Comanche Update

[Cobber55]

Thank you for sharing this update. Seems like 2023 will be a good year for flight simulation.

[Dreamsofwings]

Can’t wait to see what A2A have done, and all those people who are new to flight sim thanks to MSFS have such an amazing time ahead of them. I can’t help but think A2A magic is going to take them to a new level.

[awash2002]

Can't wait to fly this amazing plane once A2A comes to MSFS that is the only sim I'll fly

[Malva21181]

Hello Dudley. Could you give a new update on how beta testing is progressing with the flight model? I am especially interested in the ground physics.

[DHenriques_]

Hello Dudley. Could you give a new update on how beta testing is progressing with the flight model? I am especially interested in the ground physics.

The team is hard at work in the Beta as we speak, and yes, the ground physics are an important part of this. In fact, as of yesterday they are deeply involved in the separation between ground contact involving hard surfaces and grass.
No stone will be left unturned on the Comanche.
Dudley Henriques

[wblackret]

Great news Dudley! Thank you!

If possible, can you comment on controllers? Don’t know which you are using, but will it adapt well to the Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo units?

[Medtner]

Hello Dudley. Could you give a new update on how beta testing is progressing with the flight model? I am especially interested in the ground physics.

The team is hard at work in the Beta as we speak, and yes, the ground physics are an important part of this. In fact, as of yesterday they are deeply involved in the separation between ground contact involving hard surfaces and grass.
No stone will be left unturned on the Comanche.
Dudley Henriques

I'm glad to hear this! Ground physics is immensely important for the feel of the plane!

"No stone left unturned - no stern left untoned."

[DHenriques_]

Great news Dudley! Thank you!

If possible, can you comment on controllers? Don’t know which you are using, but will it adapt well to the Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo units?

I'm using a Logitech Airbus stick, Virtual Fly TQ6, and Velocity One Rudder Pedals at present. All work perfectly in the sim. I see no reason that the Honeycomb units will not be the same. In fact I think Honeycomb has worked out with Microsoft to have their units recognized by the sim.
Dudley Henriques

[Ian MC]

I'm glad to hear this! Ground physics is immensely important for the feel of the plane!

This is a good point, I really have not been satisfied with any of the current offering's ground handling. I've read (and by read I mean just conjecture among FS forum members) that FS has trouble with ground friction so it makes everything seem super light. I expect also, some of that is lack of feedback in the controls like you would have in a real plane so you tend to over control. I'm looking forward to seeing what A2a has done with it.

[DHenriques_]

I'm glad to hear this! Ground physics is immensely important for the feel of the plane!

This is a good point, I really have not been satisfied with any of the current offering's ground handling. I've read (and by read I mean just conjecture among FS forum members) that FS has trouble with ground friction so it makes everything seem super light. I expect also, some of that is lack of feedback in the controls like you would have in a real plane so you tend to over control. I'm looking forward to seeing what A2a has done with it.

Like many others I have had to deal with ground physics since FS2000. The answer up until now lies hidden deeply in the rudder sensitivity settings.
To get it anywhere near right, what I have done and done successfully is to use a two pronged approach.
1. I lower my rudder sensitivity down. Mine is set presently at minus 50%. You can also lower the reactivity a bit.
2. And this part is CRITICAL ! You ABSOLUTELY have to take a LONG look at how you are using your rudder pedals. I say this because in my opinion a good set of rudder pedals using Hall Effect Sensors has gone a long way for me anyway toward getting this issue under some kind of control.
I have found it absolutely necessary to be MUCH more "gentle" using rudder then what I have seen from the "average sim pilot". This requires for many a change in technique in how the rudder is used. On takeoff and landing for example, gentle pressure and immediate correction using gentle pressure I have discovered acts to counter much of the inertia problem. Planting the heels just as it is done in the real airplane and using the ankles as fulcrums goes a LONG way to curing the lateral sensitivity problems. In other words by altering the technique a bit we can lower the "wandering around in yaw" that haunts us in flight Simulator.
I hope this short piece helps everyone.
Dudley Henriques

[MarcE]

1. I lower my rudder sensitivity down. Mine is set presently at minus 50%. You can also lower the reactivity a bit.

But this is one of the big problems we have in MSFS. The axes with linear curves are whatever they are but don't reflect the rudder control of any default aircraft in this sim. They are super sensitive just like aileron and elevator are completely off. A joystick or yoke has a linear hardware axis and the only reason why one SHOULD be required to touch the curves in the sim is to adjust for custom hardware so your hardware goes in line with the movement you see in the cockpit. Once you start and change the axes you create a custom flightmodel that might feel so or so depending on your settings. My PMDG DC6 most likely feels entirely different from that other guy who has the same yoke than I have but because we have different curves. There is no rule, no common thread, no public understanding between developers how these sensitivity curves should be set so their addons behave the way they should. The goal should be to be able to delete all that sensitivity nonsense to zeros everywhere and then the rudder in the sim has to move to half deflection regardless whether you tap your MFG rudders to half their way or whether you use Saitek or CH.

