//////// !!My elevators are gone !!\\\\\\\\\\\

**sirecks** · 11-02-2002, 07:33 AM

Hello everyone,

I am going to stick my neck out here a little, and risk getting stomped on, and ask if anyone has just lost their elevators before while in flight?

I have read through the tips, did my search, and can't find any answers. I should also say that I am using a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 with a USB port. Until recently, it has been working awesome.

Let's use takeoff as an example. When I rotate, the controller gives opposite pressure on the stick like it should, and all seems well. Then, for a moment or two, it feels like the springs inside the controller go limp, the nose pitches down, and then they kick right back in. Last night, while on an automated ILS approach, the plane never came up to the glideslope (go figure that!) after it had initially intercepted it. I disengaged the automation, and tried manual. While pitching the nose up slightly to regain the glideslope, I lost my ability to pitch with the controller, the elevators seemed to lock in place, and proceeded into a 20+ degree nose high attitude, stalled, and crashed. No matter what I did with the stick, the plane never responded, and the "Force Feel" never reactivated. I did have the ability to roll, however. Also, I will be climbing, and the plane will just pitch wildly. I will have a FPM rate of +1800 to +2200 (aircraft depending) and it will jump off the scale in either direction!! Sometimes I think it is over animated turbulence, but most of the time it seems to be a related problem to this glitch. I also have a yaw problem where I can't taxi anything straight, but I found how to fix that, so don't worry about it, just know it is a part of the problem.

I have recently reloaded FS, as well as tried the controller with, and without the included software from Microsoft. This problem happens in every case.

Does anyone have any idea's as to what I am facing here? I would appreciate any assistance.

Thanks, and happy simming to all.

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...836ecc4d4f.jpg
SSgt. Adam Sereika
Flying Crew Chief - C17A Globemaster III

**leffepojken** · 11-02-2002, 09:15 AM

I experienced that problem many years ago with FS98.. (But I lost all my controls!) I had just bought the sidewinder force feedback pro.. (the first one).. my system at that time was P 166 MMX.. talk about stone age! a few seconds after take off the stick went dead or in some cases forced itself to the fully forward to the left position.. I gave up.. and a few months later I got a new computer so that was settled.. I don't know but it felt like if it was my system that wasn't good enough for the sidewinder..

Now I'm using that five years old stick for my P4 1.8 computer and I don't wanna change it! It's great! It really fits the airbus a320 etc..

/Stefan

**leffepojken** · 11-02-2002, 09:21 AM

well.. can it has anything to do with your system maybe? Do you have a fast system? and what OS?

**sirecks** · 11-02-2002, 09:46 AM

Yeah, I should have included that. Here is my system:

1.0 GB Processor
768 RAM
GeForce 4 4200 128MB
40 GB Hard Drive
Windows XP Pro

And it's funny you mention the A320, because that is what I was flying when I crashed last night. Basically, I have tried running FS with and without the Sidewinder software, and upgrade (the disks that came with the joystick), I have completely removed it, recalibrated, and all that, but it doesn't seem to fix it. I had to reload FS about a month ago, so it is relatively fresh. No new changes, other than the video card. I bought it about a month ago. I don't know if that would affect my joystick, though. Would it?

Thanks for your responses. I hope there is someone wiser than me to offer some advice out there on this subject.

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...836ecc4d4f.jpg
SSgt. Adam Sereika
Flying Crew Chief - C17A Globemaster III

**fsc_FA** · 11-02-2002, 10:25 AM

Adam,

Could it be that you have another USB-device (yoke, second joystick) controlling the same surface(s) plugged in? If so, look there for the solution: Move the other device's controller slightly to let it find its null position again and your joystick should have full control back.

Fritz

tailboom · 11-02-2002, 10:38 AM

Mine don't always reach the top floor, but they're still there..
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...c45448c942.gif

**sirecks** · 11-02-2002, 10:54 AM

No, I only have the one joystick. My other USB is taken up by my scanner, but I have already tried swapping ports.

Oh, and also tailboom, the graphics corolate to my problem because the elevators don't move on the aircraft. I just thought the title would grab folk's eye's. Ya know how it is.

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...836ecc4d4f.jpg
SSgt. Adam Sereika
Flying Crew Chief - C17A Globemaster III

tailboom · 11-02-2002, 11:04 AM

:-lol
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...c45448c942.gif

**sirecks** · 11-02-2002, 11:17 AM

Yeah I got ya. I didn't take anything by that. Your joke just made me think of that detail of my problem that I had left out. Ya know, the more info, the better chance there is of someone being able to help. So what about it . . . do you have any idea's? I was thinking of trying to reinstall FS and the Sidewinder stuff all over again, at one time.

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...836ecc4d4f.jpg
SSgt. Adam Sereika
Flying Crew Chief - C17A Globemaster III

**fsc_FA** · 11-02-2002, 01:54 PM

Adam,

No, we won't give up that easily.
Second approach: Does it happen with all aircraft or only with specific ones? In the latter case, a little program called FFUtil.exe Version 2.2 by Dave Westbury (try flightsim or avsim) could repair the force feed section in your plane's aircraft.cfg

Fritz