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FBW deadzone issue

Daube

Daube

SOH-CM-2026
Hi all,

I'm kind of desperate on this issue, which existed already in MSFS2020 and still exists in MSFS2024.
Summary: on all aircraft that use FBW (Fly-By-Wire controls), there is a deadzone on the pitch axis that I can't get rid of.
In the controllers setup, all deadzones are set to zero. The joystick works perfectly, there is no hardware deadzone, so to say; I can see even the minimum input when I'm in the controller response curve settings screen in the sim, for example.

Nevertheless, when I'm in flight with a modern jet (F-35, Mirage, or even the default SuperHornet), when I try to raise slowly the nose of the aircraft by pulling the joystick back, the first few degrees of movement are purely ignored by the sim. The joystick movement has no effect at all in the sim overs these 2-3 degrees of movement. Then, when I reach like 4 degrees, the sim suddenly takes my input into consideration and immediatly applies 4 degrees of pitch-up... which is way too violent.

Of course, the numbers I mention above are not real, it's just to illustrate. I can move the head of my joystick like almost 3-4 millimeters back with no effect in the sim when in flight.
And again, the problem does not occur on non-fbw aircraft, whatever the engines. Jets, piston, turboprop etc... all are perfectly fine with no deadzone at all in the controls.
Because of this, I am unable to perform an aerial refueling with a modern jet using AirShow Assistant, because I can't control my pitch precisely enough. But with an older jet, I can perform the refuel without problems in Ace mode.

Anybody else has this issue ? Am I the only one ?
On my computer, I could verify the problem still happens with an empty community folder, so I'm at a loss here. I have created a topic about this on the official forums but of course I have never received any reply. Not a video on youtube either, the search results are always far off anyways... :(
 
I found this entry in the SDK Gauge API (General Aircraft) section:

1756732124622.png

This implies that there should be a physical switch in the cockpit somewhere that switches off the fbw elevators & ailerons controls. It may even be on one of the screens in a modern fighter.
 
Ah that's good to know, but I have never seen such a switch or option in the planes in my hangar so far.
Also, if you disable the FBW then you also loose the actual flight behavior of the plane, which makes it less realistic, so to say... It might be worth a try, at least during the refuel, maybe.
But if the plane becomes too instable without the FBW (which is what is supposed to happen with a plane like the Flanker, for example), then the refuel would just become even harder... and I don't want to switch AirShow Assistant to an easier setting. ;)

Do you also get this small deadzone on the pitch-up axis ?
 
Daube said:
Do you also get this small deadzone on the pitch-up axis ?
Click to expand...

I haven't noticed it, but I rarely fly fighter jets. I was thinking that if there's a sim variable for this, then you might be able to assign a button or key to "FLY BY WIRE ELAC SWITCH".
 
Are these only with stock FBW aircraft? To be non helpful I haven't had this particular issue with the third party airliners in 2024. PMDG has, for some unknown reason (to me) a FBW dead zone adjustment in their FMC setup portion. FENIX A320's etc use a completely external system to drive their jets. some planes have behaved better since the SU3 update.

Wish you luck as this would be very frustrating!
 
It's both on default and addons. I mean, the only default aircraft I can confirm has the problem is the F/A-18 Super-Hornet, may it be pure default or with the Super Warrior mod.
Addon planes include the Mirage2000 by Miltech, the Eurofighter by CJ Sim, and the F-15(s) by Deano for example.
On the contrary, the freeware Rafale has no FBW implementation, hence it doesn't suffer from the problem... and also doesn't fly like a modern fighter should, but that's another issue :D
I guess the heavy liners are also affected, but on such planes the issue is less problematic, as we don't really do any subtle pitch changes anyways.
 
I did a flight ANC-FAI in the default Hornet and can confirm your observations. I think the issue is in their Flight Dynamics for that aircraft.
 
As a long time flyer of real heavy airliners, very subtile pitch change are actually the way you should fly them if you have the autopilot turned off. some of the ones in MSFS 2024 fly well, some do not. I was fairly impressed with the IFLY 737-MAX, which is of course mostly an old fashioned yoke and cable arrangement. INIBUILDS has improved their A350 so it is at least flyable now. I could not understand why the 2020 version flew OK and the 2024 version was un flyable. Even the PMDG 777 series has some issues with their implementation of the C*U Law.
 
I confess I haven't made any flight in any liner in MSFS2024 yet...
Regarding the fly-by-wire issue with the military jets, I can at least confirm that the new YF-23 doesn't suffer from the problem in MSFS2020, and it seems it's fine in 2024 as well according to the feedback in the dedicated topic.
I guess it's due to the fact that it doesn't rely on the default fly-by-wire system but rather a customized system ?
 
Bumping this topic, in case there is anybody here trying to perform aerial refuelling with the modern jets that are plagued by the MSFS FBW...
I have finally found a solution to the problem, and it's a small toolbar icon to disable the FBW system with a single mouse click. It's a toggle so one more click and the FBW is back ON again.
Of course it's not a realistic solution since you'll then have to trim your modern jet and will loose any stability, but at least you now have a chance to perform a realistic aerial refuelling in planes like the F-15, the Mirage2000 or the Eurofighter (by CJ, I haven't tried the one from Dino yet).
Addon is there: https://flightsim.to/file/41883/fbw-toggle#:~:text=Usage,one of them is active.
 
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