This looks excellent, a no-brainer purchase, but the one thing that really bugs me about all sims is that they just will never sort out the correct AoA when trimmed.
I know Austin flies, so the following is more aimed at him if he's reading.
With moderate care you can totally fly a Cessna 172, 152 etc. controlling the pitch just through the trim. Change the pitch wheel, and it affects the elevator, which affects the wing. The whole aircraft then settles down to the desired AoA which given a power input will cause the aircraft to climb or descend.
The specific short-coming of most sims is that trim input should settle the aircraft to a desired AoA reasonably quickly (subject to mild phugoid oscillations - mild pitch cycling) but it just never really does.
Typically, any decent pilot can trim the aircraft to the desired speed at some rpm, then just fly using light pressure on the controls adding or reducing power in small increments as needed.
Under say IFR, the workload can be quite high, and anything you can do to reduce the attention needed to maintain chosen course is critical.
This is interesting. Have you noticed any difference between X-Plane's flight model (blade element theory) and more traditional (lookup table-based) flight models in this regard?
Yes, absolutely, the ground effect, so named from the reduction in drag when within a half wingspan or so from the ground is about as pronounced as the real thing. It feels very very real, compared with say MS Flight Sim where the effect may be simulated (not sure on this point) but won't cause you to float like you do in X-Plane or in real-life.
I had fun with this in a flight test in a twin once, landing on one engine, with the other feathered and not causing drag, the plane did not want to land. All you can do is wait in this situation. More fun with conventional gear where you can force it onto the ground and hold it there ;-)
Other areas, my recall is a bit hazy, but the corners of the flight envelope, stalls, spins etc., are better in X-Plane.
I find this curious. How do typical flight sims respond to trim wheel and how does that differ from what you expect?
When I do flight sims, I rely on the pitch trim wheel a lot but I've had very little time at the controls of real aircraft so I don't know how should it feel.
In a nutshell, it feels like they continue to exert force on the stick / yoke without ever getting to a balance point where the aircraft settles to a desired speed / AoA.
This applies even with various FF sticks that I have tried and discarded over the years.
Jesus, that patent is incredibly stupid. The standard for getting a patent thrown out needs to be much lower (since we clearly can't expect a higher acceptance standard from the USPTO).
Just 3rd party I believe. FlyInside are at the moment gathering people for a beta using the Rift and Vive with X-Plane. Their FSX plugin is excellent. More info at their forums here https://flyinside-fsx.com/
By the way, I've yet to find a vive game where I can simply fly around some world. It's the first thing I've wanted to do since I heard about virtual reality and yet no one has made it.
I'll be buying it. X-Plane is amazing.
I don't think planes are not that shiny in real life. I get that it makes for a cool demo, but I hope we can turn the specularity down a tad.
I use Saitek Cessna pedals, Cessna yoke (comes with 3-level throttle), and Saitek Cessna trim wheel and don't have any complaints. Before I went all-in, I used a PS3 controller but don't recommend that (It's fine if you're just fooling around I guess).
Saitek/MadCatz had some financial problems (made some wrong bets on farm simulators or something) and some of their equipment is currently hard to get ahold of. The good (?) news is logitech recently bought them up so perhaps they'll turn on the manufacturing line again.
Another modern flight simulator I have found incredibly satisfying and also quite realistic is Digital Combat Simulator. (The reason I am mentioning this here is that I switched from X-Plane 10 to DCS, which, while not being a professional-class simulator, gave me most of what I was looking for.)
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[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 59.1 ms ] threadI know Austin flies, so the following is more aimed at him if he's reading.
With moderate care you can totally fly a Cessna 172, 152 etc. controlling the pitch just through the trim. Change the pitch wheel, and it affects the elevator, which affects the wing. The whole aircraft then settles down to the desired AoA which given a power input will cause the aircraft to climb or descend.
The specific short-coming of most sims is that trim input should settle the aircraft to a desired AoA reasonably quickly (subject to mild phugoid oscillations - mild pitch cycling) but it just never really does.
Typically, any decent pilot can trim the aircraft to the desired speed at some rpm, then just fly using light pressure on the controls adding or reducing power in small increments as needed.
Under say IFR, the workload can be quite high, and anything you can do to reduce the attention needed to maintain chosen course is critical.
After establishing the desired airspeed and rate of climb, then you apply trim to reduce pilot effort. Repeat.
What you're talking about is what you would do in an emergency when flight controls were stuck or something.
I had fun with this in a flight test in a twin once, landing on one engine, with the other feathered and not causing drag, the plane did not want to land. All you can do is wait in this situation. More fun with conventional gear where you can force it onto the ground and hold it there ;-)
Other areas, my recall is a bit hazy, but the corners of the flight envelope, stalls, spins etc., are better in X-Plane.
When I do flight sims, I rely on the pitch trim wheel a lot but I've had very little time at the controls of real aircraft so I don't know how should it feel.
This applies even with various FF sticks that I have tried and discarded over the years.
By the way, I've yet to find a vive game where I can simply fly around some world. It's the first thing I've wanted to do since I heard about virtual reality and yet no one has made it.
Saitek/MadCatz had some financial problems (made some wrong bets on farm simulators or something) and some of their equipment is currently hard to get ahold of. The good (?) news is logitech recently bought them up so perhaps they'll turn on the manufacturing line again.