bf-109 flight characteristics

[Bewolf]

Originally Posted by macphail

i agree, reducing the sensitivity should help a great deal! ill see what i can do. maybe i'll actually hit something tonight.

reduced sensitivity to 50%, and that seems very helpful, but the plane still wants to fly straight up when i let go of the stick.

i don't recall the old il-2 doing that. if anything i expect the 109 to pull to the right from prop torque. something seems not right...

Where the 109 pulls, up, down, right, left is depending on speed and trim.
I am not a friend of reducing sensitivity or changing the deflection band.
I used to fly with such settings myself over quite a period, and even though it does improve gunnery when it comes to microcorrections, it has some bad habits when it comes to actual dogfighting, as pulling back the stick in turns is not a gradual expirience anymore. Whatever you gain in precision in one area you lose in another.

[macphail]

i have no idea how trim even works. i have never used it before. guess i should learn.

[robtek]

Originally Posted by macphail

i have no idea how trim even works. i have never used it before. guess i should learn.

Without trim you are fighting the plane more then the enemy!

Always trim the plane to neutral flight, except for the start ( a bit nose up) and continous climbing (same) or landing (also nose up).

Usually only the bombers have all three trim axes, english fighters have 2 (rudder and elevator) and the 109 has only elevator, the 110, though, has all three axes.

Be aware that when your controls are shot up in most cases you can still fly (and that is correctly modeled) with trim alone.

[macphail]

what a severe pain in the ass! makes me want to not even play. sent me right into the bloody sea!!! uncontrollable....worse than before. are you guys really happy with this game???

[Bewolf]

Originally Posted by macphail

what a severe pain in the ass! makes me want to not even play. sent me right into the bloody sea!!! uncontrollable....worse than before. are you guys really happy with this game???

Relax, young Padawan. Working with trim and finding a good flight envelope requires a lot of practice and training. This is not an arcade game, but a simulator. Planes back then simply behaved this way. Blame physics. This game has a lot of problems, but FM in general is not one of them.

But then again, you get the hang of it pretty quickly with a bit of practice.

Here is a good link for some basics

http://x-plane.deinon.com/aircraft_trim.pdf

Using an old joystick though probably also isn't ideal

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by macphail

what a severe pain in the ass! makes me want to not even play. sent me right into the bloody sea!!! uncontrollable....worse than before. are you guys really happy with this game???

You do know of the need, and have done a calibration of your stick?

[mxmadman]

Hey fellow newbie! I, too, am just learning to get around the skies in a decent manner in CoD, but I can tell you that if you're trimming is making your flying LESS controllable you're doing it wrong. The idea is to get the plane to fly straight and level (unless you want to climb, or dive, or some other desired effect).

First make sure you've assigned all 3 necessary trim controls to keys or better yet an axis. Once your new joystick arrives you may have extra rotation axis. These are perfect for trim settings.

You need to have increase/decrease buttons (if not using an axis as stated above) for: elevator, rudder, and aelirons. You will be using the aeliron trim the least, so assign it as the lowest priority.

If your plane is nosing up, you want to decrease the elevator slowly until it flies level. Once you change a setting you have to wait to see how the plane reacts; this doesn't happen instantly. If after you're plane has adjusted to the new trim you realize you need to go a little farther with it, or you've already gone too far, then re-adjust.

Give it 20-30 minutes where all you do is try to trim your plane, then mess up the trim on purpose and do it again, you'll get the hang of it quickly.

Also, if you need to use button because you don't have extra axis then also assign a 'reset trim' for all 3: rudder, elevator, and aeliron.

Also, google/youtube this as watching it visually may give you a better understanding. Good luck and happy flying!

[macphail]

Originally Posted by mxmadman

Hey fellow newbie! I, too, am just learning to get around the skies in a decent manner in CoD, but I can tell you that if you're trimming is making your flying LESS controllable you're doing it wrong. The idea is to get the plane to fly straight and level (unless you want to climb, or dive, or some other desired effect).

First make sure you've assigned all 3 necessary trim controls to keys or better yet an axis. Once your new joystick arrives you may have extra rotation axis. These are perfect for trim settings.

You need to have increase/decrease buttons (if not using an axis as stated above) for: elevator, rudder, and aelirons. You will be using the aeliron trim the least, so assign it as the lowest priority.

If your plane is nosing up, you want to decrease the elevator slowly until it flies level. Once you change a setting you have to wait to see how the plane reacts; this doesn't happen instantly. If after you're plane has adjusted to the new trim you realize you need to go a little farther with it, or you've already gone too far, then re-adjust.

Give it 20-30 minutes where all you do is try to trim your plane, then mess up the trim on purpose and do it again, you'll get the hang of it quickly.

Also, if you need to use button because you don't have extra axis then also assign a 'reset trim' for all 3: rudder, elevator, and aeliron.

Also, google/youtube this as watching it visually may give you a better understanding. Good luck and happy flying!

this sounds like excellent advice. i'll try this as soon as my new stick gets here...thanks. i'll let you know how it works out.

[macphail]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

You do know of the need, and have done a calibration of your stick?

yes, of course.

[macphail]

Originally Posted by robtek

Without trim you are fighting the plane more then the enemy!

Always trim the plane to neutral flight, except for the start ( a bit nose up) and continous climbing (same) or landing (also nose up).

Usually only the bombers have all three trim axes, english fighters have 2 (rudder and elevator) and the 109 has only elevator, the 110, though, has all three axes.

Be aware that when your controls are shot up in most cases you can still fly (and that is correctly modeled) with trim alone.

this would explain why i can't trim the roll in the 109. elevator seems under control though.