Rudder response of planes on aircraft carriers

[flyer138]

Hi fellow fliers,

I would like to pass you a question on how you feel about the rudder behavior of IL2's planes on aircraft carriers. Do you think the planes' rudder response to your control inputs and taxi capabilities on carrier flight decks are properly modeled?

From my experience there is something wrong:
try to move the plane on a land-based airfield with the rudder (e.g., for taxiing to a new take-off location or parking) and repeat this again on a any stationary aircraft carrier (one that does not move). You should notice that the plane does behave very differently on the carrier; the plane is forced back to its original position or heading like hanging on a stretched rubber band and flipping all the way back. It is quite difficult to turn the plane around 90-180° on carriers.

Please try it and post here your opinions.

[Marabekm]

While on the ground the rudder has no effect on movement of the plane, there is no airflow going past the surface, the tail wheel (or for tricycle gear planes such as the p-38/p-39, the nose wheel) steers the plane. And braking also helps. IE if I want to turn left, apply power and left brake. Turning right is the exact opposite. For multi engines, also apply more power to the engines on the side you want to turn.

Realistically taking off from a carrier, it should be moving into the wind. This will help you get heavier planes off the deck. For a station carrier, I wouldn't recommend anything but default loadout for any plane.

[flyer138]

Thank you for your input Marabekm. You are absolutely right; carriers need to be headed into the wind and speed up to make life for navy fliers easier ;).

However, I was looking at the rudder control and taxi capabilities of the AI planes (mistakenly posted it as an issue of the player's plane, too. Player's behaves much better and differently due to different FM classes in IL2.) planes on carriers. I find it is strange that they can hardly move their planes with the rudder on both stationary and faster moving carriers. Just put one plane (e.g. TBM Avenger on USN Essex) on a carrier and take a look at how clumsy the pilots try to reach and hold the centre line of carrier.
Moreover, the AI has a hard time to avoid obstacles like bridges when doing so.