Maneuvering On The Ground With Differential Braking

[Super Wabbit]

I was noticing that the tail wheel doesn't caster more than a few degrees one way or the other.  Maybe 15 degrees each way.  In addition to the weird friction feeling of the main gear.  It's almost like the auto rudder helper is on regardless of your personal settings.

[AG-51_Razor]

Yeah and the odd thing is, there is no Auto rudder or takeoff assistance setting available!

[Super Wabbit]

8 hours ago, AG-51_Razor said:

Yeah and the odd thing is, there is no Auto rudder or takeoff assistance setting available!

That got me thinking that those options might be hidden but they aren't.  Checking the options file in a .miz archive shows: 

["F4U-1D"] = 
		{
			["Shake"] = 200,
			["CPLocalList"] = "default",
		}, -- end of ["F4U-1D"]

 

[GeoS72]

Tail wheel authority is still not correct. I hope this will be addressed in the next DCS update.

[tekwoj]

On 7/10/2025 at 4:32 AM, Super Wabbit said:

I was noticing that the tail wheel doesn't caster more than a few degrees one way or the other.  Maybe 15 degrees each way.  In addition to the weird friction feeling of the main gear.  It's almost like the auto rudder helper is on regardless of your personal settings.

We would see that in external view during take-off with 0 trim, wouldn't we?

[GeoS72]

@tekwoj, yes, it is noticeable in external view, with or without trim set.

[AG-51_Razor]

Unfortunately, after this latest update, there has been no change to the ground handling of the Corsair. The tail wheel still does not swivel past about 20 degrees in a turn and application of one brake merely brings the plane to a halt rather than cause it to spin around (with modest power applied). Other than that, this update seems to have worked well.

[Super Wabbit]

57 minutes ago, AG-51_Razor said:

Unfortunately, after this latest update, there has been no change to the ground handling of the Corsair. The tail wheel still does not swivel past about 20 degrees in a turn and application of one brake merely brings the plane to a halt rather than cause it to spin around (with modest power applied). Other than that, this update seems to have worked well.

I'm seeing the same thing.  I found this video from 2022 (pardon if it's already been posted) of an F4U-1A doing an engine off 180-ish.  It definitely shows that the tail wheel should be castoring at least 90 degrees.  I know this is probably a minor issue for most, it isn't Digital Taxi Simulator after all, but it'd be nice to get it updated.

 

My test was a taxi up to 20kts at 20in full prop rpm the full left rudder and left toe brake and I could barely get the plane to rotate past 90 degrees where it just came to a halt.  I honestly can't get this thing to ground loop at all, even abusing the hell out of it.  Might have been a conscious choice to make it easier to taxi and takeoff while it's in early access?

 

 

[AG-51_Razor]

Spend some time watching a bunch of WWII videos of Corsairs landing aboard a carrier and you'll see the Tali wheel actually spinning around far more than 360 degrees during some of their "mishaps" when the tail comes up off the deck. As I mentioned earlier, the flight manual cautioned the pilot to make sure the tail wheel was unlocked prior to landing aboard a carrier just so he might avoid damaging the tail wheel locking mechanism as a result of putting a high side load on it during touch down. M3 has put so much work into this plane, and it is really obvious, I would just like to see them follow through with some of these details. I am thoroughly enjoying this plane and have no buyer's remorse, I just want them to get it right is all.

[_Hoss]

I'm not sure why some are having problems with the Corsair turning during taxi.... If I'm not careful I do donuts turning onto the runway. I usually have to lock the tail wheel to taxi straight, other wise I'm all over the place. I had problems with the weapons selection screen not being able to right click and choose my ordnance. I reinstalled and that fixed my problem. I'm not saying this will fix anyone elses problem, but it's something to look at. 

I have to admit I'm a bit disappointed that the Fuel tank selector rotary along with the magnetos was not fully implemented with GUI rotary movements instead of the + or -, And the rudder trim needs toned down as well, small movements on my trim box is like kicking the rudder pedal hard. But it flies much better now with some of the drag problems fixed, it would get so slow it just wallowed in the air with ordnance slung on it, formation flying was out of the question. Looking forward to when it's as much fun to fly as the Jug is now. 

[GeoS72]

@_Hoss,

I don't understand why some people don't have an issue while others, like myself, have the issue with diff braking in the Corsair. I confirmed the problem still persists after the Jul 23 update.

@-Rudel-, do you have visibility on this issue?

[GTFreeFlyer]

12 minutes ago, GeoS72 said:

@_Hoss,

I don't understand why some people don't have an issue while others, like myself, have the issue with diff braking in the Corsair. I confirmed the problem still persists after the Jul 23 update.

@-Rudel-, do you have visibility on this issue?

I think everyone has the same plane where the tail wheel doesn’t swivel 360, but if you have good rudder pedals and are gentle with the inputs, along with some axis curves and tuning to tame the brakes a bit, then it’s not too difficult to taxi around and do nice S-turns down the taxiway. Also, back-taxiing on the carrier to the stern, then spinning around for takeoff is totally do-able even with the tail wheel swivel limited.  Just takes a little practice and very gentle taps on the brakes.  I’m sure this will get tuned eventually, as we also all have the same early-access module.

