Salute Killspeed
I just replied to another query regarding stalls not too long ago on the UBI forums, so here it is again.
Stalls:
If you consider the reality of virtual air combat, most stalls happen when the stick is about halfway through its travel. Ie. you are in a turn, pulling back on the stick, you try to add just a little more elevator, and the plane stalls.
The best scaling for a stick is one which modulates the jumps in the virtual input at that critical middle section of the stick.
It's all about transitions, if you do not have smooth transitions between each step in the 10 programmable units in the scaling of input for the elevator, you will have a tendency to stall more easily. The same applies to Rudder and Aileron, although poorly setup scaling for these last two cause less problems re. stalls.
If you doubt me, take at careful look at the movement of the joystick as shown in the game's input section, ie. the twin axis setup, where two marker squares move along the axis of the joysticks movement. The red square follows exactly the physical movement of your joystick, the green square is the virtual movement you are inputting to your aircraft's controls. If you put in a typical profile, ie. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, and then compare this, with the one I list below in my suggested profile, and notice how smoothly one moves compared to the other. The typical profile has the green box jumping quickly in the middle range, making those fine adjustments when you are on the edge of the stall very difficult to input.
Here is an excerpt from the RAF74 Pilot's guide, showing how to setup INPUT for your joystick:
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Pilot Handbook Part 1 (continued)
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2) Scaling the Joystick
A Joystick must now be set up so that the Elevator, Aileron and Rudder are easily and smoothly controlled by the pilot. Incorrectly setup Elevators, Ailerons and Rudder will cause the pilot to stall his aircraft more often and also to maneuver less efficiently.
A Pilot scales his Joystick by using the INPUT interface. Access the INPUT interface by selecting HARDWARE SETUP from the main menu and then INPUT.
You will see on the upper left a box which allows you to select one of three Axes: Pitch (Elevator), Roll (Ailerons) and Yaw (Rudder). Each selection then can program a ten step scale of input degree for each of the three potential Axes. Step 1 must be at least 1, and Step 10 can be a maximum of 100.
The idea for the scale is that a Pilot will want to have a slightly finer set of inputs available to him when he is using the initial few centimeters of movement of the joystick, but at the same time, a set of smooth, non-abrupt transitions in the middle range, where stalling typically happens. This is to allow him to make fine adjustments to allow for accurate gunnery, with larger, but smooth adjustments to input in the middle and upper range.
Normally a pilot will program, by entering a number between 1 and 100 for each of the ten steps, a rising scale, that takes the form of an initially gentler slope, slightly steepening as it approaches 100.
Each pilot will have to determine what best suits him, but as an example of what I program here are my 10 steps for each of Pitch, Roll and Yaw.
50-60-75-90-100-100-100-100-100
What this level of scaling means, is that when I have moved the joystick the physical equivalent of 1 of the ten steps, or 10% of the movement distance available to the Joystick, I am inputting electronically just slightly over 5% of the virtual control. At the medium end of the scale, with movement equivalent to 3 of the ten steps, or 30%, I have inputted 22.5% of the virtual control. At the 5th step, I am inputting 50% of the virtual control or a 1 to 1 ratio of hand movement to virtual input. At 9 of ten steps, I am inputting 90% of the virtual control. The whole key to setting the input is to make the transitions between the steps as smooth as possible, otherwise you will not be able to fly the aircraft as accurately as you wish.
There are also scalable settings availabe for FILTERING and DEADBAND. Filtering is used when a Joystick is slightly prone to spiking, and can moderate such wild inputs. For those with a good joystick, this is unnessesary. Deadband creates a dead area around the center of the joysticks physical movements and thus prevents small, involuntary movements of the pilot’s hand from affecting the plane’s control surfaces. I prefer to set both to zero, but many like to have a deadband of 5 or 10. However, when you allocate a percentage to deadband, you are actually reducing the amount of physical movement of your joystick, which is actually dedicated to control. Therefore the whole scale becomes less fine, and less movement of your hand results in more movement in the virtual aircraft.
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Some other suggestions:
It takes a while for an aircraft to get settled into a turn, a pilot has to have the patience to allow it to. I almost always used to find that I had to back off on the elevator input once I got into a turn, but now am disciplining myself to add just enough.
