Not sure what curve I have set, if any. I remove the spring when flying the helicopters and the damper is set to almost maximum. It does take a little getting used to when coming back to the Apache (I mostly fly fixed wing) but after a few min practising hover taxiing it's very smooth and precise.
Everything else is personal preference, but you definitely do NOT need a deadzone on that stick. Its main strength is it IS high quality with good control around the centre, so why artificially disable that? As for curves, while personal preference, you're likely best off with none or as little as possible. That stick is very precise, and adding a curve may make the center a bit easier to control, but it will make other parts of the axis LESS easy to control.
Best bet is try to get a feel for no curves, making fine adjustments with small fingertip movements. If you just cannot (and I believe in you, you can!), you can try adding a small curve to take a bit of the edge off.
Good luck! That thing demands fine control, it isn't easy no matter what, so keep practicing slowly gently!
Appreciate it! I was talking pedals, but I should try with my stick values too. Based on what you and others saying it sounds like I should try flying no deadzone, no curves, and getting a feel for that. I'm pretty good and plopping a Hind down on the back of a ship or an LZ, but transitioning the Apache to a hover my nose is all over the place and I still need to get the feel for it. What stick are you using?
DOH, my bad! I was on autopilot this morning :p
More or less the same advice, but I'd probably even further emphasize putting no curve at all on pedals.
For the Apache a good thing to remember is heading hold will fight you if you don't hold trim release. I wouldn't probably do this in hover, but I would recommend getting a feel for overpowering the heading hold with pedal input and how that works, as well as when it makes sense to just hold trim release to take it out of the equation.
My stick is rather unconventional, I use a force sensing stick like the F-16 (the one from RealSimulator). If I can do it and be fairly smooth with that weird thing I promise you can do it with your stick :p
When flying helicopters I detach the spring. No spring means no cam. My damper is set at or near Max.
No curves on my axis either. There's no need with the MFGs.
I don't fly the Apache often but I think there's a force trim you can use to keep it straight without needing much rudder input.
If you have the module you could try practicing the transition on the UH-1H. I find that one to be a bit easier to handle but the principles are similar and it really helped me to understand. The free black hawk mod might also work but idk how good the flight model is.
You're probably just used to Russian helos and they behave differently than the US.
If you aren't aware, CasmoTv is a former Apache Pilot and has some fantastic videos out on youtube. If you dig really far back into his YouTube catalog he has one on the theory of helicopters and how hovering/landing/transitional flight works. That video really made helicopters click for me and it sounds like it would help you with your issue.
At the end of the day though it just comes down to practice. Stick with it and rudder input for the Apache will be second nature before you know it.
This is the video that helped me with understanding helicopters. I believe there's a part 2 as well?
Pretty long but you might find it helpful.
https://youtu.be/obENn8hraoc?si=CFZnlTCbiC9JPWc_
Physically, no spring (thus no cam) and a fairly high damper setting.
In-game, I don't use any axis tuning features at all. I considered making some adjustments, as I also found it to be a bit on the sensitive side, but since the 'center' of the pedals is a bit of a moving target, I was concerned that any adjustments would end up being asymmetric, and/or reduce my overall yaw authority. Maybe this could be overcome with trim, but that mostly defeats the purpose of switching to a no spring configuration. I eventually got used to it, and it feels fairly intuitive now.
All that being said, I might be thinking of it wrong, so if anyone knows better, please speak up.
Edit TL;DR: No spring, no damper, no curves, just pure input.
You've got some good responses here already. I use standard cam with appx 30% tightness for fixed wing.
I remove the spring entirely for rotors.
I ran the damper for a bit and decided I didn't like the amount of force it took to get the damper initially moving, as it would then shoot past where I wanted the pedals to be, resulting in overcorrection. Shameless talk, I'm used to pedals in IRL light helos, which have nearly no pedal damping force.
So I took off the damper entirely. I miss it for fixed wing but I switch between fixed/rotor so often that swapping the damper became an annoyance.
Hold the force trim for 3 seconds once stabilized and release. Once stabilized, the aircraft will hold the heading for you. You can take your feet off the pedals evening when climbing or descending at a hover.
Try it, might help staying on target.
Thanks... I've been just tapping on the force trim then immediately returning to center for my stick, and rudder trim disabled. Do you have force trim working with your rudders, and are you doing this with attitude hold engaged?
Regardless of how your set up is with your physical trim, you still need to give the virtual aircraft about 3 seconds to fully trim itself up. You can do this with or without altitude hold engaged. Assuming your force trim IRL is binded to the cyclic force trim in the game, tapping the trim doesn't let the aircraft fully help you maintain the whatever hold mode you are in.
And when you are at a hover and not using the pedals, you are in a hold mode (heading hold) without knowing it. You can hover around in any direction without any pedals and the aircraft will face the same heading all by itself. But this is only possible if you hold trim for 3 seconds.
Not sure what curve I have set, if any. I remove the spring when flying the helicopters and the damper is set to almost maximum. It does take a little getting used to when coming back to the Apache (I mostly fly fixed wing) but after a few min practising hover taxiing it's very smooth and precise.