Hall effect sensors have a great resolution and they don't spike, the quality is better but they should still do the same regardless of the type. In other sims they do exactly that. DCS, P3D, etc. In MSFS however every default aircraft is suuuuper sensitive, people went and heavily modified their response curves in the MSFS hardware settings. Keep in mind that this setting is valid for every aircraft unless you change the assignment profile in the sim for this very hardware device which is a terrible design choice. Many simmers have quickly gone and deleted their MSFS control assignments and purchased Axis And Ohs for that or FSUIPC, Spad Next etc. AAO for example has a very simplified curve setting because its developer seems to have understood the actual meaning of this curve setup. Due to the bad axis implementation in MSFS however I feel forced to use the MSFS menu and do the same as you suggest, pull this slider there, the other slider there so the aircraft I fly currently feels good. But that's only fine until I switch to another aircraft. The rudder in this sim is bad and it's only the fault of this stupid implementation and this annoying and wrong way to set an axis to one's personal liking.

Instead, what A2A and all the other developers should do is aim for a linear axis setting and model their aircraft characteristics around this only setting. Asobo don't seem to understand any of these things or they ignore it for whatever reason, maybe so everything can be flown with an xBox controller. But if we all have our axes set to what we think feels fine we'll all end up with entirely different flight characteristics. Heck, at the moment I don't even HAVE a fully deflected elevator, it's limited to 75% or so so I can fly the DC6 how I imagine that it feels okay. That's not a good way to build anything that aims for maximum realism.

[DHenriques_]

1. I lower my rudder sensitivity down. Mine is set presently at minus 50%. You can also lower the reactivity a bit.

But this is one of the big problems we have in MSFS. The axes with linear curves are whatever they are but don't reflect the rudder control of any default aircraft in this sim. They are super sensitive just like aileron and elevator are completely off. A joystick or yoke has a linear hardware axis and the only reason why one SHOULD be required to touch the curves in the sim is to adjust for custom hardware so your hardware goes in line with the movement you see in the cockpit. Once you start and change the axes you create a custom flightmodel that might feel so or so depending on your settings. My PMDG DC6 most likely feels entirely different from that other guy who has the same yoke than I have but because we have different curves. There is no rule, no common thread, no public understanding between developers how these sensitivity curves should be set so their addons behave the way they should. The goal should be to be able to delete all that sensitivity nonsense to zeros everywhere and then the rudder in the sim has to move to half deflection regardless whether you tap your MFG rudders to half their way or whether you use Saitek or CH.

Hall effect sensors have a great resolution and they don't spike, the quality is better but they should still do the same regardless of the type. In other sims they do exactly that. DCS, P3D, etc. In MSFS however every default aircraft is suuuuper sensitive, people went and heavily modified their response curves in the MSFS hardware settings. Keep in mind that this setting is valid for every aircraft unless you change the assignment profile in the sim for this very hardware device which is a terrible design choice. Many simmers have quickly gone and deleted their MSFS control assignments and purchased Axis And Ohs for that or FSUIPC, Spad Next etc. AAO for example has a very simplified curve setting because its developer seems to have understood the actual meaning of this curve setup. Due to the bad axis implementation in MSFS however I feel forced to use the MSFS menu and do the same as you suggest, pull this slider there, the other slider there so the aircraft I fly currently feels good. But that's only fine until I switch to another aircraft. The rudder in this sim is bad and it's only the fault of this stupid implementation and this annoying and wrong way to set an axis to one's personal liking.

Instead, what A2A and all the other developers should do is aim for a linear axis setting and model their aircraft characteristics around this only setting. Asobo don't seem to understand any of these things or they ignore it for whatever reason, maybe so everything can be flown with an xBox controller. But if we all have our axes set to what we think feels fine we'll all end up with entirely different flight characteristics. Heck, at the moment I don't even HAVE a fully deflected elevator, it's limited to 75% or so so I can fly the DC6 how I imagine that it feels okay. That's not a good way to build anything that aims for maximum realism.

I haven't had the problems you mention.
DH

[aenigma]

1. I lower my rudder sensitivity down. Mine is set presently at minus 50%. You can also lower the reactivity a bit.

But this is one of the big problems we have in MSFS. The axes with linear curves are whatever they are but don't reflect the rudder control of any default aircraft in this sim. They are super sensitive just like aileron and elevator are completely off. A joystick or yoke has a linear hardware axis and the only reason why one SHOULD be required to touch the curves in the sim is to adjust for custom hardware so your hardware goes in line with the movement you see in the cockpit. Once you start and change the axes you create a custom flightmodel that might feel so or so depending on your settings. My PMDG DC6 most likely feels entirely different from that other guy who has the same yoke than I have but because we have different curves. There is no rule, no common thread, no public understanding between developers how these sensitivity curves should be set so their addons behave the way they should. The goal should be to be able to delete all that sensitivity nonsense to zeros everywhere and then the rudder in the sim has to move to half deflection regardless whether you tap your MFG rudders to half their way or whether you use Saitek or CH.

