Weird problem when looping....

[letsgetrowdy]

I have recently started a multiplayer display team, "The Virtual OFMC", which consists of RealAir Spitfire IXs, and have begun to encounter an odd (and extremely frustrating) issue.
At one point in our display, there is a formation 4-ship loop of spitfires, which sounds ambitious, but has already been achieved around a dozen times. However, this went well until around a week ago when every loop in the spitfire would climb, then start rolling off to one side, so by the tiime I was fully inverted I would be facing in a completely different direction to when I entered the manouver, which then of course makes formation flying very difficult.
I have repeatedly tried to remedy this situation, by putting FSX on minimun realism, by pulling a harder/tighter loop, and by disabling "stall buffet" in the RealAir Spit's config. None of these have worked.
Then I realised that now this happens with nearly every aircraft on my FSX, including Extra, F-18, P-51 etc...
Does this sound familiar to anyone, or does anyone have any suggestions? Anything would be a tremendous help.

Cheers

[Jen]

Does this sound familiar to anyone, or does anyone have any suggestions? Anything would be a tremendous help.

Cheers

It sounds familiar to real life:icon_lol:

When you perform a loop make sure you have some good landmarks. A runway or a long straight road.

Be careful you are lined up correctly acording to your landmarks.

When you initiate the loop, be sure that your wings are straight and level. Otherwise it will start to get you into a wrong heading imidiately.

As soon as possible in the loop, bend your head as far strict backwards as you can, start looking for your landmark again.

If you are flying a formation loop, these rules are absolutely essential. And also make sure your powersettings are as close to identical, as possible.

Good luck with the project. :wavey:


Jen

[peter12213]

What Jen said only make sure its your leader who is checking for landmarks and keeping the rest of you guys in the right place, tthe rest of you should have your eyes locked on the leaders aircraft and its up to him to complete the required manouvre at the right speed and height! other than that I'm not sure what the problem could be regarding FSX settings!

[letsgetrowdy]

Thanks for your help.
Unfortunatly, I do use a runway as a landmark as the displays are usually practiced at EGSU. It's just when I do look up in the leader's position, the horizon is at an angle again.
I have just tried again, and it still won't quiet work. This characteristic is mainly shown in my FSX through the Realair Spitfire, but does occur in other WBs.

[SpaceWeevil]

If you haven't changed any settings, maybe there's a fault with your rudder pedals, or perhaps they need re-calibrating? I suppose one test might be to try an aircraft that doesn't need rudder input to keep a loop in shape (the Spitfire and P51 certainly do) or have a go with autorudder just to see.

[Wozza]

Hi
The keyword here is multiplayer :) ever wondered why online games have a disclaimer about online play?
Ok what might be happening is due to lag/fps on one or more systems linked together will slow the collective down. Your system will be waiting for plotting data from the other systems and so forth,so it will pause till it or the others catch up.Basically your pulling back on the stick and the pooter's not talking to stick at that time as its waiting for the transmission packets coming from the others,you keep pulling back on the stick its still not talking to the stick,then the pooter talks to the stick and plays catch up the elevator snaps from 20% to 60% and speed drops from 180mph to 90mph in a nano sec and bang snap stall.If you think its a pain doing a loop try deflection shooting with a ping of over 900ms :D
You have to learn to lag fly...... add 10 % to the entry speed,make the loop very large with small smooth inputs make sure all the players are getting the same FPS and have similar pings.
If all the above Isnt applicable ie you still getting the snap of the top of the loop when flying single player then have a look at your stick setup check its not glitching/spiking due to age or USB voltage spikes ...
Hope this helps
Wozza

[letsgetrowdy]

No, annoyingly this still happens offline on "Free Flight" :confused:
Thanks anyway Wozza.
However this is still a useful tip...

[Wozza]

Ok then as its happening with more than one aircraft and in free flight its most likely a stick issue or cough cough pilot error :D
Run fsx in window mode and size it so you can also run your windows joystick control panel. This will allow you to see the axis movement of the stick in real time as you fly in fsx.
Fly the routine as normal and watch how the little cross in the control panel for the stick axis moves ...does it bounce/glitch? is it pulsing over to the left or right?

If every thing is fine there.... then well it has to be you the pilot:) are you pulling more and more back stick as you go through the loop ?... are you giving your aircraft sufficient E to get it over the top outside of the stall envelope? remember a loop or for that matter any aerobatics is a fluid maths problem.Energy speed and g forces will all come down to meet at a certain point where controlled flight is no longer a viable proposition :D
Or it could be that for some reason a few or all of your airfiles have been corrupted or some option in fsx is on or off ....which again is pilot error lol
Wozza

[letsgetrowdy]

thanks for all the help Wozza - Will give this a try...