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DC-3 Taxiing - Simulated vs Real World and Tail Wheel Should Not Retract


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Real World Taxiing of the DC-3

When taxiing the real DC-3, you have only brakes and differential power to work with. The tail wheel is not tied into the rudder pedals. In addition, most DC-3s have "expander tube" brakes (older ones have what they call "truck brakes"). They are very sensitive. Using brakes to steer the DC-3 is frowned upon by the real pilots. The brakes heat up very quickly. If you apply the parking brake with a set of hot brakes, the heat conducts from the drums into the shoes and then into the expander tubes, causing the static hydraulic pressure to increase and sometimes the expander tube can explode. SOme DC-3 operators prohibit the use of the parking brake - chocks only!

If you have (1) dual throttle controls, and (2) pedals with proportional brakes, you can taxi the DC-3 like it's supposed to be taxied. At present, the ground friction seems way too high and I am going to work on this today. I'll add to this thread if I find something (new PlaneMaker user here). Meanwhile, to decouple the pedals from the tail wheel you can make the changes to the "n-w steering, slow and fast" in PlaneMaker as shown below. You should only do this if you have dual independent throttles and pedals with proportional brakes. (Goran, this would be a nice option for the new bird).

Tail Wheel Retraction

In the real DC-3, the tail wheel does not retract. You can fix this in PlaneMaker as shown below for the "retracts" checkbox. 

Snap8.png

Edited by Bob Denny
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Bob, just a friendly piece of advice, and please don't take wrong what I'm about to say.  You admitted yesterday that you never went into planemaker before, and now you're giving advice on what to do to "fix" things in the DC3.  You pointed something out, that you thought was incorrect in the flight model (engine numbers and locations) when it turned out to be something on your end, and I had to open Planemaker to check this.  Now we have this landing gear issue.  The tail wheel in our version of the DC3 does not retract.  I didn't set it to retract.  And again, I had to open Planemaker to check what I have compared to what your claiming.  There are things in the acf that have been done for a reason.  Nothing was overlooked.  Furthermore, making any changes in any of the files, especially the acf file, will void all support from X-Aviation and us.  

Please, do not offer advice to people in these forums on any "fixes" you might have, without at least discussing it with me in private first.  For me, It takes time away from working on the XP11 update.  I'm all for constructive feedback, but not when it hasn't been thoroughly explored and tested.

All the best

Edited by Goran_M
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Goran -- I apologize, and will not post realism adjustments from now on. I totally understand your support concerns, and I feel bad for not considering that. I just love this airplane, and I was struggling with some serious realism problems, found a way to resolve some of them. I will communicate privately from here on out. For the record though, 

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You pointed something out, that you thought was incorrect in the flight model (engine numbers and locations) when it turned out to be something on your end,

We didn't communicate well. It was not the curves on my controller, it was the FADEC being on (the DC-3 has no FADEC :-)). Once I disabled the FADEC, as I reported in the Engine Behavior Issues thread, the throttles now have the dynamic response like they should. I should mention that Douglas49 reported the same issue in that thread as well: 

Quote

I have the same experience. No response of the engines until throttles half open; power goes to max 45 inches; RPM does not go further then 2300. Lowest RPM without activating throttles is 800; that should be 600-700 RPM.

so it's not just me. I  have removed the specifics and screen shot from that thread.

I will no longer post realism adjustments. I do have some suggestions for the other engine issues after I worked on it yesterday for several hours. I am a real DC-3 pilot (well not for almost 20 years, but back then I did!). I will send these to you privately. Also, please feel free to delete anything, including this thread and the Engine Behavior Issues one as well.. It's your project after all, and of course you have to support it. 

7.jpg 2.jpg

 

 

Edited by Bob Denny
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All good.  The DC3 was never intended to be a "procedure level" add on.  It was actually just a side project while I was waiting on Theo (my texture artist back then) to texture the Duchess.  I never expected it to do as well as it has.  By all means, keep the ideas coming.  But as for fixes, please communicate them with me in private, as it may be about something I had to do to make something work a particular way.

Thanks for sharing the photos.

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