I've come to the conclusion that I'm not a complete FSX Cheater. I tend to use A/P even on short flights, with my small GA planes. For the longest time I thought I was a cheat, a fake etc...

 

But what I realized is that a lot of FS pilots have yokes. With a yoke you can use your left hand to fly and right hand to work the mouse (I'm right-handed so this would work great). But I have a stick... on the right side of the desk by my mouse. So if my hand is on the mouse making adjustments it's not on the stick. Even if I'm trimmed out (and I find FSX trimming much much harder than in real life), the plane can still go off heading easily (wx/turb) or climb/descend quickly. It's probably my settings but either way it's difficult for me to fly and work the VC at the same time. So I commonly use heading and alt hold to get over this handicap - mostly for IFR flights.

 

How many people use sticks and hand fly all the way?

I usually handfly the RealAir Legacy all the way but recently, since I have Latitude, I tend to use AP to get higher scores... I started with using the AP to 'auto trim' the plane (because YES, trimming sucks in FSX) but I am using the AP more and more to smoothen the ride all the way. Can't say I really like it though (bit boring) so maybe I shouldn't bother too much about what Latitude has to say on my flights. ^_^ Usually I don't really have problems flying with stick and mouse. If necessary (to lower the flaps for instance) I simply fly with my left hand on the stick. I have the stick on my lap though so not on the right side of my desk: that would indeed complicate things...

For me it's actuall quite the same as for you.

I often try to handfly, but on some occasions and on some planes it's just nearly impossible to do that. So what I do is usually setting the AP to altitude hold, but manually adjust my heading. And I always feel like cheating, but on the other hand: who'll find out?

Pretty much the same here, certainly the cruise is on the AP. Not do much the climb/descent unless I am flying the CX or NGX....

 

G

I have the stick on my lap though so not on the right side of my desk: that would indeed complicate things...

 

If it was in my lap or centered I probably would be hand flying a lot more... it's just tricky with both on the right..

Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

I'm right handed, and had always used the mouse with my right hand. Then I got frozen shoulder on the right and couldn't hold my arm in a position to use the mouse for more than a couple of minutes at a time with my right hand. At the time I was playing a game that required constant use of the mouse.

 

So I moved the mouse to my left and started using my left hand. Yeah, it was difficult at first, but at least it wasn't painful. Eventually I got used to using it that way; it took a couple of weeks or more.

 

When I got back into flight simming, I used a joystick quite a bit. The joystick with my right hand was still a problem, but I could deal with it. I found out that having the mouse on the left was great when using a joystick.

 

I've been left-handing the mouse for a couple of years now. Last night I edited a gauge in Photoshop, left handed, no problems. At one point I was thinking, "Hey, I'm doing this left handed!" Yeah, it still surprises me.

 

As for the autopilot, I don't have one on the Dodosim 206 Jetranger helo, but I can still fly for 4 hours. I don't have one on the sailplanes I occasionally fly, but you really can't use on there anyway. I've pretty much stopped using the autopilot on GA aircraft, using the altitude hold for a while before turning it off too. I don't miss it. I even started planning flights so I wouldn't need it anyway, flying up a coastline, down a river, or through mountain passes. I can still track a VOR without a problem, or make ILS landings. If I use an autopilot at all these days, it's altitude hold and heading hold, and very occasionally tracking a VOR.

 

Real world pilots will use the autopilot whenever they can to reduce workload. One commercial pilot said here that he was on autopilot maybe 95% of the time. Some pilots prefer to hand fly to 10,000 feet. There's no reason to fight turbulence for a few hours then be exhausted when it's time to hand fly the landing.

 

Bottom line: use it or not, it's up to you. It's not a cheat. But remember, if the flights become boring, the first thing to think about is turning off the autopilot.

 

Hook

I use the keyboard/mouse when flying the trike or hangglider, I use a joystick for aircraft that is fitted with a stick, and the yoke for aircraft fitted with a yoke... I also have a complete Saitek Pro Flight setup, so I don't need to use the mouse in the VC. I use FSUIPC to customise buttons for different aircraft.

