BoS Experiment

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I flew out to that big airfield to the southeast of your start point in Mission 1 to practice landing with that long, wide runway.

 

departing, I tried the short field technique that you'll occasionally see bush pilots do, where you hold the brakes on and let the tail raise into a flying position (the LaGG does not have a whole bunch of free space between propeller and ground when the airplane is level) then off the brakes, full power, directional control and off the ground ASAP.

 

Flying the tail doesn't buy you anything in the LaGG I don't think, and probably not a whole bunch in most airplanes normally.

 

I was flying back - inverted - wondering if I would run out of gas before I made it the 16km to home plate or not.  The engine sputtered, and I quickly rolled upright again.  The engine picked right up again and ran for another minute or two.

 

It looks like 777 modeled usable gas in different attitudes which I thought was pretty cool.

 

The LaGG incidentally makes nice deadstick landings, and I did make my airfield.

[BeastyBaiter]

I find it's easier to control if you do a variant of that method. It seems easiest if you stand on the brakes with the tail pinned down until at full power, and then release. Makes it much more controllable down the runway. Of course if you could simply lock the tail wheel, it would be less of an issue but either the LaGG-3 doesn't have that ability or it isn't programmed in yet.

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I find it's easier to control if you do a variant of that method. It seems easiest if you stand on the brakes with the tail pinned down until at full power, and then release. Makes it much more controllable down the runway. Of course if you could simply lock the tail wheel, it would be less of an issue but either the LaGG-3 doesn't have that ability or it isn't programmed in yet.

 

I just wanted to see if I could.  It is one thing in a Super Cub, something else with 1,200 HP or so.  I was curious if I could get off without a prop strike or slamming the tail down or getting off the runway laterally instead of vertically or maybe all three.  Turned out to not be a big deal.