The thing my dad noticed(he's one of the real pilots) was that he had a much harder time trimming it out than on a real plane. The real thing tends to be more "stable" I guess.
Basicly, from my POV, you have to constantly "fight" with JSB to keep it on track, whereas a real plane tends to more readily go where you point it.
It's like you have to compensate *constantly* to keep it on track. The one time I've been in the copilots seat in a real plane, the pilot didn't have to move the yoke or pedals around to get and keep the plane lined up with the runway anywhere NEAR as much as you have to in jsb.
I take it you've never tried landing on a gusty afternoon -- even in my Warrior (which is more stable in rough air than a 172), my feet are almost a blur keeping the plane on the centreline with a gusty crosswind.
In general, though, the problem here is mainly one of control loading. On a real aircraft with cables or rods, the wind tries hard to hold the controls in exactly one position -- it takes a certain amount of effort to move the controls out of that position (and it gets harder the further you move them), and as soon as you let go, the wind on the control surfaces move them back. When you're flying on a computer with a spring-loaded joystick, a 1/2 inch movement is the equivalent of yanking a real yoke back about a foot into your gut. That's why the plane seems so sensitive -- a tiny jitter of your hand is equivalent to a very large control movement in a real plane.
Try doing an approach in yasim and you'll see what I mean. This is also
the same basic difference I noticed between JSB and FS2004.
They both have their advantages, but I find the JSBSim 172 very realistic within JSBSim's limitations. I used it throughout my (real) IFR training, and I found that the mistakes I was making in the simulated 172 and the mistakes in the real plane were almost identical. In fact, even the power settings to stay on a glidescope at various approach speeds transferred over nicely. Of course, I have many hours on computer controllers, so I am used to the tiny movements needed and the lack of control loading.
All the best,
David
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