SimWorks Studios – Kodiak purchase?

[jcomm 5,936]

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

(Leaving aside the imprecise terminology, no idea what "twitchy" is supposed to mean exactly. 

It means it's often referenced in "Twitch TV"...

[Stearmandriver 2,296]

2 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

If your plane feels twitchy, it's a) your controller isn't properly configured or b) you're not following proper procedures.

(Leaving aside the imprecise terminology, no idea what "twitchy" is supposed to mean exactly. Without some documentation actually showing the issue, we can't really properly troubleshoot the OP's probems).

1.  As has already been specified, if it was a controller issue it would affect all aircraft in all sims, right? 

2.  Ever flown a Pitts?  A Pitts is twitchy. It's supposed to be, and that's a positive in its case.  A Kodiak is not supposed to be.  (I mean an actual Pitts or similar, not Asobo's rendition.)  It refers to the aircraft's lack of feel of inertia, or sense of smoothness.  Any control deflection results in immediate and aggressive response by the aircraft, instead of a sense that your control input is gradually overcoming the aircraft's natural tendency to continue flying straight and level. 

The odd thing is that when MSFS aircraft are affected by this, it's always in pitch and yaw.  Roll response tends not to be affected.  I'm thinking it's something in the base sim that some FM devs work around, and some don't. 

[Bobsk8 12,728]

2 minutes ago, Stearmandriver said:

1.  As has already been specified, if it was a controller issue it would affect all aircraft in all sims, right? 

2.  Ever flown a Pitts?  A Pitts is twitchy. It's supposed to be, and that's a positive in its case.  A Kodiak is not supposed to be.  (I mean an actual Pitts or similar, not Asobo's rendition.)  It refers to the aircraft's lack of feel of inertia, or sense of smoothness.  Any control deflection results in immediate and aggressive response by the aircraft, instead of a sense that your control input is gradually overcoming the aircraft's natural tendency to continue flying straight and level. 

The odd thing is that when MSFS aircraft are affected by this, it's always in pitch and yaw.  Roll response tends not to be affected.  I'm thinking it's something in the base sim that some FM devs work around, and some don't. 

I have flown as a passenger with one or two low time student pilots in a 172, and when they were flying the 172 was "twitchy". Some aircraft like the DC6 and the Kodiak and the Mooney are not twitchy, some of the default aircraft are. 

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

Just out of curiosity what fuel and load are people flying with ?

Obviously jumping in an empty plane with 50% fuel is going to be  a lot more "twitchy" than with a realistic load.

[por930 51]

4 hours ago, tup61 said:

Perhaps some people tune their controllers too much...? Or perhaps specific hardware simply is more sensitive? I use a rather basic Logitech Extreme 3D Pro and I can't remember ever looking at options like curves etc. and my Kodiak isn't twitchy, at least not in my personal experience. Maybe I am just used to how my controller works and perhaps someone else might find the Kodiak completely uncontrollable on my PC... but it's fine for me. It's all very personal.

I use the exact same controller. Normally, in flight sim, I fly the heavy metal. Have done for years first in FSX, then in P3D. This controller has worked great with these types of a/c. I suppose, their heavy nature makes the control surfaces heavy, and less responsive to quick reactions. Flying light a/c  in P3d, like the the Alabeo Extra 300, while being very responsive, it felt controllable. The other light a/c, eg, the Carenado AC11 Commando is pretty stable.  I now transfer over to MSFS, and I notice the flight characteristics are different with the same controller, especially with the light a/c. Maybe it is a MSFS thing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

[por930 51]

19 minutes ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Just out of curiosity what fuel and load are people flying with ?

Obviously jumping in an empty plane with 50% fuel is going to be  a lot more "twitchy" than with a realistic load.

I always make a point of loading the a/c with at least 50% fuel and 40% cargo, otherwise landing can be a bit bouncy.

[Twenty6 693]

v1.0.24

Anyone care to look at the Fuel/Load window for the Kodiak non-pod. With just the pilot (170lb) and 50% fuel I have

Payload/Max Payload            170LB / -162,722LB

-162,722 LB seems odd but none of the *.cfg files list that negative weight so I don't know whee it's coming from.

This is after pressing "FLY" and you're sitting at a parking place at an airport. Weights in the Aircraft Selection window are correct.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Twenty6

[por930 51]

Has anyone tried the Kodiak March 14 release Update? I am still using maybe the first release, so probably an update will not go amiss.

[MarkW 1,491]

I found when I purchased MSFS that I could not control any aircraft, they were all twitchy.  This was using a very old CH Products Yoke.  I made the switch to a T.16000 for Airbus and Honeycomb Yoke for everything else.  The difference was night and day and I find the control of the Kodiak very stable. Only issues I have had is on takeoff when not applying enough power (or correctly applying power).  then for sure is flips over to the right.

[por930 51]

I always have a dropped Left wing, resulting in a stall or some very scared pax on the recovery,,,unless I have some pretty aggressive rudder / trim

I have that same CH Yoke, since swapped for the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, which may need to be updated for MSFS?

Edited March 21, 2022 by por930

[Stearmandriver 2,296]

2 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

I have flown as a passenger with one or two low time student pilots in a 172, and when they were flying the 172 was "twitchy". Some aircraft like the DC6 and the Kodiak and the Mooney are not twitchy, some of the default aircraft are. 

Try low-time aerobatic students ;).

1 hour ago, por930 said:

I always make a point of loading the a/c with at least 50% fuel and 40% cargo, otherwise landing can be a bit bouncy.

One great thing about the Kodiak is that it has a properly working AoA indexer, something all aircraft should have.  It negates the need to adjust operations for different weights; on-speed AoA is ALWAYS on speed.  You don't even need to reference airspeed. 

Now, what does make a significant difference is CG.  You definitely don't want an aft CG.

[tup61 1,563]

54 minutes ago, por930 said:

I have that same CH Yoke, since swapped for the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, which may need to be updated for MSFS?

Updating the Extreme 3D Pro, you mean? In all my years of using that joystick (bought my first one around 2006) I never installed a driver for it. Windows recognizes it and it works without any problems. No update needed. (The same goes for my Saitek pedals.)

[A320_SX ALX 142]

On 3/21/2022 at 3:03 PM, Twenty6 said:

v1.0.24

Anyone care to look at the Fuel/Load window for the Kodiak non-pod. With just the pilot (170lb) and 50% fuel I have

Payload/Max Payload            170LB / -162,722LB

-162,722 LB seems odd but none of the *.cfg files list that negative weight so I don't know whee it's coming from.

This is after pressing "FLY" and you're sitting at a parking place at an airport. Weights in the Aircraft Selection window are correct.

This is an MSFS bug from SU7 Christmas update. The first time you open the sim it will show that value for all aircraft. It's an initialization bug in MSFS. If you change the weight it goes away.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

On 3/22/2022 at 12:25 AM, por930 said:

I always have a dropped Left wing, resulting in a stall or some very scared pax on the recovery,,,unless I have some pretty aggressive rudder / trim

I have that same CH Yoke, since swapped for the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, which may need to be updated for MSFS?

I get that if I just rotate and hold the stick back. On the Kodiak I am in the habit of rotating then nosing down slightly until airspeed gets up to optimal climb speed.

Note that the Kodiak, especially with the recommended 20 degrees of flap rotates at a crazy low speed (as low as 50 knots for short field take off),  but is not going to be able to climb out at that speed as you are on the back of the curve.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Glenn Fitzpatrick

[por930 51]

1 hour ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

I get that if I just rotate and hold the stick back. On the Kodiak I am in the habit of rotating then nosing down slightly until airspeed gets up to optimal climb speed.

Note that the Kodiak, especially with the recommended 20 degrees of flap rotates at a crazy low speed (as low as 50 knots for short field take off),  but is not going to be able to climb out at that speed as you are on the back of the curve.

I have been in the habit of rotating at 55-60kts, and as you say, I then nose down a tad to pick up more speed, and climb out at 70kts+. I must need to insert more trim into the rudder. I will experiment with this.

I notice handling aircraft in MSFS and P3Dv4.5 is very different with the same controller. P3D, seems a lot more measured, and control surfaces actions and the resultant reactions move in comparison to the controller. In MSFS, the controllers movements seemed to exaggerate the aircraft control surfaces actions, and the 'air' seems to have very little resistance for the lift mechanism to function. 

For me and my setup, the "mod" for the Kodiak goes a long way to smoothing out the control surfaces actions. Maybe one of the reasons we all have different experiences with the Kodiak, is due to different controllers, and varying control surface trim settings.