Elevators aren't centred

[LJKMartin]

When I load X-plane and the SAAB, the elevators are off-centre.  I have to pull back on the stick more than half-way through it's travel to get them straight.

 

Joystick is calibrated in X-plane and I've click the "This position is centre" button.  In the Null Zone tab, the joysitck is shown as centred.

 

I have renewed X-plane's settings and re-installed the SAAB.  The only thing I haven't tried is to uninstall the SAAB and install it again after that.

 

Will try now, but if anyone has any other suggestions that would be great.

[LJKMartin]

That's made it worse!

 

The elevators are flapping up and down now, and the engines have started themselves! (no, Start each flight with engines running is not set).

 

Do I need to re-install x-plane, even though it's only this aircraft that's doing this?

 

Any advice is gratefully received.

[Goran_M]

This is very unusual behavior.  I'm guessing you have some kind of calibration issue.  Please recheck your controller calibration for pitch.  Usually when they flap, it's because they haven't been calibrated properly

[James Britnell]

Hi, Perhaps cast your eye on the local weather. Windy conditions will cause the Elevators and Rudder to flutter and / or large deflections from center and the Props to windmill.

Edited February 1, 2015 by James Britnell

[LJKMartin]

Well, yes it is windy today, but the elevators were moving their full travel, not just fluttering a bit.

 

I have, once again calibrated, and they are almost straight, but calibrating usually doesn't make a difference, and they are still not quite straight.  I'm afraid I went straight to calibration without checking what it had loaded like.

 

If it were a calibration issue would the virtual yoke be off-centre too (and how can you tell)?

 

Thanks for your help, but I am out of time now, so can we keep this conversation open?

[LJKMartin]

I find the SAAB almost impossible to fly!  I took off OK today, and follow a heading on autopilot. But after about 20 minutes the plane started to climb, and then descend, up and down like a yoyo!  The autopilot was set to ALT, and when I set it to IAS the attitude leveled off.

 

Later, after turning the autopilot off.  I have to put the joystick all the way forward but only get less than -10 degrees attitude.  I go to chase view and the elevators aren't responding to the joystick (the ailerons are).  

 

So, I go to the menus to check and calibrate the joystick (big mistake, I know now).  All the axes are working.

 

When I come back out of that (yes, the engines have stopped, doh!, but I get them restarted) the plane is throwing itself all over the sky and even tries to do a loop!

 

1) what is going on?

2) I'm using a Saitek X52 Pro joystick and throttle - is there a problem with the SAAB and Saitek?

 

I really want to get to grips and enjoy this aircraft but how can I if it has a mind of it's own?

Edited February 14, 2015 by LJKMartin

[Goran_M]

Go into your in sim settings menu.

Operations and Warnings

Set flight models per frame to 2 or higher.

 

Edit:  Btw, I have the same hardware as you.  Saitek X52.  No problems on my end.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Goran_M

[LJKMartin]

Thanks,

 

It was already set to 2, so will try 3 and let you know.

[LJKMartin]

Hi,

 

That seemed much better - managed a non-crash landing!  Will have another go in the morning.

 

Thank-you very much Goran.

[Goran_M]

Keep experimenting with the flight models per frame.  When the aircraft goes nuts in the way you describe, that is usually the culprit.

[LJKMartin]

_{Things a lot steadier now.  Will keep fiddling.}

 

_{All the best.}

[LJKMartin]

Hi Goran,

 

Can we take another look at the problem with the elevators?

 

They are always off-centre (nose-down). 

 

It's definately not the joystick, because if I don't plug one in the problem is still there.

[JGregory]

Check your trim settings.

[LJKMartin]

I don't think it's the trim.  The whole elevators are deflected, as the attached screenshot shows.

 

[LJKMartin]

 

And this is what it was like this morning!

 

 

[JGregory]

Please unplug all your hardware and make sure the weather is set to CAVOK.  The report back here if you still have a problem. 

[LJKMartin]

 

Better, but still not right?

 

Unplugged joystick and webcam.

Turned off Matrox and all net connections.

 

Tried to disable addins (XPTracker etc), but they are on when I reload.

 

X-plane keeps crashing when I close most of the Settings dialog boxes.

 

Cheers

[JGregory]

LES_Saab_340A_5.png

 

Better, but still not right?

 

Unplugged joystick and webcam.

Turned off Matrox and all net connections.

 

Tried to disable addins (XPTracker etc), but they are on when I reload.

 

X-plane keeps crashing when I close most of the Settings dialog boxes.

 

Cheers

 

If your getting crashes there may be something wrong with your installation.  To test the Saab issue fairly, you should download the demo of X-Plane, disconnect all hardware, install Gizmo, then install the Saab and see what happens.

[Goran_M]

Definitely something wrong going on at your end.  This was taken immediately after loading up.

[LJKMartin]

OK, I'll reinstall.

 

Thank-you for your help.  I'll come back to you if that doesn't fix it, and if I work out what the cause is I'll let you know. 

 

It's great to be able to get service like this.  Thanks again.

 

LJM

[LJKMartin]

 

Just to update you: I've removed X-plane completely and the Saab and reinstalled, but still not fixed.

 

I'll keep trying different hardware configs and let you know if I ever get it sorted.

 

Cheers

 

LJM

[LJKMartin]

Hi,

 

I'm running out of options.

 

I've unplugged all my hardware except the monitor, network, keyboard and mouse, and tried disabling USB devices in Device Manager.

 

It might be quicker to reinstall Windows?  Will that clean things out enough?

 

To try and confirm that it's definitely this PC, I've tried to install on another, but it won't install the SAAB.  I guess that's a licence restriction - can you help with that please?

[Goran_M]

Did you try a bare bones installation of X-Plane on another part of your computer?  Another partition would be best.

No scenery.  No other add ons.  Just the Saab, the sim and the default Seattle scenery.

Honestly, we haven't had any other cases of this, so it's a big mystery why it's specific to just your system.

Just a side note.  Are you able to get your hands on another joystick.  Just a very simple one, and then calibrate using that.  Try that before a bare bones install.

[LJKMartin]

Thanks Goran,

 

My system is probably unique (I got a professional to build it for me), but there's nothing outlandish about it.

 

I can see it's very puzzling. Through the course of this problem it's changed from down to up and by degree too.

 

I did reinstall, but back to the same place.  The deflection is pretty small now. I have two disks, so I'll try installing to the second disk, or would you recommend making a partition?

 

I'll try and get my hands on another joystick too.

 

Cheers

[Ben Russell]

Install an up-to-date copy of the demo, from the Internet.

 

DO NOT use your discs.

 

http://www.x-plane.com/downloads/x-plane_10_demo/