I have been able to reproduce, over and over, the pitch oscillation anomaly that I’m having with the PMDG 737 (700) with autopilot engaged. Basically, whenever I am over land, the plane is likely to go into a rhythmic pitch oscillation. The more rough the terrain, the more persistent the oscillations are. The moment I get over water, the plane smooths out. As soon as I hit land again, the oscillations resume. Wondering if anyone else who’s having this issue would be willing to test it out and see if he/she gets the same results. From my experience, even a narrow body of water is enough to stop the oscillations.
The thermal model and airflow over mountainous terrain is too extreme and unrealistic. The flight model needs refinement. Airliners behave like gliders at times.
Agreed, the mountain thermal modeling is way overdone, but this is different. It’s a constant rhythmic nose up, nose down oscillation, which occurs over land, but seemingly not over water. It happens with steady winds, or very slightly varying winds on the order of 1 - 2 kts. I think there’s more going on here, but I am speculating (from an uneducated perspective) as to a cause. Do you have the PMDG737? If so, do you have pitch oscillation problems? If you do, I would be grateful if you could try flying over land and water and see if it makes a difference. Thanks.
Yes I have the PMDG 737 and I also have pitch oscillations in some scenarios.
Even PMDG’s Randazzo said the atmosphere in MSFS 2020 is significantly unrealistic :
The atmospheric stability in MSFS is significantly unrealistic.
We hope that the changes made to the MSFS atmospherics will continue to improve over time.
Thanks for that. Are you willing to see if the pitch oscillations abate over bodies of water? The reason I am doing this is that I am in contact with a member of the support team. I think the more info we can provide - as users - may be helpful to them. It may be useful to them, or it may not.
There are some conversations going on in PMDG’s forums:
Pitch oscillations while on autopilot - PMDG Simulations
Constant bobbing - PMDG Simulations
About Asobos’s weather needing refinement, that is being too kind. I understand refinement as: it works, but can be better. And currently it is far from working as it should.
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Thanks! Yeah, I am active in those conversations at PMDG. I was hoping to get a sense of how many people are experiencing this in a broader forum.
I haven’t noticed any difference over land or water, but maybe I wasn’t paying atterntion. I will plan a route over both and see if the pitching stops over water. Hopefully you are on to something here.
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That would be awesome, Wingman. Thanks!
I flew a route yesterday taking off directly over water and everything was nice and smooth, until reaching altitude 22,000 ft and the pitching started, still over water. The route I flew was over water and land, but mostly over water. the pitching would occasionally smooth out but always return, until descent mode where it stopped completely until landing. This brings back memories of the PMDG 737 in FSX, where after around 20,000 ft it would start to fishtail and the only solution was to turn off the yaw damper. I think this could be a problem with the V Nav above a certain altitude and probably not a land water thing.
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Thanks man! Funny, it affects everyone differently. Or, I guess it can take on different characteristics on different setups. I get pitch oscillations throughout my descent as well as in cruise, but flying over water, I get no oscillations. Flew from TNCM to Toronto yesterday and it was rock solid until the second I hit the US east coast, and it started. Whatever it is, hopefully PMDG figures out what’s going on and can remedy it.