Tumbleweed

I've never dialed in the recommended 6 degrees. I knew about it but I prefer to use my own method. Prior to take off I trim the pitch to neutral and adjust the aileron dial clockwise until the L mark is lined up with the screw fitting in the bottom right corner of the aileron trim panel. Then I counter the torque reaction manually with right rudder input while building take off speed. Once airborne, slowly reduce right rudder input to neutral and climb out as normal adjusting trim as necesary. I've also read somewhere you're not supposed to trim aircraft out during a high speed dive but rather control the plane by countering the reaction of the out of trim aircraft by hand but for how long it takes (got my trims bound to POV switch), I always trim out when I can - even during dogfights sometimes. Quite often during my climb to crusie altitude I'll trim the aircraft out and fly it with nothing but trim.

OH BOY OH BOY I can't wait for the P-47.. Another of my fave aicraft! What a machine! Excuse the pool of drool on the floor :)

Yes indeed this is the true behavior of the AI. I don't fly night missions or anything so I seldom bother with it. The only use I find for it is when climbing through the clouds and it's easy to become disorientated or for the aircraft to go out of trim and you have nothing as a visual reference to correct against such as the horizon line. Bascially I uncage mine on the runway prior to take off and forget about it. Then when I'm doing a controled climb to my desired cruising altitude and as I get near the cloud base, I'll level the aircraft out in all aspects using the climb indicator and aproximate the bank angle with the horizon line and I'll reset the AI which I'll use to ensure I'm not inadvertently banking during the time I have zero vis as I climb through the clouds. It's by no means accurate but it will tell you if you're banking into a nose dive while you have nothing as a visual reference point. Then I don't bother with it. Rarely even look at it. Just use my eyes and other instruments to work out what's going on. Mostly temp and pressure guages so I don't pop the power plant. I don't think the P-51s were designed with night fighting in mind (though I may be wrong) hence the lack of accuracy / drift in the AI which I assume pilots would correct for on route using their eyes and other insturments as reference during the day where the landscape etc can easily be observed? Just my guess. I'm not a big reader of manuals so I tend to figure stuff out for myself and refer to manuals when I need to.

You're not alone. I either get completely shot to bits or it's a one or two well placed deflection shots to the engine and then the RPMs go crazy high and it's game over. Only thing to do then is dive and evade (if you have good altitude) as best you can and sorta limp home if you can. Me, I'd rather limp home and deny the enemy a kill but then I'm stubborn lol I've even in the past carried on the fight as best I could using just energy traded from the altitude I had but of course this is soon lost and doesn't compare to a full powered dora that is soon to climb out of my reach. What goes up, must come down and all that :)

Many thanks for the replies! I tried out the 30 curve suggested and it's a massive improvement. :thumbup: Doesn't take long to get used to. Even managed to down a guy last night without the nose yawing about like crazy :) Also tried it out on the P-51 vs FW-190 SP mission. The FW-190 lasted a grand total of 2:55 before I destroyed it. A record for me. Usually the battle lasts a good half hour. Many thanks for the suggestion. RE: The pedals - there's some real nice looking ones there. Not too sure which ones I'll be going with. Hopefully by the time I'm ready to purchase a set there will be something available of good quality that has brakes and at a reasonable price. I deffo need a set of pedals cos I brought the Huey a while back and she's a real handful with twist grip. Think I've flown it twice and crashed it both times LOL. I'm hoping to have re-arranged and re-decorated the bedroom by then so I've got more room for a sim pit of some sort. Even a bog standard basic arrangement will do. I'm currently a desk pilot but I need more comfort and a better dedicated layout for long flights / battles :D Thanks for all the help guys!

I'm no mathematician but the way I see it is on a P-51 from stationary with an unlocked tail wheel, the moment you apply power it will try to pull left because of the torque of the prop. The free caster movement allows this to happen way more than a locked tail wheel would. This is also why you have to dial in rudder trim on take off to counteract the prop reaction which is trying to pull the aircraft to the left even with a locked tail wheel. Unless I'm missing the point?