[_Hoss]

Well, I don't have a problem with braking or turning in the Corsair. The curve I use is a J curve (something I used on the throttle in TARGET) and it works great.

0

90..... acts as a dead zone

0

-35..... The J curve

The 90 is a dead zone at the top... 

What I have issues with is the spastic trim, especially the rudder trim. The slightest adjustment is like kicking the rudder pedals. I've tamed it somewhat with extreme axis curves. But don't get me started with low speed handling......

It is what it is; very early access, hopefully it gets fixed sooner rather than later. Because it has great potential......

 

Edited July 25 by _Hoss

[GeoS72]

The differential braking bug still persists. I uninstalled the module then reinstalled it. No difference after the re-installation. The diff brake and tail wheel performance remains unchanged - difficult to make the appropriate turns while on deck (CV or land-based).

@-Rudel-, how does this stack up in the priority list of bugs to address?

@_Hoss, you are very fortunate to not have any issues with steering on deck! I made some small adjustments to my brake & rudder curves but nothing as substantial as yours.

Additionally, applying rudder + brake in the direction of the turn has 0 effect on the turn radius.

[GTFreeFlyer]

2 hours ago, GeoS72 said:

The differential braking bug still persists. I uninstalled the module then reinstalled it. No difference after the re-installation. The diff brake and tail wheel performance remains unchanged - difficult to make the appropriate turns while on deck (CV or land-based).

@-Rudel-, how does this stack up in the priority list of bugs to address?

@_Hoss, you are very fortunate to not have any issues with steering on deck! I made some small adjustments to my brake & rudder curves but nothing as substantial as yours.

Additionally, applying rudder + brake in the direction of the turn has 0 effect on the turn radius.

You can’t get it to spin around one of the mains with full brake, rudder, and lots of engine power?  You can try pushing forward on the stick a little to lift the non-pivoting tail wheel up.  No issues here even though the wheel can’t freely pivot yet.  Just takes LOTS of power.  It will turn left better than right due to the slipstream effect (not sure if this is actually modeled yet, but just info for general taildragger stuff).  I hope these tips help.  Not sure why it would be different for us.  If you turned down the saturation of your rudder axes, then you won’t be getting full turning authority.  Maybe that too?
 

If there’s a lot of wind, or you’re on the moving carrier, turning is more difficult as it should be with the plane wanting to weathervane due to the vertical tail.  
 

Everyone has different priorities for what they want to see implemented first.  If M3 shared the list, there will be lots of arguments.  It’s a great module and they are aware of what’s happening in the forums.  It will come eventually.  I have faith.  In the meantime I enjoy the plane much more in the air than on the ground.  It’s such a joy to fly

[GeoS72]

GTFreeFlyer,

Good for you to put a lot of faith into a dev to rack & stack their priorities. I ask about the priority to resolve this issue because it can be easily overridden for a seemingly nice-to-have feature. How many times have we seen DCS World (in general) or a module break after introducing a new feature? More importantly, how long does it take for that broken feature to get repaired? Do you remember how long it took for ED to fix the Multiplayer Scoreboard? The answer is ~ 9 months. I suspect it would have been longer had it not been for users to complain often about it.

Fixing discrepancies in DCS is a topic for another time. Getting back on-topic of differential braking:

If you have to go full throttle, stand on 1 brake, and add rudder (rudder yields no result, btw) just to make a sharp turn in the Corsair, then something is flat-out wrong! There is a problem with the flight model regarding tail wheel castering/differential braking physics. The Corsair should be no different than any other tail-drager when taxiing with it's tail wheel unlocked. If I can't easily taxi this bird on the deck then it will collect dust. It would be a shame if this problem does not get addressed.

To sum things up, diff braking is broken for the Corsair. It affects basic ground/flight deck handling. Many users, like myself, have issues with it. I would like to see this problem get addressed sooner rather than later. This shouldn't be the top priority but should be grouped with higher-priority items.

[AG-51_Razor]

I reinstalled the Christian Eagle to have a look at how it operates on the ground and low and behold, it doesn't handle any better but apparently because of a problem with the modeling of the brakes, not the tailwheel. As the plane is taxiing forward at the pace of a brisk walk, applying either brake will just bring the plane to a stop after causing it to very slightly begin a turn. With full brake applied on either side, you can get the plane to turn and the tailwheel does castor 90 degrees but this is only after applying a significant amount of power, almost identical to the problem with the Corsair.

I don't know which is more annoying, the problem itself or the lack of M3 even acknowledging that the problem exists. -Rudel- has commented in several of the bug reports that they will look into it but absolutely nothing from them on this. I am a very disappointed customer to say the least. I don't mind being a bug tester during "early access" but it galls me to see this problem ignored.