Friends! I’m asking for help with adjusting the sensitivity curves of the Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas One joystick for the Fenix A320. I’m just tired of experimenting… Flying on a PC.
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I have mine linear for the stick and IIRC -30% reactivity for the pedals. The stick is sensitive, but real Airbus sticks are sensitive, you don’t need a lot of movement. I find it handles really nicely like this, I hand fly the bus a lot.
For the power levers I used the Fenix calibration and increased the null zone to 8% IIRC. I then calibrated the climb detent at about 87% and the flex detent at about 95% and I find this leaves no gaps between the detents and they have a wide enough space that I can locate them quite easily first time without looking at the animation.
I had one issue with the reverse kicking in at idle settings, to solve that I calibrated idle to be about 1% and let the null zone take care of the rest, now it works as expected.
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Thanks, buddy! I will follow your advice. Really want to achieve realistic control and reaction of the aircraft to stick deviations.
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I’m at the sim now so here’s some screenshots. My rudder is set to -50% not -30 as I had remembered.
I have my TFRP pedals plugged in to USB separately so that the joystick twist axis can be used for nose wheel steering only.
From left to right these are:
Right toe brake, left toe brake, rudder
Roll, pitch, power, unused
Unused, twist (nose steering), the rocker on the back of the power which I don’t use on the Fenix, unused.
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Thank you! At the moment, you are the only one who has come up with a solution, and with screenshots. I will definitely try your option over the weekend and tell you about my impressions.
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As promised, I would like to share with you the results of another experiment with the settings of the joystick sensitivity curves in pitch and roll.
Option 1 - linear settings according to your recommendation. Approaches have definitely become more accurate and almost always with the required deflection parameters. But the general impression that you are flying a fighter plane - very sensitive. Not sure if a 60-ton aircraft reacts so acutely to the smallest deviation of the joystick?
Option 2 was selected according to many recommendations from the Internet that are not related to the Fenix A320. Sensitivity –60% in both axes, Reactivity 30%. The handling is very smooth, you understand that the aircraft is heavy and has inertia. It is very reminiscent of the behavior and reaction that I felt on the Boeing-737 professional simulator. But with the approach, especially in bad weather, such settings are not always enough.
Option 3 - recommended Fenix –30% on both axes. Perhaps the well-balanced option, but I don’t have perfect approaches yet. And is this really how the FBW A320 system works?
To sum up, I want to thank You for the advice with the settings - they are really cool and 9 out of 10 runs were performed almost perfectly (I don’t know how the virtual passengers felt?). Most likely, I will try to visit the professional A-320 simulator in order to better understand how the FBW system behaves in all flight and landing modes and based on this, experiment again in MSFS 2020. And of cource - “Training, Training and Training”!
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Here’s a useful video from an A330 pilot about how sensitive the plane movement is to the joystick movement.
Of course the A330 is a lot bigger than an A320 so it seems likely that the A320 is at least as sensitive.
When it comes down to it, without some means to properly calibrate these things there’s no right or wrong answer, just what works for each individual.
Would like to share my impressions after visiting the A320 Professional simulator. Firstly, the movement of the control stick is noticeably softer than the T.Flight Hotas One joistick. And most importantly - you are absolutely right about sensitivity! Linear settings are the way to go! Maybe only in pitch I would put -20%. And the feeling of inertia of a 60-ton aircraft had to be sought. And, in my opinion, it is almost perfectly realized by setting reactivity to ZERO in roll and pitch! And the level of turbulence (I deliberately made an approach in bad weather) is more realistic in the “medium” position. Enjoy your flights!
One good feature of the HOTAS One is the easily adjustable tensioner on the joystick, just flip it over and twist the knob. Mine is set softer than default, and for helis I turn it to the softest setting.
Rather than using sensitivity, which turns the controls from linear to non linear and isn’t realistic, try changing the extremity dead zone to a positive number. This will change the sensitivity while keeping it linear. Obviously that will also reduce the overall control range available, but unless you are flying an airshow I very much doubt you’ll need full pitch deflection ever.
On the Kodiak I think I have +50% extremity dead zone as otherwise that thing flies like a paper aeroplane using the short travel joystick, the real plane has a yoke with 8 inch travel or more. Differences between sim controls and the real life controls can have a huge affect in how the sim behaves and are probably responsible for many people’s likes and dislikes of certain aeroplanes for handling.
Thanks for your feedback, I’ll try those tweaks you suggest and see if I prefer them.
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