Slow flight control movement

[Stratosfeerick]

Hi all, I recently bought the IXEG 737 for X-Plane 11 and am thoroughly enjoying the cockpit detail, textures and systems, and the overall immersion. However, I am having a big issue with the flight controls. They are very sluggish, giving a very heavy and mushy feel to flying. 

For example, if I suddenly push my joystick full forward from neutral, the virtual control column will slowly move to full forward. It might take a second or so to get there. It doesn’t mirror the movement of my joystick. This sluggishness becomes an issue especially when on approach, and many small adjustments left and right are required to keep the plane on course. These adjustments cannot be made quick enough, and so while I may be making a quick correction to the left with my joystick, the control column would still be moving right from the previous correction. 

As hard as this is to deal with when flying using a 2D monitor, it’s even worse in VR, when the control column is meant to move in your hand, as in real life.
 

I don’t have this issue with any other aircraft, and was wondering if anybody here has come across it and knows how to fix it.

[Litjan]

Hi there - we mimicked the flightcontrol speed of the real aircraft when making this addon. I have done countless flight-control checks in the 737 during my life, and it does take quite a bit to move the yoke from stop to stop. This is due to the mass of the flight-controls themselves (ailerons, spoilers and elevators) and the maximum speed that the hydraulic can move them.

I know that there is some "out of sync" movement with a joystick due to this - because the joystick can move really fast. If we had allowed that - we would see unrealistic fast control response on our model.

The Airbus family suffers from this effect in real life - the joystick (they call it flightstick, because it is no joy to fly that plane) can move very fast - with the flight-controls lagging behind. Thats why its hard to control an Airbus precisely in gusty crosswind conditions, pilots tend to overcontrol and they tell you to "move the stick less, the flight-control computer will keep it straight for you" - but that doesn´t work, really.

I can fly the IXEG 737 as well as I could fly the real aircraft (whatever that means ;-)) with the current setup. There is a possibility that you have set up your flight-control response in a way that makes it not sensitive enough around the center...this would require quite large movements to have a solid effect on the flight-control-surface. Check your response curve in the joystick setup menu and make it more or less "linear".

The trick to fly an airliner precisely is to use trim all the time - you want to be able to fly it with just two fingers on the yoke, really. Unless it gets really turbulent, of course - but even then its rare to use full travel - although it does happen in extreme winds. I can´t remember ever running against the stops, though - and I have landed the plane in some pretty bad conditions...

Cheers, Jan

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by Litjan