Well I do not really mean proper fear. I mean, come on, it is a simulator.
But still, if you’re serious about doing a flight properly and not crashing, what aircraft do you fly most prepared, most anxious, or with sweaty palms. Or worse, which ones do you leave in the hanger because you don’t dare to fly them.
I’ll kick this off with my top 3, in random order.
SWS F-104 Starfighter. If only for its insane high landing speed, blown flaps, control sensitivity, high fuel burn. Need I go on? I do not take flying this aircraft lightly.
Wing42 B247D, because of the engine control. Engine dying, burning. Managing the oil T&P. Otherwise it flies relatively easily, although without any autopilot you cannot leave her alone even in cruise.
Tail draggers!!! Trying to takeoff and land in these beasts (while making it look easy) is my biggest fear…. Oh sure you can fly on one wing dragging down the runway and still get in the air….
Not a fan, but when I land, I’ve had best results by setting flaps to zero upon touchdown (make the aircraft heavy as possible) and pull back on the yoke to force the tail down. If it stays on the runway, I call that a successful landing.
The DC-6, but only because of my struggles with landing her without the help of ILS. If I have to manually land, I nearly always end up flying her too slowly and then a wing drops and moments later all souls perish in a downward spiral to earth.
I did take a couple of days last week to really try and master slowing her down and learning how to fly her, correctly at approach and landing speeds. I take all of the management of the radial engines to heart and have really tried hard to fly her the way you would, as opposed to a jet.
Hopefully, I’m improving my skills and getting over my fear, because I just absolutely love that aircraft like no other. (Well, the 247 is a close second.)
The Boeing 787. My plane starts on the magenta line for part of a leg, then loses the magenta line does a circle, loses altitude and crashes every time.
Its the only plane that does this, and can’t delete it to reinstall or anything…. removed all out of community folder….
It is the most scariest planes…. should do a video…
props 2600 RPM, BMEP around 80 on short final, of course depending on gross weight, flaps 40, slightly trim backwards. If you’re on the proper glide path this will give you 120-110 knots.
You don’t have to manage your speed with the flaps but can absolutely move the throttles as long as you do small adjustments and do them slowly. It will take more than a couple of days until you come to grips with it but once you get the hang you’ll love her.
I really had this dumb fear of the throttles. I’m fairly sure that was my main issue. “I’m going to ruin these engines if I do anything here! Ahhhhh!”
Like I said, I just sort of reviewed the various power settings the AFE was utilizing and wrote them down for reference points. I took the plane out over the Pacific Ocean at about 5500’ and started playing with slowing down and setting various flaps and using the throttles to control power at various flaps stages to see how the aircraft behaved.
It was a very helpful exercise. I’m trying to wean myself off the AFE, so this was big step in that direction.
I think you responded to my propeller control button issue on the PMDG forum, which is still a problem. Fortunately, when WASM is solved on Xbox, I’ve got my entire Boeing yoke, and two throttle quadrants all ready to go, so I’ll have four throttles and additional axis for the props.
I love the DC-6 so much that I occasionally fly on my PC just to experience it and I’m using a Hotas on the PC, hence the button issue.
yep, as I said there I can’t imagine what’s causing it. There are some strange issues with axes in MSFS but any button should work just like Ctrl-F3/F2.
The DC6 is about practise, it’s not a typical today’s airliner. I’m currently teaching a friend how to fly it who only knows fighter jets in DCS, it’s a nice exercise for me as well to talk about how the DC6 works Fingers crossed for WASM!
Anything with Super Slider Snow Skates attached to the gear. I must have slid off the mountian side, destroyed tent city or face planted into the crevasse, 17&1/2 times in the fsx Denali Base Camp Charter
I think that is what appeals to me so much about it — you really have to fly it as it is meant to be flown and it challenges me, which I absolutely love. I want so badly to master it. It takes my simming experience to another level.
Don’t forget you can use cowl flaps as airbrakes if you really need but yes the DC-6 takes a long time to get down & slow. Like some very slippery jets, slow and down is possibly a better idea.
I mean, you could stop an engine too if you really must, it has four for the reason that they weren’t sure how many would be working at the end of the flight…
I have a fear of flying any aircraft that requires more than a single pilot to operate in real life. Until the sim allows cooperative flying, I’m sticking with what I alone can handle.
Any of the big airliners. Airliners aren’t something you can really just dabble in. You’ve got to fly them properly and not muck about. Every now and again I think to myself I’m going to get really into flying them again but my attention span just isn’t really there sadly and the learning is steep. If you don’t fly them a lot you have to really go back to the beginning again.
The worst thing you can do to these engines is to shock cool them. Keep the CHT between 150 and 210 degrees at all times. If you approach in cold and moist weather they will cool off rapidly if you open the cowls. At low power settings they’ll need to be closed up to full. If your engine temp drops and you need to go around you may easily lose them completely. Beside all that, the cowl flaps aren’t effective anyway.
Never turn off an engine for the sake of slowing down!! It has four for the reason that they are unreliable, not to fix your mismanagement. It won’t help much anyway, you’ll feather a shut down engine, otherwise you break it.
If you ned to descend steeply there are way better and much more effective options:
Push the RPM up. A faster spinning propeller acts as a very effective wall of drag. These are constant speed props, use them. Set the propellers to 2600 RPM and set the manifold pressure as low as possible according to engine temperature and BMEP. For the latter don’t go below 70 lbs/in² or you may hurt your bearings. Yes, all that is simulated.
Use your undercarriage. Fly level, reduce to 174 knots or less and drop the gear and set flaps to 20. With good engine management this will give you a descent angle of up to 5-6 degrees which is steep! If you really have to you can even slow down into the white speed range on the ASI and drop the flaps to landing position. That’s more than sufficient drag.
Last but not least: Be smart, use the time. Increase your flight time and fly a 360 or simply do left/right turns to increase the way for the given distance and all you need to do is wait until it comes down. If you planned right you’ll have plenty of fuel. There is no rush flying a DC6 anyway. =)
BTW… All that can be used for any aircraft, not just the DC-6. The propeller part won’t work with a 737 obviously but beside that all you have to deal with is energy and it can be decreased with many methods.
Fingers crossed for WASM!