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Old 27th Jul 2018, 02:24
  #69 (permalink)  
Judd
 
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In a standard powered DC-3 the forward push to get the tail up can hardly be called "gentle" when heavily loaded. Now this airplane was nowhere near that condition but I have flown them where it takes everything you have to push the tail up. As a matter of fact in those conditions you have to use the trim wheel to get things going. As for directional control, as I mentioned in a separate post, the ailerons are highly effective for directional control and MUST be used, rudder alone cannot overcome a large swing. And we routinely used aggressive differential power when needed to keep the thing straight when aerodynamic control input was not sufficient
That all sounds very dramatic for a DC3 and may I say a little exaggerated? If you have "used everything" then to get the tail up during the early part of the take off run in a standard DC3 it suggests maybe the Centre of Gravity was a problem. The DC3 is a normal tail wheel aircraft with normal take off and landing characteristics. No unusual control forces are needed and the rudder is effective early. We never had to use ailerons for directional control (apart from appropriate aileron into a crosswind) and certainly never use "aggressive" differential power.

Are you sure you are not talking about flying a DC3 Microsoft simulator? Never heard of using the elevator trim to get the tail up. The elevator trim is useless at low speeds anyway. By what you have described is not an average DC3 handling at all. Of course if you have allowed the aircraft to gather momentum in a large swing, that suggests slow pilot reaction to prevent any initial swing from trying to force the tail up. Once you allow that to happen due poor flying ability, then all bets are off in terms of getting the aircraft to straighten up again and you may even have to resort to dabs of appropriate brake pedal to prevent further yaw on the roll. Not trying to rubbish your description but something not quite right IMHO.
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