Flying the Spitfire without Dying

Still having trouble taking off and landing in the Spitfire?

No, there's nothing wrong with the flight model, they just didn't come to your house and tweak it to match your flight control peripherals.

So here's what to do.

Open the controls dialog under settings, open the Axis Tune for your rudder. Then change your settings to somewhere around this:

Dead Zone 3

Saturation X 100

Saturation Y 95

Curve -5 (Yes, NEGATIVE FIVE!)

You may have to play with it until it's right for your rig, but that's a good starting point. Save that and go try taking off. Now about that.

Set your elevator trim to level. Even money. Watch the trim gauge just under where it says, "Down" in green on the left side of the panel, showing that your gear is down.

Then down on your left is the knob for the rudder trim. Take note that the word, "Rudder" is printed on the knob and that the final "r" in "Rudder" is about straight up before you've touched it. Now rotate the rudder trim knob forward, toward the instrument panel, until the first "R" in the word, "Rudder" is straight up, where the last "r" was originally.

Now, when you're ready to fly, pull all the way back, straight back, on the stick, advance the throttle smoothly and briskly, but don't slam it forward, to about 7 or 8 pounds of boost on the boost gauge. That's the small gauge with all the red on it over on the right side of the panel.

Once you're past a reasonable taxi speed, let the stick return to neutral. Keep using your rudder pedals to keep her 'tween the ditches, and maybe add just a touch of back pressure to the stick once above stall speed and she should just float right on up into the sky.

Once you're airborne, trim rudder and elevator such that you can fly straight and level and take your hands off the stick for a few seconds without ending up inverted or doing a loop or a nose dive.

There you have it. The flight model as written by Eagle Dynamics is great. But there are a lot of different PC flight peripherals out there, and you may have to tweak the settings to accommodate yours. Same goes with other aircraft.

Now as for landings, stall it onto the runway very gently, then cut the throttle completely and let her roll and bleed speed. Use the rudder pedals to keep her tracking down the runway. You did lower the landing flaps, didn't you? When she's slowed below flying speed, pull that stick back and use the other flight control surfaces to add more drag and further slow her down. When she has finally rolled out to where you're around maximum taxi speed, gently begin applying and releasing the brakes, taking care not to nose her over.

You can do it. Now go practice. That's all there is to it. :pilotfly:

Good advice.

The most important thing for me was to firmly advance the throttle up to 8 pounds since that quickly gives you rudder authority. This is very different from for example the P-51 where advancing the throttle to quickly can make you veer sideways if she's heavily loaded.

For landing, my best advice is to not be in a hurry to set her down on the runway. Pull back on the throttle, fly over the runway and take your time until she sets down on her own in a 3-point attitude.

I know a lot of people use curves. I don't, and I don't feel the Spit requires them. If you duplicate the flight manual procedures then all expected results will happen in the sim.

I know a lot of people use curves. I don't, and I don't feel the Spit requires them. If you duplicate the flight manual procedures then all expected results will happen in the sim.

I don't use curves on anything else. But with my CH Rudder Pedals, if I don't use the settings that I listed above, even with a fresh calibration, even full right rudder and differential braking can't stop the aircraft from veering off the left side of the runway. It seems to be a quirk with these particular rudder pedals.

And if that's the case on my rig, there's probably other people out there with similar issues. With just those small adjustments that I listed, the aircraft becomes just as sweet and cooperative as you could wish.

I don't use curves on anything else. But with my CH Rudder Pedals, if I don't use the settings that I listed above, even with a fresh calibration, even full right rudder and differential braking can't stop the aircraft from veering off the left side of the runway. It seems to be a quirk with these particular rudder pedals.

 

And if that's the case on my rig, there's probably other people out there with similar issues. With just those small adjustments that I listed, the aircraft becomes just as sweet and cooperative as you could wish.

May I suggest a different rudder trim position? I rotate the trim wheel full right then back until the T is vertical. This affords me half right rudder on take off roll to keep her steady. Some right roll on the stick held steady. RPM full forward. Boost at 8lbs. Always 8lbs, not more or less or the rudder trim goes to shit. Smooth yet deliberate advance to the 8lbs. If you advance too slowly the aircraft pulls too hard to counter. Elevator trim is one notch up and there should be no lateral movement on the stick from the pilot. Of course no flaps. The Spit will lift itself off the ground.