Great post! Yeah I also feel that flying small GA planes has become not so enjoyable because of the wind gusts. I think it’s probably an issue with the frequency and severity of the gusts, but I also wouldn’t rule out that something is off with the flight model for small aircraft.
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This gust frequency issue, along with the record-breaking thermal updrafts this sim now regularly throws at you, absolutely kills the joy of GA flying.
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Well, i think it should be difference between airliners and ga because of the less mass of those smaller aircraft. That is correct actually. If you want a smoother flight use aircraft with more mass. Then if the mass of the aircraft is as they are IRL it’s hard to know. It’s up to Asobo to implement correct weight in the sim. 1kg of mass should be same as 1kg of mass in the real world to make the mass correct.
I know Asobo default A320 feels much lighter and much more affected by those gusts than FBW a320 or fenix a320. Why? Those should have same mass right?
I think the biggest issue is the models we are using. They are made for constant air like in a wind tunnel. Because thats what we had in the sim before they introduced more varied airmovement in the atmosphere.
Then i for sure know that air can never behave 100% as it do IRL and can always improve.
I think also they could add a stabilizer on the camera. Now the camera is glued to the plane. Our heads in real aircraft are not glued like that. Our head and eyes stabilize those sudden movements.
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Completely agree. I also hold a PPL and fly in windy Wellington (New Zealand) so know very well how wind affects small GA aircraft. The FS2020 wind modelling is completely off in my experience. It’s not just small aircraft too - huge A320s also get thrown around as if they have no weight. Updrafts and downdrafts are also very exaggerated.
Terrain-induced turbulence is another thing that’s way overdone in the simulator. Flying from Wellington (NZWN) to Nelson (NZNS) takes you across the stunning Marlborough Sounds. In reality, once you climb above the terrain by 1000ft or so, you won’t get affected by turbulence. In the sim, you can be 5000ft above the terrain and still get battered by turbulence. It’s such a shame as I can’t fly GA until this is fixed.
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There is definitely more going on than just gusts. I have tried to fly today with a preset setting wind at 15 kts at about 60 degrees to the runway (at this angle that’s not much less than 15 kt crosswind). Approach fine, but the moment I entered ground effect I couldn’t stay on the centreline despite literally applying full rudder into the wind. This was in a DA40 NG. As I was floating by the tine the wheels touched down I was literally blown off the runway and there was no more rudder to be had! Looks like the effectiveness of the rudder is reduced too much in the ground effect. Makes me think there could be an element of the flight model being broken too. It could also be that it’s a problem with the specific aircraft model.
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You cannot compensate for crosswind during the landing rollout using rudder alone. You must also apply aileron deflection into the wind. (Deflect the yoke in roll towards the side the crosswind is coming from).
Was this the default DA40 or some mod? On the default one you have to keep in mind its flight model was touched over one year ago for the last time.
Aircraft behaviour must not be related to the core simulation doing stuff wrong - the aircraft flight model configuration itself is key.
That’s not a ground effect issues actually, it’s the lack of friction from the wheels. On the DA40 the FSX implementation is still used here which only simulates a single contact point and not a proper wheel. As there is not much friction wind coming from the side will blow you away 
Better use the C172 for testing as it has all features in place which should play best with the current environment situation like the overhauled wheel friction model, CFD simulation and prop simulation.
I hope all that stuff will be part on one of the AAUs as it’s a bit misleading to have two different simulation approaches on aircraft today.
They should be focusing all energy on the wind and weather. Both have been broken since 2021. Weather is a critical component of aviation. If it’s wrong, so too is every other aspect of flight. They need to get this right ASAP.
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When I put aileron into something like a 10 knot crosswind, in the G1000 C172, FS2020 nearly rolls the plane. Something is fundamentally wrong with the modelling as it currently stands.
