When towing the 747 the steering is reversed unless the break/parking break is applied, I have released the parking break with the mouse not a shortcut as suggested but no difference.

Also the tow seems pretty poor across all airliners - gives the impression the plane is pushing the tug and the steering is not very responsive - anything I can do to improve this?

 

 

Are you using any hardware for the tiller?

There is a selectable option in Pushback Express to have reverse the steering if you want to, so if it is being weird or not intuitive, try altering that tick box option. Be aware that the technique for pushing back an aeroplane, and especially a large one such as a 747, is to always be watching where the main wheels are positioned and where they are going. In some ways, pushing back a larger airliner is easier, because it is a bit easier to see the 'trend' of where it is heading, whereas smaller aeroplanes can get out of position quite quickly. Then again, smaller aeroplane have a bit more room to maneuver, but it is very hard to see under them in real life, which is another thing that makes pushing back small aeroplanes harder than you'd imagine.

In real life, pushing larger aeroplanes is made somewhat easier by a couple of things, first up, with a big aeroplane, you can usually see underneath them in order to be able to see the taxiway centreline, and second, you will usually have someone on a headset who can assist with guidance, who can signal the tug driver and help him to steer. The headset person is also in contact with the person in the cockpit in order to have him/her apply the brakes if necessary. On a tow and a push this headset person should be mandatory, although some people do break this rule when towing. The only exception to this is in a thunderstorm, when it is not advisable to have someone wearing a headset connected to an aeroplane, since it could be dangerous if the aeroplane is struck by lightning, so in this case, hand signals are used instead.

The theory behind all pushing and towing, is that the main landing gear is the centre pivot point of the turn and on some large aeroplanes, the main wheels can actually turn a bit too, which helps, so what you usually attempt to do, is keep the main landing gear straddling the centreline of the taxiway at all times. Sometimes you might have to deviate a bit from this by 'swan-necking' a turn, but most of the time, keeping that main landing gear straddling the line, is the way to go. To do this, you will occasionally have to turn 'the wrong way' to keep those main wheels on the centreline.

You can see on this screenshot that I am doing this with this 747, and it is staying on the arc of the turn with the main landing gear wheels right on the taxiway centreline, but notice how far the tug has to get off the centreline in order to make it do that:

This is one of the nice things about the sim. You can go to a view like this to help you, whereas in the real thing it's kind of tricky to see. This is what it looks like when you are actually in the cab when towing, and this is an Airbus, which is one of the aeroplane types that has what we'd consider a pretty good view underneath it!

As Chock mentioned, there is an option on the Settings panel to reverse the steering.

I suspect the the option you're looking for for towing where left = left and right = right.

Cheers,