FSX:SE Virtualcol Do328JET ground spoilers..

[HighBypass 2,339]

I've not played around much with this aircraft, or indeed some other which I obtained during SimMarket's wonderful 1 a day giveaway.

I believe that on the Do328JET that there are no speedbrakes, only ground spoilers which deploy on landing. Fine by me so far... I took the Dornier out for a brief hop. I did a full flap landing and the spoilers deployed as they should. What I didn't expect was quite a vicious and pronounced pitch up when they did so! 😰

I don't believe that the real aeroplane exhibits such behaviour. 😄

Anyone else have similar experiences, is there a workaround apart from be ready to push the stick forward? Cheers.

[Chock 17,769]

The real thing has a trim button on the yoke and you do have to use it because the Dornier 328 is a bit of a pocket rocket. So if you don't have a couple of the thumb buttons on your stick or yoke set up for trimming, then I'd recommend doing that. Of course trimming in FSX/P3D is a bit ropey and not like the real thing, which is of course much easier, so you might want to give this (payware) add-on a try if that bothers you; it works, but it's a bit of a faff to get it set up in your sim, since you have to create a virtual joystick with it. I have the P3D version of it, but the FSX version is the same. £18 quid is a bit on the steep side for a simple add-on, but in fairness, it does make trimming more realistic, which for me, is one of the things I hope the new MS sim addresses as a matter of priority, because it's not very realistic by default in either FSX or P3D.

If I recall correctly, the real aeroplane comes over the fence at about 110 knots at most weights, so I guess if you are a little hot then than might account for some ballooning when the lift dump spoilers kick in. Generally speaking, the real thing pitches down about 3 degrees when you pop a flap setting on. So trimming it is something you'd have to keep doing on the approach unless you wanted to hold it on the stick all the way in.

We have to bear in mind that as much as I like Virtualcol's cheap and cheerful add-ons (and unlike most people who got it as a recent freebie, I bought all their stuff including the Dornier), they are decent lookalikes which basically fly more or less like the real thing, but they are in no way the kind of thing which exhibits every real nuance of the real aeroplane, so you might just have to live with that little quirk.

 

[HighBypass 2,339]

Hi Al,

No worries, I do have trim up/down configured on two buttons on my HOTAS X stick. IIRC I did come in a little hot! 😄 

Hmm. interesting add-on, I never knew it existed until you posted the link. I'll live with my incorrect FSX trim for now 😉 Do you know off hand if decent payware aircraft bypass this feature with their own code - A2A and SimWorks for example?

Yep, I'm well aware of Virtualcol's products, thanks to you and others on AVSIM. To be fair I'm pleasantly surprised with the "bells & whistles" available in the acceptable VC - the different menu pages on the MFDs for example and the gust lock & fuel levers on the throttles to name a couple. (I've yet to have a play with their free ATR72 from a while ago). Cheers.

[Chock 17,769]

27 minutes ago, HighBypass said:

Do you know off hand if decent payware aircraft bypass this feature with their own code - A2A and SimWorks for example?

I've not seen them do anything like that little add-on, but then again I don't have everything they've ever made so who knows? From your own experience of piloting small aeroplanes, I'm sure you know that trimming the elevator is normally just a case of moving the stick to where you want it and then moving the trim to a point where the stick and the nose of the aeroplane stays there when you let go.

That's a process which for a flight sim to emulate it properly, would require perhaps a force-feedback controller with a motor that could either hold the stick at an offset, or possibly move it to an offset and then reset that position as the new 'zero'. The latter of the two is kind of what that little add-on does (albeit with you hand having moved things rather than a motor). I suppose in practical terms, that method means - theoretically at least - it would be possible to run out of travel, although in practice you can always simply reset the thing. So it is a bit of a tricky one because we don't have the airflow actually acting on any control surfaces in a sim.

I'm pretty sure that, like a lot of things in flight sims, if somebody who had only ever flown in a flight sim then went in a real aeroplane, they'd be pleasantly surprised how much easier things such as trimming the elevators is in the real thing.

[HighBypass 2,339]

True facts. Similarly I was surprised how easy it was to hover my Raptor 30 nitro RC helicopter after getting to grips with smaller, fixed pitch helis.

Actually when I had a look at the SimWorks F-4 the stick in the VC moves appropriately when I operated the trim buttons programmed on my joystick. Obviously this is only a graphical display and I don't know for sure if I can still use the full extent of the stabilator movement in the sim; say full up stab is available even after trimming aft...