Hi,Im quite new here, and I was wondering if you guys could help me with a problem?In pretty much every plane I try to fly, when i power up down the runway, the plane steers off to the right. Ive tried recalibrating my joystick several times (I have a saitek aviator), but to no avail.Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, does anyone no a fix, as it is driving me crazy!Regards,Rik

Rik,welcome to AVSIM.The inability to keep the centerline can be caused by a number of things - example, calibration, cross-wind, differential throttles, torque, etc... It would also be helpful if you could indicate which version of FS you are using and what O/S you have.Calibration of the rudder axis inside FS is my first guess. It may show calibrated in the Windows control panel (or Saitek's calibration utility in your case), but may actually not be centered due to the sensitivity or the range of values setup in FS. I would verify that the rudder shows full range of motion in FS when you move the axis on your Saitek aviator, and that the sensitivity of the rudder is toned down a bit. Another thing to check is that FS has not mapped the rudder axis to multiple inputs - which can happen easily if you have more than one DirectInput device attached to your PC. This causes all kinds of issues including loss of center.One way to test the theory is to reset axes via the keyboard before your takeoff roll - and not touch the joystick until you reach the rotation speed. Hope this helps.Etienne

Etienne's post has a lot of good information. The only thing I would add is this:In FSX, you have the opportunity to choose how much realism you want simulated. If you choose high realism, then the aircraft will veer towards the direction that the propeller is turning as it rolls down the runway. That is the result of torque. You can turn down this setting in the Realism Settings area.Cheers,

(ahem... away from...):-)

Hi Rik,Don't get involved with details at this point. It doesn't matter to you whethter it is "toward" or "away from" the prop's rotation, just do what mission guy said; set all of the Realism settings to the minimum. You'll find those settings under the Aircraft menu.If you can now stay on the runway as you accelerate, then you can try moving the realism sliders to the right to add some challenge to the takeoff. If realism settings are already at minimum or if turning them down does not correct the problem, then come back here and ask for more help.R-EDIT -- to fix errors. R-

OK Ron - I'll just keep my shut my mouth in future..

Im running FSX SP2 on Vista 64 Ultimate.Ive turned down the realism, and lowered the sensitivity of the rudder in the settings. Nothing seemed to make any difference.I'll try the keyboard idea, and see what happens.Thanks for the help =)Rik

I haven't used the easy realism settings in FSX, but from my FS2004 experience I found that setting moderate settings in realism make the aircraft much easier to takeoff, fly and land than the easy settings.In my opinion the easy settings make the reaction too quick and it's very easy to get into overcontrolling the aircraft.The OP mentioned joystick - the very best thing you can do to improve your flying enjoyment in my opinion is to buy rudder pedals. Twisting a joystick just does not cut it in my experience.

I fly a 172 and 152 every week and I have turned down the torque and p factor sliders in FSX....it seems way too much rudder is required otherwise.

Also worth mentioning if you get into controller "lack of control" issues with FS that cannot get resolved using the provided "built-in" tools - you may want to look into Pete Dowson's FSUIPC.Cheers,Etienne

Heh :)Uhhhh yea, that's what I meant. Away from. Dam that Issac Newton! (For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.)

Calibrations aside, my experience is that you gradually roll plane up to max. torque with small inputs of opposite rudder.As you gain velocity you have greater input control. Going max. torque from stationary pulls plane to one side and starts over-correction oscillations....Dennis