I was thinking about what might turn the flight dynamics more realistic in xp and the hinge forces/moments came to my mind.

 

I usually feel that the control inputs in xp happen as if there were no hinge forces/moments, thus making it possible to input huge deflections at any speed. I don't know how these forces and moments are simulated in xp, but maybe they aren't being properly translated to the mapping of control surface deflections.

 

Even in an old time sim like ELITE, and even not using the fancy hardware with force feedback that sim is prepared to accept, if one fully deflects the controls at high speed the reponse will be slow and either the G-limit is exceeded or it'll take a lot of time deflecting the control for it to have some eficacy. This simulates the force that a pilot would have to apply to her/his rudder/yoke/etc if trying such deflections in RL.

I usually feel that the control inputs in xp happen as if there were no hinge forces/moments, thus making it possible to input huge deflections at any speed.

 

Inside Plane Maker, there are 2 settings of interest:

 

1) phase out: with this setting, one can specify max control deflection below a certain speed, and max control deflection above a certain second speed. Between the two speeds, max control deflection is linearly phased out;

 

2) control deflection speed: with this setting, one can specify the time it takes to fully deflect the specified control (elevator, ailerons, rudder);

 

Not perfect, but better than nothing as a first approximation.

 

If deflection speed could be specified in relation to airspeed, that would be even better.

 

All control deflections can be easily managed with a plugin though. Control deflections datarefs are directly accessible.

 

 

Marco