Problem with Elevator Control FSX

[MustangL2W]

FSX Gold Accelerated:
This FSX build is 5 years going on a Jetline Systems PC. On Wednesday, flew an Hour in the A2A P-47 and another hour+ in the Flight Replicas P-40. Was a Wonderful day of Warbird Flying! Closed FSX to go about my daily chores. Came back that evening to get some time in the A2A P-51 and the Elevator control kept moving the stick Full-Forward un-commanded. On Takeoff roll it would put the Fighter right on its nose. I checked all of my Thrustmaster Stick, Throttle and Pedals settings and recalibrated everything. Nothing out of whack. But the Elevator still would twitch to Stick Full Forward/Elevator full down. No Autopilot engagement or Control Lock involved. I changed Aircraft to the GAS Stearman. Same Problem there. Changed to the Aeroplane Heaven Hurricane. Same Problem. I tried re-booting the computer. Now by this time, the Elevator was full down and unresponsive to any and all control inputs. Aileron and Rudder work fine..... Elevator completely unresponsive, Full Down/Stick Full Forward. I pulled the plugs on the external controllers and even the keyboard controls will not overcome the Full Down Elevator. Like that on every airplane I tried in my collection. Something must have gotten changed somewhere to cause this failure and it is beyond me. Anyone have any ideas?? I want to avoid losing everything here if I can. Appreciate any help, and Thanks in Advance.

[MrZippy]

Are you starting all of this from a previously "Saved Flight"? Have you tried starting a totally new flight. I know a lot of folks press the "fly Now" and then go through to motions of changing aircraft and then locations. If that is the case, you may have corrupted something in your default flight.

[Dangerousdave26]

Which operating system are you using?

If Win 10 unplug the Usb controllers and open Command prompt and type

shutdown /s

I find Windows 10 does stupid things when it hasn't had a true shutdown for weeks.

Restart the computer then plug in your controllers to the same USB port.

[MustangL2W]

its Windows 7

[MustangL2W]

Tried it from both.... Saved and by building a new Flight.

[Dangerousdave26]

Have you tried running the simulator without your controllers connected to see if you have the problem then?

[MustangL2W]

Yes..... Disconnected and tried flying with only the keyboard controls and it still keeps driving the Elevator Down. Went back in with controllers disconnected and made sure all the settings and assignments were OK. They were, but the problem persist. I believe that rules out Hardware controller issues.

[MrZippy]

You keep referring to "the elevator control" keeps pushing the stick forward. Just trying to wrap my head around this sentence. The stick/yoke is what controls the elevator movement, unless there is a problem with trim., somehow or other. An invisible hand pushing the stick forward?

Moving the joystick fore and aft gives no control or movement to the elevators? Are you using any addon gauges for control surfaces?

[Josh Patterson]

You keep referring to "the elevator control" keeps pushing the stick forward. Just trying to wrap my head around this sentence. The stick/yoke is what controls the elevator movement, unless there is a problem with trim., somehow or other. An invisible hand pushing the stick forward?

Moving the joystick fore and aft gives no control or movement to the elevators? Are you using any addon gauges for control surfaces?

I had a Saitek that had the #6 button (which I used for nose down trim) stick occasionally. Pressing the button a few times would unstick it. But you said it also does it with the controller unplugged. (There is also an add on Tu-144 that if you turn the landing lights on after viewing the 2D panel would go into a nose dive, but it never affected other planes.)

[MustangL2W]

Yes.... Uncommanded, this "Gremlin" moves the controls full forward. You visually see the stick jump full forward and externally the Elevator move full down.

[mrogers]

Does your stick have force feedback? If so you could try turn that off and see what happens.

[Dangerousdave26]

If you have removed the controllers and have the same issue that's good. Now go into the settings and remove every instances of elevator control and trim from any button command and keyboard combination.

Test again

If you still have the issue i will be surprised. If you don't you can start to find the problem by activating one control at a time.

If you still have the issue I am really curious.

[Dangerous Beans]

I know you said no autopilot in the OP but are you certain ?
Have you tried pressing Z to see what happens ?

[MustangL2W]

Yes... It does not appear to be the AutoPilot

[MrZippy]

Just curious...Does the aircraft have the elevators down even before power is applied and engines started and is the stick moved forward?

As a last resort, have you tried hitting reset to default in the control button programming area? This is kind of drastic if you have made a lot of programming changes. And maybe in the Control Axis tab area.

[PhantomTweak]

Another possibility: Have you tried restoring the sim's original, default, default flight? The trike over Friday Harbour?
If something in you current default flight is causing problems, perhaps this can return everything to the correct operation.

It's easy enough to do in the FSX.cfg file. If you need info on how, just let us know...

Pat☺

[MustangL2W]

I tried resetting the controls, and that didn't do anything. Yes, elevators down when you create a flight. The Control Stick can bring the Elevator to neutral, but it just drives itself full nose down..... then will snap back and give you control. Drive itself Full Nose Down, and it gets to the point after about 3 of these oscillations that eventually you cannot control it at all anymore.

Just curious...Does the aircraft have the elevators down even before power is applied and engines started and is the stick moved forward?

