Taildragger version

[sd_flyer]

I have experience with taildragger in real life. Among others T-6, Citabria, Decathlon. While take off is sort of ok there are big problems with ground handling of PR!

Also I have noticed tail wheel is linked to rudder? Shouldn't it be free castering ?  In addition, is there way for tail wheel lock?

[Attitude]

15 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

I have experience with taildragger in real life. Among others T-6, Citabria, Decathlon. While take off is sort of ok there are big problems with ground handling of PR!

Also I have noticed tail wheel is linked to rudder? Shouldn't it be free castering ?  In addition, is there way for tail wheel lock?

The PR has too much power for the tailwheel version but that ok cause we can get around that. I find it's best to leave it in low idle and play gently with the beta. Ground handling is no easy thing in X plane. But with enough force on the tail with the elevator it should hug the pavement quite well. The biggest thing to learn for this one is the beta use. It will make it a ton easier to taxi when you practice enough. The trick is to not let it out of beta until you have your feet firmly on the brakes and stick full aft and to never throw it too far into reverse. If it stops completely because you are in beta then slowly let it forward and you will start to move again, find the sweet spot from there. It is still a challenge for me to taxi after many many hours in it. 
 

Edited March 24, 2019 by Attitude

[Attitude]

@sd_flyer And no tailwheel lock on this set up

 

[Coop]

It looks like there was a bug introduced with steering - it will be properly free castoring like it should in the next update, and we will be adding a tailwheel lock 

Edited March 24, 2019 by Coop

[Bourrinopathe]

I think Laminar Research (and more specifically Austin Meyer) had mentioned they plan to revisit the taildraggers ground handling behavior for XP 11.40.
I'm not sure what they'll change, but pretty much all taildraggers in XP suffer from that hypersensitivity and lack of control on the ground, the worst case being with a crosswind component.
Afaik, XP does not simulate any friction for a wheel pivoting about their contact point with the ground (just pivoting, not rolling - which should be a factor while rotating a taildragger during taxiing and initial maneuvers on the ground). This might be less significant for the PR but it's certainly different with tundra tires, the contact point surfaces being more important.
And there's also the prop wash component with crosswind which has been considered largely imperfect by some developers (and also irl pilots) (ASDG (Super Cub) developer, Rush had even tried to get some real world data and sent them to Austin).
I don't know much about what's done in that regard by LR, but it's obvious taildraggers ground handling suffers significant issues in the current version. Some planes might be more sensitive to that aspect than others.

@sd_flyer your experience with real taildraggers is precious, and you could even send some feedback to directly to LR. There might be some planes available that would match what you've already flown.

On topic, my point is that LR have to improve the taildragger ground handling in general, and that TorqueSim probably cannot make it perfect for the PR even if they manage to circumvent some inherent limitations of X-Plane.
That being said, if any improvement can be patched in, I'll be more than happy too ^^ I've already performed my fair share of ice skating spins with the taildragger PR

Edited March 24, 2019 by Bourrinopathe

[sd_flyer]

OK, I found another oddness. For some reason taildragger version have extreme pitch up moment during slow approach with full flaps. I totally understand this behavior go around power. But here ware are talking about roughly 70 kts and elevator trim full nose down!  I get by pulling stick down, but  don't think it should work like that. Did owner mention anything about it?

[sd_flyer]

On 3/24/2019 at 12:26 AM, Bourrinopathe said:

I

@sd_flyer your experience with real taildraggers is precious, and you could even send some feedback to directly to LR. There might be some planes available that would match what you've already flown.

If Laminar cared about my feedback nobody would complain about taildraggers today

[Coop]

3 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

OK, I found another oddness. For some reason taildragger version have extreme pitch up moment during slow approach with full flaps. I totally understand this behavior go around power. But here ware are talking about roughly 70 kts and elevator trim full nose down!  I get by pulling stick down, but  don't think it should work like that. Did owner mention anything about it?

Will look into this one, it should certainly not be that strong.

[sdflyer]

13 hours ago, Coop said:

Will look into this one, it should certainly not be that strong.

I tested yesterday some more. No problem with tricyle gear version I can trim airplane for 70kts with full flaps and fly approach hands free with 500 ft descent/ 2.5 degrees GS

[moespeeds]

Just a note as I've got many hours on the tailwheel version now, as well as tailwheel aircraft in real life. To start, X-planes tailwheel simulation sucks, it's ridiculously out of control.

I mapped "Tailwheel lock" to the pinkie lever on my Virpil T50, so as long as I hold that in, the tailwheel is locked. It steers pretty well with the brakes in that mode. If I need to make a tight turn, I push in some power and release the lock while using appropriate rudder and toe brakes.

On landing, short final I pull the fuel to low idle and prop to about 70%. This seems to reduce floating and bouncing, and the nonsense where the aircraft simply flys along in ground effect at 40 kts the entire length of the runway. 3 Point works well in this configuration, just remember to pull the tailwheel lock lever on touchdown. Wheel landings you gotta be aggressive when pinning it to the runway or you'll bounce the whole way down.