Taming the Beast

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
While reading some of the threads in the RTW Forum on the McRobertson race (or whatever it is), I saw several references to the DH Comet. I realized I had never flown the plane....so I fired up the sim, selected the Comet....and made several attempts to take off but none were successful. The plane goes hard left due to engine torgue. I went into the config file and set the props to be counter rotating (one goes clock wise, the other goes counter clock wise) and that made no difference.

What is the secret to taming the beast so I can get it into the air? I have no pedals, just a twist grip on my joystick. Using the F11 and F12 really wasn't much use as the plane has a tendency to ground loop when using dif brakes.

OBIO
 
tail wheel lock ON??, stick back, very slow application of power until you have a bit of speed to lift the tail, rudder, rudder, rudder.. pray, pray, pray.. but better you quit now because it'll bite your a** off on landing.
(oh, and cut WAY back on the fuel until you get the hang of it)

However, there is a fix for the landing groundloop... on final kill both engines, keep gear up and land smoothly.. the exposed gear will resist crashes and you'll skid to a stop without most of the groundloop.....

I can fly it, but I'd rather not.:mixedsmi:
 
Obio it is a balancing act. Lock the tail wheel. Apply power if she pulls one way apply slightly more power on the other side. Ease into the power and she will take off just fine.

Now stopping is another thing. I find slowing down starting about 20 nm out just a little bit at a time. apply trim to stay in level flight and slow down.

Right before landing (gear down) Kill both engines, Gently pull back on stick while lightly applying brakes.

It takes a lot of practice.
 
Obio ,
If you look at Point.0=1 in the Aircraft CFG , then to the Contact Points and change the number 180.0 to a 43.0 or something close to that number , it should do away with the ground looping .
 
Czech with the race marshalls as to the legality of modifying the cfg of a plane for the race if that is your intention..... As with some of the other "classics" such as the cub, MS may have had an evil sense of humor here.... I can be landed, but the real one could not have been that bad!!!

Cheers: T
 
Start practice with only 10-15% fuel on board. This was a long range aircraft so it carries a lot of fuel making it very heavy and unresponsive at landing and take-off. Once you get comfortable with a light aircraft, start adding fuel. It's not a bad aircraft at all once you get used to it.

:)
 
OOOh, no....I ain't signed up for the race. I can't fly more than an hour at one time before I start doing stooopid things with my planes. And there is no sanctioning body for any air race that will allow the doing of stooopid things in planes. I Czeched with the SOH race judges and I have been black balled from any race sanctioned by the Out-House....the judges have all seen the screen shots I posted of me flying a 747 upside down.

Just wanted to fly the Comet a few times.

OBIO
 
I started a thread some time ago about a freeware Mosquito with the same problem. As I remember nothing was resolved. As learn more about cfg's I revisit things like this to try new fixes as I can't do anything with air or model files. My latest thought is adjusting the [GeneralEngineData] line describing the engine placement in x/y/z coordinates.
 
I just checked the engine placement positions and they were fine. I did find that the contact points for the main gear was a bit too narrow....the contact points were about a half foot too far inward on each side. I moved the contact points outward a foot on each side, lining the contact points up with the outer edges of the main wheels.

OBIO
 
Hi,

OBIO can you play with the line in bold and see if results ? ...

[flight_tuning]
cruise_lift_scalar = 1.0
parasite_drag_scalar = 1.0
induced_drag_scalar = 1.0
elevator_effectiveness = 1.0
aileron_effectiveness = 1.0
rudder_effectiveness = 1.0
pitch_stability = 1.0
roll_stability = 1.0
yaw_stability = 1.0
elevator_trim_effectiveness = 1.0
aileron_trim_effectiveness = 1.0
rudder_trim_effectiveness = 1.0
p_factor_on_yaw = 0.5

Propeller-induced turning effect parameters

The p_factor_on_yaw, torque_on_roll, gyro_precession_on_pitch and gyro_precession_on_yaw parameters are multipliers on the effects induced by rotating propellers. These are often called “left turning tendencies” for clockwise rotating propellers. The simulation correctly handles counter-clockwise rotating propellers. The default values are 1.0.
Click to expand...

