It still seems unusually hard to turn and I know what a free castoring tail wheel is so that is not the problem.

 

Yeah it's not like we just fell off the turnip truck.

 

Tho I have very little time in RW taildraggers... this is certainly not what I expected from something that is "fully castering".

 

It would make more sense if it was steerable and fully castered after a certain angle... but I agree JetFueler... seems unusually hard to turn (unusually stiff that wheel).

 

But since I have never taxiied an AN-2... I really don't know.

Spot on Griphos. :good: 

Something we (Back country prop club) discovered is in multiplayer, you are loaded into the game with engines running but none of the switches on. Not a problem usually, just switch 'em on! Not so with the AN-2. Joining with engine running renders all the switches useless, so no cowl flaps etc. etc. So, when joining immediately cut the engine and continue with the normal start-up procedure. That way you avoid blowing up the motor.

2c

It doesn't help you turn, it just doesn't hinder your turning.

 

You had a nice "Tailwheels for Dummies" going until I saw that...

 

Sure it helps you turn!  The "fully castering" means the wheel is free to align itself with the radius of turn.  That is why (well partly... besides the c.g. location) one can look "drunk at the controls" because it is not so difficult to have that small arc the tail is making become much larger than one desires.

 

And it is very difficult to change the turn radius in this An-2... just like I feel the default FSX P-51 is overly sensitive.

 

But again... what do I know as I have never taxiied either one (IRL).

 

 

You can, by the way, use the rudder provided you have enough airflow over it which can be achieved by prop wash.

 

Yeah... fully swiveling you should just about be able to turn on a dime, locking up one wheel (not a good idea on pavement).

 

 

Something we (Back country prop club) discovered is in multiplayer,

 

Ron!  Quit trying to change the subject - I want to continue arguing with the Griphos!  :LMAO:

I'm not trying to insult anyone, just offering to clear up what seems to be some confusion judging from what you have actually said.  Perhaps I'm not understanding you correctly, but you seem to think that just because a tailwheel can castor that it should turn when you push on the rudder.  

 

 

 

You don't need to use differential braking for a tailwheel to caster.

 

 

 

Well... seems for this model, one does need to activate diff. braking before the tailwheel will start to caster, at times almost imperceptible... just a few degrees of movement.

 

You don't make the tailwheel move by using brakes or rudder or anything else.  It moves, in the sense of castoring, or changing it's angle, when the directional vector of the fuselage changes.  It then aligns itself with the radius of the turn, as you say.  It doesn't improve that radius.  In other words, it doesn't help you turn more.  It just doesn't keep you from turning more.  It follows the turn, which you effect by braking differentially.  

 

You see that little yellow plane over on the left.  It has a steerable tailwheel until a certain angle is reached and then it's free castoring.  I can tell you from plenty of experience that once castoring it doesn't in fact help you turn.  It will keep you turning, whether you like it or not, in the radius it settles into, and you have to use braking to change that again.  Indeed, it can be a bit of a pain in terms of aligning the airplane in the way you prefer.  That's why I try to keep steerable angles engaged whenever possible, such as when I'm not wanting to turn around sharply at the end of the runway.  To do that, I have to use differential braking.  A blast of prop wash helps, but you can't put enough air across the rudder long enough to help a lot without starting to move too quickly.  A blast is nice to get her started though and give her a nudge if she starts to stall out.  

 

Again, not trying to suggest to anyone that they don't know what they are talking about.  I'm just responding to the actual things being said and the confusion they suggest.  

 

 

You don't make the tailwheel move by using brakes or rudder or anything else

 

I do... I 'will' it. Very taxing on the mind tho...

 

 

it doesn't in fact help you turn

 

you say potato, I say potahto...

 

you say tomato, I say tomahto...

You don't make the tailwheel move by using brakes or rudder or anything else.  It moves, in the sense of castoring, or changing it's angle, when the directional vector of the fuselage changes...

 

... I can tell you from plenty of experience that once castoring it doesn't in fact help you turn.  It will keep you turning, whether you like it or not, in the radius it settles into, and you have to use braking to change that again.

 

You just contradicted yourself.  Since we are trying to argue on technicalities at this point, how about this: Asymmetrical braking changes the the initial direction of travel on the fuselage after which the free castor tail wheel follows with a change in direction in response to facilitate the intended turn.  Braking in the other direction will then reverse the direction of the fuselage against the turn with an appropriate response from the tail wheel facilitating a change in direction towards straight or otherwise.

 

I think that is what everyone is essentially trying to say.  I am not saying anyone is wrong, I just feel this is all arguing for the sake of arguing.

 

No sense on arguing this any further since everyone is essentially arguing the same thing with different words...

 

 

Here is the part that might help that I discovered:

After you have started the engine, if you still have no air pressure, cycle the valve.  This finally worked for me.  After a cold and dark start up I had no air pressure.  The valve defaults to off.  So I turned it on, then off, then on once more and pressure was restored.  See if this works for you guys who are having issues.

