Cannot get it off the ground

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oakfloor
Senior Airman
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Joined: 24 May 2007, 17:55

Cannot get it off the ground

Post by oakfloor »

Help, After the latest A2A update, I cannot control the torque swing on takeoff, no matter what I do, even riding the right wheel brake to the point of locking it up, and full right rudder, at any power setting above about 25-35 MP. It never did this before, I could all ways control it with right rudder and 5-7 degrees of right trim, and a smooth throttle application. Yes I have checked all the rudder parameters and re calibrated it, the aircraft condition page says it's in excellent condition. I assigned a "Tail wheel lock" button to my control stick, to make sure it was locked, removed the old file and downloaded a fresh one from here. My A2A P-47, Spitfire, P-40 all work fine, even my torque happy F8F Bearcat works fine. What happened? Thanks for your help.

alan CXA651
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Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by alan CXA651 »

Hi.
I have only just finished a flight with the p51 , had no trouble opening throttle gently and keeping her down center line , i had the wing/aft tanks full , nothing on pylons , and trim set to 604 for rud/ail/ele , and i had a slight crosswind that was not helping .
Did you have any crosswind element on your takeoff run , as that might have had a influence on how it handled.
Also i dont think the p51 has a tail lock.
regards alan. 8)
p.s. my controls are CH yoke/rudder peddles and two quad throttle units , for the likes of the b17.
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oakfloor
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Joined: 24 May 2007, 17:55

Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by oakfloor »

alan CXA651 wrote:Hi.
I have only just finished a flight with the p51 , had no trouble opening throttle gently and keeping her down center line , i had the wing/aft tanks full , nothing on pylons , and trim set to 604 for rud/ail/ele , and i had a slight crosswind that was not helping .
Did you have any crosswind element on your takeoff run , as that might have had a influence on how it handled.
Also i dont think the p51 has a tail lock.
regards alan. 8)
p.s. my controls are CH yoke/rudder peddles and two quad throttle units , for the likes of the b17.
No crosswinds, all other A/C have no problems as stated. P-51 has a locking tail wheel, that swivels freely or is locked straight ahead for take offs, and landings, unlocked for ground taxi operations.

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ratty
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Location: KPMP

Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by ratty »

For what it's worth, the "locked" tailwheel still has six degrees of left/right movement, controllable through the pedals.
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wrkempson
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Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by wrkempson »

Tail wheel steering is in the manual, but I doubt it is to be found in the A2A Mustang. The following exercise may convince you there is no steering by the tail wheel.

Taxi straight ahead. Cut the engine. Let the aircraft slow down until there is insufficient wind to affect the rudder. Move the stick back. Apply rudder. Discover that the mythical 6 degree tail wheel steering is absent. Quit looking for tail wheel steering. Note that the cfg file is configured for a full castor tail wheel. Quit expecting to steer by using the tail wheel.

Maybe it's just me, but the only steering I have is by braking and moving air across the rudder (ie, gun the engine).

I offer this merely as an observation.

Wayne

alan CXA651
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Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by alan CXA651 »

Hi.
As i suspected the p51 tail wheel does not have a lock that the pilot operates as such , if stick pushed fully fwd it makes the tailwheel a free castor , useing brakes to steer , if stick neutral or pulled back , it locks the tailwheel , but still has 6 deg of steering .
On the takeoff run the main steering is via the rudder , and how you move the throttle , i.e. torque steer from prop , i try to get her onto main wheels as quick as pos to give rudder steering control as i takeoff , this seems to give me sufficient control on takeoff to keep her down center line , except in sever crosswind , when shes hard to keep down center line.
regards alan. 8)
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Nick - A2A
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Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by Nick - A2A »

wrkempson wrote:Tail wheel steering is in the manual, but I doubt it is to be found in the A2A Mustang. The following exercise may convince you there is no steering by the tail wheel.

Taxi straight ahead. Cut the engine. Let the aircraft slow down until there is insufficient wind to affect the rudder. Move the stick back. Apply rudder. Discover that the mythical 6 degree tail wheel steering is absent. Quit looking for tail wheel steering. Note that the cfg file is configured for a full castor tail wheel. Quit expecting to steer by using the tail wheel.

Maybe it's just me, but the only steering I have is by braking and moving air across the rudder (ie, gun the engine).

I offer this merely as an observation.
A good observation though, and something I've just quickly confirmed in my installation. Also notable was a distinct (and to me inexplicable) tendency to turn left in this scenario, which—as you say—can't be corrected by trying to steer with the tail wheel which seems to be free castering through 6°, not steerable.

I should add that I don't have any particular problem with lateral control during take off, so not sure if this is related to the original post. However, this issue does seem to be cropping-up quite a bit for some reason.

Thanks,
Nick

oakfloor
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Joined: 24 May 2007, 17:55

Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by oakfloor »

Great discussions about the P-51 tail wheel locking, or not locking, but has anyone else had this problem? can anyone from A2A look into this? it would be nice to get my expensive software working again.

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ratty
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Location: KPMP

Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by ratty »

What can I say? I just checked, and MY Civ Mustang has limited tail wheel steering in the "locked" position. I've never had problems with the software; my only problems with taking off have been entirely due to poor technique.
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CodyValkyrie
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Re: Cannot get it off the ground

Post by CodyValkyrie »

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I've tested this many times and have found that thr tail wheel when locked is quite limited compared to when unlocked. Sure, it's not steerable in the traditional sense, but I never could get a plane to pivot on itself when locked, for example.
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