Elevons pitching the wrong way?

[MelonHeadSeb]

I realise this is meant to happen when they're on different sides of the CoM, but it's doing this to me even when they're on the same sides:

http://imgur.com/a/6CkBa (you can see the main wing elevons point in the wrong direction, opposite to the tail wing elevons)

Inverting them in the SPH makes no difference whatsoever. It is making my aircraft very difficult to pitch.

[Mr. Speed]

Yeah this seems to happen a lot with swept wings (or diagonally placed control surfaces). Seems like they have difficulty detecting their position in relation to the center of mass.

Best thing is to use the tail just for pitch control, and the wings just for roll.

[RocketBlam]

I've seen this at least back to .90. If they're pretty close to the center of mass, they seem to point the wrong way. I'm not sure if the physics effect is correct though, it seems to be.

[Alshain]

If one side of the plane is pitching opposite, remove the elevons and replace them in symmetry. This happens when you place the wing with the elevon already on it sometimes. But really, pitching isn't going to be very effective near the center of mass. The tail should be pitch, the outer wing should be roll, and the vertical tail should be yaw. The inner wing can optionally be flaps.

[adinfinitum]

My best guess would be that since the ailerons are attached to the wing, which looks like it has its attachment center ahead of the CoM, the game is treating them as ahead of the CoM. Try moving the wing slightly back and see if it changes anything.

Yeah this seems to happen a lot with swept wings (or diagonally placed control surfaces). Seems like they have difficulty detecting their position in relation to the center of mass.

Best thing is to use the tail just for pitch control, and the wings just for roll.

And like Mr. Speed said, you generally want the wings for roll only, tail for pitch only, and rudder for yaw only.

[RSwordsman]

Best thing is to use the tail just for pitch control, and the wings just for roll.

Throwing in another vote for this one. Even without the ability to fix problems like this, neglecting to specialize them usually results in over-correction. At least in the FAR model, that's a one-way ticket to the ground.

[surge]

What seems to be happening is that the CoM comparison point on the wing the control surfaces are attached to is wrong. The point they appear to be using is the leading edge of the root of the wing. The point they should be using is the *trailing* edge of the root of the wing (or better yet, the MAC, but that would be too slow to calculate)

It becomes extremely problematic with swept wings, because the apparent difference between those 2 points is large.

As others have mentioned, moving the wing back so that the leading edge root is behind the CoM fixes it.

I'm pretty sure this is a bug, but I'm new here so I probably don't have enough 'clout' to make it realised. If anyone with more experience wants to test this for themselves, and then file it as a bug, please do.

[SlabGizor117]

Try right clicking and click the invert button. I don't remember if it applies to using it for airbrakes or control surfaces as well, but might as well try.

- - - Updated - - -

It may also have to do with your gear placement. I don't remember where it is, but try putting it right behind the Center of Mass, maybe it'll change that, since it seems to be making that decision regardless of CoM position.

[RocketBlam]

OK, I've been thinking about this. When the flap seems to be moving the wrong direction, I think it's actually moving in the right direction. It moves down, which increases the vacuum on top of the wing, which increases lift, right?

[Prepper-Jack]

Control surfaces should move in opposite directions, if they are on opposite sides of the center of mass.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator_%28aeronautics%29 for how the rear should be oriented (and why it works).

Edited June 3, 2015 by Prepper-Jack