[MACADEMIC]

Dear Friends,

A few days ago, I posted a discovery regarding an incorrect calibration of the PS3 controller leading to the highly unstable handling of our beloved Mustangs at high angles of attack. To summarize, I found that the flightstick (in the cockpit) was 'jumping' right into the stall when the stick on the pad reached a certain point. This behaviour was confirmed on both the aviator and standard pad layouts.

Thanks to a reply by JOED70, who told me that nonlinear calibration might have something to do with this, I started to investigate how this problem might be countered.

I remembered that with the BOP patch for PS3 the option of customising the pad was introduced. I had played with that earlier on but had given up on it since it seemed not possible to achieve the same easy free-view from the cockpit as provided by the standard or aviator layouts.

The good news is that, after renewed playing around with it now, I found a setting that nearly copies all of the functionality of the aviator layout including free view, but with the BIG advantage that all of a sudden it is possible to have full control over the elevator, right up to the stall. No more 'jumping' into the stall, but fine indications of an onset of stall which can be handled much better! For those of you prefering to fly with the standard layout, this should also be possible to configure with the exceptions stated below.*

There are a few drawbacks, due it seems to some bugs in the software. If anyone can come up with solutions for these, please let us know. I'm listing them here:

- throttle control: while in aviatior the throttle automatically snaps back to a comfortable 55% when it is neither advanced nor reduced, in custom layout the throttle just is where you put it. It's not too hard to get used to this I think.

- brakes: while in aviator the brakes are activated by closing the throttle, there are no brakes available here. Must be a bug. It's still possible to land, but the landing roll will be longer. I tested this at the airfield of Catania, where I got to stop half way down the runway, so no biggie.

- zoom: I didn't manage to set up zoom, a known problem according to quite a bit of correspondence on the forum. Nothing that aviator layout users will miss.

- 'feel' of the aircraft and free view: I'm attaching the configuration that I've found best to replicate the aviator layout, and setting. For my taste this setting works well, but might give a bit of a different 'feel' than what we're used to from the aviator or standard layout. I suppose this has something to do with the amount of deadzone and nonlinearity assigned to the different controls under 'Settings'. I'm happy with what I have now, but everyone's can experiment with this and find their own best settings. No one should have any undue advantage because of this, we're still playing at max sensitivity and the other club rules.

Hope we're all going to enjoy our Mustangs much more now! Let me know how you're doing and/or if you need help with customising!

Check six!

MACADEMIC

PS: Check post #55 in this thread for the latest settings!

* Sorry to say that the standard layout is not customisable as the aviator layout is. See post #101 about this.