A phenomenon I have with both Rick Piper's famous Viking and the stock DC-3 as well: when breaking after landing, I can easily put the nose of the plane onto the ground and thus crash the aircraft. So, "stuttered" breaking for me is the only way to keep the plane from turning over and stopping it at the same time.On the other hand it's quite difficult to raise the tail during the takeoff roll.Both problems don't exist on the new MAAM-Sim DC-3, so I guess the flight models are simply badly designed in this area.Don't know if the strange breaking behaviour is realistic for the Vickers Viking, it is described as nose-heavy, cannot confirm this due to lack of more information.Is there a (relatively simple) method to change that (i.e. experimenting with certain values in the .air file and aircraft.cfg)?Andreas

I'm not an expert by any means on either of those aircraft, but...That is not necessarily un-realistic behavior for aircraft with conventional gear (tail-draggers). Due to the arrangement of the landing gear and the ever present laws of physics, braking will cause the airplane to pitch forward. Depending on the aircrafts weight distrubution (the center of gravity actually) this pitching can be very pronounced, especially if you brake at high speeds or have an aircraft with a forward cg (nose heavy). There are several methods of coping with this as a pilot. One is to simply delay braking until you have slowed down sufficiently to apply brakes without a large pitching moment developing. If you find it necessary to brake at higher speeds, hold the tail down with the elevator (this is good technique in any taildragger unless enountering a tailwind on the ground). I have read of a supposedly effective technique in the DC-3 in which you judiciously use a combination of power and elevator to hold the tail in the air as you apply the brakes. The last one sounds kind of dicey and not for the faint of heart. As for changing the FDE, I haven't a clue on what to change to stop this behavior!Brad

I can't speak for the Viking but with respect to the DC-3, almost without doubt you are applying the brakes at too great a speed .. perhaps because you have touched down too fast. The stock DC-3 suffers from WEAK brakes, if anything; many people have strengthened them a little. You should be touching down at about 70-75 knots, max 80 knots. Having then let her settle a little as she rolls out, I'd be very surprised if you could tip her over on braking. It's not wise to start standing on the brakes before the tail is down and, indeed, you should not have to.Check those arrival speeds ... approach should be at 80-85 knots on final, not more.Mark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP FleetDC-3 Airwayswww.dc3airways.comhttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

When you mention "stuttered" braking I take it you are using the keyboard or a joystick button. Rudder pedals, which give you progressive braking, make slowing down and steering a lot easier with most taildraggers.David