Ok first before I get to my comment, I am going to toot my horn here a little.

I am pleased to say, on my first attempt at the RV6 landing challenge 6 - I managed to complete it and ace it , getting the gold. I was pretty pleased with that one. I did a pretty good job keeping the indicators in alignment. Now if I could just do the same with that dang Maule challenge 6...

 

Anyways, this afternoon I decided to fly a job and had the weather set to among the giants.

I was taxiing to the runway and had about a 16 knot somewhat of a crosswind, more diagonal I guess than anything.

 

The nose of the RV6 went extremely to the right. I was going around say 15km on the ground taxiing. Practically had to give it nearly full left rudder to keep the plane tracking straight on the ground.

 

Now I would expect this more out of a taildragger, but a tri-gear plane? Seemed to me a little extreme perhaps on the effect of the wind on ground handling?

 

Just curious if anyone esle has observed this and their thoughts?

I noticed that using ailerons on the ground can help when its windy. I try to dip into the wind, and it seems to help keep the wheels planted.

Tri-gear planes should be a lot more forgiving than that. With that much wind you want to pay attention to the positions your elevator and ailerons are in while taxiing,because you want to keep your windward wing down, so as not to get flipped over by a gust. Elevator position is more critical in a taildragger, because you want to keep the tail down for positive tailwheel steering (if so-equipped) and to keep from nosing over. I think neutral elevator in a tri-gear plane might be advisable, since having full up or down elevator in strong winds will just provide a lot of surface area for the wind to push against, perhaps contributing to higher-than-desired taxi speeds, etc. Just my two cents, not sure how accurate.

And if that's not enough, just hold the brakes. Since you already have the rudder off to one side, you'll get the proper differential braking. I've been able to take off while holding full brakes (is there any other brake position anyway?) with no problems in the Stearman.

 

Is this proper proceedure? Is this correct handling of a tricycle gear plane in a crosswind? Um. I doubt it in both cases. :D

 

Hook

Ok thanks very much for the feedback gang. I was just a little suprised to see it at this extreme on a plane with a nosegear.

I think there are problems with the ground handling in general. A plane with nosegear should be able to turn very tightly on the ground, but the RV sure can't! If you park a plane sideways on a slope you'll see it slowly slipping downhill, so I suspect there isn't enough friction - it's like the wheels are hovering a few milimeters above the ground.

Personally, I've found the winds in Flight to be far too harsh in most instances. There is way too much effect on an airplane both in the air and on the ground. Hopefully this will be looked at in a future update.

To turn on a dime in any of the aircraft, simply use differential braking and full rudder deflection:

 

1. use the "Z" or "C" keys or toe brakes if you have them;

2. full rudder

3. power to 25 to 35% percent depending on the airplane.

 

You will get perfectly tight turns with no problem and be able to backtaxi on the runway.

 

Best regards.

Luis

Yeah, that works, when the brakes actually come on (for some reason there's a huge delay if you use the keyboard differential brakes), but my point is that you should be able to turn tightly with just the steering, in pretty much all the planes in the game, but you just can't. It's like the steered wheel always skids, or like you're taxiing on ice.

Yeah, that works, when the brakes actually come on (for some reason there's a huge delay if you use the keyboard differential brakes),

 

+ 1 on that one.

I have my differential brakes assigned to two buttons on my throttle - actually have the keystrokes mapped to them - and there indeed is at least what seems to be a large delay before they kick in.

I strongly hope it doesn't, they're actually a LOT more realistic now :-)

 

 

Personally, I've found the winds in Flight to be far too harsh in most instances. There is way too much effect on an airplane both in the air and on the ground. Hopefully this will be looked at in a future update.

I've had major complaints about the ground handling myself.

 

I have the brakes assigned to a button on my joystick by default. When you have rudder applied, it automatically applies differential braking as well. No real need for separate brake buttons.

 

If you have a passenger, don't try to turn the plane too fast on the ground. You can end up with sick passengers.

 

Hook

I had a Maule tailwheel on my biplane that was steerable, but was designed to easily go into "full castering" mode once it turned past a certain point. In full-castering mode I could apply one of the toe brakes and almost literally turn the plane on a dime with the braked wheel as the center of the circle. Then, after releasing the brake the plane would straighten out enough to where the tailwheel would return to steerable mode. I haven't seen any flight sim that models that.

If I'm not mistaken, the nosewheel on the RV-6A is castering, not steered, so it's steering on the ground is 100% rudder and brakes.

If I'm not mistaken, the nosewheel on the RV-6A is castering, not steered, so it's steering on the ground is 100% rudder and brakes.

 

You're correct. Slow speed is all differential brake. It will turn a very tight radius around the main wheel. The nose wheel version can turn sharper than the tailwheel RV.

At taxi speeds, there is usually enough rudder to move from side to side, without using braking. As to how the sim does.....?