I have been stuck on this lesson for two weeks now. It seems to get to about 5,300 feet and I am told to descend to 5,000. I try to do that slowly using the yoke and trim. It is a fine-tuning adjustment I assume as I guess I don't want to plummet straight down.While I am trying to follow the instructions and ease down to 5K I get that damn "you are distracted" message and the lesson is cut out from under me. How is one suppposed to learn if I don't have a chance to work with the aircraft and the controls.I really don't get it and while I don't mind the slow learning process being stuck on one lesson for all this time can be very frustrating.Especially if you don't know what the heck you are not doing or what you are doing wrong. That is no way to learn if you don't know or understand what needs to be corrected.Thanks.Louis

hi eagle, you might try some practice flights when not doing a lesson. try getting up to 5500ft and decending to 5000ft. it may take awhile to get the feel of things but eventually you will. once you get the hang of it you'll know how to do it in time and before he starts yapping away. i use stick pressure not movement to ease it where i want it to go. sometimes i used to think the only way was to hamfist the stick but it's not the way to go. try to get a feel for it. good luck. william

You lost me at "stick pressure not movement." I think I know whatyou're saying though. I also think my biggest problem is trimming.Wondering if I am trying to trim to much. I do try to pull back on the power or increase it as well as all the other things. Maybe it will work for me before the next millennium.Thanks for your help.Louis

just enough pressure, not so much movement, to get a response from the aircraft. you're probably doing it right. try one click or tap on the keyboard for a bit of trim and watch the response. then try two and notice the response and give it a moment to settle in. after awhile you'll see how the aircraft response and will know how much input to use. it's also a good idea to use small movements. you could probably almost just use trim to get to your altitude if it's not alot. i know that instructor doesn't give you much time. william

WilliamOne more question on this - what do you consider a lot of trim.I seem to get to 5,300 and have a difficult time getting down to 5K.Louis

Perhaps you're not reducing the throttle enough. R-

for me, alot of trim is the amout you might need during a landing approach. almost all of it. i use alittle throttle to help out also. basically you use as much as you need. william

Trim in FS is really very wrong. Can't be helped with spring loaded joysticks but it does mean you have to `fly` the aircraft with trim more than you might in the real world, where trim is used only to compensate for stick and/or rudder forces so that you can leave the stick where it is (not spring loaded).This is one good reason for going for FS Force if you have a force feedback joystick, or not bothering with FF at all if you don't.For non-FF joysticks witha centering spring, try flying the aircraft with minimal stick movement, as you've been advised, then get the correct climb rate or attitude with trim, WHILE HOLDING THE STICK at the desired position. This helps with reducing the amount of trimming required in flight.Good example is take off. Set t/o trim according to the Book (usually on the t/o trim setting), get the aircraft set up for takeoff in the correct configuration (flaps, prop and mixture levers etc) then start the t/o roll. When you're ready to rotate just pull the stick a FRACTION, hold it there, then switch to adjustng the TRIM until the aircraft flies off. Easy!In flight, think about the other way. Trim the aircraft for level flight at 5,300 feet, with the joystick left alone. Then just push the nose down with the stick, get to 5,000 feet then let the aircraft stabilise. If it was in trim before, it should still be in trim (or very close to it) after.Hope this helps.Allcott

Allcott descripted it very well. I'm a rl g/a pilot and can tell you how to get from 5300Ft to 5000 ;). First of all you never fly an aircraft by trim or do attitude changes with trim! Attitude changes are done with proper yoke input. After the desired attitude as established you trim away the pressure on the yoke to hold that attitude. In FS you do it the exact same way, with the difference that you cannot feel the stick pressure (i'm not sure about FF) so you trim the aircraft to hold the desired pitch attitude. In real world doing VFR flying you hardly use any instrument. But in FS you can use the artificial horizon to observe pitch movement. Alternatively look out of the window and you'll see the pitch movement on the natural horizon.Now to get from 5300ft to 5000 you don't have to change the power setting. Normal descent rate for light g/a planes is 500ft/min, so it takes about 40 seconds to get from 5300 to 5000ft. That should be fast enough as it is only 300ft difference.hope that helps,Claudio

My controller is a CH flight sim yoke. One of the buttons (a rocker swtich) is configured or calibrated for trim up in ne direction and down in the other. Is that what you mean by 'spring loaded.'In Lesson 3 there is no take-off. You begin at 3,000, the instructor with the annoying attempt at humor goes to 4,000 and then it is up to me to go to 5,000 and level there. It hardly gives you time to get a feel before it cuts you off with this is not going well or you seem to be distracted.Previous problems seemed to be due to a faulty CH yoke which amazon replaced for me. CH, in their fine tuned sensibility for customer service (I'm being sarcastic - sorry) was gracious enough to offer me the privilege of sending them $8.00 along with the return of the yoke for them to either repair if needed(?), or determine it was okay. That for a product less than 30 days old.The new one is more responsive plus I was told to calibrate it all the way to the right for sensitivity and to the left for null zone.What do you think?Thanks.Louis

The CH yoke is actually spring-centered - if you pull it back then let it go it springs back toward the centre position. In real life its the forces on the control surfaces that dictate whether or not the controller moves and those forces are absent in the sim, so you have to do it by eye. I think your sensitivity settings are best checked by going to the virtual cockpit of the FS plane and setting the virtual yoke so that it responds similarly to what you are doing with your real yoke. If the sensitivity is too high or the null zone too low you'll see it twitching and moving in tiny increments when you haven't done anything to the CH yoke, and if the null zone is too high then you 'll be putting in what you think is a lot fo control surface movement, but the virtual yoke won't have moved hardly at all.I'll fly that lesson later when I have a bit of spare time and see if there are any other tips, but as I recall FS requires 500fpm+ on climbs and descents to avoid the instructor getting on your case.Allcott

The advice from all of you has been invaluable. I do much better just flying the Cessna as opposed to the lesson (#3) which gives no time to adjust before it cuts you off.Just flying around and adjusting altitude, pitch, power and trim has given me a better handle on things as well as helping to restore my confidence and sanity.Lous

"Just flying around and adjusting altitude, pitch, power and trim has given me a better handle on things as well as helping to restore my confidence and sanity."And, I'll bet that after you practice for a while, then you'll be able to go back and ace lesson 3. R-