Is that when the RPMs go all crazy high even at low MP? Yeah she soon tries to overheat so as others have said, keep her cool and don't push her too hard. Nice n gentle and she'll just get you home. Had this happen the other day. Didn't know what had failed but I just watched my instruments carefully, kept her as free from load as possible i.e. no climbs and just limped home gently by adjusting the RPM and MP very gently just keeping her in the air barely above stall in fact. In some cases it's so badly damaged she just pops no matter what you do.

Hi, I've finally taken the plunge in the MP dogfighting scene and now I need precise rudder control more than ever. I don't have any pedals yet but I do plan for some in the future. At the minute I'm using the twist grip on the Saitek X-52 but it's not the best. When it comes to making small adjustments on sighting an enemy the smallest movement swings the aircraft violently left / right. Not only is the rudder important for lining up my targets, I notice people are using them for better co-ordinated turns where as I can't do that so precisely. I usally end up with so much rudder it acts like an air brake and I lose airspeed quickly which is dealdy in a dog fight. Does anyone else use the twist grip for rudder on the P-51 and if so what are your curves like? Also when you dull down the sensitivity of the rudder input does it affect the ground tail wheel movement much? Many thanks, :thumbup:

Hi. Maybe it's just me but when I've logged in to reply to a post, I spend a few minutes replying, checking spelling, editing etc. and when I post the site has timed me out and logged me out. I feel it doesn't give enough time to reply to even a simple post. Pretty certain it's around 15 minutes then I'm kicked out and forced to log back in :( It's not a major problem but more of an annoyance. Edited to add: It even did it on this post and I didn't take 15 minutes to write this one. Edit #2: I just posted another thread in the P-51 section. It was 8 minutes appart from this one and I was logged out.

Personally I avoid unlocking the tail wheel. Instead I leave the stick centered and use rudder / tail steering to it's maximum advantage with the assitance of differential braking. She soon swings where I want her pointing with some light taps on the left / right brake. It has been good enough in most situations I've encountered up to now. Once I get that tail wheel unlocked, I find it's a PITA to get it back center and lock it again. I just end up going round and round even if I try to cancel it out with opposite braking. I guess like everything else, it's an artform that just takes some practice. Obviously it can be done else WWII pilots would have spent more time spinning around on the tarmac trying to control the plane than in the air lol.

I'm purely waiting for the dedicated option so I won't be on there. 1. I don't have space on my bench to leave my laptop up and running 24/7. 2. I rarely leave electrical items running at home when I'm not there. I'm paranoid about fires in the house. 3. The dedi option shouldn't be too far away. 4. I don't have the bandwidth to support a decent game experience. 5. Far easier to let a hosting company have all the hardware / maintenance headaches in return for a rental fee. The dedicated option is a much better choice for me and I'm in no hurry. Got an idea for a server that should prove to be quite popular as none seem to cater at the minute at least. Might be a different story when and if the dedi files are released. Not had time to work on any missions yet though but that's the fun part anyway :) :pilotfly:

Is the server offline? I can't see it in the list. Also thanks for adding my skin.. Feels great to be buzzing about in my own colours :thumbup:

Hi David, Nice to fly with you earlier. :thumbup: I think it was you I was evading for a little while from around 7k feet before I made a dash for home and you finally got me when I was trying an emergency landing aproach after I blew my engine trying to evade you :lol: Just to remind me, it was the 190 you said to get was it not? Next sale, I'll grab it and spend some time trying to master it. :pilotfly: I've uploaded my skin and have PMd you with the link. I just went with the first free sharing site I came across. I don't do much sharing of large files so I didn't sign up anywhere. Again, thanks for all the work. It's quite a nice server you have there :)

Thanks David, very kind of you to say. It means a lot. Got a lot of help from watching the A-10 skinning video from another member of these forums. Really helped! I've also done a similar skin for the F-15. Got a nice evel icon inside the air brake. Looks cool. Will grab a screenie sometime when I get 5 mins. My real name is Mike btw. I'll get the skin zipped up and uploaded ASAP. Not had chance to do much this weekend. Had some family problems which have taken up most of my time. Not even had a chance to get the old stang fired up :( Just going round now catching up on 4 days away - lots of correspondance in the email inbox to sort through now lol. Hoping to get on the server ASAP.... getting withdrawal :joystick:

I fly there quite often. Very good server. Good for noobs like me :) Think to date I've only had one kill but I'm getting quite good at evasion. Made this one guy stall out and drop like a stone into the ocean was well funny :lol:

Yeah I get that too sometimes. All of a sudden everything drops to a crawl but after a second or two it goes away. Worst time is when I've got an enemy fighter right on my tail lol...

