Reply To: CLS-E Yoke elevator axis not working anymore with AFL 172 version 1.9

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If this can help, this is what Airfoillabs wrote on X-plane forum:

Version 1.9 – should work correctly unless any plugin is writing into “sim/joystick/yoke_pitch_ratio” or is switching “sim/operation/override/override_joystick_pitch” back to value “0”. When assigning controllers defaultly in X-Plane 11 Joystick settings any joystick should work.

In default X-Plane simulation you can have full up elevator and if you trim some more you get event more effect from the elevator. This is highly unrealistic. The elevator is already stopped in extreme high position so any input from the trim tab would not make any major change in real life. The other default X-Plane behavior is that when you change elevator trim, the position of the yoke does not change. In real life it changes, unless you use force of your hands to stop it (This is the behavior that is better represented in DCS I believe).

Therefore there is 0 deflection of the trim tab and we have programmed the trim from the ground up. We are not touching any default datarefs and commands except sim/joystick/yoke_pitch_ratio. We are writing values to sim/joystick/yoke_pitch_ratio. There will be a problem if some plugins writes also to sim/joystick/yoke_pitch_ratio dataref. We have to analyze, think about it and discuss what dataref to use for the next update so that it would be compatible as much as possible… It is quite complicated as want also number 2. logic present.

We are reading from sim/joystick/joy_mapped_axis_value[1] dataref. Which I think is the most correct way as this is the most standard elevator axis joystick input. There is a description “Fully processed ratio of each axis …” which is processed (calibrated) joystick signal and index 1 always represents the elevator.

The result of this reprogrammed behavior is also that when autopilot is on you can actually see yoke movement.

2. Elevator effectiveness logic

We have had a longer discussion lately with Austin about elevator effectiveness and there will be very probably a change in some next versions of X-Plane flight model. We’ve had several issues with the default X-Plane 11 behavior:

A. When the aircraft is still and you proceed with the soft field takeoff (full power, full elevator up) the elevator is too effective and you get a tail strike too early, which does not correspond with reality.
B. On the other hand when you are landing with no power, the elevator effectiveness is very weak and you are not able to flare (pitch up) enough.
C. Based on problems A. and B. it is not possible to correctly enter the spin and if you already are in spin it is not possible the cancel it with any deflections.

Because of the problems (A,B,C) we have introduced custom logic that is manipulating with elevator deflection range, based on many parameters so that you could make soft field takeoff, landing and spins closer to reality.