SkyCaptain109

After a weekend of practise I can now take off and land the Spitfire safely without wing dipping and crashing.:) The trick on landing was for me to keep a little bit of throttle until the last moment before touchdown. The touchdown must be as gentle as possible and in a straight line. Immediately after touchdown keep her straight with rudder and brakes. I use the fighter approach as described in the manual. On take off I start with full right aileron to counter the tendency of the aircraft to roll left due to the torque effect and with stick neutral. As the speed increases I decrease right aileron to keep wings level and play with rudder to keep her straight. She will lift off by herself in a tail low attitude. No need to push the stick forward, the tail will lift automatically with stick in neutral position.

I have just downloaded the Spitfire and trying to take off and land...... Very tricky. After several crashes I have managed to take off regularly without crashing. The trick for me is to set elevator trim to zero, full right rudder trim and keep the stick in NEUTRAL position. As the aircraft accelerates be all over the rudder trying to keep her straight. Failing to do so usually results in a ground loop. When the tail wants to lift up counter the torque effect with right aileron and gently pull on the stick. Landing is a different story, still practicing.....:lol: I set my pitch curvature to 60, saturation both 100. Less curvature is too sensitive for me. I have a Thrustmaster Hotas. Still not happy with my joystick settings. Does anyone have tips for my setup?

I really like the added control stiffness at high speed. Rudder isn't affected, too sensitive at high speed. Hopefully they will correct it in the future. I also noticed that during high g turns, if you overstress the airframe, the tailwheel will be pushed out. Nice detail:thumbup: I don't like the new landing gear animation, both wheels up/down at the same time and way too fast. It was far more realistic in the previous version, like the real 109 landing gear: Both wheels retracted/raised asynchronously. . Please go back to that.

Did you turn on the electric fuel pump on the circuit breaker panel?

Dogfights is much too exaggerated but this episode was good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spOlkk205Qk

Where do you do it? I can't land or take off off the grass because the aircraft flips over.

First landing is really smooth, last landing of a Bouchon aborted and go around Very bouncy on the grass! First landing looking really dangerous!

When flying the P-51 against the Dora I feel that it can easily outroll me and get out of my gunsight at any speed. Turn performance is close and I think that it depends on pilot ability. Once I turned with a Dora down on the deck at the edge of a stall, had 20° of flaps and he couldn't get his guns on me instead he spun out and crashed. When I was in the Dora I couldn't outturn the Mustang and it seemed easy for him to stay on my tail. He got some strikes and finally after heavy turning and scissoring I spun out.....:joystick: The Dora can climb like a rocket and can easily outclimb the Mustang the best tactic would probably be doing vertical maneuvers.

Me too. Got it after a longer flight.

According to the manual a drop of 80RPM is acceptable but I always have a drop of several 100RPM. Anyone else with this problem?

Did some more testing: During taxi and run up I switched the electric fuel pump off, the engine didn't quit which is correct. But in flight the engine still quits, however at low power settings it takes a while.

You don't have to worry about fuel management. Keep the fuel cock in the "Auf" position and the electric fuel pumps "On". The aircraft takes care of it. Just switch the corresponding electric fuel pumps of when a tank is empty to avoid them running dry. Of course when no drop tank is installed you don't need the drop tank electric fuel pump so leave that in the "OFF" position. I think the DCS manual is rather confusing

The 109 is quite easy to fly in the landing pattern and easy to flare at a three point attitude but after that......:music_whistling:

I had some dogfights in the 109 against human P-51 online and I must say that it is pretty close. I feel that the turn performance is close, I was at the edge of a stall in the 109 turning with a P-51 which used it's flaps and I was able to follow but I could not turn inside him. The P-51 has good acceleration in dives and a good instantaneous turn at high speed. In a shallow climb I will normally catch the mustang but only with MW50 engaged. So to sum up I would say that it depends on pilot skill:pilotfly:

The 109 seemed to be a tail heavy aircraft. In his own words: http://youtu.be/qLrpcamspLw?t=4m4s