Aircraft turning left 1-2 degrees/sec with wings level

Flying Carenado Citation 550 in FSX. Using FSUIPC to calibrate all the controllers/switches (nothing enabled in FSX). All worked well till I had to uninstall/reinstall FSUIPC in order to calibrate PFC throttles. Using Saitek Combat Rudder pedals with no issues. Aircraft when trimmed out/wings level will literally turn on its own to the left at about 2 degrees/sec. With autopilot on aircraft is in a constant 5 degree bank to the right in order to hold heading.

 

I've calibrated and re-calibrated the rudder pedals and all looks normal. It feels like the aircraft is flying bent. All the payload and fuel are well within CG tolerances.

 

I've flown fighters and other jets in the real world and we hardly touch the rudders, except for ground steering with nose wheel enabled or to align the gun on a gun run.

 

I believe years ago, I had this very same issue and I can't remember what the fix was. Rudder trim will realign the nose to heading momentarily then the nose will continue to track to left. I've fiddled with yaw damper on/off with no effect. On the external view, the rudder appears aligned with the vertical stab.

 

Not sure if related, but I can no longer use my strobe/beacon/landing lite switches on my Saitek multi-switch panel. The other switches work fine, and also the Saitek autopilot and radio panels work fine.

 

Any ideas/fixes?

Thanks

Mudhendriver

 

(Win 7 64 bit/FSX MS)

I'll try a blind stab in the dark.....N1 equal in both engines? Sound like trouble started when you had to re calibrate throttles/thrust levers.

Rog....N1 dead equal. No wind, level flight, legal parameters etc. I'm going to uninstall/reinstall the Carenado Citation. My sense is, some bogus values are floating around since I uninstalled/reinstalled FSUIPC and played with the PFC throttle settings. So I'm going with a hammer/nail option. Not spending a lot of brain bytes on this issue since I'm migrating to XP11 shortly (new computer etc). I'm sure I'll have plenty issues setting XP11 up with multiple controllers/panels.

 

Thanks!

This will sound like a smart assed joke, but it affected my small single engine props (in the sim and in real life).. Maybe it'll affect a Citation too?

Have you adjusted the crew/passenger load? If I put my actual weight in the pilot seat and no copilot, my planes will make circles to the left all day long or at least until I fill my coffee cup and return to the sim to correct it. Now I just put 200lbs in each front seat and throw 50 pounds of luggage, oil, wheel chocks, tow bars, outdated charts, stale candy bars, and other assorted junk in the rear cargo compartment. Makes for a well balanced cross country flight.

If I could replicate the smell of my old 172 my simulator life would be perfect!

Often such a problem is because the fuel load is imbalanced- check wing tanks and make them equal.

DOes folowing a flightplan on autopilot also fly parralel to route it should fly. (In a default aircraft that would be GPS/NAV switch to NAV, Autopilot set to LOC). Look closely, e.g. zoomed in to 20NM in GPS.

 

I had that happening, together with both things you mentioned. It turned out to be the joystick calibration.

I had to close FSX, unplug the joystick, replug it, and calibrate.

 

While doing that I would also unplug my printer just in case. My printer is connected through USB, and sometimes it messes with other usb devices somehow.

 

(different joystick, logitech3D.)