Tail wheel stearing for whimps

ian elliot

ian elliot

SOH-CM-2024
However hard i try and for as long as i have FS9 installed, i'll never get the hang of differential braking.
Would some kind sole post the fix for the cfg that allows rudder stearing so that i can get too the runway without plowing into the control tower.
cheers ian
 
Differential braking is a piece of cake...and probably easier than that if you have rudder peddles. On my set up (joystick with twist grip) I use the Number 2 (Trigger button) for brakes. Pull the trigger then twist the grip to the right if I want to turn right, to the left if I want to turn left.

Add this to the [Brakes] section of your aircraft config.

differential_braking_scale=1

Now, if you want an easy contact point fix to get the tail wheel to work as a directional aide....find the contact point line for the center/tail wheel and change the 8th number. If have found that each plane acts differently, so you will have to adjust and test, adjust and test until you get it dialed in. In some cases, 180 works great, in others 90 works better, in others I have found that 60 works best.

point.0 = 1, -10.8497, 0, -2.6, 1200, 0, 0.238, 180, 0.3, 2.5, 0.6, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

OBIO
 
To make a tailwheel steerable or free castoring via the aircraft.cfg, is done by changing the Steer Angle in the Contact Points section.

From Milton's D18 :

Free castoring tailwheel. Steer with differential braking and/or differential throttles.
point.0 = 1, -19.904, 0.000, -0.637, 2200, 0, 0.33, 180, 0.51, 2.0, 0.50, 3, 5, 0, 139, 175.2

Steerable tailwheel. Steer with rudder.
point.0 = 1, -19.904, 0.000, -0.637, 2200, 0, 0.33, 45, 0.51, 2.0, 0.50, 3, 5, 0, 139, 175.2

For the steerable tailwheel, you can adjust the "45" up to around 60 0r 65 for a tighter steer angle, after that FS9 doesn't recognize it.
 
Thanks guys, that makes life alot easyer, one day i'll have pedals but at the moment, using F11 and F12 is a major pain.
thanks again, ian
PS, funney you should mention Miltons Beech, thats one of my favorite taildaggers but quite ofter screw up taxing.
 
I finally figured out how to do brake steering just under 2 years ago in FS9. What I do is turn the rudder joystick control and blip the brakes in quick clicks. Seems to work well. You have to keep going back and fourth with rudder and brake blipping, but it works.. for me anyways.

I usually always reset all planes to 30-36 degrees instead of 180. Just too difficult in FS.


Bill
 
FS does not do a particularly good job of implimenting the tailwheel. Very light aircraft have the tail wheel steering through the rudder cable connected to springs, which means you get a lot less TW action than rudder deflection. In FS it hard applies the same deflection as the rudder. Large aircraft did not have steerable TW's, but a lockable TW.

The FS solution results in a oversteering on takeoff and a lack of an ability to castor for tight turns.

Make sure that you have "Auto Rudder" OFF! The 180 castoring cfg entry with differential brakes gives the best approximation of how a taildragger is to taxi. If Auto Rudder is on, TW steering (with say 30-60 degrees) will not work very well, you actually have to move the stick and not the rudder. With pedals the diff braking will still work even if the entry is not present in the cfg file. For twist sticks, it must be there. Most planes with a 180 degree entry and a castoring TW will have this entry.

Good Luck! T
 
Photobucket

In addition to the above, not all aircraft will respond the same (why would they?). For tailwheel steering to be effective you often need some back -stick input to keep the wheel well grounded. On others, like the Mustang, if properly modeled, the tailwheel lock/castor is built into the stick input so it will change with the amount of stick pressure used.

If you are using F11/F12 remember that the key inputs are at 100% so a "l'il dab'll do ya" and once the turn is started you have to stop the turn with a touch of opposite brake.

-Remember, this isn't your family Pinto :wiggle:

A really good guide is here:
http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aircraft/airplane_handbook/
including a whole chapter on flying taildraggers. (and you've already paid for it)
 
Took some time to get the hang of tail wheel steering. A good example is the default DC3, needs a combination of diff. brakes, rudder and engine thrust to taxi where you want her. Take it slow and easy.
 
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