20 hours ago, PCFlightSQL said:

For some reason I can't get the planes to trim properly. Am I missing a setting? I have trim adjusted to neutral, I'll be flying then the nose keeps sinking, I have to PULLLLL back to bring it back up, adjust the trim and it stays for a few minutes, then starts to dive again. Its just not stable. Any ideas?

Some of it will depend on the weather, some on the weight. Keep in mind that the weight of an aeroplane (unless it is a glider) is always changing when it is in flight with the engines running.

A 747 for example, loses about 34 pounds of weight for every mile it cruises, which if you think about it, equates to the weight change which would occur if two passengers got off the plane every five minutes or so. Now most of this weight loss is fairly central to the aeroplane and so its effect on CoG is neutralised quite a lot, but if the speed remains the same, the aeroplane will constantly be creating slightly too much lift to remain at a steady altitude if it is currently trimmed for level flight.

One of the funniest things I've seen in recent years, was conspiracy theorists claiming that this pic and others like it...

...was evidence that airliners were being used to spray 'chemtrails'. Of course it is actually the test equipment used to pump water around the inside of an airliner when it is being tested, since it can simulate the weight shift which occurs on board with people moving around inside the aeroplane. If this doesn't tell you that even a big aeroplane can be tricky to trim for perfectly level flight, and the makers have to test this, I don't know what would.

So unfortunately, and contrary to popular belief, the trim lever in an aeroplane is not a magic button which you only have to set once. Even more unfortunately, in most flight simulator aeroplanes it's harder to set the trim than it is in the real thing, since in the real thing you can often just hold the stick or yoke where you want it, and then move the trim until you feel it holding the control in that position. With a flight sim we don't have that luxury.

So, what I do, is configure two buttons on my throttle as up/down trim controls, zap one of them a few times, then loosen up on the joystick to see if it holds level, if not, I repeat the process until I've overcooked it, then back it off to where it is correct with the other button. With practice you can do this quickly. I put those buttons on the throttle rather than the stick so that they can be easily pressed without affecting the stick position.

As others have note, regardless of trim, you will always lose altitude in a turn unless you do something about it, either increasing thrust or pulling the stick back a little to increase the AoA. Keep in mind though that in a turn, your stall speed increases and so does your angle of attack (which creates more drag), so pulling back too hard on the stick in a turn could make you stall and/or spin, which is why most people would probably add some power in a turn to get some speed on the clock.

5 hours ago, n4gix said:

It is perfectly normal to require some back pressure on the yoke/stick while turning due to the asymmetrical lift on the wings.

Right but It should just nose dive right after, then require me to keep spinning the trim wheel. When switching to the external view and seeing the trim setting, its up all the way at 94, and I can just keep trimming it out forever.

On 8/20/2020 at 12:24 PM, Chock said:

Some of it will depend on the weather, some on the weight. Keep in mind that the weight of an aeroplane (unless it is a glider) is always changing when it is in flight with the engines running.

I can understand this, however if I am flying level, and do a 4 degree bank turn, that shouldn't require me to forcefully pull the yolk back to get out of a nose dive and keep it pulled back until I hold the trim setting button for 10 seconds to get the nose back level. I can take a video as well but something/setting must not be working. If Trim is the only adjustable option, I have that set correctly.  Just thinking I have either something else controlling the pitch up/down, or its the USB joystick controller board I put in the Saitek to by pass the OEM board, which shouldn't really mess with anything you would think. 

 

I'll keep trying various settings! Thank you all

Edited August 28, 20205 yr by n4gix
Removed rediculously and unnecessary long quote!

14 hours ago, andyjohnston.net said:

As of my posting, you have posted to the forum 8 times.  I'm sure each of them was to complain that the program didn't do things exactly as you liked.  If you have nothing constructive to offer...

You are correct, I am aware that I've been posting a lot of negative stuff since I registered here and I am about to chill and just let it go. It's just that I get so frustrated when buying something that just doesn't work. All games and software have bugs initially but this is something else. It does do a A LOT of things right (the scenery, weather, clouds, lighting are just mindblowing) but what it does wrong just destroys that (for me at least).

