Level Flight

[Jonathan]

Have FS 2004 installed on my laptop and desktop. Having the same problem on both...none of my aircraft will fly level. The nose is always .9 degrees up. The only way I can counter this effect, is to apply flaps during cruise.  

Contacted Microsoft about issue and they did not know what is causing this. The tech told me he installed the program and he was not experiencing this issue. I dont know what to believe from them.

Help and/or ideas will be greatly appreciated!!!! Thanks!

-Jonathan  

[jordonj]

I think that is the way it is in the real world.  Using autopilot can help (I use it sometimes for long flights).

[Moach]

planes rarely fly level with the nose locked on the horizon

you need to give it some pitch (angle of attack) in order to get it flying straight
.9 degrees is perfectly normal for cruise speed, this is not an issue, it happens with every plane

you can also use the pitch trim to help adjust your attitude

[Craig.]

optimal cruise comes from a nose up angle of 3 to 5 degrees usually. So .9 doesnt sound like much, unless you meant 9 degrees nose up then its a little excessive. Also what altitude and speed are you flying?

[Nexus]

I'm wondering if he means 0.9 degrees or actually 9 degrees, he seems pretty serious about it.

[Jonathan]

Thanks for all the replies and thoughts guys. I read over these this morning and decided to take a long flight to see if anything would change.

I flew LA to Sydney and the nose of the aircraft (747-400) and the nose never dropped. I had it on auto pilot. I disengage auto pilot and once I gained control, I had to constantly push the joystick down to hold the nose down.

Im at a lose...does this happen to anyone else or is it just me?

[Nexus]

ahh...I think the reason might be the stabilizer trim.
If you have not trimmed it properly, you have to constantly apply control column force to maintain desired flight path.

assign joystick button to 'elevator trim up' and 'elevator trim down'. This in turn will make you able to control the angle of the horizontal stabilizer, which is very important in real life

[Billerator]

Yeah but the autopilot uses trim for control, so it cant be that  :P .

I seem to remember having something like this too, but since I havnt flown a large jet for a while, I cant remember too much.

[Moach]

check your cruise speed and altitude

your regular 747 will fly at about 30,000 feet at 330kias

also, have a look in the FUEL AND PAYLOAD screen to see if your center of gravity is not way off (happened to me once, all my planes would tend to the left, and it took me a while to figure it out )
or maybe you just got too much weight on it

[Billerator]

I would suggest checking the Mach number instead, sorry  :P .
I cant remember the cruise for a 747, but I think its about Mach 0.8-0.82 .

[Nexus]

Yeah mach numbers are the deal.
Cruise speed for the 747-400 is typically m.85, but you'll be flying higher than 30.000ft though (we want to be fuel efficient here don't we )

[Jonathan]

Alrighty guys, I will give this a try. I have the entire house to myself this weekend, so no one here to bother me!

I will fly a couple of planes and try the joystick button setting as well.

I will let you all know how it turns out. Once again, thanks for the posts.

[beefhole]

ok. i thought i had a problem with this a long time ago too, so ill try to explain this simply. straight and level flight does not imply that your nose is level with the horizon. it says that your vertical speed is zero. physiscs 101: planes MUST pitch up to maintain altitude (conventional planes at least). look, as long as youre not losing or gaining altitude, you are in level flight. and the higher the cruising alt, the more pitch up you get. i am an avid fan of the LA-Sydney route, and i am a seasoned veteran having flown it more than 40 times. my nose ALWAYS pitches at least 5 degrees up until the very last leg of the flight. so, once and for all-so long as your VS is zero, you are in level flight. i too used to add flaps at cruising alt to level my plane out! (in the B747, 1 degree of flaps is deployed automatically at cruising alt for stable flight-but, of course, u have to do this yourself) so, i hope that helps. please tell me if it did! and also, if you land ILS, tell me if u have ever had problems landing at Sydney with the glideslope, cos on two of the runways it doesnt work for me.

[Nexus]

"1 degree of flaps is deployed automatically at cruising alt for stable flight-but, of course, u have to do this yourself"

Where did you hear this  ???
What is the point of adding extra drag (which will also make for a more bumpy ride) by selecting Flaps 1 at cruise altitude?

The flap system would not be able to cope with the fast speed and would be damaged.

[beefhole]

actually, i heard it in a cheap movie somewhere, i put it in just to see if anyone would pick up on it  ;) (seriously, i did!)