G'day all,

 

I'm trying to setup my new G-44 and so far the only hiccup is taxiing. Regardless of where the tailwheel lock sits, the best I can get the Widgeon to do is gentle right hand circles around the apron. No doubt causing much hilarity to anyone watching from the Clubhouse, but it doesn't help me get to the runway!

 

I'm starting Cold and Dark and have no worries getting the engines run up or anything like that. The flight controls are working just fine with my Saitek hardware and I can fly it perfectly once it gets to the runway.

 

Does anyone know how to fix this? I've tried loading the G-44 fresh or over the top of another tail-dragger but get the same results. Frustrating to say the least.

Cheers

Warwick

13 hours ago, Maaarp said:

G'day all,

 

I'm trying to setup my new G-44 and so far the only hiccup is taxiing. Regardless of where the tailwheel lock sits, the best I can get the Widgeon to do is gentle right hand circles around the apron. No doubt causing much hilarity to anyone watching from the Clubhouse, but it doesn't help me get to the runway!

 

I'm starting Cold and Dark and have no worries getting the engines run up or anything like that. The flight controls are working just fine with my Saitek hardware and I can fly it perfectly once it gets to the runway.

 

Does anyone know how to fix this? I've tried loading the G-44 fresh or over the top of another tail-dragger but get the same results. Frustrating to say the least.

Cheers

Warwick

Hi Warwick,

Just in case you are not aware, the G-44 steers mainly by differential braking (and I suppose somewhat with differential engine power if you have dual throttles), the tail wheel itself is not steerable. So one question would be do your brakes seem to be working OK in the G-44?

It would also be helpful to know what sim you are using.

BTW, you may find this article interesting: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2000/march/pilot/grummans-gosling

Al

 

Hey Al,

 

I didn't know about differential braking at all, so that's something I'll have to get my head around. I've had some success with using the throttles to steer but I thought I was just using a band-aid solution.

 

Thanks heaps for that link too, it's a fascinating article about a remarkable little aircraft. Can't wait to get back into it today!

 

Cheers mate

 

Warwick

 

P.S. I'm on P3D 4.5

If I may interject - Warwick, if you have rudder pedals with toe brake function then you should be able to map those axes to left and right brakes within the sim. If not then I'm sure that there are keyboard commands.

I have a set of Thrustmaster TFRP pedals and differential braking with those is a comparative doddle in FSX which is not to dissimilar to P3D.

FWIW I quickly learned about the need for differential braking and the necessity for it, not long after I obtained Milviz' freeware P-38... and that's no taildragger! 

Good luck!

Thanks High

 

I've got toe brakes mapped to Saitek pedals and I should have figured this out earlier. I didn't think that this kind of steering was a "thing" in real world aviation!

 

Cheers

Differential braking is absolutely a real thing in aviation.  Not so with big, commercial aircraft with a nose wheel, they usually have a tiller to steer the nose wheel, but with smaller aircraft and especially tail draggers, ground control is usually by the use of differential braking and rudder.  Multi-engine aircraft can also use differential engine power to help steer the aircraft.