First off I do want to mention I’m an absolute noob to msfs2024 or flight sims in general and I probably still do a lot of things wrong, but nonetheless I’m usually able to land planes just fine.
Also I’m flying using an Xbox controller.
Every attempt of me landing the Draco X has ended in me spinning out of control (always to the right). I’ve tried it with various different settings for the prop/engine idle setting but the plane spins out every time without fail and always to the right.
And tips or suggestions about what I’m doing wrong and how to prevent the spin out would be greatly appreciated.
Give a little rudder to the right to prevent the plane from going left and vice versa.
You can also brake the right or left wheel a little, it helps a lot.
The draco is a very sensitive beast.
Afterwards, when you start to master it, you can have fun making ultra short landings by reversing the thrust once touch the ground. You can program a key to control the reverse.
To make an ultra short takeoff, proceed as follows:
- extend the flaps to 44%
- lock the brakes
- apply full throttle
- pull the stick fully
- apply a tiny bit of rudder to the right
- release the brakes.
The Draco takes off in a few meters. Immediately afterward, reset the flaps to zero.
In real life :
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First, leave the prop full forward (fine pitch/high RPM). This is a general rule for constant-speed prop systems as you want the power in case you have to go around (not that the Draco couldn’t power out in low RPM, but I digress). It also makes the prop very draggy at low torque, which can help with speed management.
But honestly, I can’t see big issues with your landing that would cause that much of an excursion. It’s almost like your left brake is locked up. Check control bindings? What was the crosswind situation like?
One thing I did notice is you touched down pretty lightly and the power was still coming out as you did so. The Draco’s engine puts out a ridiculous amount of left-turning tendency - make sure you bring the engine all the way to idle several seconds before you touch down so it’s not still in the process of spooling down and still generating torque. Any power left over during the spooldown might cause an excursion. You might need to have a little more speed or descent angle before you do that so you don’t stall.
Don’t worry about where the blue boxes are guiding you at this point (you don’t get points or deductions for that, anyway) - focus on making a nice three-point landing anywhere in the first third of the runway with the engine fully at idle. Trying to stay on their ideal path is a bit of a distraction, especially for certain types of aircraft (like the Draco). Once you have the runway made and you’re rounding out (arresting the descent to flare), power smoothly back to idle and hold it in the three-point attitude until it wants to stop flying.
Touch down firmly - those gear can handle it. I mean, don’t prang it on, but make touchdown firm so you transfer the weight to the wheels (especially the tailwheel) and get the lift off the wings. Once you get really good at landing, you can dump (raise) the flaps right as you touch to really make it stick to the ground.
Once you touch down, keep the stick all the way back and make sure you brake evenly - don’t brake so hard that it noses-over. Don’t worry about reverse thrust on a runway that long. You should be able to stop it in a few hundred feet without reverse. With reverse, it’s like a few dozen feet and there aren’t many runways that short in the sim (helipads and other off-airport clearings maybe).
One more thing - you had a right quartering crosswind. As you touch down, put the ailerons fully into the wind (right stick in this case) to prevent the upwind (right) wing from lifting. This applies to takeoff as well and is actually what caused the real (first) Draco to crash.
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Thanks for the detailed tips. This helped a lot.
I think I was not idling the engine in time on touchdown and maybe was touching down a bit too fast.
My last attempt for today I idled the engine just before touching the ground and also pulled back on the stick hard to bleed off more speed. As you said the touch down was less gentle but I still had a lot more control and was able to keep the weaving under control.
Just like to chime in here to say what an excellent response to a newcomers’ problem. A really helpful detailed set of steps to follow as well as the reasons why. Thanks for that.
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