Wow, sorry I missed this reply from so long back.... Just wanted to say what a great and helpful video it was too. Really helped me get my head around the whole skin setup and the file structures etc. Many many thanks for sharing - made my life so much easier :thumbup:

Hi, I have a skin of my own. It's my first ever p-51 skin. It's not the greatest but I like it. It's not war / cammo colours or anything like that. I've attached a couple of screens and yes it is all black on the bottom and all crimson / claret red on the top :D See skin post: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=128907 Would I be able to use it on your server? I've started flying there a few times now and I really enjoy it. Infact I was just checking in on the forums before going for on for a rumble :thumbup:

Hi guys, Just wanted to say I've been playing on your server on and off for a few days (air quake mission) and wanted to say that it's a great place for some dogfight action. I really enjoy flying there. The map airquake is great.. nothing too far away, nothing too close - just how it should be :) :thumbup:

Are we on about that thing it does when you first start a game where it starts out zoomed in on the cockpit and then slowly zooms out to normal view? If so, yes, please get rid. It's annoying and I can't click a thing until it's stopped doing it. Vital seconds are wasted :lol: I just don't see the need for it. There's no practical use for it. I wanna jump in ma stang and get that bird fired up as quick as when I'm on Dogfight servers - not wait for silly animations :/

Happy Anniversary VA! My favorite server. Here's to another 2 years! :thumbup:

I couldn't go back to playing without head tracking.. no no no no no no... I built my own (spent loads on other DCS imrovements b4 xmas) and while it probably isn't as stable as an out of the box TIR, it works well enough for me. Like a lot of people, I'm waiting on the Rift.

cough cough. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=134086

Just had a quick flight on VA server and was taking some screenshots of my flight when my wingman informed me that everytime I took a screenshot, I would warp about like mad. Any idea what might be causing this?

I went from an Extreme 3D to an X-52 Pro and I wasn't dissapointed at all. I too had read of people ripping the X-52 and the quality of Saitek products but in complete honesty, I can't fault mine in any way shape or form. While the Extreme 3D is a great entry level stick, the X-52 takes it to another level. No more fumbling for keyboard shortcuts at all in some aircraft and a LOT less in others. Nice fluid movements give precise control of aircraft. No jerking etc. When I got my X-52 Pro I was heavily into flying the stang at the time and my poor X-52 Pro was underused due to having more buttons and switches on my stick than there were systems in the plane to map LOL. It sure is a hell of a stick. Wait til you get it (if you go for an X52) and see the size of just the joystick compared to the Extreme 3D - I was like OMG WTF it's huge but actually it isn't. It's just right and feels right. Four things I've done have massively improved my flying to the point where I'm confident enough to buzz close round other aircraft like a loon without any collisions and to fly close formation with delicate inputs. 1. Upgrade to X-52 Pro. 2. PS3Eye for Headtracking (nice n smooth) 3. Upgrade to a GTX 970 - hardly any lag or FPS drops now 4. 32" Monitor upgrade. - OMG everything is HUGE and I can see distant aircraft! It's like flying a completely different sim. When I pull in close to another aircraft in flight now it's like WOW and most importantly I've got the precise control over the aircraft I need thanks to the X-52. I can HIGHLY recommend the X-52 pro stick. Their software on the otherhand e.g. the control panel / config software for the X-52 sucks. Fortunately, it's not compulsary to use it. I don't. I just map my buttons and axis etc directly in DCS. Marks out of 10 for the X-52... I give it a 8.5 cos there's still some tweaks that could improve it but nothing major that hinders its performance or anything. :thumbup: