In both my Cessna 172 SP and in the default Baron BE58 the nosewheel steering is far too sensitive on the take-off roll. Just small rudder inputs give excessive turn rates with accompanying tire squealing. At taxy speed everything works just fine.

Is there a way I can adjust this steering sensitivity? I have tried varying the rudder sensitivity and this has some effect. However I am then concerned that rudder sensitivity in flight is then reduced too much ( I am teaching single engine operation in the Baron and need a realistic flight rudder response).

Any help much appreciated,

rr

Hi roadrabbit,

the easiest way for the user to affect this is to go into the joystick setup and customize your control response curve. You can make it "fully linear" (so that 30% pedal deflection will also deflect the rudder and nosewheel 30%) - or you can shape it into whatever curve you fancy, making it "less sensitive" near the lower deflection range, yet still retain 100% authority when pushing the pedal down all the way.

Also make sure you go into the DATA OUT menu and tick the leftmost box (on-screen display) for the parameter you are watching, like joystick deflection, nose gear steering and rudder deflection - that way you will be able to tell easily what kind of effect your input has.

The next step - if the above doesn´t yield the desired results - is to enter planemaker and alter things like maximum rudder and nosegear deflection angles, surface of flight controls, etc. You can easily tune pretty much every parameter of the aerodynamic response that way.

Cheers, Jan

 

6 hours ago, roadrabbit149 said:

In both my Cessna 172 SP and in the default Baron BE58 the nosewheel steering is far too sensitive on the take-off roll. Just small rudder inputs give excessive turn rates with accompanying tire squealing. At taxy speed everything works just fine.

Is there a way I can adjust this steering sensitivity? I have tried varying the rudder sensitivity and this has some effect. However I am then concerned that rudder sensitivity in flight is then reduced too much ( I am teaching single engine operation in the Baron and need a realistic flight rudder response).

Any help much appreciated,

rr

You could open the related aircraft in Plane Maker (it's in the main X-Plane folder), then go to "Standard" -> "Landing Gear" menu, and decrease the value of "n-w steering, fast" (default is 10 degrees for the C172. Might try 5 degrees to halve the sensitivity). This should only effect the takeoff roll nosewheel steering sensitivity (although it's not clear to me how Plane Maker defines "slow" or "fast" taxi speeds?).

Then save the changes in Plane Maker and you should be done.

 

Keep in mind that decreasing the angle will also decrease the maximum force available for directionkeeping. I think the maximum slip angle for a regular wheel is about 7 degrees or so for a dry runway - so If you arbitrarily cut that number to avoid "screeching" - you may set yourself up for reduced crosswind capability.

Try to reduce the number to 3 and then put in a good crosswind and you will see what I am talking about 😉

Cheers, Jan

 

True, although the higher the speed, the higher the rudder authority (compensating the decrease in nosewheel deflection). I think in some real aircraft (including Airbuses apparently?) nosewheel deflection does indeed decrease with speed during the takeoff run.

I presume that's not the case in a C172 which is all mechanical, but if he finds the aircraft is oversensitive in steering during the takeoff run, he could try that. Maybe at high ground speed, 5 degrees are enough, but he can experiment.

Edited May 5, 20224 yr by Murmur

All good points, Murmur.

I think a large part of the problems with steering goes to the lack of sensory feedback - it is vey easy to apply too much pedal input.

Laminar took some steps in recent years and versions to help improve wheel physics and also removed the old obnoxious squealing sound (for FMOD aircraft). However - there needs to be some feedback for the user that he is applying "too much" steering angle, and in lieu of the "tire skipping" sensation, we need some sound feedback (= squeal).

I have adjusted my response curve to give me a bit more gradual effect for the lower range of deflection and I must say that I don´t suffer from "screeching" wheels during normal operation in X-Plane.

Cheers, Jan

 

Edited May 5, 20224 yr by Janov

general aviation - Cessna 172 steering system and torque link purpose - Aviation Stack Exchange

Also:

Wheel steering parameters - X-Plane Developer

Plane Maker Manual | X-Plane

 

Edited May 5, 20224 yr by jcomm