Source:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526949.aspx#mozTocId717787
 
I haven't ever flown this either until just now. As-is if I give about 25% power and start to roll, when she started to wander I just tapped the brakes (both, not differentials) to tell her who's boss. If I do this quick enough she'll more or less behave until an airspeed of 40 or more allows the rudder to be effective. Other than the usual things that irk me into fiddling with things to make realistic performance it was flyable in this way.
As far as engine points I meant doing whatever works, not necessarily that they may not correspond to the visual model. And it seems some may be hobbled by race rules anyway so fiddling would be out, unless agreed upon modifications were available to all.
 
I just checked the realism settings in my sim. I have them on Medium (which sets everthing to 50%) but have the P_factor slid back to 25%. I want some challenge to my flying, but not so much that it drives me to drinking. I will investigate the p_factor_on_yaw line in the Comet and a few other planes that I have that are simply insane in this regard. I was just thinking that there are a few planes that I have that are near impossible to take off and land in on anything other than easy realism....planes that were known for being easy flyers....like the Aeronca 7AC.I have two 7ACs in my collection...one is as easy to handle as a drunk prom date and the other is as difficult to handle as her tea-drinking cousin.OBIO
 
whitehawk_2009 said:
You just about owed me for a new keyboard!:icon_lol:

Where's our little jester guy? I miss him...:kilroy:

WH
Click to expand...

Just checked and he is AWOL. He was probably left out by accident in one of the last few forums rebuilding.

I hate flying the DH 88 Comet. I can get it off the ground okay, but landing it something else. I eventually started landing it like srgalahad said. Kill the engines and belly it in.
 
i have landed the dH-88okay on occasion, you have to be really careful with it though, i found it easiest from spot view (remember in a real plane you could move your head and see more. The tail-wheel lock is IMPERATIVE (said in creepy scottish accent for emphasis) as the Shuttleworth collection found out, they Groundlooped the replica that the MS model is based on when it had a castoring tailwheel. MS seems to have got highly confused, the model is based on the origonal with skid while the .air is worked off the shuttleworth (probably) replica with tailwheel.
 
other things... FORGET the runway. Back in the day (yech.. I just spoke "earnhart") the fields were grass and you lined up into the wind, not some arbitrary chunk of concrete or tar.

Also not long ago there was a lengthy discussion by FSAviator about taildraggers and the use of power/drag to steer/aim a taildragger. With a Skid it will handle and should be operated differently from a wheel on the swingy end

IMHO, the Comet is a crash 10, fly 1 (repeat) MS monster.
 
I have been quite content with FS2004 without having flown the Comet, and don't think that I will stop being content with the sim because I can't fly the Comet. Not really my kind of plane anyhow...just thought I'd crash a few times since it was there....which I was able to do without even getting it off the ground.

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. Maybe someone more concerned about flying the Comet that I am will find them handy.

OBIO
 
It's been probably two years or more since I've flown that one. I think I'll play a little with it. Even if I can't alter the 3D, I can still go into the cfg and remove the skid, then install a tailwheel with steering cables connected to the rudder cables. If it works out, I'll post the changes...
 
Well, I guess I read previous posts wrong, since the rear point was already a wheel. But I changed the steering angle from 180 to 60 and disabled the tailwheel lock, and was able to keep the plane on the runway with even thrust and steering/rudder inputs. This was with autorudder disabled, which is something I normally don't do - I can't coordinate a turn with a twist stick to save my life!

I had also forgotten how much runway she needs to land! With only 20% fuel in each tank, touchdown is still around 85-90 KIAS, and braking will put your nose on the runway real quick if you over-do it!

I'd also forgotten how nice the sounds are. I think I might be using them as an alias in the near future for one or two birds!
 
Another thing to check, Obio... Make sure BOTH throttles are operating. This one is subject to the same MS quirk of only operating the LAST engine started if cntrl+E used to start engines. Hit E-1-2 to be sure. The Barron is notorious for doing this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top