Rudder interconnect

[Freightdawg]

Hi Scott & team & the A2A Community. First, let me say I’m a longtime customer (back to the stratocruiser) and admirer of the fidelity that A2A is capable of to include this great V35. However, I do have an issue with the way the rudder interconnect has been modeled here. First the mechanics: In the sim when I deflect the rudder, the yoke follows, simulating the real world bungee connection in the real aircraft. Great. However, this now resets the center of the aileron axis. My hardware is centered, but in order to get the “virtual” yoke back to center I have to deflect my hardware in the opposite direction. What’s worse, I cannot then get full deflection of the ailerons when cross controlling the aircraft. This makes operating the aircraft in crosswind conditions rather difficult. As one makes rudder inputs there are resultant aileron deflections that a sim user can have no tactile awareness of (that would be obvious in the real aircraft). Furthermore, the artificial limit placed on opposite aileron input effectively reduces the maximum crosswind capability of the aircraft. In layman’s terms, the airplane just flies wonky in crosswinds. I applaud A2As commitment to simulating all possible systems and features in its products. But lacking some very sophisticated (and likely expensive!) hardware, this one just doesn’t work well in the simulated world. Please give us the option to disable it.

[Scott - A2A]

Freightdawg,

Thanks for the critique. I need to revisit this as I don't think the actual aileron deflection is being limited even though it may appear this way visually. Since most don't use force feedback, we have to simulate forces somehow by using stick deflection in all of our airplanes that works quit well. If this is limiting the aileron with cross control then that would indeed not be correct technically but we did verify this with cross wind landings measuring the sideways speed.

I will fly these again and verify the numbers. Are you a Bonanza owner? If so, what model are you flying? Also, is there anything specific you want to say regarding the performance you are seeing in your Bonanza that you are not seeing in the sim regarding x-wind landings?

I'll do these tests today btw and report back here.

Scott

[Freightdawg]

Hi Scott. Thanks for the reply. Not a Bo owner but I am a professional pilot. Admittedly my GA experience is rather limited & most of my time is in the flight levels with the autopilot on, so my opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it. I do believe deflection is limited based on some testing I did the other day, but I’ll take another look as well to confirm. Yoke deflection is definitely limited when viewed from the cockpit.

I think the bigger issue here is the lack of physical feedback for most users. From what I understand of the v tail, the interconnect consists of bungees. Therefore if I make a rudder input, I can simply hold the yoke centered against the nominal force exerted by the bungee to effectively overcome the interconnect. This gets tricky in the sim. If I input full right rudder, there is a significant deflection of the yoke to the right. If I want to “hold” the simulated yoke centered against that rudder input, I must make a equally significant physical hardware input to the left. This is a big cognitive disconnect as my real world muscle memory tells me that I must have left aileron in when in fact my virtual ailerons are centered. The issue becomes even more problematic in practice. For instance, during a crosswind approach I tend to crab the airplane down to the flare and introduce crosswind inputs close to the ground. As I kick in the rudder, I must introduce opposite aileron but in the sim the control input must be much more pronounced because I must make a large input just to “center” my virtual yoke before I ever have any cross controls in. Things get even trickier as I make numerous small inputs to the rudder that then deflect my ailerons and induce adverse yaw. All of this happening close to the ground means my crosswind landings are less than graceful and somewhat maddening. I have found that the same effects can make stall/spin recovery somewhat problematic as well.

Guys, this is your product and you should be rightly proud of your creation. My critique above is not meant to be damning of the product as a whole. In fact, I would happily recommend any of your products to anyone looking to get more enjoyment out of their desktop flying experience. You guys make it the way you see fit. My opinion is just that. But I do think having the option to disable this particular feature will help virtual pilots with common hardware find more enjoyment with this particular airplane.

Thanks for listening!

[Scott - A2A]

OK I flew a bunch of approaches with a 17kt direct crosswind and had plenty of authority. You are correct that crosswind landings are harder in a sim that does not have feedback, whereas in the real airplane while still challenging the forces on the yoke make it more natural. At first in the sim, the nose will be oscillating all over the place. This will get better with time as you fly the sim more. Your brain is an amazing thing how it re-wires itself and adapts.

There is only a 5% limitation on the aileron movements with full rudder, so this should almost not be noticeable but as I said above, there is plenty of authority. I would click on the center of the yokes in the Bonanza to remove them. I fly like this 100% of the time anyway, and only put the yokes on if I want to take a screenshot. Because the yoke you see will not always be in lock step with the yoke in your hand.

But for me, in 17kts if I crab all the way down then apply rudder and opposite aileron as I approach my flare I can put the main wheel into the wind down first like the real plane. It's not always pretty.

Try doing a bunch more approaches with the yokes off and let me know how you make out.

Scott.

[MkIV Hvd]

But for me, in 17kts if I crab all the way down then apply rudder and opposite aileron as I approach my flare I can put the main wheel into the wind down first like the real plane. It's not always pretty.

With a 17 kt direct crosswind, "pretty" doesn't matter a whit...