Hi everyone,
I find it hard to steering in heavy cross winds to maintain heading in taxi/takeoff, even with rudder pedal full, just after SU10, does anyone has the same issue? Is it the same in real life? How do you fix this?
Thanks!
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I can keep heading in relative slow speed, like 10 knots below, but when speed is up, seems the plane has no steering until gain some certain speed when the rudder surface takes effect.
Hello @MachSystems,
Others have been reporting the same. Gusts were reintroduced in SU10.
There is a topic here:
I don’t think I’ve had your issue thought Hester’s link does show an annoying issue. You don’t mention the wind speed, what do you call “heavy crosswind”? Larger than the plane can be typically used in?
Are you using the ailerons and elevator correctly during taxi? As per: Wind Correction During Taxi - Flight Training Centers
Hi, I have your steering problem on Cessna 172 too.This is since SU9 !! Many of us have the same problems and,if you do a “search” in the forum (it is good practice to do that prior to post a new topic) you will find many duplicate threads on the same issue. Issue that is still there after SU10 ,unfortunally.
Can’t keep plane on center line on takeoff. Any crosswind makes it uncontrollable. This is just happening on SU10. Appears that Microsoft didn’t test this and released it anyway. Fix this. I’m shelving the simulator until this is fixed. I use live weather only.
You’ll need to apply proper control input during taxi and during the initial takeoff roll. At takeoff for example, if you have a crosswind from the left, during the initial takeoff roll, when you have very little aileron authority, you need to “steer” into the wind - Turn your control wheel left, into the wind. As speed builds, you will gradually bring out this correction. Know that you will need to apply right rudder as well, perhaps even more than normal to keep the nose of the plane from yawing left off centerline.
For taxi in a crosswind, here is the chart that appears in some GA POHs:
I can’t vouch for how well this works with SU10 and wind but this is the technique you use for real-world flying, especially light GA aircraft. Generally you will CLIMB INTO a headwind (controls up and into the wind) and DIVE AWAY from a tailwind (controls down and away from the wind). This is best used in stronger crosswind conditions.
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Hi guys, thank you all for your advice.
I’ve been busy last month and not fly. Today I followed your advice one by one and have a test. With different ground speeds, I got different steering results. Here’s the result.
TEST CONDITION:
Cessna 172 G1000, ZBAA RWY 36R (MH 359), XWind 271@15, no gust,
0-15 knots: You can steer with nose gear while taxiing.
15-25 knots: You cannot steer to downwind direction, even with full rudder.
Above 25 knots: Rudder surface kicks in, so you can steer to downwind direction.
Never fly in a real C172, not sure if it’s simulated correctly.
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By the way, @Fmgc320 solution shows significant effect when touch down with relative high speed, but when taxi at relative slow speed (< 20 knots), not feel much difference.
So I think taxiing below 15knots can avoid the steering problem I mentioned.
When takeoff, you can quickly accelerate through the 15-25 “steer dead zone”, so no big deal.
This is new in SU10 and not realistic. You ran a good test that it’s easy to reproduce.
I think many simmers have over desensitised their controllers especially when it comes to smaller GA planes which are generally very twitchy in RL. As far as I can ascertain devs are told or expected to work initially from the default sensitivity settings and although every controller is different big digressions from the linear are patently wrong no matter how much easier it seems in clear air. My tip is if possible try to find an in-cockpit video of the real or a similar sized aircraft and take note of how much input RL pilots have to use to keep steady… For me things were very uncomfortable when I first used MSFS but now I am quite used to it and e.g. keeping a plane on the runway in gusty weather is actually much easier.
Hi @MachSystems . I fly the C172 real world. The 15-25 knots scenario you mentioned is not realistic to the real airplane. The nose gear in the 172 is connected to the redder and turns through a limited arc, regardless of speed. You press a rudder pedal and the nosewheel turns as well.
At low speed, a combination of rudder thrust and differential braking may be needed for tight turns - Like making a 90 degree turn into a parking spot on the ramp. Corrections to stay on the taxi or runway centerline can be accomplished by rudder/nosewheel combination at slow speeds.
The rudder really doesn’t “kick in” as you described it, it always moves with the rudder pedal and if you have any deflection, it is getting hit by the propwash. It’s just that at slower speeds it is less effective to “yaw” the airplane. But give it full boot during the takeoff or landing run in the real airplane and the result will not be pretty.
The real-world 172 is very docile during taxi. but you to have to often use the rudder pedals to keep the nose pointed where you want it to go which is why a slower taxi speed is best. The faster you go, the more “sensitive” the airplane will be in response to inputs.
OK, seems they did wrong simulation on C172’s nose wheel to ground friction, just make it cannot provide enough steering force in the 15-25 taxiing speed/15 knots x-wind situation.
Hope they can fix it soon.
Thank you for your professional answer.
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And by “kick in”, I mean the speed is enough when air / rudder surface relative motion is significant to provide enough yawing force to yaw the aircraft.
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This one may be one of those simulation issues where at a high taxi speed, the aircraft will not turn - almost to simulate the nosewheel skidding. For a 172 that’s very fast. Keep your taxi speed around 10 knots. In the real 172, RPM should be at 1,000 or less for taxi, but I honestly often pull even lower than that just to keep the speed down and keep from riding the brakes, another thing to be aware of during taxi.
You are right. I can avoid the steering problem by slowly taxiing. But during takeoff roll, the 15-25 knots “no-steering” range is enough to bring you off the runway even with full downwind rudder applied, which is very annoying.
Yesterday I found a solution in the forum, change some friction coefficient parameters in the config file can fix this problem. Haven’t try it yet.
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Hope that works out. twitchy airplanes during takeoff and landing are no fun.
That can’t be done on the Xbox. And I read it doesn’t work anyway.