Aircraft floats when hand flying

Hi,

Got the great Embraer 170 from Dreamwings (MANY THANKS). The aircraft is fantastic with its FS Panel studio great! panel and Albert Ramic genuine sound but I noted that the aircraft is difficult to hand fly. Primarily after disconnecting the AP approach hold on landing.

To describe it, any movement of the yoke (sides, up or down) seems to float aircraft in corrected direction and it is difficult to return and fly the straight path. On approach when just gently correcting the path, the aircraft seems to float and is difficult to keep in line of the descent (both horizontally and vertically).

I had a GREAT help in correcting the other aircraft take off and landing pitch in aircraft.cfg Flap settings (MANY THANKS, my previous posts refer) and wander if there is any setting in either aircraft.cfg or air file to avoid this floating behavior.

Any advise much appreciated.

Thanks,

Peter

First, when you turn off the AP, do you cancel the AutoThrottle, also? It doesn't shut down when the regular AP does. Also, do you turn off the Yaw Damper? It doesn't turn off with the rest of the autopilot either.

Do you adjust your sink rate and AOA with the throttle, not the yoke? Do you set the AOA for the aircraft's weight? Do you set the aircraft's speed correctly for the aircraft's weight IAW the charts in the POH? Do you set the flaps according to the POH?

Sounds like something in all that is causing your trouble.

By the way, what do you mean by "floats"? It's slow to correct? It slides past the desired heading? Do you anticipate, and start correcting the drift before it takes you past the desired heading? That's called being ahead of the aircraft. If you wait to correct the drift until the plane is AT the desired heading, you're behind the aircraft. Same with correcting the sink rate and attitude. You need to stay ahead of the plane. Engines don't respond instantly. You need to learn how long they take, and start adjusting the throttle in time for them to respond before you need them.

Hope something in all that babbling helps a little...

Pat☺

Many thanks Pat,

all is great info and much appreciated. What do I mean as "float". (Perhaps a wrong terminology). In spite of using FS for years, decades now and making thousands of flights (variety of aircraft) I still use and prefer the keyboard. 4 left, 6 right, 2 up, 8 down and 5 level. All of the aircraft (prior to obtaining the Embraer) pretty well stop the left or right turns after hitting 5 and turn back to level (B747 much slower than the Learjet or AB318/319 etc). Now with the Embraer, hitting 5 after making a correction (even a slight left 4 or right 6) seems to rock the aircraft and additional corrections with 4 and 6 are required to keep the aircraft in a straight line. I called it floating but basically it is the rocking which is difficult to stop. I take all your advises seriously however I still think that perhaps there could be some correction in aircfaft.cfg fixing this. Cheers Peter

Hi Peter, you're right about the aircraft.cfg needing correction. The simplest solution would be to replace the [keyboard_response] section in the E170 aircraft.cfg with one from an aircraft which responds as you'd expect. Here's the one from the default Lear45:

[keyboard_response]

//Breakpoint speeds (knots) on the keyboard increments of control surfaces.

//Speed at which the increment is reduced to 1/2 and 1/8 respectively.

elevator = 150, 250

aileron = 150, 250

rudder = 150, 250

Nah..it's not the keyboard response. It's more like the lateral inertia (air). The E170 lateral inertia must be different than other AC. So that is one thing to change for best 'handling'.

The other is the RELATIONSHIP between keypad key inputs (the + is not linear as the - is not linear):

1st press of '4' key=+1 (unit)......2nd press of '4' key=+3 (not +2) 3rd press of '4' key=+6. (ie: +10)

1st press of '6' key=-5 (not -6),.. 2nd press of '6' key=-2 (not -3), and 3rd press of '6' key=-1 (ie: -8)

So you have learn this 'anomoly' when +3 inputs is not equal to a -3 inputs. This works for the throttle keys as well (F2 and F3). Best demonstrated when flying helicopters. AND...you will find that 3 QUICK presses of F2 is NOT equal to 3 SLOW presses of F3. It's called 'velocity' (like a piano)?

The bottom line is: get a twist grip joystick or yoke & pedals and save yourself a lot of grief.

Chuck B

Napamule

Many thanks gents,

lot of interesting info. In the meantime I noted that there is an update for both E170 aircraft.cfg and E170 airfile: v3.5fde170update.zip so will play with it and report. But also I am slowly getting use to the keyboard response, so probably will leave all as is.

Thanks again

Peter

Hi Chuck B

Could you please let me know where I can find the lateral inertia in air file. Do no seem to have much luck finding it in E170 air file. There are sections which open +, perhaps I did not look enough.

Please let me know. Many Thanks

Peter