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Coordinated Turn realism

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2023 7:26 pm
by BobSturm
I just recently purchased rudder pedals. In attempting to use them, as I learned in real aircraft, to keep the ball centered in the turn and bank indicator, I notice that it really makes little or no difference. The simulator appears to make coordinated turns without rudder pedal input. Am I missing something? is there a realism setting that I'm missing somewhere? The pedals are great on the ground, and I can slip the aircraft on approach, it is just during normal turns it doesn't seem to make a difference whether I use them or not.

Re: Coordinated Turn realism

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 12:59 pm
by John Condon
This is interesting, Bob. I use CH Pedals and fly MSFS 2020 and this isn’t happening to me. When flying the C172, for example, I can definitely see my rudder input on the turn indicator with the ball clearly moving left and right.

Few questions…
What pedals are you using?
Are your pedals configured for “Yaw” input axis? (I assume so, but X-Plane defaults to Rudder Auto-coordination when no yaw input is found, so just double checking.)
Is this happening on all aircraft types?
When you apply too much rudder while flying, do you notice the nose yawing left and right? (I assume so since you mention your ability to crab on approach.)
Is Auto-Rudder turned off?

Re: Coordinated Turn realism

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 10:18 pm
by Scott D. Williams
My MD-11 Fed Ex buddies here in Memphis rarely use rudder pedals in flight. I learned this some time back when I was lucky enough to fly the MD-11 full motion sims here at Fed Ex. In fact use of them can sometimes induce a dutch roll tendency. The yaw dampers do the work for the rudder pedals.
That is one of the reasons I never purchased pedals since I do not fly the light aircraft sims.

When I first started flying the Fed Ex sim MD-11 I was attempting to fly it like a big Cessna and was instructed to stop doing that and leave my feet off the pedals.

Re: Coordinated Turn realism

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 2:44 am
by BobSturm
None of the big jets I fly (747, 757, MD-11F, Md-80) require rudder input for turns. i got the pedals for better ground control during take off and landing. I rarely fly light aircraft, but I did get two during the Christmas sales: tha Aerostar 600P and the Cessna 337. It is when I took the 337 for a flight that I noticed the ball stayed centered during turns without rudder input. I haven't tried another light aircraft yet. I may be an issue with that particular aircraft

Re: Coordinated Turn realism

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 3:21 pm
by wwa659
I noticed that when flying larger airliners rudders are not used much at all in flight. But GA aircraft require rudder input for the coordinated turns

Re: Coordinated Turn realism

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 3:27 pm
by wwa659
this is from the X-Plane 12 manual.
https://developer.x-plane.com/article/r ... 0landings.

Re: Coordinated Turn realism

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 4:37 pm
by BobSturm
Thanks Sean. I'll have to put some thought into that to try to understand exactly what it is saying. As for the Cessna 337, it may just be that aircraft. I'll have to try a default aircraft to see how it reacts.

Re: Coordinated Turn realism

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 7:12 pm
by wwa659
simple terms just make sure you have the rudder pedals yaw axis set to yaw