so I want to fly the TA 152

[morfiend]

Just for clairification the tail wheel will lock with about 25% back pressure.  You can test this yourself quite easy,just pull back on stick and apply rudder then throttle up alittle,you will notice a slight turn but not much,now release the stick and watch the nose start to swing.

  If you try this you will notice that you dont need "full" back pressure on the stick to look the tail wheel but you do need some. IIRC this is done to make it easier to land.


  For anyone having difficulties landing,try landing with autolevel on,you will need to control throttle to control rate of desent,it's not easy but if you line up correctly and use throttle properly you will be able to land in that configuration in no time!


   

[Puma44]

Morf, "full" back pressure is used out in reality to pin the tail wheel to the ground with down force, resulting in positive control during ground ops, takeoff, and landing.   Of course, there are exceptions due to the human nature of pilots.  An in between position of the stick in a taildragger on the ground is an invitation for a bad day.

Landing with the auto pilot?  Since this is a "pilot" based game, anyone with landing issues would be well served to get with one of our great trainers and work out the basics of flight and using them to land.  Depending on the auto pilot defeats the purpose of flying and will surely hamper one's abilities when moving on to more advanced maneuvers.   

[morfiend]

Morf, "full" back pressure is used out in reality to pin the tail wheel to the ground with down force, resulting in positive control during ground ops, takeoff, and landing.   Of course, there are exceptions due to the human nature of pilots.  An in between position of the stick in a taildragger on the ground is an invitation for a bad day.

Landing with the auto pilot?  Since this is a "pilot" based game, anyone with landing issues would be well served to get with one of our great trainers and work out the basics of flight and using them to land.  Depending on the auto pilot defeats the purpose of flying and will surely hamper one's abilities when moving on to more advanced maneuvers.   

  Puma,


  It's just an exercise,it will teacher a player to use throttle to control rate of decent.

  If you enable auto level the only way a plane will drop is to control the throttle. I often get players to try this to learn to control throttle and not use the joystick as most do. Once they understand this it's easy to hold some back pressure to lock the tail wheel.


  BTW I landed a ww1 crate last night while PW and blacked out,I did have some help and came too in time to pull up and avoid the trees but blacked out just before touch down.  I was even missing a wheel but was able to get it down slow enough to not explode,I had to wait till the blackout ended before I knew what exactly happened.


   Gamey,you bet but it's a game so why not!    If I didnt practice auto level landings I would have never pulled that off!



   

[Puma44]

  Puma,


  It's just an exercise,it will teacher a player to use throttle to control rate of decent.

  If you enable auto level the only way a plane will drop is to control the throttle. I often get players to try this to learn to control throttle and not use the joystick as most do. Once they understand this it's easy to hold some back pressure to lock the tail wheel.


  BTW I landed a ww1 crate last night while PW and blacked out,I did have some help and came too in time to pull up and avoid the trees but blacked out just before touch down.  I was even missing a wheel but was able to get it down slow enough to not explode,I had to wait till the blackout ended before I knew what exactly happened.


   Gamey,you bet but it's a game so why not!    If I didnt practice auto level landings I would have never pulled that off!



   

Good on ya with the kite!

In GA flying there's an interesting exercise that a lot of instructors introduce.  It is simulating a jammed elevator.  This requires the pilot to use trim and power to control pitch while flying a simulated landing pattern at altitude.  It's a good workout and similar to what you describe, also a good workout.