What Module Aircraft is your Hardest to Land ?

I always try to finish each mission (unless I was Toast) with an RTB and Full-Stop Landing. I don't have every Aircraft Module, but the Fixed Wing Birds I do have; each has it's own unique Landing Personality.

Most of my Tricycle Gear Aircraft have pretty benign Approach and Landing Characteristics. No nasty surprises as long as you manage your Airspeed, Aimpoint, Glide Path, and Power Reduction.

But I have three Modules that I consider the hardest to consistently land nicely. They are:

- MiG-21bis: The High Power Setting Required coupled with having to fly a Low Alpha Fast (350 Km/h) and Steep (4 Degrees+) Approach to keep the Runway Threshold in Sight makes the timing of the Roundout and Power Reduction Critical. As you stabilize over the Runway into the Flare - you actually lose sight of the Runway ahead of you and are left with not much except Peripheral Vision to sense Sink Rate and Height about Touchdown. But don't chop that Throttle to Idle or you'll drop like a Rock unless you're just a few inches above touchdown.

Mig-21 SPS system, or the magic of blown flaps

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=132490

- F-5E: The relatively high AoA Approach keeps the Nose High and also requires a fairly steep 3+ Degree descending Glidepath to maintain sight of the

Landing Environment. The Roundout seems to need keeping power on - because reducing power here (too much, too fast), you'll get that 'Sinking' feeling. Once established in the Flare you can smoothly come to idle. But you know what - if you're a little fast - that Low Wing Bird can do a little floating down in Ground Effect. I've actually seen this in real life Video - Pilots having to pulse the stick slightly forward (almost imperceptible - but if you watch closely - visible) to lower AoA and kill Lift (Watch the Swiss F-5 Landings carefully - you'll catch it). And I've had to do this as well - just a tad mind you.

2 Northrop F-5E Tiger II Patrouille Suisse Start Landing and Taxiway at Meiringen Air Base

- P-51D: This Feller is the Hardest of them all to (consistently) land smoothly. With the Beast named 'Merlin', Small power changes induce quite a few Torque Gyrations - so getting configured (Gear & Flaps) on speed with a stablized power setting is critical. I find that flying (Approach) slightly faster (than recommended 115-120 mph) at 125 to 130 mph is helpful. But the Tail-Wheel configuration with mid-fuselage cockpit results in losing sight of the Runway ahead of the Aircraft after Roundout while in the Flare. Again - you're left with nothing but Peripheral Vision to judge Sink Rate and Height above Touchdown. And - almost every P-51 I've had in many Sims - all are Bouncy on Touchdown unless you come very close to touching down with ZERO Vertical Velocity. This is my Toughest Aircraft to Land.

How about you Ladies and Gents (using the term loosely), what Aircraft is the Toughest to Land ?

I'm pretty comfortable with most aircraft now, though the warbirds are more of a challenge.

I'll also go with the Mig21, which I'm finding significantly more challenging, than trying to land the F18 on a carrier. As you say, it's a combination of poor low speed handling and lack of visibility, which makes even a Spitfire look good.

For all that, I'm fairly new to the Mig, so am looking forward to getting the better of it.

I agree the MiG-21 does take some practice. As far as WW2 birds go, I find the Spitfire a lot harder to land than the P-51, mostly due to the much narrower landing gear. My addition to the list would be the Mi-8MT, not quite for the landing itself but its rather tricky hover transition.

Probably the Spitfire for me.

P51 is easy compared to the spitfire.

I don't have the spitfire, but out of those I have, Bf-109, followed closely by Fw-190. Mustang is less difficult.

MiG-21 has been a walk in the park for me compared to these.

Another thing, F-86 felt reeeeeeeeaaaally easy to land even the first time I used it, but last few times I tried I have botched all my landing attempts in it. Though it probably has to do with me getting very, very rusty as I rarely have time these days and have been on an extended hiatus.

Of the 3 helicopters, and 1 plane module, that I have, not including the freebies -

The Ka-50 is easy as pie due to the autopilots.

The A-10 is easy so long as you remember to keep it just around 140-150mph (take off speed) and don't be too high when you cross the start of the runway, about 100-200ft is good, same applies to any plane really, keep it above stall speed and just around take off speed, and not too high.

Don't know about the Mi-8 because I admit to not having flown it much.

