Simviation Forums

Using spitfire for a week and all of a sudden I cannot take off.  The plane pulls to the left and the right wing dips and crashes me into the runway.  Do not have on auto rudder and have tried increasing throttle gradual, while holding back pressure on the yoke to keep tail wheel down.  I am using 75 or 80 percent realism, even putting realism down to 50% has not helped. Don't know what happened as the first week of missions, did not have a problem taking off, just all of a sudden, can,t get airborne.  Very frustrating, have even uninstalled and reinstalled with the same results.  Any help to let me know what I am doing wrong will be appreciated.  Thank you all.  Tom Q.

Hi there, welcome to SimV Now, I can't understand why this has not happened before because what this is prop torque. It affects all the prop driven aircraft (apart from the P-38 with it's counter rotating props) and is quite normal. The way around it is to apply opposite rudder on take off and increase the throttle gently as you start your take off run.

Put autorudder on. It will solve the problem for you instantly. Either that or turn off num lock and use the 1 and 3 keys to keep the plane on the straight. Or use rudder pedals if you have those or use the twist function on your joystick if it has it. I say use autorudder. It save's an awful lot of bother.

Me again.  Tried suggestions, still crashing and burning up.  Any more suggestions?

 thannks

Practice. If you haven't done so already then I would strongly suggest autorudder. It does it all for you.

This all depends if you have a joystick with a separate rudder function.* You could try reducing the Realism settings until you get used to the prop torque effects. If your joystick has no separate rudder use the Autorudder option as Woody suggests.

*This is a necessity to get the best out of any version of CFS. IMHO

What I do is nose down a little bit with full throtle, then if It turns on me one way, I turn my rudder the other.  I rarely have an issue using this technique.

Have you checked your trim settings ?  If trims are neutral, try adjusting them for take-off and correct as you approach cruise.  A little right rudder trim, ailron trim to correct roll, slight elevator trim to keep the tail down.  This may help things.

Marc