Trying to take off a Cessna 172 with a 17km/h right crosswind. Impossible even with full rudder. Is this like in the real life? The maximum crosswind that the 172 can take off is 15 knots = 28km/h. What can solve the problem? Had this issue many times. Controls correctly configured. Plase see the video attached. Thanks
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The proper Xwind technique for light GA aircraft requires that you put full aileron into the wind, the elevator neutral and rudder as needed to maintain centerline. As airspeed increases you have to progressively reduce the amount of aileron until you rotate at VR where all control inputs should be centered and any cross controlling ceased. However, I do agree that even by doing the proper technique it may still be a bit difficult in the sim
Francisco
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Turn on auto rudder…
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No, I’m afraid that isn’t realistic. Even with neutral yoke, the aircraft shouldn’t immediately head off the runway if you are using full rudder. Not even at max crosswind. Arguably, you shouldn’t need to use full controls in any axis to land or takeoff within design wind.
Doing so would mean that it would be impossible to make any correction into the wind.
What’s also interesting is that the wind that takes you off the runway doesn’t seem to lift your upwind wing at all. That’s one of the purposes of putting your yoke hard over at the beginning. To level the wings.
I’ve heard that the wind model is currently a bit over enthusiastic in MSFS, which might be the source of some of your issues.
Are you certain that you are getting full deflection out of your rudders?
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To be precise – The Maximum “DEMONSTRATED” crosswind that the 172 can take off , or land, is 15 knots.
Contrary to what some pilots may think, an aircraft’s maximum demonstrated crosswind component is only an operating limitation if the aircraft’s manufacturer says so. **It’s not a limitation imposed by FAA regulations.
One of those requirements is a demonstration of crosswind controllability, and more specifically, how the aerodynamics of the airplane allows pilots “with no exceptional skill or alertness” to safely take off and land in crosswind conditions.
The test pilot must be able to control the airplane in 90-degree crosswinds not less than a velocity equal to 0.2 Vso**, or the stalling speed of the aircraft in a landing configuration. That’s a windspeed equal to at least 20% of the power-off landing configuration stalling speed. Keep in mind, manufacturers can test aircraft at crosswind velocities higher than 0.2 Vso (and they often do), but that’s the minimum speed.
In addition to the 0.2 Vso limitation, “The airplane must be satisfactorily controllable in power-off landings at normal landing speed, without using brakes or engine power to maintain a straight path until the speed has decreased to at least 50 percent of the speed at touchdown.” (FAA)
Finally, every airplane certificated after May 3rd, 1962 is required to have a “demonstrated crosswind velocity” placard inside the airplane.
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Hilariously unrealistic. I’ve taken off in a 172 with 15 knot crosswind components IRL with basically no issues at all, maybe a little swaying left and right of centerline, but nothing like that.
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Very unrealistic. My home airport has always 15-20kt crosswind and i have flown 172s that you dont need to struggle unlike in the sim. Its like flying on stilts
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+1 on Auto-rudder. It’s sub-optimal to have this Assistance turned on, but I’ve found many aircraft are way too unrealistically squirrely on takeoff and landing. However, with AAU1 out, I might experiment turning it off.
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Hello,
I have moved this into Community Support.
I do suggest turning your ailerons into the wind, as previously suggested. But I also agree with the statement that it is probably not enough. Don’t quote me on this, but I don’t think that the development team is done revamping ground friction physics in the sim yet.
Before reading this thread I had been searching for topics on the ground handling problems related to surface winds.
“Please fix the ground physics!” is one that can be voted on.
“Is there something going on with wind or runway friction?” is another.
They both have suggestions about tweaking the code in the flight tuning section. I haven’t tried this yet but I plan to.
Here are some excerpts:
Base MSFS folder->Official->OneStore->Asobo-aircraft-c172sp-as1000->SimObjects->Airplanes->Asobo_C172sp_AS1000. From that folder make a backup of flight_model.cfg, I just copy and paste the file into the same folder so that my backup is flight_model-copy.cfg, then open flight_model.cfg using any text editor and scroll down until you reach [FLIGHT TUNING], then add
ground_high_speed_steeringwheel_static_friction_scalar = 2.0
ground_high_speed_otherwheel_static_friction_scalar = 2.0
to the end of that list and save the file.
These values were also suggested:
ground_high_speed_steeringwheel_static_friction_scalar = 10.0 ; 1.0
ground_high_speed_otherwheel_static_friction_scalar = 10.0 ; 1.0
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Thanks for all the feedback. Just asked because I never flew a real aircraft I was worried and frustrated about this kind of movement. Will begin my private pilot’s course soon and want to know how realistic or not this behavior is. Had this issue with other planes as well. I noticed if the weather changes and you modify the wind layer to replicate the wind of the previous weather, the issue will not happen and I can take off with no difficulties.