Putting aside elevator inputs, in many ways though, using just the ailerons and rudder to set the aircraft into a bank, thus initiating a turn is a better solution than over-using the elevator. Aileron turns use the natural lift of the aircraft's wings without the extra drag of the elevator, thus speed stays high. So you set the aircraft into the turn with ailerons and rudder, and only then do you think about adding any elevator. In some cases, you may find you don't need any.
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Trim
Trim should be used on all aircraft to allow them to fly level and straight with hands off. A trimmed plane gives a pilot a better chance of hitting during gunnery and improves his acceleration and top speed. The nature of the game is such that perfect trim cannot be maintained at all times, but trim can be set up shortly after takeoff and prior to combat to allow a reasonable level of efficiency. Normally a plane should be trimmed when it is flying at a speed which it would normally be travelling at during combat maneuvers. So for example, since a Spitfire V’s best combat speed is between 250 and 300 kph, it should be trimmed for somewhere between those speeds. (I like to trim it at 300 kph since I like to keep my speed up)
The most crucial trim functions are for Rudder Trim and Elevator Trim.
You assign Elevator trim to your mousewheel.
The four arrow keys on the left of the number keypad can be used for other trim functions. I suggest the left and right arrows for Rudder trim. You can use the up and down keys for Aileron trim, or you can use the 4 and 6 buttons on the number pad, which have arrows on them, for the same purpose.
Of the three trims, Elevator and Rudder trim are the most important. An aircraft which does not have its elevator or rudder trimmed correctly is travelling slighty sideways or fighting your attempts to fly level. What this means is that the pilot will have his gunnery negatively affected, especially at longer ranges. In addition, he will be more likely to spin in hard turns.
Rudder Trim is adjusted on German or American planes by zooming in with cockpit view onto the floating ball, (like on a Carpenter’s level) on the instrument panel. The pilot then uses the right and left arrows to center the ball in between the two lines. Rudder trim on British planes is adjusted by zooming in on the instrument panel and looking at the SIDESLIP and TURN indicator, (low and to the right of the joystick) and adjusting the rudder trim so that the SIDESLIP indicator needle is centered. German aircraft such as the 109 and 190 do not have rudder trim. The 190 is an aircraft which does not require much trim when it is flying at normal combat speeds, at other times, you need to apply rudder pressure from your rudder pedals or twist stick to get it trimmed. The 109 trims fairly well on its own at low and medium speeds, but when it gets going faster, you need to manually add rudder to trim it.
Remember that Rudder trim must be adjusted when the plane is flying straight and level. And no rudder input on the twist stick or rudder pedals should be applied when adjusting.
When you roll your wings to enter a turn, the ball or sideslip indicator will go off center showing you are yawing. This is because you have begun an uncoordinated turn, ie. one in which you did not apply rudder to assist and prevent yaw. A coordinated turn involves the use of both ailerons and rudder to start it. Yaw during a turn cannot be corrected by trimming, you apply rudder manually to correct the imbalance. This is because, when you straighten out, you will out of trim if you have adjusted the trim controls instead of manually feeding in rudder to correct the imbalance.
Elevator Trim is adjusted by feel. The pilot takes his hands off the controls and notices whether his plane has a tendency to dive or climb. Elevator trim is then applied until the aircraft flys level. (although some pilots trim their plane for a climb when climbing after takeoff, and return it to normal trim when entering combat) Again, no Elevator input should be applied when adjusting elevator trim. Elevator trim is on a delay, so that it takes a few seconds before it comes into effect after you input a trim. Wait till your adjustments take effect before applying too much elevator trim. Ideally Elevator Trim should be on a slider or a mouse wheel, as it can be then used in combat to squeeze a little bit more turn performance out of your aircraft. But this is not very often an advantage.
Aileron Trim should also be programmed onto the keyboard, although in my opinion, Aileron Trim is not as crucial as the other two. Aileron trim should be adjusted last, after Rudder and Elevator trim. Many aircraft, like the Spitfire and Hurricane, do not have Aileron trim.
Trim must be adjusted everytime you change your speed. An aircraft trimmed properly at 400 kph will not be trimmed when its speed increases to 500 kph. An expert pilot will have his plane in trim at all times. Those who have less experience will trim their aircraft for the expected speed they will be flying in combat, and then leave it there.
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RAF74 has a number of elements in our training program which can help less experienced pilots move more quickly into flying and fighting more effectively.
For more info, RAF74 homepage is here:
http://www.raf74.com/