Corsairs are easy to land once you figure them out.
Here are a few tips-
1- All my troubles went away when I learned to flare out better and SLOW DOWN before touchdown. I always land in the three-point configuration. If you're touching down on your mains you're a bit fast IMO... Flaps are an obvious aid in landing slow. I seldom land with fewer than 5 notches, although you technically don't need any at all. I generally land close to the re-arm pad, so I want as little roll-out as possible, to minimize taxiing. Lazy? Yes, but it goes to show how slow I want to be when I touch. I touch down on all three wheels as the plane stalls, right around 80 mph.
2- Lock your tailwheel as you land, to minimize the tail swinging around in the famous "ground-loop". If you're flaring properly, you'll have the stick back anyway as you touch. This also locks the tailwheel. Just keep the stick back as you roll out.
3- Differential braking. Make sure you have your brakes mapped. Don't use them together, but rather one at a time. If the nose wants to swing right, tap the left brake, etc. When you have her rolling straight, feel free to use both brakes.
Landing too fast, and then slamming the brakes hard in an effort to quickly stop and avoid the ground-loop is a recipe for scratching your paint. The brakes aren't a fix-all, they just fine tune things.
Finally, if you want to make your landings ridiculously easy, manual trim for landing. If you don't, you end up fighting the combat trim as you come in, especially with flaps.
So here's a step-by-step-
Slow down as you approach the field and line up on the runway. Once your throttle is chopped, you'll see the combat trim try to roll you right, as it corrects for the torque which is no longer there. Fix that by tapping in a little left aileron. I like the trim needle to be ever-so-slightly to the left of neutral. I also like my elevator trim a bit lower than neutral. As you drop flaps, that will let you set up a practically hands-free approach to the runway.
I drop flaps as soon as I can. First notch at 250mph, second at 225, etc. You'll get the last notch down at 150mph. I keep my approach speed right around 100mph, using throttle and elevator to adjust my approach angle.
As you flare, try to play a game where you try to keep the mains about 6 inches above the runway for as long as possible. This will have the effect of forcing you to pull the stick all the way back for your flare. The plane fully stalls just as the wheels touch down. Hold the stick back to keep the tailwheel locked, and roll out. Fine tune with some braking.
That's it! Frustrating at first, but easy once you figure it out...
MtnMan