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The stock 172 has some tuning issues with crosswinds right now, fairly easily resolved for the PC crowd, but a disaster for our XBox friends. Essentially when the new parameters for the ground winds were added, the 172 was setup so that it experiences 100% wind force right away, but the steering was left tuned for the wind force being gradually ramped up to 100%. So you run out of nosewheel before the rudder gains enough authority.
The easiest fix on PC is actually to go into the flight_model.cfg and under [CONTACT POINTS] change the value of min_available_steering_angle_pct from 0.2 to 1.0
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There are some hacks you can do to the flight model to mitigate the ground crosswind effect. I forget the actual code, but search for “ground_crosswind_effect”.
That said, for small planes and windy daysI prefer using Rex Weather Force instead of the default live weather which seems to grossly overestimate the average winds at all levels.
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I have just tried your workaround with a 15knts crosswwind and I’m satisfied of the result. Not being a Irl pilot I can’t tell if it’s a realistic solution but It works pretty well .Thanks a lot.
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All the best on your journey towards your PPL!
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In the sim, wheel friction, especially when all the aircraft weight is on the wheels, is not very accurate. It allows for a lot more weathervaning (where the aircraft wants to yaw into the relative wind) than you see in the real world, especially with tricycle-gear (nosewheel) aircraft. Thus, crosswind takeoffs in the sim are more difficult than IRL. However, ironically, crosswind landings are somewhat easier in the sim due to the same incorrect mechanics.
In reality, when you touchdown upon landing a small plane, if you have a lot of side load (meaning lateral drift) when transitioning from the fluid of the air to tire and pavement, the sudden purchase of wheel friction will cause a fairly immediate change in vector, which torques the plane fairly hard, and can cause damage to the gear or tires, or worse, a ground-loop. On takeoff, the same friction mostly overcomes the weathervaning, but it doesn’t overcome the left-turning tendencies (in most prop planes) from torque, p-factor, and spiraling slipstream, which usually requires a decent amount of right rudder.
In the end, the goal is to maintain the centerline, tracking along the centerline, with the long axis of the plane oriented along the centerline (unless you’re flying a B-52 
), and there are different techniques to do that, which your instructor will most definitely cover.
Best of luck in your endeavor!
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they should have sorted the ground handling / physics and wind before this ■■■■was released. i’ve lost faith in asoba completely at this point.
SU12 beta now has the min_available_steering_angle_pct default set to 0.5 instead of 0.2, haven’t had a chance to test it, but should be significant improvement for anyone that isn’t comfortable modifying CFG files.
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Glad it’s not just me - I was going to post a similar question if there wasn’t an existing thread. However, I’m not sure I have the exact same problem. I will check the wind next time I fly, but I do find that early in takeoff, the plane may want to turn one way, and later it’s trying to turn the other. Without crosswind, is the 172 just a mess to handle on takeoff? Is there a nose wheel steering on/off command or anything else I need to be aware of for handling during takeoff?
Any single-engine prop plane is going to exhibit turning tendencies, which are most pronounced at high RPM/torque and low speed. In the western world, most props turn clockwise as viewed from the cockpit, which produces left turning tendencies.
The three left-turning tendencies we primarily deal with in the tricycle-wheel world are P-factor (or asymmetric prop loading), torque (opposite direction of rotation), and spiraling slipstream (hitting the left side of the tail amongst other surfaces). In tailwheel aircraft, you also have gyroscopic procession turning the nose left at the moment the tail raises.
There’s also the weathervaning effect, which causes an aircraft to want to point into the relative wind. This is also much more pronounced in tailwheel aircraft.
That said, these tendencies are all fairly easy to overcome, but it requires touch and attention to the rudder pedals, which are linked to the nosewheel by bungees in some aircraft, and in others it is free-castering (and in much larger planes, independently steerable).
There is no separate steering control for the 172 - you steer with the pedals, and there is a cam that locks it straight ahead when there’s no weight on it, but it’s otherwise not manually lockable. The pedals alone will steer it up to 10°. You can also use independent braking to steer, but usually only when taxiing, and the nosewheel will caster to 30° when using differential braking.
The 172 will handle most crosswinds fairly well. The max demonstrated crosswind (meaning what was flight-tested during certification) is 17 knots, however, it can do more, but most pilots opt to establish personal minimums at lower crosswinds. But at some point in the crosswind spectrum, you run out of control authority and it becomes nearly impossible to maintain the centerline. It can get squirrelly and lead to a ground loop or loss of directional control if you’re not careful.
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