Hello, Since Microsoft added the Piper cub in the default st of planes, I try to take off with it, but never succeeded. Is there a pilot good enough to tak off with that plane that could explain how to proceed ? I have tried with various joystick (in case it would be a technicla issue), I tried to slowly increase gz or very fast, but every time the plane take a lillt bit of speed and turn to the left and even trun up side down (this of course result in a crash). Is there a "special " procedure for to succeed in such take off ? I have absolutely no problem to use any other planes, only the Piper is forbidden to me. So if someone can help...

The trick with any tail-dragger is to increase the throttle gently and use rudder to compensate
Keep pushing the stick forward (gently) from about 30 knts till the nose goes down, then open the throttle and after about 55 knts pull back and up she goes

Hello to all of you whom answered to my question. Just to introduce myself, I have been playing with Microsoft Flight simulator for the last 30 years, the first time I view that software was back in 1980 (VGA 16 colors ! you could only fly around Chicago and a few other places in USA) and it caught me for ever (not sure on how to write this past form, hope I am right , I am a french guy). Anyway, thank for you recommendation ,this Piper is the only plane that ever took me stuck on the ground !

Regards,

I now feel truly ancient. I've been simming since 8-bit, Flight Simulator on the ZX Spectrum 48k, loaded from tape, wire-frame graphics with only two colours

we digress but, Ozzy you feel old?

I remember the zx81 flight sim, 2 dashed lines for runway edge and a solid square in a box for ils - luxury


or f15 from digital integration on the speccy and atari, couldn't see the mountains but you could hit em!.

Lets have another thread on this, us oldies and what we used and what we thought was best.

For me it was the engine spooling up sound effects on airbus (airbus US as well) for the amiga.

For me it's my dads fault, I have pictures of him laid out on the wings of jet fighters in Cyprus in the 50's, not that I wanted to sunbath, I wanted to fly.

jeff55 wrote on Nov 3^rd, 2012 at 4:18pm:


Well Jeff as you can see we here on the SimV servers are rather easily distracted 
But bare with us, we have a good crowd here.

Talk to Fozzer and/or check out the multiplayer section about using the SimV server, sometime I will be more than happy to do some Piper Cub flying with you 
By the way, who needs that pesky wheel up front anyways? 

Fozzer wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 1:19pm:


Got to keep you on your toes there Paul 
What is life without challenges? After all us guys seem drawn to women and we all know how challenging they can be  (speaking of my wife  )

If I can handle her, I can handle a tail wheel 

I still only fly FS9, so my opinion may not count for much.
But... having flown the real thing, I can say the first problem is yaw. A Cub has issues with this, by design, when applying full power while moving slowly on the ground, and for whatever reason, the default Cubs exaggerate this. Controller calibration is very critical, because of this.
So the best approach is to first make sure whatever controller you are using is adjusted so you can confirm, visually in an exterior view, that the rudder is centered when you center it with the controller. This is of vital importance.
Then make sure the "auto-rudder" function is disabled... useless for the default FS9 Cub, anyway. You'll never learn how to do it with autorudder. Also, stay off the brakes. They are for parking only, most of the time.
Start with calm winds, as in no wind. Advance the throttle slooowllllyyyy, and keep the rudder moving. As you go faster, think about how you need to apply opposite rudder a little before you want to move the tail, to stop it swinging just when you want it to. You need to pay attention to where it's going, and stay ahead of it.
When the tail comes up, it's now all rudder and no tailwheel, and the yaw response changes. The Cub rudder, in FS as well as RL, is very effective. Keep the nose down, keep it on the centerline, and let the speed build up.
In a crosswind, start the roll with full aileron correction, and don't worry if you have a wing low into the wind as the tail comes up- that's a good thing. Tail up is not flying, and your directional control at that moment is shifting from tailwheel to rudder.
In general, you have to always remember: aileron for drift, rudder for centering.

Fozzer wrote on Nov 9^th, 2012 at 5:38am:


Only if you are a raw beginner with no idea of what you're doing.


Fozzer wrote on Nov 9^th, 2012 at 5:38am:


Maybe in Real Life. Under FS not really. Before I understood the mechanics of it, I could only loop all the way to ever-circular hell or go straight into a word of hurt with the Cub and other similar planes... but once I read a sadly forgotten really well written page on the net about WHAT to do and WHY... I got better.

Not suddenly perfect, this I grant you, but I was able to make something else than disasters or donuts almost immediately, and in a half a hour of practice I could taxi the Cub with relative precision, if not ease.

Easy is not the way of the Force... nor the way of the Taildraggers either, and yes, the nosewheel-ed planes are by far easier, but there's a deep sense of satisfaction in being able to make a castor wheel taildragger do exactly what you want, and not what it whishes. A satisfaction only those who CAN DO it, can understand.

Hello All,

I am back to tell you that I could finally make some kind of "safe" take off with the piper cub, but honestly could not stay in line with the Runway. In my previous attempts to take off with that bird, I expected a take off speed above 60 or 70 Knots. Weel it seems that it is the cruise speed. This may explain my problem to fly with it. My "victorious " take off happened at a little 45 or 47 knots and the roll on back was not far anyway.


Thank to all of you for your precious recommendation.

Jeff.

Just take a look at my attempts A2A Simulations Piper cub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWAnu9b1gSA&feature=plcp

Couldn't believe that a takeoff in a real Piper J3 Cub could possibly be as difficult as the one in FS9. Checked with a pilot who has J3 Cub time and he said, "If they were that tough, the weeds alongside the runway would have been littered with them still."

With that in mind I did some experimenting. First I went to the 'Aircraft, Realism' tab. My 'Flight model' settings are all sliders to 'Realistic.'

Setting the Torque and P-factor sliders to approximately 20% made a successful takeoff with the J3 Cub much easier and more certain.

Then I tried changing the 'aircraft.cfg' file in the 'Piper_J3Cub' folder as follows:

On the following lines, change the value from =0.3 to =0.05 on both lines. This is a good starting point and you can adjust up or down from here.

p_factor_on_yaw          = 0.3
torque_on_roll           = 0.3

so they look like this:

p_factor_on_yaw          = 0.05
torque_on_roll           = 0.05

Save, then close the file.

This gives you a Cub with flight characteristics closer to the real thing IMHO and you can leave your  'Flight model' tab 'Torque and P-factor' sliders at your usual settings.