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FS Cast B-17 taxi issues

S

SSI01

Charter Member
Just bought this aircraft today and after installation am struck by a number of things. It's visually almost stunning, excellent detail, realistic engine start (I got a good backfire out the supercharger/waste gate on no. 3 on my first try), a good number of add-on textures available here and on other sites.

However, there is one area where it remains a cast-iron b---h, and that's taxiing. I haven't tried it yet, but the manual recommends using only the two outboard engines to taxi, with the inboards off until the EOR. I suppose that can be done except every film I've ever seen of B-17s taxiing shows all four fans going, with the inners set to low RPM with turning accomplished with the two outers and slight differential braking. Yes, I know it was done the other way, but that begs the question - why would you want to taxi all the way to the EOR just to find out one of your inners won't start?

The manual says a joystick or control setup with multiple throttles is the way to go with this bird, which would be nice to know before one purchases it (I don't have that). The airplane has a significant turn radius, even using just the outboards and diff braking to steer - yet if you watch "12 O'Clock High" you can see one of these things expertly turned within the confines of the circular hardstand it occupies after shutdown, so I know this thing could be turned in a very small radius if needed.

I'd hate to relegate this airplane to the back of the hangar over something like this, but it's enormously taxing on patience to wrestle this thing around with the setup as it is right out of the download.

Does FS Cast have a website where there may be patches for this aircraft, BTW?
 
I don't have this but with some aircraft cfg's I've modified the [brakes] section by adding ..... differential_braking_scale=1.00000 ..... to help with turning.

Also in the [contact_points] in the tailwheel entry (point.0= ??) ..... I think it's the 7th figure , try altering it to 45.0 , it makes the tailwheel steering more effective.

ALWAYS make a copy of the aircraft cfg before making alterations.

I hope this helps.

Pete.
 
Hello, Pete, and thanks for the input.

I've got the config file open in front of me, at the [contact points] section. I never noticed this before, but there are 13 contact points enumerated for this aircraft. Of those points, "0" through "4" are commented out (//) and aren't being read by the computer. Is there some reason why these points are commented out? If this is the case, which contact point in this section should we be altering as you suggested - that is, should we be "uncommenting" point.0 or going right to point.5, which is the first uncommented contact point?
 
Not sure what the contact points are that are commented out, but they are not for the landing gear.

Contact points 5 and 6 are the main wheels and contact point 7 is for the tail wheel.

I experimented last night by adding the differential braking and trying to increase the toe brake effort, but it still doesn't want to turn (easily), so I'll trying changing the rotation angle from 180 to a smaller value an see what happens.

BTW - I'm still having one heck of a time getting the engines started. I've followed the startup procedures, but the engine turns but doesn't fire. It should fire up with Ctrl-E, but that doesn't work either. It seems that if I turn off the magnetos, I get lucky. Yesterday engine 1 started, but I spent another 10 minutes getting the other engines started. Back to the manual, I guess.

Funny, but I can't seem to find any posts or modifications for this product.
 
A short time ago I picked up Just Flight's Beech Duchess, which is a sweet little flyer, BTW. I had it out for a long spin over Southern Ireland today and just landed.

I've read about Item 7 in the contact points and agree w/you. First chance I get I'll call the airplane up and take a look at my engine start procedure which I didn't seem to have problems with, if memory serves correctly. I'll let you know what it is.

BTW after you DO get the engines started, there is a vertical bank of small switches - five of them, I think - that is around the corner from the starting switches. Those are carburetor air filters that have to be kept in the "on" position until the aircraft passes 18,000 feet.
 
Here's what I've accomplished since my last post.

I can now taxi and turn using differential braking. I had to increase the toe_brake_scale to get the brakes to help turn using pedals. I'm still experimenting with different values. I just returned the tail wheel rotation back to 180 and will see how that now works in conjunction with the differential braking.

As for the startup, I finally found a working solution by increasing the starting torque value from 1.5 to 1.75.
 
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