Eric