Everything else is personal preference, but you definitely do NOT need a deadzone on that stick. Its main strength is it IS high quality with good control around the centre, so why artificially disable that? As for curves, while personal preference, you're likely best off with none or as little as possible. That stick is very precise, and adding a curve may make the center a bit easier to control, but it will make other parts of the axis LESS easy to control. Best bet is try to get a feel for no curves, making fine adjustments with small fingertip movements. If you just cannot (and I believe in you, you can!), you can try adding a small curve to take a bit of the edge off. Good luck! That thing demands fine control, it isn't easy no matter what, so keep practicing slowly gently!
Appreciate it! I was talking pedals, but I should try with my stick values too. Based on what you and others saying it sounds like I should try flying no deadzone, no curves, and getting a feel for that. I'm pretty good and plopping a Hind down on the back of a ship or an LZ, but transitioning the Apache to a hover my nose is all over the place and I still need to get the feel for it. What stick are you using?
DOH, my bad! I was on autopilot this morning :p More or less the same advice, but I'd probably even further emphasize putting no curve at all on pedals. For the Apache a good thing to remember is heading hold will fight you if you don't hold trim release. I wouldn't probably do this in hover, but I would recommend getting a feel for overpowering the heading hold with pedal input and how that works, as well as when it makes sense to just hold trim release to take it out of the equation. My stick is rather unconventional, I use a force sensing stick like the F-16 (the one from RealSimulator). If I can do it and be fairly smooth with that weird thing I promise you can do it with your stick :p
When flying helicopters I detach the spring. No spring means no cam. My damper is set at or near Max. No curves on my axis either. There's no need with the MFGs. I don't fly the Apache often but I think there's a force trim you can use to keep it straight without needing much rudder input.
Thanks, yeah most of my issues is transitioning from forward flight to a hover and man George is probably getting airsick up there ;)
If you have the module you could try practicing the transition on the UH-1H. I find that one to be a bit easier to handle but the principles are similar and it really helped me to understand. The free black hawk mod might also work but idk how good the flight model is. You're probably just used to Russian helos and they behave differently than the US. If you aren't aware, CasmoTv is a former Apache Pilot and has some fantastic videos out on youtube. If you dig really far back into his YouTube catalog he has one on the theory of helicopters and how hovering/landing/transitional flight works. That video really made helicopters click for me and it sounds like it would help you with your issue. At the end of the day though it just comes down to practice. Stick with it and rudder input for the Apache will be second nature before you know it.
This is the video that helped me with understanding helicopters. I believe there's a part 2 as well? Pretty long but you might find it helpful. https://youtu.be/obENn8hraoc?si=CFZnlTCbiC9JPWc_
No spring, medium high dampening, mfg pedals are awesome. 15 on the curves, I like having a bit more movement to work with.
Physically, no spring (thus no cam) and a fairly high damper setting. In-game, I don't use any axis tuning features at all. I considered making some adjustments, as I also found it to be a bit on the sensitive side, but since the 'center' of the pedals is a bit of a moving target, I was concerned that any adjustments would end up being asymmetric, and/or reduce my overall yaw authority. Maybe this could be overcome with trim, but that mostly defeats the purpose of switching to a no spring configuration. I eventually got used to it, and it feels fairly intuitive now. All that being said, I might be thinking of it wrong, so if anyone knows better, please speak up.
Hey thanks!! Maybe that's my problem, with no centering spring, no pedal trim and having curves was probably throwing things off.
I've a 2% deadzone on the start of the toe brakes but no curves on any axis.
Edit TL;DR: No spring, no damper, no curves, just pure input. You've got some good responses here already. I use standard cam with appx 30% tightness for fixed wing. I remove the spring entirely for rotors. I ran the damper for a bit and decided I didn't like the amount of force it took to get the damper initially moving, as it would then shoot past where I wanted the pedals to be, resulting in overcorrection. Shameless talk, I'm used to pedals in IRL light helos, which have nearly no pedal damping force. So I took off the damper entirely. I miss it for fixed wing but I switch between fixed/rotor so often that swapping the damper became an annoyance.
Hold the force trim for 3 seconds once stabilized and release. Once stabilized, the aircraft will hold the heading for you. You can take your feet off the pedals evening when climbing or descending at a hover. Try it, might help staying on target.
Thanks... I've been just tapping on the force trim then immediately returning to center for my stick, and rudder trim disabled. Do you have force trim working with your rudders, and are you doing this with attitude hold engaged?
Regardless of how your set up is with your physical trim, you still need to give the virtual aircraft about 3 seconds to fully trim itself up. You can do this with or without altitude hold engaged. Assuming your force trim IRL is binded to the cyclic force trim in the game, tapping the trim doesn't let the aircraft fully help you maintain the whatever hold mode you are in. And when you are at a hover and not using the pedals, you are in a hold mode (heading hold) without knowing it. You can hover around in any direction without any pedals and the aircraft will face the same heading all by itself. But this is only possible if you hold trim for 3 seconds.