Control Surfaces Counter Torque

[steke]

For single engine propeller aircraft, I think SAS should automatically compensate for the torque generated by the engine with the control surfaces. This would be very helpful, especially for stock warplane replicas.

[betaking]

for that matter there needs to be some kind of guide when it comes to building propeller driven craft, seems that it's perhaps too difficult for a lot of people to manage.

I can manage aircraft, typically I turn the engine-size/power-down quite a bit and never use full-engine torque.(typically I keep the torque-limits for say a light biplane somewhere around 35-40 in value, with the engine "size/power" at something like 10-15).

 

there needs to be some better explanations about torque, propeller-pitch, etc. along with improvements to the KAL-1000 such that you could either have different "modes" that would trigger different curves/timelines on a single-controller or having different controllers that could be toggled active/not-active but able to interact with the same value.

also some kind of "when X do Y" or "when instrument X reads Y, the set the timeline to Z".

 "level autopilot" doesn't like even counter-rotating propellers last I checked, then again I seem to be going off the side of the runway an odd amount.

 

 

 

 

[natsirt721]

The SAS feature isn't designed for flying aircraft, its designed stability control in cases where vehicle dynamics are much simpler. The only time I use SAS when flying is during takeoff when I don't want to deal with touchy wheel steering to keep my aircraft on the runway.

Instead, I recommend using the trim feature (Alt + WASDQE). You can trim the control surfaces to reset to a non-zero position without any input, and this is a far more effective way to stabilize an aircraft. Keep in mind that airspeed and altitude will change the lift and drag characteristics of the aircraft, and you will need to adjust trim accordingly. For a center-line single propeller aircraft, trimming roll against the torque from the engine is what you want to do, but you'll have to re-trim frequently as airspeed increases and your controls become more effective, or if you change the torque output of the engine. If it feels like your controls aren't enough to counteract the engine torque, there's a simple solution and that is...

3 hours ago, betaking said:

I can manage aircraft, typically I turn the engine-size/power-down quite a bit and never use full-engine torque.(typically I keep the torque-limits for say a light biplane somewhere around 35-40 in value, with the engine "size/power" at something like 10-15).

This is very important when constructing propeller aircraft - the R121 can produce an incredible amount of torque - an incredible amount that you will never need to utilize for any propeller-driven aircraft. I find that 50 kNm is usually more than enough for the heaviest propeller setups, but YMMV - start low and if you can't max out the RPM increase the torque a bit.

tl;dr SAS isn't for airplanes, if props are giving you a hard time use less engine torque (especially during takeoff and at low speed) and manually trim so you fly straight, or install something like MechJeb which I think has autopilot.