Take off after landing tail wheel issues

Since the pilot has the brakes on an axis right on his stick (something my MSFFB2 lacks) I believe it is much more intuitive and easy to use the brakes, than on an axis on my pedals.

This. The ease of access and precision of the axis used for wheel braking makes all the difference.

If your axis is not too easy to access or manipulate, anticipating the 15% brake before touchdown is kind of valid since you cannot do what would be done IRL.

But, at least with my hardware (X55 + MFG Crosswind rudder), since I moved the brake axis from a rotary under my thumb on the throttle to both toe brakes on my rudder, I can manage landing without engaging brakes beforehand, with 100% success and far more easily. The trick is to find a natural movement for the braking, and at least on the MFG, when I push the rudder one side and toe brake with the other foot, it makes the movement perfectly natural and easy.

This. The ease of access and precision of the axis used for wheel braking makes all the difference.

If your axis is not too easy to access or manipulate, anticipating the 15% brake before touchdown is kind of valid since you cannot do what would be done IRL.

 

But, at least with my hardware (X55 + MFG Crosswind rudder), since I moved the brake axis from a rotary under my thumb on the throttle to both toe brakes on my rudder, I can manage landing without engaging brakes beforehand, with 100% success and far more easily. The trick is to find a natural movement for the braking, and at least on the MFG, when I push the rudder one side and toe brake with the other foot, it makes the movement perfectly natural and easy.

How are you guys able to map brakes to the toe peddles., I don't see that option in the control settings? Thanks.

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How are you guys able to map brakes to the toe peddles., I don't see that option in the control settings? Thanks.

 

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Go your axis section in the DCS control panel. If you have standard rudder pedals with toe brakes, you can bind both toe brakes to the same brake axis, which makes it a whole lot easier and intuitive when pushing the rudders and the brake axis.

Go your axis section in the DCS control panel. If you have standard rudder pedals with toe brakes, you can bind both toe brakes to the same brake axis, which makes it a whole lot easier and intuitive when pushing the rudders and the brake axis.

Thank you for the tip! When I assign just one toe brake it works fine but when I assign the second toe brake it doesn't hold the brake and the pressure needles get irratic. Also, I cannot set the brake handle with the wheel mouse with both toe brakes assigned. Not sure what I'm doing wrong? However, I'm finding it easier to taxi even using one toe brake. I can see where mapping both toe brakes would be even better.

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I have spent a lot of hours by doing landings and take-offs in the Spit lately.

The ultimate answer to good landings was trimming and approach and then the speed on touchdown. Also, make sure you don't induce pilot oscillation by crazy rudder input... Use small adjustments and if you feel the wing tipping, apply brakes.

I have my toe brake assigned to the left pedal... Assigning them to both is erratic.

But I want to stress it: trim is everything. and speed. If you overspeed, you always bounce and wingscrape... If the touchdown is gentle, there is no problem steering on landing roll... Be sure to keep the stick pulled back for tailwheel to be on the pavement.

The spit seems easy to land to me and once i touch down I usually do not apply any rudder at all and the thing just goes straight. I ease down on the brakes using an axis (rudder toe brakes) slowly until it almost stops and it stays straight as a arrow the whole time..

The thing that helps me land the most is to come in just slightly fast flare out and fly a few feet over the runway for a while while the plane slows down. This gives me plenty of time to get stable and level and straight and all the things you need for a good touchdown. If you touch down smooth and straight with little or no bounce you will not be fighting all the turning this way and that after touch down. You will also not run out of runway. You need very little runway when you touch down smoothly. Flying a few feet over the runway gets you in the correct attitude for a three point landing with a very slight descent rate so you don't bounce. I expect the better I get at landing the less time I will spend flying level above the runway as my judgement improves.

slyfly

The spit seems easy to land to me and once i touch down I usually do not apply any rudder at all and the thing just goes straight. I ease down on the brakes using an axis (rudder toe brakes) slowly until it almost stops and it stays straight as a arrow the whole time...

Are you serious?

Absolutely serious....if it goes dowm straight it stays straight. It also stays straight on take off if you don't touch anything until it starts to lift off. I usually apply a tiny bit of right rudder just as it begins to lift but before that my feet are off the pedals assuming I was lined up well when I started.

slyfly

I not sure if this was already asked but have you checked you axis controls to make sure dcs world did not assign things to your flight controls that you don't know about. With new modules I sometimes find stuff assigned to my hotas like rudders assIgned to one of the throttles or something like that. Anyway I can remember having a similar issue because of it.

slyfly

Rtimmons, double check If Your auto-rudder helper hasn't been reset after latest patches :D. Even though I don't have issues taking off and landing the thing, I sure as hell know one cannot do it without at least some rudder dance (brakes on the other hand are indeed not necessary until the very last phase of roll-out).

Absolutely serious....if it goes dowm straight it stays straight. It also stays straight on take off if you don't touch anything until it starts to lift off. I usually apply a tiny bit of right rudder just as it begins to lift but before that my feet are off the pedals assuming I was lined up well when I started.

 

slyfly

Honestly, there is something wrong there. Are you sure you don't have auto rudder set, or take off help?

There is no way you can take off without touching anything till it lifts off. Rudder adjustments, as well as right rudder trim and down trim are essential as well. Stick forward after tail lift off, with stick back at initial taxiing.

Art-J and imacken you were right...the Takeoff Assist was set to 100%. I always set all 4 of my prop planes to 0% and no Auto-Rudder so I was surprised to find the Spit a 100%. After setting it to 0% I have a pull to the left at initial throttle but it is easily controllable with rudder only and no brakes. Landing likewise had more drift on the runway also controllable with rudders but since you have to brake to stop it is slightly more difficult than takeoff for me.

slyfly

After landing several times with the takeoff assist turned off I can tell you a method that is working for me to help keep me straight on the runway. When I first touch down if the aircraft is moving straight then i apply breaks. If it starts to drift to one side then I remove the brakes and use rudders only to get it straight again. Once I am moving straight again I start applying brakes again. This works until the spit slows enough that the rudders begin to loose effectiveness. At that point i start using brakes and rudders together but am moving slow enough to keep it under control.

On take off I am finding that it is better to use small amount of rudder since the Spit is very sensitive to air movement and also moving the rudders slowly helps because sometimes the Spit rocks back and forth from one direction to the other and if you correct to soon you can wind up over correcting.

slyfly

Having prop RPM full fwd, and taking the throttle about 2 inch from idle will also help with rudder effectiveness.