issues with flying planes

[Quackofer]

I am playing on console

occasionally when i am flying a plane in the middle of flight i lose the ability to steer a certain direction and instead when i steer there it goes the opposite direction. why is this happening and how do i prevent/stop it?

[Streetwind]

Can  have many different reasons.

The most likely one is that you're stalling. That is, you are going so slow, or the air is so thin, or your angle of attack (how far away you are from your prograde marker on the navball) is so high, that your wings lose lift. Then your plane will start falling out of the sky, tumbling and turning uncontrollably.

Solutions: 1.) Go faster; 2.) Fly lower down where the air is thicker; 3.) Bring more wing area and control surfaces; 4.) Steer less abruptly; 5.) Bring thrust vectoring engines.

But as mentioned, there are other possible reasons as well. Until you tell us more details, we can't be sure of what's happening.

[lemon cup]

Not a lot to go off of, but my guess is yaw instability. Check out your plane’s Center of Mass indicator in the spaceplane hangar, and note that if your COM is closer to the back of the plane than it is the front, you will need a larger vertical stabilizer (or rudder) than you might think. And your vertical stabilizer needs to be as far back as possible. 

Also, how are you trying to turn your plane? Are you trying to use the yaw controls (I forget what this is on console) to steer the plane in flight? 

If so that is incorrect, you need to roll the plane to the side you want to turn, then pitch up. 

*Sorry if that is already obvious to you; some players new to flight simulators are not always aware of this.

Edited January 19, 2021 by lemon cup

[Wobbly Av8r]

46 minutes ago, lemon cup said:

Also, how are you trying to turn your plane? Are you trying to use the yaw controls (I forget what this is on console) to steer the plane in flight? 

[Edit: Apologies, reviewing the OP, replace 'keys' with proper console joystick and/or buttons! D'oh! I'm gonna guess that whichever joystick controls the elevator, the OPPOSITE joystick left-right controls the ailerons, aka roll/bank...]

Almost undoubtedly this.

The A and D keys control rudder and indirectly control flight direction, but as you have become aware, not in a fully controllable way!

Most folks get very used to the A and D keys to turn left and right with wheeled vehicles, but it is not intuitive to understand when turning an airplane, you 'bank' the airplane (roll using Q and E) in the direction you wish to turn and let the 'tilted' lift vector move you in that direction. As you roll/bank the aircraft, because some of your lift is 'redirected' and actually causes the craft to turn, the total lift opposing weight/gravity is reduced and the craft will start to descend. This cause and effect is more pronounced as you attempt to turn quicker with greater amounts of bank angle, thus the amount of elevator one must use to counter this phenomenon increases with bank angle.

TL;DR? Use Q and E to roll your plane in the direction you want to turn, use S to prevent descending when doing so as well as increasing the rate of turn.

Edited January 19, 2021 by Wobbly Av8r

[Mythos]

As the issue doesn't appear on launch but only later mid-flight, you probably need to check that your center of lift is slightly behind the center of mass, ALWAYS. So please check if that is the case for fully fueled, half-full and even empty. Because while you burn through your fuel, the center of mass usually changes.

[Echo__3]

If you could provide some video or even a picture of when you are having trouble, it will be easier to diagnose you issue. One possibility is that you have accidentally set the trim on your aircraft and need to reset it with ALT + X if you are playing on PC.

[Quackofer]

the problem is not that the aircraft is losing control but the ailerons only turn on direction, even if I am turning them up or down. for example, if I am trying to turn up, the ailerons would instead steer the aircraft down. after that if I turn down, the ailerons still turn  the aircraft down. the aircraft stays completely stable the whole time. also it might help to mention that this happens on any plane, even each of the stock pre-loaded planes that come with the game.

sorry if that doesn't make sense, I'm really bad at explaining things

[lemon cup]

Do you have SAS turned on? Try turning off SAS and testing the controls on the ground while the aircraft is not moving. If you notice the control surfaces moving up and down like they should, then there is a problem with the design. But if it only moves in one direction clearly a control setting got messed up somehow.

SAS can create a false sense of stability when flying airplanes, and will lead to a sudden loss in control when you try to turn in any direction. I only use it after I’ve made sure the airplane is stable on its own without SAS.

[vv3k70r]

On 1/19/2021 at 4:24 AM, Quackofer said:

occasionally when i am flying a plane in the middle of flight i lose the ability to steer a certain direction and instead when i steer there it goes the opposite direction. why is this happening and how do i prevent/stop it?

With speed area of exposed surface vause diferent proportion of lift. You can either tweak a deployment mode for certain speed or tweak control to lower degree (change proportion of rear and front surfaces for control). Faster You go higher the lift. If proportion is uneven for slow flight surface control manage it.  And then You can have mass distribution cause by fuel in tanks - check com without part of fuel, pump them cocertly between tanks during flight.