Jump to content

Taxi the DC-3 w/o pedals


Recommended Posts

Is there a good way to taxi with the DC-3 (classic) when no rudder pedals (or joystick with a twist axis) is available?

I understand, that the most realistic way to do this would be the use of rudder pedals but due to space constraints, I am not currently able to use them. I am using a Logitech ATK3 Joystick, so I have normal X/Y axis and an additional vertical axis for throttle. I'm would be fine with assigning something on the keyboard for the purpose of taxiing but so far I have not found anything that wouldn't adversly effect usability during flight.

Other aircraft with a nosewheel steering work fine with just the joystick but obviously, the DC-3 is more special. I enabled differential breaking and differential thrust for ground handling in the settings and played around with various sensitivities.

As long as nothing is assigned to the rudders in my setup, X-Plane will apply automatic rudder based on the aileron. (see also https://developer.x-plane.com/article/rudder-auto-coordination-in-x-plane-12/). Note that this "auto rudder" will cease to work once the rudder is manipulated through any other means (e.g. keystrokes assigned to rudder left/right/center). While auto-rudder works, 100% aileron will result in 20% rudder. However, that does not control the direction of the plane on the ground regardless of the differential breaking or differential throttle settings and tailwheel locking status. I can get some control when assigning rudder to keystrokes but then there will be no auto-rudder in flight which makes flying the aircraft very difficult.

I also tried using keystrokes for reducing or increasing power on engines individually but that interfered with the throttle assignemnt on the joystick (once the keystrokes are used, controlling both engines with the joystick no longer works)

Maybe there are other things to try...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...