What a great video. I'm curious if these setting are saved for each aircraft, or will I have to change the settings every time a new aircraft is selected. Thanks for sharing.
I like that you’ve talked about this subject matter. My only concern though is, how do you know how far to set sensitivity out of default, before the feel becomes unrealistic? It’s nice to have a feel that feels just right for me/you/whoever, but not at the expense of loss of immersion. How do you suggest guarding against that? Thank you.
That’s a very challenging question to answer. With tens of variables that need to be considered I think the simplest solution would be to do this. Hop in your usual plane and do patterns with touch and gos. Now while doing this on every downwind leg try adjusting something and see how it feels. Without real world experience you’d have to guess obviously as to what a real plane feels like. The ultimate goal is to get it as close as you can so when you make an input the plane does as you expect it to with zero surprises. You know you’ve gotten close when you don’t notice how hard you push or pull and are “flying the plane” almost by instinct.
I had to adjust the sensitivity, especially on the Y (Elevator) Axis, according to the pressures on my controller. Since I have an Xbox Controller where a small movement can cause a big change in pitch, I set the sensitivity to zero and the null zone to zero. On the Aileron Axis (X), I put the sensitivity at 50, and the null zone at 25, because it feels on my Xbox controller closest to real life stick sensitivity (90 pct of fixed wing GA aircraft I flew IRL had sticks, and not yokes, because they were either in the experimental, vintage, or light sport category). I am very pleased with my adjustments, and feel based on what I did, anyone following this good tutorial can achieve a setting that is the best compromise with the sim 'equipment' they enjoy flying. My landings are as close to the centerline and as smooth as I could do in real life (I quit flying GA in late '08), and I feel this sim, especially given its weather options, makes the landings more immersive, challenging, yet realistic and achievable as well with less fuss than what I used to do in other sims. I am amused that a palm sized controller lets me control an aircraft, but in real life stick flying, one should keep a light grip on the stick--my CFI called it a feather touch, at least in small aircraft that respond to control movements with more sensitivity than larger ones.
This is BIG! I hope the news about this setting working really gets out there. When you see a airline pilot making large movement with the yoke at landning, for small adjustments. Or a bush pilot fighting with the stick. It has been quite hard to get the same feeling without this setting before. Hope I finally can get get rid off ”sensitivity” that just increases ridiculously att the end of the scale.