Hall effect sensors have a great resolution and they don't spike, the quality is better but they should still do the same regardless of the type. In other sims they do exactly that. DCS, P3D, etc. In MSFS however every default aircraft is suuuuper sensitive, people went and heavily modified their response curves in the MSFS hardware settings. Keep in mind that this setting is valid for every aircraft unless you change the assignment profile in the sim for this very hardware device which is a terrible design choice. Many simmers have quickly gone and deleted their MSFS control assignments and purchased Axis And Ohs for that or FSUIPC, Spad Next etc. AAO for example has a very simplified curve setting because its developer seems to have understood the actual meaning of this curve setup. Due to the bad axis implementation in MSFS however I feel forced to use the MSFS menu and do the same as you suggest, pull this slider there, the other slider there so the aircraft I fly currently feels good. But that's only fine until I switch to another aircraft. The rudder in this sim is bad and it's only the fault of this stupid implementation and this annoying and wrong way to set an axis to one's personal liking.

Instead, what A2A and all the other developers should do is aim for a linear axis setting and model their aircraft characteristics around this only setting. Asobo don't seem to understand any of these things or they ignore it for whatever reason, maybe so everything can be flown with an xBox controller. But if we all have our axes set to what we think feels fine we'll all end up with entirely different flight characteristics. Heck, at the moment I don't even HAVE a fully deflected elevator, it's limited to 75% or so so I can fly the DC6 how I imagine that it feels okay. That's not a good way to build anything that aims for maximum realism.

I agree. That's exactly how the A2A planes used to be in FSX/P3D. You had to set your sensitivity to 0 and it worked perfectly. But if you decide to fly a non-A2A plane you're in for a bad time haha

[DHenriques_]

1. I lower my rudder sensitivity down. Mine is set presently at minus 50%. You can also lower the reactivity a bit.

But this is one of the big problems we have in MSFS. The axes with linear curves are whatever they are but don't reflect the rudder control of any default aircraft in this sim. They are super sensitive just like aileron and elevator are completely off. A joystick or yoke has a linear hardware axis and the only reason why one SHOULD be required to touch the curves in the sim is to adjust for custom hardware so your hardware goes in line with the movement you see in the cockpit. Once you start and change the axes you create a custom flightmodel that might feel so or so depending on your settings. My PMDG DC6 most likely feels entirely different from that other guy who has the same yoke than I have but because we have different curves. There is no rule, no common thread, no public understanding between developers how these sensitivity curves should be set so their addons behave the way they should. The goal should be to be able to delete all that sensitivity nonsense to zeros everywhere and then the rudder in the sim has to move to half deflection regardless whether you tap your MFG rudders to half their way or whether you use Saitek or CH.

Hall effect sensors have a great resolution and they don't spike, the quality is better but they should still do the same regardless of the type. In other sims they do exactly that. DCS, P3D, etc. In MSFS however every default aircraft is suuuuper sensitive, people went and heavily modified their response curves in the MSFS hardware settings. Keep in mind that this setting is valid for every aircraft unless you change the assignment profile in the sim for this very hardware device which is a terrible design choice. Many simmers have quickly gone and deleted their MSFS control assignments and purchased Axis And Ohs for that or FSUIPC, Spad Next etc. AAO for example has a very simplified curve setting because its developer seems to have understood the actual meaning of this curve setup. Due to the bad axis implementation in MSFS however I feel forced to use the MSFS menu and do the same as you suggest, pull this slider there, the other slider there so the aircraft I fly currently feels good. But that's only fine until I switch to another aircraft. The rudder in this sim is bad and it's only the fault of this stupid implementation and this annoying and wrong way to set an axis to one's personal liking.

Instead, what A2A and all the other developers should do is aim for a linear axis setting and model their aircraft characteristics around this only setting. Asobo don't seem to understand any of these things or they ignore it for whatever reason, maybe so everything can be flown with an xBox controller. But if we all have our axes set to what we think feels fine we'll all end up with entirely different flight characteristics. Heck, at the moment I don't even HAVE a fully deflected elevator, it's limited to 75% or so so I can fly the DC6 how I imagine that it feels okay. That's not a good way to build anything that aims for maximum realism.

I agree. That's exactly how the A2A planes used to be in FSX/P3D. You had to set your sensitivity to 0 and it worked perfectly. But if you decide to fly a non-A2A plane you're in for a bad time haha

You can of course do it this way OR you can make a profile for light aircraft and one for large planes if you wish. The options are there. There is no single magic bullet that satisfies everybody.

[Malva21181]

What is not clear to me is if A2A implements its own ground physics as it does with the flight model?