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Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Inputs?

Controlling your aircraft, using the autopilot etc.

Re: Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Input

Postby Thorsten » Mon Oct 22, 2018 1:11 pm

but using the numpad 8/2 4/6 0/enter is very difficult - practically impossible to fly the aircraft.


Yes - that's why people developed control devices in the first place. I don't think there's a fix for this, the keyboard really is a lousy control device for an aircraft that's not stabilized by a fly by wire system (the Shuttle I can fly with the keyboard, the C-172p I can not).
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Re: Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Input

Postby sim » Mon Oct 22, 2018 3:31 pm

Adjusting Flying controls by keyboard is far too coarse and the last resort. Much better to use the mouse! No need to trim flying controls and the mouse once set for straight and level is pretty good at keeping it there! Auto-coordination box should be ticked, when flying by mouse, so rudder is synchronised to aileron movement. :!:

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Re: Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Input

Postby approxdec » Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:06 am

@Thorsten
thank you. i note your 9819 posts.
but if the C172 is programmed to fly like this then it is bad programming.
a 172 will practically take off by itself in clean air and it would need a strong gale
to create the response i and others are talking about.

Can't get the Cessna 172 to stabilize in flight [https://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=34697]
discusses the issue as well - we can't tell if OP gave up or solved his problem.

@sim
your video confirms these issues in the takeoff for example where the elevator is very touchy
and the aircraft seems to respond like a model aircraft.

but where is the Auto-coordination box ?

regards
j
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Re: Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Input

Postby approxdec » Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:41 am

i have enabled auto coordination on the command line
which has made control a lot better. this reduces the effects
of yaw on the wild rolling. certainly we need right rudder
on take off and that response on the ground is good but the C172
still over rolls greatly - i mean this is thunderstorm stuff.

anyway, thank you both for your responses.
j
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Re: Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Input

Postby legoboyvdlp » Tue Oct 23, 2018 1:32 am

approxdec wrote in Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:06 am:@Thorsten
thank you. i note your 9819 posts.
but if the C172 is programmed to fly like this then it is bad programming.
a 172 will practically take off by itself in clean air and it would need a strong gale
to create the response i and others are talking about.


If you are using a controller such as a joystick or even a mouse (I personally use a laptop touchpad), the Cessna flies perfectly well.

Whdn you consider that a keyboard's input is extremely coarse, and a cessna 172 is quite responsive - to be able to have any measure of control over the aircraft using a keyboard is rather unlikely. The best aircraft for a keyboard flier would be an Airbus, SpaceShuttle, or UFO - in that order - even the airbus needs a finer level of control than the keyboard can provide.


What FlightGear version are you using?
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Re: Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Input

Postby approxdec » Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:33 am

@ legoboyvdlp

using FG v2018.2.2

The touchpad sound radical :-)
Does it fill in the finer control that the keyboard does not perhaps? I will give it a go.
Are you saying then that the controller is filling in the finer detail of control that the keyboard can not? The link I note above touches this idea.
Thanks. I will watch a lot of videos.
J
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Re: Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Input

Postby Thorsten » Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:18 am

but if the C172 is programmed to fly like this then it is bad programming.
a 172 will practically take off by itself in clean air and it would need a strong gale


Let's say I kind of doubt that (irrespective of the number of my posts). I've flown a few GA planes and sailplanes, and without exception they all require constant small control adjustments to stay in level flight. Only a fly by wire system gets you around it - because it does these adjustments for you.

What the keyboard does is discretize your control - each tap advances you by 0.05 (or so) - which means that if the required adjustment is smaller than that, you're overcorrecting and getting into a pilot-induced instability.

Don't blame the programming for your unrealistic choice of control device here.
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Re: Can You Change the Sensitivity of Keyboard Control Input

Postby approxdec » Tue Oct 23, 2018 7:27 am

@ Thorsten

thank you. i understand.
i will cease my unrealistic expectations for keyboard flying in modern simulators.
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