P-Torque becomes your enemy only when you become the enemy of your engine.
Be gentle with the throttle, don't try to take off too quickly, the end of the runway is still far away
I used to get the same problem with the Acceleration Mustang. Once I understood I should take my time to take off, I used a lot less engine power, and the plane got much more controlable

There are lots of do's and dont's regarding the handling of a Piston Aero Engine.
One of them is; "Never snap the Throttle open, or closed"......
One will overstress the engine, and the other will over-cool (shock-cool) the engine!

...gently and smoothly does it, in both cases!... ...!

Paul... ...!

This sounds quite realistic. A lot of Luftwaffe pilots, mainly rookies, were killed in take-off accidents in the Bf 109. Don't know if it's based on fact but I've read that more Bf 109 pilots were killed in accidents than in combat.

I agree with Daube, open the throttle gently & counteract the torque with full opposite rudder to start with. Gradually ease off the rudder as the speed increases. Not sure a twist-grip rudder is ideal for this type of aircraft. You might like to reduce the Realism until you get those rudder pedals. That's what I would do anyway.

Thanks all for the replies!

Yes, small increments of throttle really do help. No more hell bent for heaven.

Focusing on the end of the runway was a great tip as well, I've used that for landing, but never thought to do it with takeoffs as well.

Much happier and more controlled take offs now. 

After this experience, I would believe it about the German pilots death rate.  Even once she's in the air, it still commands a high level of respect with the stick, and a full awareness of your momentum.

Hagar wrote on Sep 4^th, 2009 at 12:22pm:


Same with the P40 and P51... whenever you have a high power-to-weight ratio, you can expect trouble if you do not advance the throttle smoothly. If that doesn't work, maybe you just need to uncheck "p-factor and torque" in the realism settings. It could very well just be the model, but I can't advise you on changing that.

Those twist grip rudders on sim sticks are slightly less than useless.  It's either not enough or too much - a lot like the pitch axis trim.  Tell Santa about your urgent need for rudder pedals then move your realism sliders for a few months. 

A few more points that may be useful.

Check whether the aeroplane has a key (usually '/', I think) or lever for locking the tailwheel/tailskid - if so, lock it before starting your run.

Besides using just rudder to keep her straight, use touches of brake at first, if needed, by 'blipping' the joystick trigger. After the tail comes up, rudder is usually all you need.

You maybe have another 'treat' in store as you try other aircraft - British props traditionally turn in the opposite direction to American ones, so any veering goes the other way! I don't know which way German engines turn!

Wow!  Bunch of answers in few hours.  We all have those nuggets of wisdom, don't we?

My two pennies:

In real life flight, I found that even when I assumed I was climbing and maintaining a correct heading, etc, I was still drifting left of the runway because of P-torque.  It's an irritant, to be sure, but very correctable.  What I tended to do was adjust my heading by about 3 degrees to starboard as I took off (your twist, my rudder pedals), and slowly let that out as I get up to pattern alt.

Travis: I've noticed that drift, and an almost gyroscopic effect while flying and trying to maintain a steady course, until now, I thought it was the wind pushing me around, (lots of bad weather in the world here lately)  but that explanation makes a ton of sense.



Hagar wrote on Sep 5^th, 2009 at 4:46am:



Here is the link to the plane, paints, & paint kit.

http://skyunlimited.net/skyboard/YaBB.pl?num=1212914234/0

(screenshots at the link)
Features include:

· Two highly detailed models by Mike Wholaver featuring the regular BF-109F 4 and the BF-109F 4 with tropical equipment.
· Over Twenty beautiful paint schemes by Alessandro Biagi.
· A stunning dynamic virtual cockpit, complete with standard Fs2004 features.
· Highly detailed 2D panel by Lobo da Silva
· The Daimler-Benz engine that powered this great aircraft is modeled in stunning detail and can be seen by using the wingfold command
· Fully animated vintage pilot with moving legs, arms, and head
· Complete custom sound set made for authentic recordings of the Daimler-benz engine that powered these aircraft.
· Machine Gun Effects triggered by After-Burner Command
· Custom High Altitude Vapor-trail effects and wing-tip vortice effects. 
· Realistic flight dynamics by Jerry Beckwith that accurately portray this aircraft's attributes both good and bad.
· Several Pages of Historical Information are included as well as an actual BF-109 Checklist.
· All appropriate Fs2004 features and animations, including a fully animated pilot, and working leading edge slats.

