Tail Wheel Steering

[RackMonkey]

I know that the D model did not have tail wheel steering but I would like to see it implemented here anyway.
 
1. Not everybody has a set of rudder peddles with brakes. I see a lot of people use a twist grip for yaw and thus don't even have brake peddles.
2. People using a twist grip generally don't have the ability to, or the available axis to map differential brakes and even if they did humans don't have enough hands for all of the controls needed.  
2. Even if you have a set of rudder peddles with brakes like I do, they are not consistent.

I can push the brakes with no effect until a certain point and then it grabs and I go spinning out of control. It's inconsistent application makes getting down the taxi way almost impossible. I usually end up in the weeds a couple of times before I get to the runway.

[razo+r]

As long as you have 2 buttons, preferably on a 4 way hat, you can steer just fine with this aircraft.

 

As for you spinning out of control, make sure the tail wheel is unlocked when trying to turn. Having it locked has the effects you describe. At first not enough to turn until you overcome the tail wheel friction and just skid it around on the floor.

[RackMonkey]

I have a tail wheel endorsement on my pilot cert and a little over 100 hrs logged in tail draggers. My "wish" is not because I don't know how to fly a tail dragger but because the 47 doesn't react the same using electronic brakes and it does with real hydraulics. It's all about proportional force on the brakes pads. 

[razo+r]

DCS isn't real life though. 

And nowhere did I say you cannot fly the P-47. I am simply trying to help you since you are one of the first ones having such issues and wishing for a rather immense "cheat", if you can call it that. 

When turning, did you unlock the tail wheel or not? 

Have you at least adjusted your axis curves trying to improve the behaviour for you? 

[peachmonkey]

2 hours ago, RackMonkey said:

2. Even if you have a set of rudder peddles with brakes like I do, they are not consistent.

I can push the brakes with no effect until a certain point and then it grabs and I go spinning out of control. It's inconsistent application makes getting down the taxi way almost impossible. I usually end up in the weeds a couple of times before I get to the runway.

I have the MFG pedals with toe-brakes.  With the tail wheel unlocked (port starboard side, on the floor, yellow top lever pushed back) the P47 steers like a champ even at 1,100 rpm, i.e. moving very slowly.  If you move the lever forward the tail wheel gets locked and then yes, you do need to give it some serious throttle + brakes to steer it...

Edited November 23, 2021 by peachmonkey
one day I'll get my port/starboard right... but it's not today.

[Brigg]

put a curve of 20 on the toe brake axis it makes taxiing a lot easier

Edited November 23, 2021 by Brigg

[Mogster]

By accounts the P47 isn’t an easy aircraft to handle on the ground. There’s an article online where Richard Grace describes the P47s ground handling with the tail wheel unlocked as “feral”…

[RackMonkey]

I can see that. A short coupled tail wheel with a wide set of mains is just a setup for ground loops.

My post is not to find a solution to my ground looping. I am proficient in the operation of tail draggers. My thought is for those who have never had experience with them. The question I ask myself and reason for the "wish" is, is it more important to learn how not to ground loop is a plane that is already not an exact replica in it's handling or to get it into the air to fight. If I was a novice and kept looping and getting stuck or destroyed and having to start again I would give up on this plane very quickly. Which is more important to the reason we fly DCS? Learning to taxi this beast or flying combat.  

[grafspee]

27 minutes ago, RackMonkey said:

I can see that. A short coupled tail wheel with a wide set of mains is just a setup for ground loops.

My post is not to find a solution to my ground looping. I am proficient in the operation of tail draggers. My thought is for those who have never had experience with them. The question I ask myself and reason for the "wish" is, is it more important to learn how not to ground loop is a plane that is already not an exact replica in it's handling or to get it into the air to fight. If I was a novice and kept looping and getting stuck or destroyed and having to start again I would give up on this plane very quickly. Which is more important to the reason we fly DCS? Learning to taxi this beast or flying combat.  

I think you don't need to worry about them, this topic is rare, i can't recall anyone asking for easy taxing mode, there was plenty topics about how to taxi, but once things were explained problem was gone, even when using keyboard buttons binds. 

But i still take your point, since we have take off assist and auto rudder i can't see adding the taxing assist would make any harm.

Problem is that WWW2 team is very small and they have enormous amount of bugs to squash right now, i some how don't see this in near feature.

The biggest enemy of DCS taxing is impatience of players, this lead to very fast taxing and this lead to ground looping, taxi speed should be very low and everything would be good

Edited November 23, 2021 by grafspee

[Art-J]

20 minutes ago, RackMonkey said:

 If I was a novice and kept looping and getting stuck or destroyed and having to start again I would give up on this plane very quickly. Which is more important to the reason we fly DCS? Learning to taxi this beast or flying combat.  

I'd say both equally. People come to DCS warbirds exactly because these are somewhat more challenging and rewarding to handle on the ground and in the air compared to Il-2GB series. Some guys (myself included) don't even do much combat at all and enjoy these planes while simply flying around, MSFS-style.

The only warbird with steerable tailwheel modelled in DCS since 2012 has been the Mustang - people who come here know it and are aware what they're getting into when purchasing one of  the others. I'd also like to point out that apart from I-16, which I never tried, I find the Thunderbolt to be the easiest and most friendly non-steerable-tailwheel warbird to taxi without groundlooping. It's a subjective opinion of course, but I'd definitely recommend the Jug to novice DCS-taildragger-pilots compared to much more bitchy Spitfire and 109 for example.

[peachmonkey]

I think I get @RackMonkey's point.

I've been waiting for a VR support in the flight sims and when DCS got it in 2016 I jumped right in to it with a crappy $20 joystick (with the twist). At that time I had zero knowledge of the ground characteristics of an airplane, no idea about the complexities of the tail draggers in general, less so how it translates in to the computer periphery controls.

I remember trying out the Spitfire. First I learned how to start it up. Yay!  Then I tried to taxi it and for the life of me I couldn't understand what I needed to do to steer it. I saw the rudder move left/right but the darn plane wouldn't turn. Then I realized maybe it had something to do with the brakes, i.e. I was genuinely surprised that the steering was in fact based on the left/rihgt wheel braking.. D'oh.  After that it became clear that I had to upgrade my hardware, i.e. get the pedals with brakes, in order to get better at taxiing..

But that costs money and I had none. So.. I abandoned learning to taxi until the time I got the proper hw.