Takeoff struggles

[Ulic]

Good morning fellow Piper flyers.

I'm flying the Piper on P3D v5, although I'm not sure if that's relevant for my question.

For some reason my takeoffs always feel a bit "wild". Instead of smoothly taking off the plane immediately starts to pitch and roll immediately after leaving the runway, and it takes me a few moments and lots of yoke and rudder movements to get it into a stable climb.

So I'd like to get some advice:
- How do you put the trim before takeoff? (neutral?)
- Flaps or not?
- Full power or not?
- At what speed do you pull back on the yoke?
- How much right rudder is needed during the roll on the runway and takeoff?
- Any other tips?

Thanks a lot in advance.

[Frank.O]

Hi, I'm not a real pilot and by far no expert but I'm simming on XBoxX and I had the same problems.

- How do you put the trim before takeoff? (neutral?)

Neutral

- Flaps or not?

No flaps

- Full power or not?

Full power

- At what speed do you pull back on the yoke?

65-70 mph, but carefully (me being the only one on board, wing tanks full, no tip tanks)

- How much right rudder is needed during the roll on the runway and takeoff?

This is the important part. First I was overdoing the rudder input because I added rudder immediately after applying full power when it was not needed yet which caused some zigzagging.
For me the best way was to wait for the plane to start veering left and only then adding rudder input very carefully. And stay on the rudder after lifting off, look at the turn coordinator to determine how much rudder input is needed.
Also depending on the crosswind component some into the wind aileron may also be necessary during the take off roll.
From lift off to level off I'm constantly watching the attitude indicator and turn coordinator and make small adjustments to rudder and aileron all the time. I'm absolutely not perfect yet but I'm slowly getting somewhere.

- Any other tips?

Practice, practice, practice

Regards, Frank

[AKar]

I might add, since Frank is using Xbox/MSFS variant that has different flight model, that the takeoff, among the other things, feels distinctly different from the FSX/P3D version of the A2A Comanche.

Also, and I don't know whether this is part of what the original poster is describing, but I always had something weird and clearly wrong happening at the moment of liftoff on FSX and P3D: there was very noticeable swing of yaw at the moment the aircraft left from ground contact. I had to learn a well-timed kick to counteract it if I wanted to takeoff more or less without nose swinging around some. Curiously, this seemingly happened with weather engine only (regardless of the actual weather it injected); using default weather, this swing was gone.

I never managed to identify what was causing this precisely. Because of storage (and time) restrictions, I am only having MSFS installed at the moment, so I can't revisit. In MSFS, this uncalled swing is not present, and the aircraft tracks very easily through the liftoff.

Adding one tip to Frank's list of many, runway length and obstacles permitting, you may want to consider accelerating in a shallow climb straight up to your cruise climb speed after lifting off. The added airspeed helps with rudder control, lower angle of attack reduces yaw from propeller asymmetry, and having the runway visible over the nose for longer makes tracking straight much easier. Of course, you'd still want to keep in practice doing 'by-the-book' takeoff with steeper initial climb in case of shorter runways, possibly with obstacles.

-Esa

[Macjim]

Ulic

• I keep the trim slight nose up of neutral,
  No flaps,
  Full power,
  Light pull pull back 65-70mph
  Rudder - what Frank said

Check your settings. Sensitivity can improve the feel. It the sensitivity is incorrect planes can be almost unflyable .

Jim