The A2A Simulations Community

Just installed the beautiful P-51. Very impressive! But it won't steer very well on the ground!

However, I have the very devil trying to steer the thing on the ground. Have to move very slowly and must work the brake constantly and kinda jerk it around a curve in increments. Locking and unlocking the tailwheel doesn't seem to have any effect at all. And if I use the keyboard for differential brakeing I have to be quick of else the brake on that side will lock and send the plane into a ground loop. Only way is to stop and work out of that position slowly.

Is that normal for this aircraft?

Would appreciate any comments/observations/advice.

The P-51 had a steerable tailwheel, controlled by the stick. The 1945 training manual says:

"The tailwheel is both steerable and full swiveling. It is steerable 6 degrees right or left with the rudder. The tailwheel lock is different from that of most other planes--it is operated by the control stick. When the stick is in neutral position or pulled back, the tailwheel is locked and steerable. When you push the stick full forward, the tailwheel is unlocked and full swiveling."

Try this and see if it helps you.

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120th Fighter Wing, Montana Air National Guard

The old P-51 has a castoring tailwheel. You have to use bursts of power and differential braking to make it work.

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Ahhh, well I haven't flown the original FS9 Wings of Power P-51D/H in a long while. The Wings of Power 2/WWII Fighters/SOLO version is fairly controllable with rudder inputs, throttle and brakes, and ground handling seems about the same regardless of whether the stick is pulled back, kept neutral or pushed forward.

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I like Thunderbolts! (Link to MySpace tribute page)


120th Fighter Wing, Montana Air National Guard

Correct Skycat. The original was a castoring tail, and there are not many differences between the solo package that was updated to FSX and the original FS9 P-51 package. There are indeed some differences, but as far as steering goes, not really much.

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To make the tailwheel steerable, in the Aircraft.cfg file go to the [contact points] section. In the "point0" entry, change the first value of "180" you encounter (from left to right) to "90" (Without parenthesis).
Sorry I cant give you a text file/line. I'm typing from memory as I'm not on base

Did the trick for my Uiver team DC2. Should work for all tailwheelers I think.

Cheers.