Rudder control, hoo boy.

[decoy]

Online I'm currently focusing on building stick time with bombers.  What happens is that when I advance the throttles on a B26 or a B24, if I don't work my rudder pedals carefully, I wind up off the runway almost immediately.  Trying to taxi back onto the runway is impossible, so I end up ending that sortie and starting all over.  Currently my sliders for my rudder are set about about 20% at the left side, moving gradually up to about 45% on the right side.  My deadband and damper are set to about 20% each.  Also, my joystick is a Thrustmaser stick/throttle with Hotas pedals.  I don't know if that makes a difference.

Sometimes, my third or fourth attempt, I'm able, by slowly advancing my throttles until I'm at about 35-40 mph and then pushing them forward.  However, i know from experience this is not the true path to happiness when flying a B24.

Should I adjust my sliders some more or just go back to 100% across the board and tweak my rudder with the deadband and damper?

OR, alternatively, is this a quirk of the B26 I just need to learn to handle?  I do know that a good bomber stick doesn't always translate to a good fighter stick, but right now my fighter stick time is all offline and my challenges there deal more with controlling my airspeed to deal with the slow paced, circling drones.

Any help will be appreciated and thanks in advance.

Decoy

[morfiend]

torque from the engines  will push you to the side,in most planes it's to the left so you need to counter that with rudder. You can also use a little differential brake,if not mapped it's the C and V keys.

  One of the only axii I have scaled is the rudder as it can be abrupt and adds a lot of drag. Now I dont have much scaling added just enough so as I rest my feet on the pedals I dont have unwanted inputs. A little deadpan so they stay centered some dampening so it's not too abrupt and my sliders are near the top,0,1,2 and 3 slider are at 80%,85%,90% and 95% then the rest are at 100%. Of course this is a personal preference and what works for me may not work the best for you so I suggest some experimenting.

   If you use external view you can watch the rudder as you apply pressure and this may help you in your adjustments.


 Hope that helps and plz dont be afraid to ask more questions,there are plenty of helpful folks in game.



   

[decoy]

Thanks.  I had not considered using external view, so I'll definitely give that a look.  What I forgot to say was that, in the air, I get exactly the response out of my pedals that I want, it's just on taxi and take off that I have problem.  I'll give those siider settings a look and see how that does, too.

Decoy

[decoy]

Thanks a lot, morfiend.  I set my sliders to your recommendatoin and upped my deadband and damper a little.  First though, I put a B26 on the runway and used external view to check my rudder response.  No wonder I was having trouble.  THEN I set my sliders and tried again in a B26, this time the response was very good.  When I launched that time, I did find that selectively using my toe breaks helped a lot.

Then launched a Zeke to see how the changes affected flight in that.  I could see an appreciable difference.  So many thanks indeed.

Decoy

[morfiend]

Glad to have been a help!




   

PS: some say it's a steep learning curve,I say it's a series of steps. Take your time so you don't trip! And remember there are no stupid questions,just some silly answers at times.

[Mongoose]

   If you use external view you can watch the rudder as you apply pressure and this may help you in your adjustments.

Here's another suggestion.  Use external view and auto takeoff.  You can see how the auto system employs the rudder during takeoff, and then mimic that action.  Think of it as a training pilot.

[decoy]

Good advice, Mongoose, and I will give it a try.  I have avoided the auto take off option because I haven't wanted to spoil myself in the game.  I had not considered the auto take off option as a training too. 

[Traveler]

You have to deal with something called P-factor.  Bombers have two or four engines producing thrust, at the end of the runway line up with the centerline, and advance the throttle slowly countering the turning tendency rudder, enough rudder to hold the center line, as you advance the throttle, you will need to increase the necessary rudder to hold centerline.  You will need to hold that rudder to hold your course during climb out.  good luck, hope this helps.