 

I don't know if it is a placebo effect but the brakes seem to me to be more effective when there is pressure.  Either way, a little speed, full forward on the yoke and dragging the brake (you will have to modulate the brake to maintain forward momentum) and it will start to turn better.  I even got a nice tight turn into a parking spot.  You also have to use a fair amount of power- about 8 or so on the MAP.  It is incredibly difficult still and I think the tail wheel could stand to be a little 'more free' but I think with those things in mind and a little practice we could start to get the hang of it. 

 

Keeping the engine a little throttled up does help by providing some control effectiveness in both allowing the rudder to aid turning as well as allowing the elevator deflection to lighten the load on the tail a little to allow the tail wheel a little more freedom.

 

Try these out and see how it works!

You just contradicted yourself.

 

I didn't notice it until you said that Ian... yeah you aren't going to get that tailwheel to caster  w/o diff braking*... the Griph knows that.  

 

 

(you will have to modulate the brake to maintain forward momentum) and it will start to turn better.

 

Precisely.  Modulate (and for me - quickly / rapidly) a good word here.

 

Edit:

 

*unless you tell your kid, "get out and push on the side of the tail a bit... no! no! the other side!".  (or a good blast from the prop).

Affirmative.

Wow, cool, thanks.    I am super-impressed with this thing.

Well, I also had problems with taxiing and the tail wheel. No matter what i tried, the thing just seemed to be locked. The manual does not say anything specific about differential breaking and all my other tail wheel planes work fine. 

 

I tried to find a solution, tried to check for an update (via the installed update programm from Sibwings) and it told me that it could not find my FSX installation. Curious - I used the Flight1 registry repair for FSX and now my tail wheel works nice without a update being available. Both, by using the rudder or via a joystick (depending on the autorudder function under the realism settings) Every time i choose the AN-2 in FSX, i can see for a split second that it starts some software in the background. Maybe the correct registry entry for FSX is required for certain functions.

 

Just an idea from my side.

Nico

Guys,

I will be reworking the ground behaviour. With rudder pedals, soft braking and full rudder and some power I got the results that were explained to me from the pilot I worked with. Problem is that FSX never just brakes on one wheel, just puts more on one or the other side, ner 100%. So I try to find a better balance between steering from brakes and support from rudder by propwash. Until then you may modify the aircraft.cfg and link the tailwheel to the rudder.

 

Replace:

point.0 = 1, -25.85,  0.00, -2.48, 1300, 0, 1.0, 180.0, 0.2, 2.0, 0.9, 0.0, 0.0, 0
 

by

point.0 = 1, -25.85,  0.00, -2.48, 1300, 0, 1.0, 50.0, 0.2, 2.0, 0.9, 0.0, 0.0, 0
 

 

 

I will be reworking the ground behaviour.

 

Thank you very much for that info.

 

It's not so bad knowing that modulating one (brake) side works well.

 

Y'all got a home-run (knocked it out of the park) with this one.  "Quality."

 

Thanks for the outstanding work. 

 

Have a nice flying comrades

 

 

Have a nice flying comrades

 

Nice video.    

 

I tried in FSX a similar stunt yesterday (split s) but was too close to the ground.  :blush:

 

 

 

Yeah... fully swiveling you should just about be able to turn on a dime, locking up one wheel

 

@ about 2:50 "that's what I'm talkin' about"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=k8Jdd_CiwXk&NR=1

we have this bird in local aeroclub. It used for skydiving. Me too jumped off her couple of times

This add-on should be a major hit!!!

Guys,

I will be reworking the ground behaviour. With rudder pedals, soft braking and full rudder and some power I got the results that were explained to me from the pilot I worked with. Problem is that FSX never just brakes on one wheel, just puts more on one or the other side, ner 100%. So I try to find a better balance between steering from brakes and support from rudder by propwash. Until then you may modify the aircraft.cfg and link the tailwheel to the rudder.

 

Replace:

point.0 = 1, -25.85,  0.00, -2.48, 1300, 0, 1.0, 180.0, 0.2, 2.0, 0.9, 0.0, 0.0, 0

 

by

point.0 = 1, -25.85,  0.00, -2.48, 1300, 0, 1.0, 50.0, 0.2, 2.0, 0.9, 0.0, 0.0, 0

 

 

This is a wonderful airplane, another in a distinguished list from your shop (I have all of them).  I don't mind the ground handling/braking, as I have said, since it seems about what I would expect in a plane this large with this much mass to move.  

 

I have one suggestion, though.  I've been flying it at some of the Orbx bush airstrips, and although it handles them very well, once you stray off the narrow strip that is designated as "runway" mesh in the scenery and onto the nearby "ground," as you must at these strips, the rolling resistance becomes so great that it's really not possible to get it to move and turn without using so much throttle that you overheat the engines.  

 

I suspect that the figures used for rolling resistance were selected to impart the right feel on tarmac runways and taxi-ways.  I hope a compromise can be found though so it is more usable at bush airstrips, since that's the sort of strip the real bird is used for.  

 

I really am enjoying flying her very much, though.