I find the Huey the hardest to land.

I find slowing down, transitioning to a hover, and losing height takes ages and under fire I'm a sitting duck, or something goes wrong, like ending up in VRS. Can't do "combat" landings either as I inevitably come in too hard, too fast, or in the case of a hillside, too low!

Landing is THE most difficult thing I find in the Huey, it takes a great effort of concentration on my part.

Of the ones I have: Mustang...

I only tried once a WW2 Warbird, the Mustang, and was terrible. :) But i only flew it once, so from all i flew, the hardest to get the hang of it to lkand, was the AV-8B, VTOL landing as per trying to do it real life style, was tricky, doing the carrier break and landing on it, getting it steady for hover landing etc... Ever the learning of Hover take-off was hard, without going al over the planet.

As per Helicopters, between the Gazelle, Huey and MI-8, i can say the Gazelle eas the hardest to keep steady in ground effet, though the last time i flew it, tons of patches came after, so it might had quite a lot changed since then.

Mig 21 is the hardest for me.

AV-8B VTOL :joystick:

The Spitfire took me the longest to get nailed down. Everything else WWII was a breeze once I mastered the Spit.

I imagine the 109 could get out of shape easily enough with the high camber undercarriage setup which is very particular about being "wings level" but I have no problems with it.

Imagine a motorcycle landing from a jump while leaned over the same amount. Craziness.

The left wheel is trying to send you right and the right wheel is trying to send you left by design.

Oh I forgot about the helos.

Mi-8 "let's see if I'll go VRS and leave a crater this time".

Depends on situation but you can learn to expect it and adapt.

but for me

Dora - If you move throttle lever too much. :-)

any Helicopter, except ka50 thanks to coax (harrier is relax compared to copters)

The Mi-8, and the UH-1H Huey, are by far the hardest to land, being conventional helicopters (I don't have the Gazelle, but it's probably a handful too).

Everything else is a total milk run compared to the helicopters with tail rotors. Even carrier landings :)

AD

My first DCS module was the Spitfire. Everything else is easy to land compared to that. The engine torque and the narrow undercarriage are widow makers. The ground effect characteristics are very quirky too, easy to bounce close to stall speed.

Key is to properly trim the aircraft and maintain a good glide speed. Once you land it consistently without take off assistance you feel very special.

Out of all of them, the Spitfire, hands down.

If we remove the old taildraggers from the equation, probably the MiG-21 because of how differently you have to approach the whole thing. All your habitual ideas of where the runway should be, at what angle you should be seeing it, and what speeds you should be going for are completely different from almost everything else so you have to consciously recalibrate your entire expectation of the approach to not end up in the trees.

The helos (and evne the Harrier) aren't really hard, I'd say — just more demanding in terms of being careful and methodical, because there is simply no recovery from sloppiness, but it's all fairly standard.

P51 mustang for me...

On the modules I have: The P-51 but about the M2000, you have to be very aware with the speed of touchdown, if you don't want to burst a tire.

The Mi-8, and the UH-1H Huey, are by far the hardest to land, being conventional helicopters (I don't have the Gazelle, but it's probably a handful too).

The Huey is far, far easier to land if you fly a (for lack of a better term) walking stick approach. Basically pick a point on the ground, come in fairly low, and fly around the back of the point, basically following a route that looks like this:

It also works really well on the Mi-8 - that kind of approach avoids all the danger areas of VRS that you would normally encounter on a straight-in approach. You can also have a fair bit of fun seeing how aggressively you can throw it into the turn/stop without crashing.

Quick video of how it looks: https://clips.twitch.tv/NurturingInquisitiveWoodpeckerMrDestructoid

AV-8B VTOL :joystick:

Yep!

Bf-109 is horrible to get to a full stop.

Late reply to original question:

A feature complete one.

It took me quite a while to be able to land an Mi-8 without the tail breaking off. When I replaced my Warthog by a Pro Flight Trainer Puma for helicopter flying, it suddenly became a whole lot easier and I have never had problems landing any helicopter since.

As for fixed wing, the MiG-21 definitely. It takes a while to get used to it again if you haven't flown it in a while: I just keep bouncing up on landings... Once I dedicate myself to re-learning it, it's fine again.

Elysian Eagle you mind sharing you puma setup for everything I haven’t found the best setup yet