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Guest Milton

Commander 520 Cross wind tolerance??

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Guest

Ilove the Commander, but keep getting pushed off the runway on moderate cross winds such as 8 Kts direct. I don't seem to have it on my other A/C. Have reset rudder effectiveness, null point, toyed with wind settings in FSUIPC and set P factor and yaw sliders to far left. Is anyone else having this, or could it be something with my basic Ini or config files? My sytem runs fairly well. Locked FPS at 17, sliders about midpoint, no shadows, PAI routes for Delta, AA, SW, United, Continental, And America West, thus fair amount of AI. Appeciate any helpful thoughts! Bill at KSAT (Alamo City!)Homebuilt - used only for Flight Sim related programsWill upgrade later in the yearAbit KT7aAthlon 1.2 w/256 meg pc133Win 98SEGeforce 2 64 Megs

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I too have noticed that also. Sometimes, it is impossible to hold on the runway. Other times, it is OK. I have no fix. You are right about the plane though. VERY good.Vernon

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Guest nutmeat

I've noticed that the ground handling is a bit touchy and maybe oversensitive in steering. Air handling is quite good and I've successfully set her down in a stiff (20kts, gusts to 30) quartering crosswind. The trick is to "slip" the aircraft, weather wing down, rudder control to the opposite side to maintain directional stability. This, and the SM260, seem to be of the few models which can sideslip; this technique is often used in the real world when landing in strong crosswinds; I can remember in my early training days of my instructor requiring me to practice "cross-control" stalls which can be quite violent. (Almost spun a Cessna 172 trying it). Once mastered, the technique is fun to do and will save your butt on very windy days in light aircraft.BTW...the military B-52 can actually turn the landing gear away from aircraft centerline and I've seen them land with the nose pointing to the side with the gear pointing straight down the runway! Now that must feel strange!nutmeat

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Guest nutmeat

A clarification to the above for the nit-pickers:What I meant by touchy ground handling really is that the aircraft, probably because it is so low to the ground, does not steer as sharply as other aircraft. You have to be ahead on the sharp turns and I often find that I end up to one side or the other on the taxiway rather than coming out in the center after a 90 degree turn.This is not a detraction to the aircraft as it does fly beautifully and is very stable.As an aside, be sure that you have the P-factor set fully left (off) as, due to a flaw in FS, anything else is fully ON. I use the little arrows to be certain rather than just drag the slider.nutmeat

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Guest

If you use differential braking, you don't have this trouble.ChasW

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Guest Milton

Hi Gentlemen,Thank you for the nice comments on the Commander.A couple of things that you should be aware of are the nose gear is restricted to 20 degree turns; use differential braking and a little power on a slow turn.The rudder is restricted to 15 degrees per spec. As it has a very large surface area, crosswind handling becomes a bit of an art.According to the Twin Commander Flight Group owners/pilots who provided tech support, input, and feedback as well as beta testing, this is how it is done.Whether for taxi, takeoff, or landing, add more rpms to the upwind engine than the downwind engine. Depending on the crosswind factor, it may be 100-330 rpms on average, or more.In FS for differential power seems to require another hand at critical moments but you will get used to it. :-)Have fun...Milton

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Most of my problems are when I commence the take-off roll as speed gets closer to lift off, the cross wind forces me off runway. No amount of rudder or aileron correction is able to counter it. I am only talking about 8Kts at 90 degrees. As a test, I turned around at the end of runway and tried from the opposite direction. Was still pushed in a downwind direction. Don't get me wrong.. I love this plane, and suspect something in my overall configuration! I will try the slip on landing just for fun!Bill from KSAT (Alamo City!)

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Once again, FSUIPC comes to the rescue. We all know that the FS control assignment can give individual throttle control to each engine via E + 1 or 2 but the problem is getting all the throttles to work as one again, once you've finished. FSUIPC provides a hotkey for this purpose. I set mine as Ctrl+Shift+E so I can switch very quickly between Engine One, and Engine Two, or back to all engines. you can also assign keys to control engine 1 and 2 separately if you want.ChasW

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Wow. How's that for an added touch of realism! Thanks for the great work,and the helpful info. Regards,Bill from KSAT (Alamo City!)

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Guest Milton

Excellent point chasW.. :-) I should do that as well.Milton

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