Flight Simulation

More on Microsoft's Force Feedback Joystick

I discovered that there is a small optical sensor in the handle on the side away from the user near the bottom of the flange. When the user's hand is covering the hole, the force feedback is activated. When ones hand is not over the hole the stick becomes "limp." I'm going to try putting some sort of block over the hole so that the feedback is always present.

posted by Dr. Bob @ 9:12 AM 1 comments

Force Feedback and FS 2002

Unusual effects being observed using MS's FF joystick with the RealAir C-172. Upon initial launch of the program, there is little or no feedback on the stick. If I pause the program and go to the joystick calibration area and set the force back to max, then "unpause" the flight all is well and continues to be well until I exit FS.

This problem does not occur with the other a/c that come as stock planes with the FS, only with the RealAir a/c. I have printed out the aircraft.cfg files (force feedback section) for the RealAir 172 and the stock one and compared them, but all seems the same.

I'll have to do a little more exploring...

posted by Dr. Bob @ 7:22 AM 0 comments

Slips with the RealAir C-172

I just started to work on forward and side slips using RealAir's excellent model of the Cessna C-172. The literature from RealAir indicates that you can slip up to 37 degrees. Cool!

Why slip? Well, it turns out that it is a very useful technique in real life (RL) flying and very few simulation aircraft have that capability. It is mostly used for crosswind landings and for above normal descent rates (no power emergency landings.)

posted by Dr. Bob @ 7:31 AM 0 comments