Simviation Forums

i was wondering if there was a way that you change the sensitivity of a specific aircraft. i just downloaded a 737-700 and i think the sensitivity of the plane is too high. is there a way i could make the sensitivity lower?

Hi RX,

Could you please define the word sensitivity, if its the surfaces of the aircraft you could try and adjust the settings of sensitivity in the general settings of FS.

Go to GENERAL SETTINGS, look above ENABLE JOYSTICK and click on SENSITIVITY and adjust to siute.

Hope this helps

SV2003

well i thought about just adjusting the general joystick sensitivity for all planes but the rest are fine. its only this one particular aircraft that i downloaded thats sensitivity is way off.

Its a 737-700 but it handles likes a cessna. think about it like that if its more understandable.

Ther are three levels of sensitivity adjustment.

As already mentioned, you can adjust the sensitivity on your game controller (joystick or yoke) - here you have sliders for "null" zone and sensitivity.

Second, you can adjust sensitivity in the aircraft.cfg file.  Here's an example of the flight tuning section of one of my planes:

[flight_tuning]
cruise_lift_scalar=1.000
parasite_drag_scalar=1.000
induced_drag_scalar=1.000
elevator_effectiveness=.7
aileron_effectiveness=1.000
rudder_effectiveness=1.000
pitch_stability=1.000
roll_stability=1.000
yaw_stability=1.000
elevator_trim_effectiveness=1.000
aileron_trim_effectiveness=1.000
rudder_trim_effectiveness=1.000

The third level of adjustment is in the .air file.  In the air file you'll find a flight dynamics section.  You'll need to download a program to access the air file - something like fdeditor or aired.  There's a great tutorial on air files available for download from Simviation.

I agree - adjusting the 'sensitivity' is pretty much a plane-specific thing, and it also means understanding what the flight dynamics do.

I would approach the .air file with caution for a couple of reasons: a) it is pretty cryptic, even with advanced editors like AirED (available here), so often you can't be sure what it is that you're changing, b) many of the important settings are fine-tuned in the aircraft.cfg file. In fact, you can leave the .air file pretty rough on design, and fine tune on the .cfg. There are a couple of settings that are found in the .air file though, that have no .cfg file equivalent: like Mmo (max. Mach speed), airframe type, drag and braking strength.

So, it may be better to tune in the .cfg, unless there really is something that needs changing in the .air file. If your 737 is flying like a Cessna, then you might look at the airframe type in the primary aerodynamics section of the .air file (line 1101) and compare it wath that of the default Cessna or 737. You might be able to tell whether it's a Cessna or 737 .air file that's been used as a template - or indeed the .cfg file too!

The plane's reaction will be determined by the weights etc. that can be adjusted in the geometry section of the .cfg, and then fine tuned using the flight tuning section mentioned above, if you find that the plane is porpoising uncontrollably, for example.

Good luck!

 For a quick solution try substituting the air file, with one from a similar type of aircraft (that flies ok).
 I also prefer  to edit the [Flight_Tuning] section of the aircraft cfg. making alterations to the air file as a last resort.
 I used the air file from the "project fokker 100" aircraft in a FFX 737-300 recently and it flies like a dream.Had to alter the [Flight_Tuning] to the following,

      [flight_tuning]
cruise_lift_scalar=1.000
pitch_stability=1.700
roll_stability=1.500
yaw_stability=1.500
parasite_drag_scalar=1.000
induced_drag_scalar=1.000
elevator_effectiveness=0.800
aileron_effectiveness=0.900
rudder_effectiveness=0.900
elevator_trim_effectiveness=0.900
aileron_trim_effectiveness=0.900
rudder_trim_effectiveness=0.900

 Best of luck.    Arthurplum

Substituting has disadvatages. Messed up flap positions, landing gear outta alightment. Engines in wrong spots. Generally bad. Go to the FS2002 directory, double click FSEdit.exe, open your plane's Aircraft.cfg file, click Flight Dynamics and go to the last tab. There you can adjust anything you would like. Just move the tabs around to your liking. Hope it helps.

If you haven't got AirEd then you should have. Get it at http://members.dsl-only.net/~eagle/#statement (William Roth's personal page)
Dan G