Very little rudder authority in a sideslip and other situation when using Saitek Pro Flight Yoke and Rudder Pedals

1st Official Post

    Hello everyone,

    I have some problems with rudder authority when using Saitek Rudder Pedals (+ VR mode with Oculus Rift) in Cessna 172.


    If I try a side-slip (e.g. left wing into the wind - yoke left and full right rudder or vice-versa) the plane won't stay straight, but it will still move to the left (or right, depending on the sideslip direction). Same issue exists if I use full right rudder and very little bank to the left. If anything, I would expect it to travel right because full right rudder overpowering a very small bank.


    I thought this might have something to do with how far the pedals travel, but then again after some more thought, this shouldn't affect it at all - 100% right rudder is still 100% right rudder, it doesn't matter how far the actual pedals travel, it just means it's harder for more precise rudder movements in case the pedal travel is shorter.


    This was all tested in no wind conditions. I know about the left turning tendencies and need to use right rudder to compensate for that and sometimes you might run out of the rudder authority in such situations, but as mentioned above, same issue exists with slip in other direction and even if I use very little ailerons, bank will still "overpower" the opposite rudder.


    I haven't tried different planes yet, but I assume the same issue exists.


    Is there some kind of system which automatically tries to keep the turn coordinated and moves the rudder? I checked the settings and couldn't find anything.

    All of that of course makes any kind of sideslip impossible.


    I checked this thread https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?ur…09857564812851/, but I don't think it's related.

    Thanks.

    Thank you for looking into it.

    And yes, I didn't actually mean the rudder deflection itself, I meant the effectiveness :)

    I tried the same thing in other popular flight sim game (little bank, full right rudder - rudder correctly overpowered the small bank as I would expect it to).

    When I did my PPL flight training, we also practiced sideslips to the both sides at the altitude - the goal was to do the sideslip (full aileron deflection and the opposite rudder) and try to maintain the heading / direction. This wasn't done in C172, but I would imagine it should be a similar story in C172.

    I also wasn't able to keep a heading using full rudder and 10 degrees or more of opposite bank with the Cessna in Aerofly (same rudder pedals as yours). Don't know about the real world performance of the plane. If I remember correctly, this issue has been there for longer.