How do I take off with the Tempest MK V? A quickie to get you off the ground.

[DrJester]

After spending some time spinning and flailing my arms at how to get this beautiful beast off the ground, and some reading... Here's how to do it. 

1. Turn on the engine (duh) 
2. When the engine is on, put the MIXTURE lever to NORMAL. It should be around 50% ish... Check lower left side of your cockpit for the lever. 
3. DO NOT LOWER FLAPS. That is imperative! DO NOT LOWER IT! It will just exacerbate your spinning, and make you act like you are drunk flying. You can get away with it in the Soviet Air Force, since both pilot and plane are powered by Vodka, but not in the RAF! We use tea for that! 
4. Set FULL RUDDER TRIM TO PORT(LEFT). Yep, engine torque is that bad. 
5. Pull the joystick back(a tactic that you must use to take off in some bombers. This will create a little bit more of force on your tail. 
6. Use LEFT/RIGHT BRAKES to turn and taxi to the runway, and be prepared for the eventual pull to the right. (This is where you usually put some elevator trim, but I found I didn't need it). As in, the brakes are ONLY applied if you press the FULL BRAKES+DIRECTIONAL RUDDER. Press brakes, then move the rudder to the direction you want to apply the brakes
7. Accelerate, SLOWLY, and keep pulling the joystick back. 
8. Once you reach around 80 mph, lift the nose, and use the rudder to keep the plane aligned. Spinning this late will lead to some pretty painful evenings in a hospital. Even if that nurse is hot AF, it is just not that worth it.  
9. At around 110 mph, you can either wait for the plane to take off on its own, or you can pull it up by now. 
10. Fly and be the best cannon fodder you can be!  ?

Edited October 5, 2019 by DrJester
Fixed the toe brakes/directional rudder thingie

[Jansgi]

14 hours ago, DrJester said:

6. Use TOE BRAKES to turn and taxi to the runway

 

The plane does not have toe brakes.

[Finkeren]

Once you wake up to the fact, that the Tempest has a free-swiveling tail wheel, it is really quite easy to handle. I find ground handling and take off to be an easier version of the P-40, though without toe brakes. It really helps, that the airflow from the prop is so powerful, that the rudder becomes very effective almost before the plane starts to move - much unlike the P-40.

 

What I really wanna know is: Why didn't they install a tailwheel lock on many of these machines? You'd think it'd be reasonably simple to do and it is just a really useful tool that makes ground handling much simpler. Is it just that the Tempest is so heavy, that the lateral stress that'd be put on a locked tailwheel would be too much for it to handle? 

[RedKestrel]

I find it not to be all that difficult. Even with the unlocked tail wheel it’s not hard to control. Just gotta watch for the engine torque.

[Art-J]

Same here. Got it off and on the ground on first try without using rudder trim, because I didn't know its recommended position anyway. I'd guess if the person is used to Spitfires with their catoring tailwheels (plus required rudder-dance) and doesn't crank the throttle up too quickly, the plane behaves pretty much like a Spit too.

Edited October 3, 2019 by Art-J

[DrJester]

On 10/2/2019 at 7:29 PM, Finkeren said:

Once you wake up to the fact, that the Tempest has a free-swiveling tail wheel, it is really quite easy to handle. I find ground handling and take off to be an easier version of the P-40, though without toe brakes. It really helps, that the airflow from the prop is so powerful, that the rudder becomes very effective almost before the plane starts to move - much unlike the P-40.

 

What I really wanna know is: Why didn't they install a tailwheel lock on many of these machines? You'd think it'd be reasonably simple to do and it is just a really useful tool that makes ground handling much simpler. Is it just that the Tempest is so heavy, that the lateral stress that'd be put on a locked tailwheel would be too much for it to handle? 

I blame the Tea for that oversight. The P-51 is a dream to taxi, but the Tempest... That is one wild beast that is difficult to tame! 

[Finkeren]

2 hours ago, DrJester said:

I blame the Tea for that oversight. The P-51 is a dream to taxi, but the Tempest... That is one wild beast that is difficult to tame! 

 

The P-51 has a steerable tailwheel though, which is a bit more complex than a lockable one.