Sudden Heading Shifts

[Art_P 6]

I've read a lot of forum topics and experienced many of the problems discussed. By heeding the input from others and some tweaks of my own, FSX flying has become an enjoyable experience.There is one issue that I havn't seen mentioned. When cruising, climbing or descending, I experience periodic sudden shifts to the plane's heading (either left or right as much as 10 degrees) and then a slow return to the original heading. This occurs with the autopilot on or off. Background programs such as antivirus have been deactivated.Is this a known issue that has a cure or no cure?ArtNow flying with: Biostar TF560-A2+, Athlon 64X2-6000+, 4GB RAM (3.58 recognized), Geforce 8800GTS-320MB, 500W PSU, 250GB HD, FSX (SP1-SP2), Vista Home Premium

[cshark172 20]

Most likely due to the sudden wind shifts in FSX. When passing through wind layers, the wind will shift immediately to the new direction/speed. This has been an issue in the last couple versions. FSUIPC used to fix it in FS9 and earlier, and Pete Dowson is working hard to fix it in FSX, and third party weather such as ASX are working on it as well. Hopefully ACES will address this in the next version of FS. It is a real problem for those of us who fly heavy iron at higher altitudes where you can get a 180 degree shift at 100 kts, which puts the aircraft into overspeed or stall condition immediately.Kylehttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

[Mochi 82]

Yes that is correct - there is a newer version (officially beta) for FSX to solve this problem. He deserves our support for his writing of that program - I just wish he'd give it a better name, or is it just me?!

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi, Have you tried a lower <1 TurbulenceScale value in the FSX.cfg? I don't know if this is the correct way to go, but it definitely softens the shifts here if I leave it at for example 0.40. Kind regards Jaap

[Guest jshyluk]

The other thing you could be experiencing is flight through thermals. If you don't have any of the FSX Service Packs installed, the thermals can be very strong.Regardless, there are two things you can do to test the theory that crosswinds and wind shears are buffeting your aircraft:1) Press CTRL-SHIFT-Z a couple of times, and you will see some basic meteo information. Also, the MFD on airliners should have some basic wind info. 2) Turn on the Visualizations for thermals. If you fly into one, it will be obvious. Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[Art_P 6]

Thanks for the input. To throw a wrench into it (1) I'm using the fair weather theme (2) turbulence and thermal effects are disabled (3) I'm flying a Beechcraft Baron below 15000' (4) I get nothing from pressing Ctrl-Shift-Z. I guess I can keep an eye on this trying different weather conditions and see if it does or doesn't occur. If this is a simulation of wind shear, it isn't a very good one, and it certainly isn't anything like a thermal effect. Wings remain perfectly level during the shift.

[Guest jshyluk]

My mistake! I meant just Shift-Z. That activates a small display at the top of your screen. Press Shift-Z repeatedly until you see some wind info. Even in the "fair weather", there can be winds. "Clear weather" zeroes the wind out.FSX doesn't really do wind shear all that well, but it does have strange effects that are kind of like "weather cells", that when you go from one cell to another, there may be a shearing effect. I guess it's a bug, but it's been with the MSFS series so long, I think of it almost as a feature.Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[Guest PPSFA]

Its the way FSX handles wind shift, some folks are working on a fix, soon I hope

[Guest JoeInCT]

In my opinion, flight simulator has always done "transitions" very poorly. The heading shifts can be as much as 10 to 20 degrees or more. I have to wonder in real world if the rudder would not rip right off the airplane with those kind of shifts. Not realistic at all, and it ruins the sim for me when it happens.Another example of a poor "transition" is the way clouds just quickly dissappear and reappear. Not at all realistic either. These things need to be much more subtle.A while back, someone posted a topic asking what users would like to see in the next version of FS. Someone then summed up the results from most popular to least. Unfortunately the "transitions" issue was low on the list. Even so, I still hope the developers caught it. It needs to be fixed in the next version.

[Art_P 6]

Thanks again. I guess I had seen the Shift-Z display at one time and had forgot about it. Now I will use it. At least there is some comfort in knowing that what I am experiencing can be blamed on FSX rather than on the inadequacy of my computer.I'm sure I have always occasionaly experienced the effect, but it has become so commonplace in recent flights that I thought something may be happening with the computer. I guess it's because the recent flights have been in areas with higher elevations than where I was flying.

[Guest jshyluk]

Joe, I agree with you completely. It's really to the point where although it's a problem, I just don't notice it any more. It's something that's been in-grained with MSFS ever since variable weather was developed. I would guess that how far the new FSX11 system will overhaul the FSX and older systems would dictate as to whether (weather) or not this problem gets fixed!Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM