Occasional aggressive pitch-down events on approach
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Hello,
I've spent some time flying the starship now and am quite enjoying it, however, I have run into an occasional issue on approaches where the plane will have a sudden pitch-down jolt to a downwards angle of about 60 degrees or more, which is usually impossible to recover. This happens much more suddenly than a stall and has occurred at relatively high airspeeds. I've seen this happen across airports, weather conditions, and even with the autopilot on and off.
I'd provide a video if I had one, but unfortunately it's unsurprisingly difficult to record something that happens so suddenly and unpredictably.
Also, having found nothing else on this being an issue, I'd also like to hear if anybody else has ever experienced this.
Thanks -
Did you see this recent post, by any chance? I've had two reports of "uncommanded departures from level flight" since Starship's release, and both were caused by interference of some type with another application. However, since you indicate nose-down, I don't suppose this could be an activation of the column pusher? It should be disabled in the landing configuration, and should not activate until the aircraft is approaching a stall, but I just wanted to check.
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I haven't seen that, thanks for pointing it out. I suppose it's not impossible that it could be software interference, though the only flight sim-related software I have running simultaneously is little navmap (alongside the usual suspects, firefox, spotify, discord, steam). I'm doubtful it's the column-pusher, though, because it's happened way above stall speeds, and I can't emphasize enough through text how rapid the pitch change is. The first time it happened, I thought it was just some particularly brutal turbulence combined with the odd design of the starship, but it's happened too many times since then.
I'll take software interference into account, though - Next time I fly the starship, I'll record the approach and close all other non-sim software (aside from the recording software) and hopefully I can capture a video if it happens.
Thanks for the help. -
@MiRexer yes, I'm limited by the number of USB ports on my motherboard so there's never anything plugged in that's not immediately being used. On top of that, I've seen it happen while the autopilot is on and both my hands off my desk.
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Ive had this happen too, both in up and down directions. I turned off "realistic turbulence" after that, thinking it was some kind of crazy misinterpreted data causing an insane up or down draft. Recently I turned "realistic turbulence" back on, because medium seemed to really mean 0 turbulence. Hoping it doesn't happen again. Also I think that was before the most recent Starship patch had come out.
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I had something like this happen to me the first time as well. It was extactly on the IAF of the approach (LJLJ ILS30 via DOL) while on AP. When entering the STAR into the FMC, I already entered DOL before selecting the approach, so could it be that the waypoint was in the FMC twice (manually + as approach transition) and it confused the AP?
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I also have this issue, but not limited to the Starship. Mine seems to be a byproduct of the Turtlebeach Velocity one yoke and I have heared other people have issues with the turtlebeach units. Mine also have a random left roll input that happens from time to time and I have no way to know why. I have recalibrated the controls countless times, I have taken it apart to find any loose or damaged parts and nothing found.