As a last resort, have you tried hitting reset to default in the control button programming area? This is kind of drastic if you have made a lot of programming changes. And maybe in the Control Axis tab area.

[MustangL2W]

I tried the default flight... At initiation of the scenario, the Trike pushes over uncontrollably... and completes an outside loop, then over-speeds and breaks up. It is survivable .... LOL

Another possibility: Have you tried restoring the sim's original, default, default flight? The trike over Friday Harbour?
If something in you current default flight is causing problems, perhaps this can return everything to the correct operation.

It's easy enough to do in the FSX.cfg file. If you need info on how, just let us know...

Pat☺

[MrZippy]

I tried the default flight... At initiation of the scenario, the Trike pushes over uncontrollably... and completes an outside loop, then over-speeds and breaks up. It is survivable .... LOL

I think I know where Pat was going with this! It could be your default flight is corrupted somehow. Go to your FSX.cfg to this part and make it look like what I show. It's the SITUATION=

[USERINTERFACE]
PageID=1
OpenATCOnCreate=0
SHOW_MISSION_CAPTIONS=1
PAUSE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=0
PROMPT_ON_EXIT=1
SITUATION=
Map_Orientation=2
ShowAllACPaintSchemes=1
SelectAircraftManufacturer=All
SelectAircraftPublisher=All
SelectAircraftType=All
DisplayFuelAsWeight=1

If you delete everything after the = sign and then restart the Sim, it will still be the trike over Friday Harbor but any corruption should be cleared out.

[MustangL2W]

Mine said: SITUATION=FLIGHTS\OTHER\FLTSIM

I corrected it, but the default flight still does the outside loop at initiation of the scenario. Ugh!!!

I think I know where Pat was going with this! It could be your default flight is corrupted somehow. Go to your FSX.cfg to this part and make it look like what I show. It's the SITUATION=

[USERINTERFACE]
PageID=1
OpenATCOnCreate=0
SHOW_MISSION_CAPTIONS=1
PAUSE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=0
PROMPT_ON_EXIT=1
SITUATION=
Map_Orientation=2
ShowAllACPaintSchemes=1
SelectAircraftManufacturer=All
SelectAircraftPublisher=All
SelectAircraftType=All
DisplayFuelAsWeight=1

If you delete everything after the = sign and then restart the Sim, it will still be the trike over Friday Harbor but any corruption should be cleared out.

[MrZippy]

The last things I can think of would be to try cutting/pasting your dll.xml and placing it somewhere safe, restart the Sim and see if it makes a difference. If not, then delete the new dll.xml and put your original one back in. Maybe try the same thing with the Standard.xml (in your Controls Folder).

The last thing I very much hesitate to recommend is doing a Repair. A Very big PITA!

[srgalahad]

I tried resetting the controls, and that didn't do anything. Yes, elevators down when you create a flight. The Control Stick can bring the Elevator to neutral, but it just drives itself full nose down..... then will snap back and give you control. Drive itself Full Nose Down, and it gets to the point after about 3 of these oscillations that eventually you cannot control it at all anymore.

Don't let yourself feel too bad about this. Boeing has been wrestling with a similar issue for a year now and it still not resolved.

MustangL2W

Yes..... Disconnected and tried flying with only the keyboard controls and it still keeps driving the Elevator Down. Went back in with controllers disconnected and made sure all the settings and assignments were OK. They were, but the problem persist. I believe that rules out Hardware controller issues.

I'll throw one more option into the mix.

So the controllers don't seem to be the issue. However, there seems to still be a constant - the keyboard.

First, make sure the kbd plug (USB or PS2) is fully connected and not loose. (Simple things are sometimes not so simple).

Second, go to: Control Panel> All Control Panel Items> Ease of Access Center> Make the Keyboard Easier to Use. Make sure all the boxes are unchecked. Press OK. Reboot. Test FS with controllers unplugged. If normal, install the controllers. If still normal, you should be good to go. If not...

It is uncommon, but possible, that the kbd logic controller or one or more kbd microswitches fail or get gummed up. IIRC in the device polling routines, the kbd is at/near the top of the priority list and any kbd input will override other inputs. If there's a bad key(s) it may be reading the equivalent of the FS "nose down" key command on a repeating basis.

If you have another keyboard, try it. Power off, remove current keyboard, connect new Kbd (with FS controllers disconnected on boot up and FS start). Start computer, confirm new kbd works (type small doc in Notepad, for example), then start FS and see if the same full-nose-down event occurs.
If it is 'normal' then shut down FS, connect FS controllers and restart the sim. If still normal, you're good and the old kbd is the issue. If not...

If all else fails, I hear C4 is effective

[MustangL2W]

First off..... I want to tell you all how grateful I am for the help and words of encouragement. These times are personally trying because FlightSim is indeed an addiction! I really am at a loss when I can't come home and decompress with some quality Warbird Flying. I will try the most recent suggestions, but with each passing day the C4 option is gaining momentum. I wouldn't hang on to FSX so hard if it wasn't for some custom scenery I'd lose forever with the move to P3D...but it may be time.