Hi!How about Taildragger taxiing? Everytime I want to steer, with Rudder Input only nearly nothing happens.When and if something happens (when the plane finally starts to turn a little bit), it won't stop turning even if i give full opposite rudder. It feels like the tailwheel steering doesn't have any effect at all.Anyone else has issues with taildragger taxiing? Would really like to know if this is a bug or a feature...Wether the differential brakes nor the Rudder can help me to get these beasts to go where i want them to go.How to? - Help!!Fox

Fox, welcome to the forum,It's a feature.Taildraggers are difficult to taxi (I've just completed a real world taildragger course). The physics are that the tail wants to lead the plane, so you have to be careful.The trick is to give many small inputs, rather than keep your foot hard down and wait for a reaction. If you do the latter, it is often too late, and the tail swings round.Differential braking should help. A bit of practice will get you there.Richard

Hi!Thanks for quick reply.Could you tell me what "give many small inputs" mean?I alway pull back on the stick, give small throttle bursts while operating the rudder. But without differentials, taxiing is either straight, straight, or turning without end. Once the plane has started to turn, I just can do what i want, it will never ever stop turning. Even if i am extremely careful and very, very slow. No way.Fox

Ahh, and BTW:With the Piper Cup, everything works fine. No problems. But with the Ford Trimotor in example, it is as terrible as nothing else.I also loaded an add-on AT-6, which is a dream to taxi with. Almost as easy as the Piper Cup.With the Piper, it feels "right", as if the tailwheel has ground contact an really steers. With the Trimotor, it feels like the tailwheel is skating on ice.Fox

HiA few of the tail dragger's have Castor tail wheels modeledya need to hit shft g to lock the sucker otherwise it gets away from ya :) Also some addon aircraft don't have differential_braking_scale = 1.0 under the brake section of the aircraft.cfgRegardsMaV

Well, it wasn't the Tailwheel lock (the DC-3 has one, i know of this)And it wasn't the braking scale either....It was the steering angle in the aircraft.cfg of the *Original Microsoft* Aircrafts.It was 180.0 degrees in some of the aircraft.cfg files, which seems to be totally wrong. I set it down to around 50 degrees, and voila! Everything works fine! Now all the Taildraggers (Trimotor, Extra, ect...) behave like their real counterparts.But why the heck!!! I have made a clean install. Why doesn't anybody know of this bug? Why didn't Microsoft set it correct?Fox

it's the squeaky noise that you make when you're getting done that upsets me and the boys. Try and tune it for some other channel please...rgds,billg

Speaking of taildraggers, we need an RV-4 on here!;)

Nope, that is *NOT* a bug. Not wrong.The real DC-3 has a castoring tailwheel, which means it just turns by itself as it needs to. The real DC-3 is turned by differential braking and/or differential throttle. The Ford Tri-motor is also a castoring tailwheel, although the visual model has it incorrectly turning with the rudder. The extra is a castor tailwheel too.Some taildraggers do have steerable tailwheels, but many (most?) are castoring. So, this appears to be just another case of realism added by Microsoft that's commonly been called a "bug". So, you can either learn to steer it the "correct" way with differential throttle/braking, or you can do what you did and do your own workaround to "cheat" and get the "old" steering method back. :) Myself, I learned to use differential braking, it's not that hard once I got used to it.. :(

If the contact point has 180 as the deflection and the model is done correctly, this indicates to the sim that this is a castoring wheel.You can change it to a steerable wheel by reducing the angle of deflection. 45-60 works well and is very controllable.If you do not have rudder pedals, the steerable option may be desireable.The tailwheel lock should be used at most times for predictable control of a castor. Parking or maneuvering is the exception.

As others have pointed out, it is correct, not a bug of any kind.Know this though ... when taxiing, as long as the AIRCRAFT.CFG has the line "differential_braking_scale = 1.0" - which, for example, the DC-3 does - then even using a stick you will get differential braking when you apply the brakes when the stick is twisted. If the stick is not twisted, you will get full, i.e. dual, braking.So there's no need to cheat as you have done by "fixing" the file. What you have done by setting your file to 50 degrees is make it behave like a Cessna or big jet with a steerable nosewheel. Tailwheels are usually free, but lockable as is possible with the DC-3 in FS9. Always lock the tailwheel on straight taxiways and after pulling ten feet onto the active before takeoff (to straighten it). It's all in any DC-3 manual, and much the same for any taildragger, I think .....Mark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP FleetDC-3 Airwayshttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Regarding "many small inputs", I mean press the rudder for a bit and release, wait for effect, then press for a bit etc.That's how I do it on a Cub. Not having flown a DC3, I wouldn't know. However, I have flown a Koliber (a Ralleye clone) and it has a fully castoring wheel (albeit nosewheel), and taxying at first was a f**gging nightmare. The small inputs doctrine applies more so in this case.

Taxing and landing Tailwheel is hard.. I am into 20 hours.. and I still don't have my endorsement.. I having difficulty with wheel landings. The thing about Taxing tailhweel is.. there is a lag in response.. you press the rudder...and it takes a while before it responds...if you are impatient and press it somemore.. then you have given too much input..and so on... you have to be ahead of the plane.. You got to practice. My blood pressure shoots up when I am taxing the tailwheel on a windy day than either flying em or even when landing em.

Well thanks for all the replies! It's great to get some advise on the difference between the free castoring and steerable tailwheels. I'd known the difference from theory, but i never thought that there is such less response from rudder steering with a castoring tailwheel. The manual really is not very informative on how to really steer those beasts i love.Differential Throttle is difficult to use since i have only one throttle slider. (Tap tap e, 1, throttle, tap tap e, 2, throttle, tap tap tap, e, 1, 2, throttle) So i rely on the differential brakes - not very easy as well since they are not very controllable even with the twistgrip i have (got a MS FFB2).Thank you.Fox