How to use the non-centering joystick in the proper way

rotorsim schrieb: Unfortunately, there's no video.

But what hat are we talking about? Flying with or without autopilot?

Without autopilot, FTR has no function at all with a non-centering joystick. Your stick is already positioned where you need it anyway. 

With autopilot, there are several points to consider:

• At speeds below 30 kt, you are in follow-up mode. FTR has no function there (with all stick types).
• In all upper modes, FTR also has no function (with all stick types).
• In A.TRIM mode, releasing FTR sets the attitude reference exactly to the current attitude. However, if the servos are saturated, they will not be able to maintain this attitude. You then have to carefully move the stick until the servos have sufficient degrees of freedom again. Small yellow triangles above and below the vertical mode indicator indicate which direction the stick needs to be moved. Note that the vertical mode indicator for A.TRIM contains no text. It only displays a green box for a few seconds after activation; otherwise, the field is empty.

I've been testing using the FTR again with the autopilot (it's not necessary with the autopilot off) and with A.TRIM on, and perhaps the response when holding the FTR button is slow. That is, I understand that pressing the FTR button temporarily cancels the upper modes until I release the button again. Perhaps I expect a more immediate response than it should be, and that's why it seems slow. On final approaches, if I want more agile and precise control, I deactivate A.TRIM, because even in follow-up mode (below 30 knots), the responses seem slow.
But at least the behavior seems somewhat understandable now. I wasn't entirely clear on how it worked before.

Don't forget that the autopilot takes a lot of the work off your hands during takeoff and landing. You don't need the many small compensating movements you normally have to make. So, it might feel a bit slower, because you have to make clear that you want to change something.

FTR isn't available in upper modes. Before anyone cries "bug" again, this is also true to the original and intended. If you activate FTR while an upper mode is active, a light effect will flash in the PFD as soon as you move the stick.

FTR should work in any modes as in the real aircraft. Right now you need to make huge stick movements basically fighting against the trim to do a simple translation as shown in the video. I should be able to FTR to fly the helicopter with small, fast and precise inputs and then release it to go back in follow-up for hover or slow translation.

I don't see how toggling the tablet inflight which then 2* GTN Home commands are sent by your plugin is an operator issue. I just want to be able to toggle the tablet without having my GTNs reset everytime. This is a bug introduced in your code in 5.26.
ND "ARC" view is the view that I have on the video. You can reproduce the issue by switching the pilot side ND to that mode and then turning off the left side avionic switch on the overhead (no dataref manpulation) but that is a really small issue compared to FTR.

Real2Sim schrieb: FTR should work in any modes as in the real aircraft. [...]

That's exactly what it does. Believe it or not.

Real2Sim schrieb: I don't see how toggling the tablet inflight [...]

I'm trying to imagine you sitting in the pilot's seat of a real helicopter, with the mechanic on your left, halfway lying over you, screwing and unscrewing the tablet.

You can't toggle the tablet in flight, just like any other installation in or on the helicopter. It's that simple. I'll explicitly include a note in the manual stating that any modification of the helicopter during operation is prohibited.

And with that, I end this unspeakable debate that leads to no result.

Hello,
I'd like to clarify a point I wasn't able to ask in the thread I previously opened to understand how the autopilot and FTR work on joysticks without a centering spring. I understand the forum administrator closing the thread when people started asking about topics that had nothing to do with the thread's topic, but in the end, I (and anyone who might be interested) didn't fully understand the topic.

That said, in one of the administrator's replies, it was mentioned that the FTR button doesn't work in upper modes. I've been able to verify this fact, as well as the rest of the behaviors of the different autopilot operating modes. However, I have a question: if we're in an upper mode, would the way to change the aircraft's attitude be solely through the autopilot controls? For example, the heading could only be changed with the HDG knob, and the same with the altitude. Is that correct? Or perhaps you should press the cyclic button to deactivate all upper modes, change the attitude, and reprogram them (this could be very complicated in an emergency situation).

Best
Tomás

I've combined the topics again.

Of course, it would be completely impractical to channel upper modes to set a new reference. It's important to note in this context that the reference in the upper modes is not the attitude, but rather the target of the upper mode.

The references can be easily adjusted with the BEEP TRIM. So, when flying HDG, the reference heading changes to the left when you move BEEP TRIM left, and to the right when you move the BEEP TRIM right. Using BEEP TRIM forward and backward, changes the references for the vertical modes, for example, the reference speed when you're in IAS mode or the reference altitude when you're flying in ALT mode.

All overrides are explained in the manual  in the section Upper Modes.