Hagar wrote on Sep 5^th, 2009 at 12:15pm:


In my experience a properly trimmed rudder will pull left with throttle open and pull right with throttle closed

With the primary objective of your average takeoff being to get airborne with some  semblance of dignity, your first order of business is to keep it straight.  Failing that, catch the swerve and, if it's not much, go with the new straight line.  What I'm saying is, while not perfect, an angled line of takeoff is better than trying to correct back to the right, often an exercise in futility - just stay inside the lights    In the climb your left turning tendency moves the ball in the turn indicator to the right.  Simply 'step on the ball', moving it back to center - keep it there, wings level, and your climb will remain straight.  Here's where rudder trim is nice.  Another thought (I'm full of them  ).  On the takeoff roll, don't try to raise the tail prematurely so you can see better.  This just adds the gyro thing to the mix when your rudder's least effective.  Let the tail fly by itself then keep it fairly low - seems to help.  To think I used to get $20 an hour for this  .

Brett_Henderson wrote on Sep 5^th, 2009 at 9:51pm:


That was a tidbit I picked up from working at my airport.  We have a few warbird pilots based here, flying everything from T-6s, P-51s, and B-25s.

Quote:


Must admit, Hagar, I was thinking of FS models rather than the real thing -and all high-performance aircraft rather than just the 109........

Quote:


As a matter of fact they did - risking possible disasters seems sometimes to have been the only way to avoid certain ones. 

Worth quoting "The Big Show" by Pierre Clostermann, who IMO wrote quite the best book ever - "The Big Show" - about the WW2 air war, and describes his first (and very nearly his last) flight in a Typhoon:-

With my parachute on my back it took three people to help me up to the Typhoon's cockpit, which is nine feet off the ground. As the plane is very streamlined there is nothing to hang on to. You have to get your fingers in hollows which are covered by metal plates on spring hinges.

They close up again when you removed your hand or your foot, just like a rat trap. In the end they hoisted me up, settled me in, slapped me on the back, shouted 'good luck', and I found myself all alone inside the bowels of the monster.

I rapidly called back to mind all the gen my instructors had given me. As the exhaust gases had a high carbon dioxide content, and seeped into the cockpit, you had to breathe oxygen all the time. I therefore hurriedly put on my mask and opened the intake valve. On take-off Typhoons swing hard right and I therefore adjusted the rudder trim very carefully. I opened the radiator wide. I checked the locking of the undercart-the lever looked uncomfortably like the one for the flaps. I lowered the flaps control to open up the pneumatic circuit in order to avoid ram effect just as I started up.

----------

I had been warned that Typhoons swung, but surely not as much as this! And the brute gathered speed like a rocket. I corrected as much as I could with the brakes but even then I found myself drifting dangerously to the right.

Half way down the runway my right wheel was practically on the grass. If I came off the concrete I would gracefully flip on my back.

To hell with it..I tore her off the ground. Luckily they had hauled E Hangar down, after a series of accidents all due to the same cause - but I still passed uncomfortably close to F Hangar........

This plane just had no lateral stability at all. I still went on drifting to starboard and, with those miserable ailerons that only 'bit' at speeds higher than 100mph, I dared not lower my port wing too much.

---------

Just a wee dive to see what happened. Phew, with its seven tons the things acceleration downhill was simply fantastic. I realized with satisfaction that as far as speed was concerned this was much better than a Spitfire. What would it be like in a Tempest?

Half an hour quickly passed and I began to summon up courage for the landing. First a circuit at full throttle at 420mph to clear those bloody plugs all over again. But after that I couldn't seem to reduce speed enough to lower my undercart with safety, even though I throttled back, swishtailed violently and lowered my radiator. One circuit engine ticking over 300mph. Another circuit, at 250mph.In desperation I did a vertical climb without the engine. This took me up about 3000 feet but it reduced my speed to about 200mph. At this low speed the machine was horribly unstable, and letting down the undercart had an unexpected effect on the center of gravity. Once again, though I had been warned, I was taken by surprise, this time by terrific swings, more like incipient spins than anything else.

I asked for permission to land. Cautiously, nice and straight, and with a good reserve of speed, I made my approach and lowered the flaps, and everything went off fine until I tried to level out. Those thick wings seemed to have plenty of lift but they were treacherous. I had just begun to ease the stick back when the whole contraption stalled and dropped like a stone, then it bounced back a good 30 feet with its nose in the air amidst an appalling din.

I opened up like mad to break the fall wrestling at the same time with the ailerons so as not to land on my back.

Eventually after bucking two or three times like a mustang, my Typhoon calmed down and rolled drunkenly down the runway which now looked distinctly short.

Clostermann only died a few days ago. RIP - I have to thank him for the fact that his marvellous book was one of the main things that sparked my interest in aviation, all those years ago......