This Is Your Captain Speaking...

I am an avid flight simmer, with much too many hours logged in Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Falcon 4.0 Allied Force, and IL2 Sturmovik. One of the most important tools of this hobby is the joystick (I can’t afford a yoke, and you can’t fly combat with a yoke).


Yes, I like to flight sim

My primary joystick, the Saitek AV8R, uses a spring to hold the center stick in place and when I move the stick in any direction, the spring compresses like so:





Newton’s third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The force of the spring is equal to the product of the spring constant and the displacement away from the rest point of the spring. So if I push the stick in a way such that the force of the spring is 10N, I would have to push on the stick with 10N of force to keep the stick in place and prevent any sudden pitch changes with my plane. The amount of force is directly proportional to the displacement (how much the spring is compressed or stretched) of the spring, so the further I push the stick, the greater the force required to hold the stick in a steady position. The throttles on my controller also display another aspect of physics. Somewhere inside the controller where the throttle is connected, there is something that is creating friction so there is a certain degree of stiffness to the movement of the throttles, allowing me to make precise adjustments to the power of my aircraft. I was surprised to find that even my game controllers demonstrated different aspects of physics!


Name that school!