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IF I were the head of, and running a Computer Games Company, that was tackling its first Realistic Flight Simulator, I would probably spend more time running and managing the company, rather than trying to be an amateur Aeronautical / Meteorologist, and would instead employ some professionals who already know far more than I will even know about the subject, to design such systems for the simulator.
But I am not, so thankfully, I do not have to make such decisions.
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Please don’t get me started on crosswind takeoffs and landings, there is something very wrong with it and has been for since SU8.
As for the gusts and turbulence:
I do think it is plane specific though, as some planes feel better than others. Eg. The new SWS RV 14 feels better whereas the Just Flight Warrior II is in a horrible state. JF Warrior used to be amazing prior to SU8 and hasn’t been updated since release.
The 172 g1000, which is suppose to be the benchmark, is trying very hard to kill the pilot. The real 172 is very docile in comparison.
My observation is that the airplane gets pushed by the gust, but it seems there is a lack of resistance and therefor the movement and change of direction is very abrupt, which makes it very difficult to predict and counter. Also, the axis it affects, seems off, because while flying in IRL, I fly with 2 fingers on the yoke and generally only need to “pick up” the wings in gusty or turbulent conditions. The longitudinal axis is affected more than the lateral and vertical axis.
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I’m not sure what the new ui would look like that devs talked about in latest dev q&a. But they said they will add options for turbulence. I think that is a really good choice. Because i think we all have different opinions of what is realistic.
I think in some locations the tubulence we get in the sim may feel realistic and some other locations not. Also having options maybe make those aircraft that has not been updated usable
C172 is more of an experimental plane though. That they stated when they introduced the unlimited crosswinds at ground. The issue with that plane is not the wind it self. It’s the friction of the tires.
You can set the crosswind to default values in the flightmodel file if you want to have it work as before the experimental features they added to that aircraft. They should add a non experimental version to use in my opinion.
As it works in c172 now is that at ground if we have 10KTS crosswind the plane get 10KTS of crosswind.
How it worked before is like this, when standing still and have crosswinds of 10KTS we get 0KTS of crosswind pushing the aircraft and when we increase in groundspeed the crosswind pusing on the aircraft increases.
The latest is how it works for most of the aircraft now. It’s only c172 that has that new thing with unlimited crosswind at ground what i know of.
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Yes this plus weathervaning effect is really strong as well. I tried to take off with C172 in 15 kt crosswind and it was completely impossible to keep it on the runway whilst still on the ground.
And before somebody says that 15 kts is the maximum crosswind for C172 no it isn’t. It’s the maximum demonstrated crosswind. C172 can be flown safely at much stronger crosswinds than this by a skilled pilot.
Yes although they should treat this by improving the physics of the stationary vs. rotating wheels, not by changing the knots of crosswind …
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I totally agree. But in the meantime they do that i think they should have included a non experimental version until the experimental is stable and behaves correct.
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To anybody who is wondering if the gusts in the MSFS has been exaggerated…? Nope. I wish we could also have this in the sim: Very gusty crosswind landing almost going around - A day in the life as an airline pilot - YouTube
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I’ve played around a bit with the flight model files in DA40. Increasing the pitch moment of inertia helps a bit. The nose now oscillates left and right in gusty conditions rather than up and down, and the airspeed fluctuates more. It may require a lot more tweaking and I haven’t managed to improve the ground effect dynamics or the ground handling.
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For ground tire physics there is those lines under flight_tuning you can try tune or add if it doesn’t exists. Those are new lines since su9 i think it was.
default value is 1.
ground_high_speed_steeringwheel_static_friction_scalar
ground_high_speed_otherwheel_static_friction_scalar
Check sdk:
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IMO, it’s the behavior of the wind that is exaggerated/unrealistic/broken/etc. The behavior is irr
I’ve had this issue the past few days in a few small aircraft. The c172 being one of them. 15-20kt crosswind and you cannot even taxi the aircraft anymore as the wind is blowing the tail so hard it just turns into it.