ground handling and takeoff after patch...

[Ali Fish]

wish i had two female volunteers to test my handling :thumbup:

 

agreed on the expereince thing ! and anticipation. i notice that taxxing without the stick back is nice now too, unless your not concentrating on it ofcourse. i can make better turns now when i maye need to unlock the rear. i think.

 

the bird appears to feels heavy more on the ground i think too. i can really chuck it round the taxiway if that makes sense, but we were all on tip toes before. i know its not heavier. but its more convincing to taxi around.

 

under what situation or conditions would the pilot unlock the restricition on the rear wheel btw ? this is somthiong thats not clear to me. and the question comes from the fact that i never seem to need to really. or iam holding the stick back too much. that maybe because of the last patch handling characteristics though, anyway your a legend yoyo.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Ali Fish

[JimMack]

Quote for US WW2 training:

"At the beginning of the war, flight training lasted nine months, with three months of primary, three months of basic, and three months of advanced training. Each pilot had 65 flying hours of primary training and 75 hours of both basic and advanced training. During the war, each phase was reduced first to 10 weeks and then to nine weeks. Primary training was accomplished in aircraft such as the PT-17, PT-19, PT-22 and PT-23 while basic training took place in mostly in the BT-9, BT-13, BT-14 and BT-15. Advanced training for fighter pilots took place in the AT-6, and training for multi-engine aircraft occurred in the AT-9 and AT-10 aircraft. The AT-11 was used to train bombardiers and navigators. "

 

Also see http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/raf-pilot-training-ww2-26347.html

 

In summary - a pilot had 260 hours of flight time training before being qualified to fly a WW2 aircraft into combat.

 

In the UK, to get your ppl in a simple aircraft - the requirements are:-

"Applicants for a Private Pilot Licence must be at least 17 years old, hold a valid JAR-FCL Class 2 Medical Certificate, and have met the specified practical and theoretical training requirements laid down in JAR-FCL. This presently includes 7 written theory examinations, completing at least 45 hours' flying training, including 10 hours' solo flying, 5 hours' solo 'cross-country' flying and at least one solo flight of not fewer than 150 nautical miles with full-stop landings at two or more different aerodromes other than the aerodrome of departure"

 

It rather puts it all into perspective about the experience needed to fly a P51!!

[Yo-Yo]

 

under what situation or conditions would the pilot unlock the restricition on the rear wheel btw ? this is somthiong thats not clear to me.

 

In P-51 there is only one reason to unlock the tailwheel - if you need to turn around a mainwheel using the differential wheel brakes. The issue was in comparison to real P-51 handling with the tailwheel unlocked or handling a plane that has no tailweel lock such as Spit.

[rextar]

Guys regarding takeoff ,i know that to use the steer wheel you have to lock stick forward,fine.

But do you use the rudder keys to control steering then?

[BIGNEWY]

during take off pull the stick back to lock the steering and use your rudder to steer when taking off.

 

also make sure you have trimmed correctly :)

 

if you are steering on the ground, i.e taxing use diferential braking

Edited July 15, 2012 by BIGNEWY

[mmaruda]

Ok, a couple of thing I do not fully get.

 

I have learned that in order to taxi and take off, you need to lock the tail wheel (pulling on the stick slightly) and use separate brakes for tight turns - now it's all quite easy. But, what is the state of the tail wheel in stick neutral position? I understand it is not 360 unlocked as according to the manual you have to push the stick all the way forward to do that (no idea what would anyone want to do this to themselves). So I take it it's just half locked in neutral?

 

Another thing is the take off trim. I understand that the procedure is to have 5 degrees right rudder and 2 degrees nose heavy? Rudder trim generally works, but it's not always what you'd expect, so is the due to crosswind or am I doing something wrong.

 

Finally, once I get airborne, I'm all over the place, is there a specific moment when I should re-trim during take off (I mean procedure-wise), or should I just "feel it"? I generally hit the reset trim button and start from scratch, but it does not look smooth.

 

Lastly, most people mentioned landings being challenging, but compared to IL-2, this is a cakewalk, not a single crash yet - I must be doing something wrong. Any advice? :)

[Yo-Yo]

Ok, a couple of thing I do not fully get.

 

I have learned that in order to taxi and take off, you need to lock the tail wheel (pulling on the stick slightly) and use separate brakes for tight turns - now it's all quite easy. But, what is the state of the tail wheel in stick neutral position? I understand it is not 360 unlocked as according to the manual you have to push the stick all the way forward to do that (no idea what would anyone want to do this to themselves). So I take it it's just half locked in neutral?

 

Another thing is the take off trim. I understand that the procedure is to have 5 degrees right rudder and 2 degrees nose heavy? Rudder trim generally works, but it's not always what you'd expect, so is the due to crosswind or am I doing something wrong.

 

Finally, once I get airborne, I'm all over the place, is there a specific moment when I should re-trim during take off (I mean procedure-wise), or should I just "feel it"? I generally hit the reset trim button and start from scratch, but it does not look smooth.

 

Lastly, most people mentioned landings being challenging, but compared to IL-2, this is a cakewalk, not a single crash yet - I must be doing something wrong. Any advice? :)

 

Try to perform wheeler... :)

Rudder trim control has a bug now so use 2.5-3 degree setting on the knob to obtain desired 5-6 degrees.

No half locking is available but the tailwheel unlocks when the stick is about 3/4 forward. Maybe it's a little bit different from the maintenance manual but it's more convenient :) and it's how the Miss Velma adjusted.

[Yo-Yo]

Take off in taildragger at 20 s. Something well known? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnWOqp_hyiY#t=0m29s

Edited July 17, 2012 by Yo-Yo

[Tailgate]

Just new to P51D and taildraggers in general. I think I've got the 3 point landing down pretty well, but the roll out was giving me headaches, skidding sideways and all. I realized that I have to plant that tailwheel on touchdown with full aft stick into the lap during the rollout to keep it stable down the centerline. I used to leave it neutral and it was all over the place.