Howard 350 does not steer after landing

Hi,

got excellent Howard 350 from Milton Shupe a pleasure to fly. Since it is a tail dragger have selected the steering tail wheel option in cfg:

//point.0 = 1, -38.815, 0, -1.1, 1574.803, 0, 0.667, 180, 0.3, 3, 0.5, 3, 5, 0, 194, 220

//Replace contact_point.0 below with the one above if you want a NON steerable tailwheel

point.0 = 1, -38.815, 0, -1.1, 1574.803, 0, 0.667, 40, 0.3, 3, 0.5, 3, 5, 0, 194, 220

For some reason the aircraft steers OK before flight but does not steer after landing.

Any advice appreciated,

Thanks,

Peter

Hi Tim regret no luck with Shift + G. Also tried not to retract the gear during flight and still the same.

I then tried DC3 and steering after land worked fine. So it must be Howard specific.

(Howard Milton Shupe search here). By the way great!! aircraft otherwise.

Cheers

Peter

Hi,

got excellent Howard 350 from Milton Shupe a pleasure to fly. Since it is a tail dragger have selected the steering tail wheel option in cfg:

 

//point.0 = 1, -38.815, 0, -1.1, 1574.803, 0, 0.667, 180, 0.3, 3, 0.5, 3, 5, 0, 194, 220

//Replace contact_point.0 below with the one above if you want a NON steerable tailwheel

point.0 = 1, -38.815, 0, -1.1, 1574.803, 0, 0.667, 40, 0.3, 3, 0.5, 3, 5, 0, 194, 220

 

For some reason the aircraft steers OK before flight but does not steer after landing.

Any advice appreciated,

Thanks,

Peter

If I read you correctly, you have chosen a non-steerable tailwheel and are now wondering why it won't steer?

Without that you will have to turn with power/brakes.

John

No John,

I have steerable selected and it steers at originating airport OK. Non steerable is// slashed, steerable is point.0! See my post.

Peter

Hi Peter, you could try disabling the tailwheel lock in the aircraft.cfg as shown below:

[contact_points]

max_number_of_points = 7

//point.0 = 1, -38.815, 0, -1.1, 1574.803, 0, 0.667, 40, 0.3, 3, 0.5, 3, 5, 0, 194, 220

//Replace contact_point.0 below with the one above if you want a steerable tailwheel

point.0 = 1, -38.815, 0, -1.1, 1574.803, 0, 0.667, 180, 0.3, 3, 0.5, 3, 5, 0, 194, 220

point.1 = 1, 1.65, -9.75, -7.022, 1574.803, 1, 1.708, 0, 0.8, 1.5, 0.7, 1.8, 3, 2, 194, 220

point.2 = 1, 1.65, 9.75, -7.022, 1574.803, 2, 1.708, 0, 0.8, 1.5, 0.7, 1.8, 3, 3, 194, 220

point.3=2, -0.9, -37.0, 3.05, 800.0, 0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0, 5.0, 0.0, 0.0

point.4=2, -0.9, 37.0, 3.05, 800.0, 0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0, 6.0, 0.0, 0.0

point.5=2, -41.5, 0, 1.30, 800.0, 0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0, 9.0, 0.0, 0.0

point.6=2, 13.4, 0, 4.00, 800.0, 0, 0.00, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.000, 0.0, 0.0, 4.0, 0.0, 0.0

static_pitch= 8.1

static_cg_height= 6.1

gear_system_type = 1

tailwheel_lock = 1

Hello Peter

I have had a look at the panel that comes with the Howard and could not find anything within the panel that locks or unlocks the tail wheel.

But as an alternative until you get it sorted ,you could try (by the same authors)this.

FS2004 (ACOF) - FS2004 General Aviation

FS2004 Beechcraft D18S

[ Download| View]

Name: d18svc4.zip

Size: 16,755,388 Date: 06-25-2005 Downloads: 28,069

FS2004 Beechcraft D18S. VC and no-VC models included. Package includes Gmax aircraft with "hand-flyer" flight dynamics and features a beautiful custom era correct panel and easy-to-read virtual cockpit, photoreal exterior textures and gauges, matching interior, VC gauge backlighting, specular highlites in the VC and HTML checklists. Sounds recommended for this aircraft are BA_GBR.ZIP by Mike Hambly. By Milton Shupe, Scott Thomas and Andre Folkers.

This is a similar type of aircraft in design/looks to the Howard (although I haven't flown it for many years).

Imho it has a much superior cockpit than the Howard ,and crucially it has a tail wheel lock/unlock switch within the cockpit, so taxiing no problem.

As I said its a long time since I have flown this particular aircraft, but I think you lock the tail wheel coming in to land ,and unlock for taxi. Cant remember take-off configuration, but guessing locked for take-off.

Anyway a superbly detailed model.

cheers Andy

I have the same Howard 350 in my Sim (not FS2004) and the same contact points and nose wheel steering is fine before takeoff and after landing. I'll test fly again just to be sure! On mine tail wheel lock=1

UPDATE: Test flight from Borrego Springs to Ramona airport. This screenshot is after landing and now turning onto the taxiway. Rudder steering works fine!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]211700[/ATTACH]

Charlie your attachment is invalid mate, but I also tested the Howard 350 and had no problems turning after landing with tail wheel lock = 1.

Peter, it also helps to dab the brakes while turning, which activates the differential brakes - left wheel brakes when turning left, right wheel brakes when turning right.

One other thing I noticed with this plane is that the rudders don't have much effect on the ground or in the air - it's as if there's a Yaw Damper switched on somewhere. I checked and there isn't. A quick fix is to change the [flight_tuning] rudder_effectiveness =1 to rudder_effectiveness =2, this helps a lot.

Something weird is going on! Just tried it again. I agree that brake tapping is good!;)

Peter - 60 has always been the magic number for me when tweaking steerable tailwheels. My "Howard 500" gave me the same choice and I went with 60 and never had any issues with it.

Try replacing the 40 with 60 and see if that helps and, yes, I agree with the others that a tap on the brakes will help greatly!

Rick :cool:

The '180' is the STEERABLE one. The '40' is the NON-STEERABLE one. They made a mistake. Fix it.

Chuck B

Napamule

Chuck - I believe you have your values backwards. Here is an old post by Tom Gibson clarifying the values:

We did know it was a tail wheel. If you have 0 or 180 as the steering angle value, the tail wheel will be free castoring. If you have any other number there, it becomes a steerable tail wheel (just like steerable nose wheels). There might be a difference in behavior between 0 and 180, but I've forgotten that...

Tom Gibson

CalClassic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.com

I have always used 60 for the value for steerable tailwheels and have never had issues with it.

Rick :cool:

Many thanks for all your input gents.

Have changed tailwheel_lock in cfg to 0 (as per Tim) and also 40 to 60 in point.0 (as per Rick) and steering after landing is OK. And thanks for suggesting Beechcraft D18S Andy, will try the aircraft.

Cheers

Peter

I didn't know there was a way to change that,.,but it reminds me of the fact I have to change the contact points a bit to allow it to turn...still a nice plane though

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