Weird rolling and incredibly strict tutorial

I’ve been stuck on the tutorial where you fly the traffic pattern because I can’t turn on navigational aids and have absolutely no idea where I’m supposed to be turning. The roll axis feels extremely weird and unintuitive. I’m using a Thrustmaster T. Flight HOTAS One. The axis doesn’t return to centre when the yoke returns to centre. I can’t turn precisely because of it. If I want to do a hard left, I move the yoke to the left and it just keeps going. It just accelerates until I move the yoke to the right. It doesn’t make any sense. The yoke in the cockpit is centred but the plane keeps banking. I really don’t like this and I can’t find any settings for it. Anyone have any ideas? I really hope the devs change this.

Make sure you first Calibrate your HOTAS in the external thrustmaster software (or through the windows calibration tool).

Then you can go into the in-sim settings and fine tune your sensitivity and deadzones to your liking. I’ve heard -40% sensitivity is a sweet spot for roll and pitch axes for many sticks.

I don’t know what is wrong with your stick. But just returning the stick to center while you are in a turn will not make the aircraft level off. If you turn left for a few seconds then center your stick you will keep turning left. Exactly what happens depends on the aircraft (some are more stable than others). in my example, to straighten up you have to move your stick to the right to counteract your left turn. There are tons of videos on youtube.

All turns in the circuit are 90 degrees. So if you are on a left hand circuit and you are the runway is at 180 degrees. Your first turn will be 90, then downwind will be 0 then base will be 270 degrees. That is it in a nutshell. You have to make adjustments for wind but don’t worry about that to start.

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I don’t have this problem in Elite Dangerous. I know they’re two completely different games, but it just feels odd. I’ll look at youtube though, thank you.

Check that you have axis assigned to your HOTAS, it could be that you have a different function assigned.

No worries, yes, a space ship will hold its last heading when you let go of the stick because there are no aerodynamic forces acting on it. But aircraft have to deal with the air (lift, drag and air movement) and that makes it pretty different.

It could be that I’m leading you astray because I may not be understanding the issue you’re having properly, but I think I do.

Good luck!

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In the control settings make sure that the binding is for the axis binding and not directional bindings, the axis binding should be both left/right and up/down in one setting and not the one specifically for left and for right.

So for roll there would be 3 settings (something like this, am at work so cant look up names)
Roll axis (this is the one you want)
Roll left (dont bind this)
Roll right (dont bind this)

See if that works!

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It is on roll axis

Tried uploading a screenshot but it won’t let me

Standard traffic pattern:

Takeoff
Turn crosswind left at 500agl
Turn downwind at 1000agl
Turn base and descend
Turn final at 500agl
Land

Altitude gauge could use a rotating outer ring so you can mark the 500 and 1000agl relative to takeoff altitude, just a random idea…

Just like in real life you have to do the Math in your head. If field altitude is 810, then 500 foot turn is at 1300 and downwind is 1800.

I don’t know the imperial system and there doesn’t seem to be metric units

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I don’t know imperial either but then all we need to know is how to add two numbers. It isn’t like we are doing any conversions.

To be pedantic, @FlambeBike37299 circuit height comment. The 500 foot references are minimum heights. It varies a lot by pilot an aircraft performance. but the 1,000 feet AGL is mandatory unless otherwise stated in the airfield guide.

Another person described something like yoy had. Just in case I am repeating it here.

Did you assign your joystick axis to something like AILERON LEFT and AILERON RIGHT? That won’t work, you need to assign it to AILERONS AXIS. You need to do the same with pitch and role. The left/right up/down type settings are for if you are using a keyboard.

Yes, everything is set to an axis. I checked on the thrustmaster software and there’s no drift on any of the axes either. I even updated the firmware. I have no clue what’s going on.

I’m having trouble visualizing what you’re saying, so sorry if these questions sound a bit basic, but without a picture/video it’s hard to know what’s going on.

First question - When you move your yoke, does it match what’s shown in the virtual cockpit (i.e. you return it to it’s normal position, and the virtual display matches, etc. in all four directions (left/right/in/out))?

Second question - When you say ‘I move the yoke to the left and it just keeps going. It just accelerates until I move the yoke to the right.’ do you mean you move the yoke to the left, and return it to it’s normal position, and the plane stays where it last was and doesn’t also return to level, or that the plane keeps rotating to the left (until it’s upside down, maybe even further)? I’m not sure if by ‘it’ you mean the plane or the yoke.

Yes, when i move the yoke and return it to centre the virtual yoke matches the movement.

The best way I can describe it is say I move the yoke 5% and return to centre the plane will stay banked at 5%. The virtual yoke will be at centre but the plane will still be bannking. If I move the yoke back to 5% it will add another 5%, so I will have rolled by 10%. If I keep the yoke at 5% the plane will just keep rolling. It doesn’t seem to happen with pitch, only roll.

What you are seeing with banking is exactly what it’s supposed to do! To get the aircraft level from a bank to the left, you need to move the yoke to the right until the aircraft is level, at which point center the yoke.

The “learn to fly” part of the simulator is wrong when the instructor says “the yoke is like a steering wheel.” It most definitely isn’t like a steering wheel! It controls rate-of-roll, and when released, the rate-of-roll should be zero. That means the aircraft’s angle of roll won’t change at low angles of bank, it’ll stay banked at whatever angle you centered the yoke at.

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Yep, if you move the yoke 5% to the left and return it to center, your plane will be banking to the left and keep doing so. You’ll need move the yoke 5% to the right (for the same amount of time) and return to center to return your plane to level flight.

It does take some getting used to, but it’s what happens in a real plane. The best suggestion I have is to replay the tutorial a few times (or start a flight up in the air) and play around with it for a while by making gradual turns. Once you get the hang of it it’ll make sense and become more natural to you.

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Well that makes a hell of a lot more sense now. Thanks a bunch guys

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