Anyway...I'll stay away now and sorry if I offended anyone. "Hopefully" something is wrong with my setup and/or hardware. If that is not the case then I truly hope my expectations or skills are wrong and others can enjoy the simulator much better than I can. Because it is almost art when looking at it.

Peace

Edited August 21, 20205 yr by flightsim1818

Don't worry mate, a lot of us actually feel the same way you do. It's an amazing piece of software that has enormous potential, but that shouldn't stop a reasonable discussion about things that need improvement. Especially if parts were considerably hyped in the lead up to release, and actually appear as a step backwards when compared to previous versions that are a decade+ older.

Extreme polarity, and the mentality of being either with us or against us is omni preset in society at the moment. Unfortunately that means here at times too.

7 hours ago, PCFlightSQL said:

if I am flying level, and do a 4 degree bank turn, that shouldn't require me to forcefully pull the yolk back to get out of a nose dive

absolutely not. 

45 degree banks, yes that requires substantial amount of aft force (and notch of power as you pass 30 degrees) but 4 degree is nothing...

FWIW... After piloting a real B747-400 for many years and enjoying simming with the PMDG aircraft in FSX and P3D, FS2020 definitely has some flight modelling issues. I tried a B747 landing challenge last night and let’s just say it wasn’t very pretty. (Except for the scenery) 

Even after adjusting the sensitivities I couldn’t get it to feel even close to what it should be. And I had to fight the aircraft all the way to the ground. I too noticed a pitch down tendency requiring more than sufficient elevator force to recover.

However no complaints of course since I’ll be waiting patiently for the 3rd party study level aircraft to roll into my FS2020 hangar. 

In the meantime my kids are having lots of fun with it.

Edited August 21, 20205 yr by Iceman2

I’m not a pilot and have limited experience with this sim (3 days) 😉

But I’m also finding it insanely difficult to trim a plane (152 or 208B). I thought the whole point of trim was so that I didn’t need to apply constant pressure on the elevator. But normally my planes want to constantly climb, so I try to trim and it goes into a dive, then I trim up slightly and stall.

What am I missing? Is it the throttle? Should I be trying to level the plane with the throttle first? It almost seems easier to make fine adjustments to pitch attitude using the throttle vs the elevator or the trim.  

Whats the correct way to get stable level flight?

 

It's normal for those nose to dip on a turn isn't it, and then re-trim when level. That's been the same on any simulated aircraft I've flown, I thought that was one of those weird flying principles. 

55 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

Whats the correct way to get stable level flight?

 

In a PA28 (I assume the same is correct for C152/C172) we were taught the following:

Say you are trimmed for climb at Vy (ca 80kts) and 500fpm climb and want to transition to level flight. Roughly 50ft before intended level off altitude (10% of climb rate) you will push the yoke forward let the airspeed build up, coarse trim nose down, and then reduce to cruise power followed by fine adjustment of trim to get rid of any force of the yoke.

Below is a YT clip where a CFI gives several advices on how to fly a C172. skip to 2:50 to watch level off procedure. It is basicly the same as in the Piper.

 

Edited August 21, 20205 yr by SAS443

Are your flaps up? Just asking...

24 minutes ago, RudyB24 said:

Are your flaps up? Just asking...

Not sure who you’re asking but I’ve only been using flaps on landing, not take off. 

OK, another possible cause ruled out.

I can't think of any other 'checklist' points. If throttle is at say 80%, mixture is OK and flaps are up, it should be possible to find a trim for level flight. If not ... something is wrong ... but what?

 

I'm spit balling  here . Do you have another controller to plug in , even if it's just a game pad/ xbox controller to rule out the stick.

On 8/19/2020 at 9:42 PM, PCFlightSQL said:

For some reason I can't get the planes to trim properly. Am I missing a setting? I have trim adjusted to neutral, I'll be flying then the nose keeps sinking, I have to PULLLLL back to bring it back up, adjust the trim and it stays for a few minutes, then starts to dive again. Its just not stable. Any ideas?

This problem has been occurring to me aswell, at random intervals. Most recent one was during a descent my trim started pushing my plane nose up very steeply, I checked the trim and it set itself to max. Turned it back down and it went back up again by itself.