If I'm just flying in a straight line I use the AP. I have a Saitek setup and can't fly without a yoke, pedals and throttles. Right hand uses the mouse to manipulate switches in the vc.

Ryan I use a stick and hand fly and have a hat switch on the stick to trim works perfect I love trimming out perfect I get a little warm feeling from it lol.

I will look up my setting and post them for you. Don't AP to set trim, come on guys.

 

RealAir Legacy is dead easy to trim to perfection

Had a look at my setting for trim and the repeat slider is full LEFT. I set a button (HAT) on my HOTAS so on my stick my thumb is on a HAT to push up or down to trim. Push up for trim down, push down for trim up.

 

How I trim, sorry but I love trimming out I know I must be sad

 

As you come to the ALT you want to cruise at starting bringing back your throttle as your noise begins to drop you will pick up speed, bring back that throttle very smoothly and watch you VSI.

As you hit 0 on the VSI it will not stay there at first unless you know your power/prop setting for a given speed and you hit that perfect speed just as you hit 0 VSI.

 

So now the dance faze as you hit 0 VSI, if you start to gain hight just bring your speed back a little. Just a little. If you start to lose hight, I pull very slightly back on my stick because you will be picking up speed and as you do you will start climbing you VSI back to 0, if not then trim up a bit or just add a very small amount of power. The key is to feel if you aircraft want to go up or down and it's all about balance. I love it. Once you get it right you will never you AP to trim write again.

I spend more time looking at the VSI than any other dial. 500ft climbs and 300-500 descents.

 

Good luck guys it's good fun and get use to looking at you VSI A LOT

Hm... I sometimes have the feeling I am controlling the plane with the trim control instead of with the stick... I also try to get the VSI in the middle and I also use power to correct things, but in the end I often end up clicking trim one notch up and one notch down and it never results in a steady trim. I never had real problems trimming when I flew without Latitude because then I would trim the plane as good as possible and after that it will trim itself at a certain but totally unspecified altitude ^_^ (at which the power and prop had come in perfect balance automatically: I might start trimming at 4500 feet and end up trimmed at 5000 or so). But with Latitude I try to fly and get trimmed at a predeterminded altitude and that's where the trouble begins.... ^_^

In most GA planes if you sit on the left side (as PIC) you actually control the stick with your left hand, and the engine controls with your right hand. Also IMHO using an autopilot in GA planes beats the purpose of flying them. It's not cheating, because modern GA planes are equiped with AP, but for me the purpose of flying GA is to fly the aircraft, not get from point A to B. The avoinics are mostly very simple (compared to airliners), so when using AP there is nothing to do.

I have yoke from microsoft and I have been using the yoke for many years now. When I fly GA plane on short routes ca. 15-30 min I hand fly the plane but 30+ I use auto pilot. When I fly those big jets I use auto pilot to the maximum. I find using the Auto pilot very comfortable yo use and it lighten my work load.

When they develop a chair that tilts to the VSI and HSI without costing an arm and leg, I will fly without AP. I used to fly everywhere by hand watching VSI but after purchasing VoxAtc, trying to follow ATC's sometimes frantic instructions while configuring the aircraft without seat of your pants feedback, I switched to AP

 

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Ive got the whole Saitek Cessna kit including the trim wheel and TPM throttle. On the left of my seat I also have a CH Flightstick Pro which sits on top of a black rectangular Rubbermaid trash can turned upside down. Its very easy to hand fly with the setup, and takeoff, approach, and landing are all hand flown obviously since I do all GA these days. But once in cruise, or even on climb and descent, I almost always turn on the auto pilot on the iPad3 G1000 from Simaonic. Makes CRM a lot easier as I split time looking out the window and following along with iGmap HD on my 2nd iPad Mini.

 

Chris