XPlane11 Saitek yoke pitch problems

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Hello all,

I have to admit that I am my wits end here and need some guidance.

I have a Saitek yoke (early model) which I find is impossible to smoothly land an aircraft... but... only in xplane 11 P3D is all OK.

What happens is that regardless of response curve or sensitivity adjustments, when on last bit of finals (500fpm descent) the slightest back movement of the yoke goes from the 500fpm descent into a 3000fpm climb. Try that for landing LOL.

To alleviate the problem and try to sort this out permanently, I invested in some hall effect sensors and replaced the Saitek potentiometers. This has been an exercise in futility in that nothing has changed, so the potentiometers were not the problem. I have spent hours and hours adjusting the response curve and playing around with the sensitivities to no avail.

If it were not for the fact that P3Dv4.5 uses the yoke normally, I would be investing in the Leo Bodnar board and I may still do that.

I have reset yoke defaults, I have re-downloaded and installed Xplane 11 (that in itself, using Canadian HIGH Headwinds is a 17 hour exercise loading only Australian scenery.) but I still have the problem.

However, I would like to know if anyone else is having this problem and if so what are they doing, or what has been done to fix it. I have watched youtube videos on how to add and edit the response curve and for sure there is a little difference.

Please note that the "Roll" axis appears to be quite normal. At the moment I have the response curve for the pitch almost flat-lined on the bottom and I still have this catastrophic response for every landing. Can anybody tell me what I am doing wrong at this stage.

Regards

Tony

[Murmur 3,941]

Hmmm... Some more info could be helpful. What aircraft are you using? Does it only happen in a specific aircraft or all of them? How is the pitch response in manual flight in cruise? How is it in landing configuration/speed but in straight and level flight?

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Murmur,

Hello mate and thanks for your response.

All aircraft are affected but in varying degrees. Worst is the light aircraft (Aerobask DA62) and best is probably the Zibo range, ie the bigger the better. Pitch up is the worst aspect.

Pitch response in cruise is much the same, but I would add that I also have a Saitek trim wheel which can also be very erratic. Again, I can go from level flight to a power climb with the slightest movement. I do not know if this is relevant either, but applying incremental flaps also pitches up at a remarkable angle momentarily.  

Landing configuration is the absolute worst, in that, I am finding it almost impossible to flare the aircraft. With the DA62 with the most gentle of flares at about 10 feet, I can gain 300 feet in the blink of an eye.

As previously stated, fiddling with the response curve makes a difference but not a great deal. Default parameters is unflyable.... sorry I will amend that ... normal flight is controllable but landing is definitely not.

Regards

Tony

[Murmur 3,941]

Try setting both control sensitivities and stability augmentation sliders to full right (should be 6 sliders in total, although you could also try only the 2 pitch sliders).

Other than that I don't know what else could it be... Have you done a flight controls re-calibration inside x-plane?

Maybe someone else will chime in.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Murmur,

I have tried both those sliders at about 2 mm changes all along the sliders. Just the pitch ones. Again a difference but not enough to sort out the problem.

I have calibrated both in Xplane, P3D and Windows .... not the slightest bit of difference.

I have tried all three(Cubic, Catmull Rom and Linear) Edit response curves and again varying degrees of partial success.

Further, I am aware of the many Saitek yoke pitch and roll "fixes" but other than changing potentiometers to the Hall Effect sensors. I have not bothered with the rest at this time.  This is mainly due to the fact that the yoke is working almost to perfection with P3Dv4 ... absolutely no problems at all.

Logically, for me, at least, it is an XPlane problem but I have no idea how to fix it. I know a lot of people have complained about the "flare" sensitivity in XPlane and some of the YouTube Saitek Mod fixes seem to be innovative and effective. There is however, a world of difference between P3D and Xplane.

I do not know what other information I can tell you, or others, that could help me with this. 

Maybe a new, unaffordable Honeycomb yoke ???? LOL

Tony  

 

[GACSavannah 227]

I have nothing to offer you at the moment, but will be trying a few things, as I have the exact same problem in XP-11. The yoke works just fine all the way to the flare, then the very slightest pitch up is as if I pulled all the way back.

[Pevenhull 39]

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=saitek+flight+yoke+large+dead+zone&docid=608030883661939980&mid=F162659383C5F205C41BF162659383C5F205C41B&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Here's the fix.

The Saitek Yoke firmware in it's internal card is to blame, so bypass it by installing a A-D converter card. The Bodnar card is for this situation.

Cheers.

[mickatmian 52]

On 11/27/2019 at 12:34 AM, himmelhorse said:

Maybe a new, unaffordable Honeycomb yoke ???? LOL

I had exactly the same problem with the Saitek yoke. Wasted days/weeks trying to fix it. I feel the sticky shaft was/is the problem, tried bungy cords more grease etc.

Gave up and binned it, bought a Honeycomb, no more problems. The pitch action is a little on the stiff side but with its steel shaft and bearings it is as smooth as silk. worth every penny/cent.

Mick

oops just realised the original post was in 2019. too the op hope you got it fixed!

Edited August 8, 2020 by mickatmian
text correction