The flights depicted here are flight simulation for entertainment purposes only and are not to be construed as flight instruction for actual aircraft. Consult with an FAA Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) for proper flight instruction and your Pilot Operating Handbook (POH) for appropriate flight procedures for your particular aircraft.

For the best experience for this aircraft, and to match the settings that this guide was developed for, it is highly recommened to set the realism to HARD.


Control calibration settings will vary from hardware-to-hardware and you may have to adjust your settings accordingly to get the most comfortable configuration for your hardware set-up. For a 3-axis flight stick, the following control settings are recommended:


In general, if you notice a lot of flight oscillations or feel that you are chasing the needle to settle on a particular flight configuration, then you may need to decrease the sensitivies to stabilize your control hardware.

The following are some key points for basic flight operations. For a step-by-step procedure, along with real-time demonstration of the steps, see the corresponding videos.


Prior to throttle-up, hold the stick full back and to the right. This will keep the tailwheel down for better steering authority during initial roll. Right bank will help in countering engine torque. Also, keep throttle inputs slow and steady. Quick throttle changes could put your aircraft out of control quite rapidly. Set throttle to about 30 inches manifold pressure for initial ground roll and be prepared to apply up to full right rudder to counter the engine torque. At around 50 MPH, slowly advance throttle to about 40 – 45 inches manifold pressure. While doing so, push the stick full forward to lower the nose and raise the tail. Continue to steer straight with rudder as prop airflow builds to provide more tail authority. Hold nose level and be ready to apply slight right stick to keep the wings level. Be careful to level the nose to keep the aircraft from nosing over. At around 110 MPH, gently pull back on the stick to raise the nose and climb. Keep in mind your take-off trim is set slightly aft so make sure the nose doesn’t rise too much which could cause the aircraft to stall. On positive rate, raise the gear. Clean-up the flaps if necessary. Set pitch trim to maintain about 150 MPH in the climb. Reduce prop RPM to 2,600. Set rudder trim back to zero.


The recommended landing for a P-40 is the wheel landing where the main wheels contact the ground first before the tailwheel settles down. The benefit of this is the additional speed that provides more airflow and therefore control surface authority for the aircraft. The downside is that as a "powered" landing, a long runway is required to absorb the longer ground roll inherent with this type of landing. A suggested approach is 2,000 feet altitude at 150 MPH airspeed, 10 miles out with a 500 feet per minute descent rate. Trim to maintain this flight profile, hands-off. Use throttle, and not pitch, to adjust the glideslope. It is OK to start slightly high. It’s difficult to see over the nose and it might have to be dipped slightly or forward-slipped to see the runway so there might be some altitude loss. Keep a point of reference for the threshold on either side of the nose or try to aim for a spot on the far end of the runway. When maneuvering for landing, gear down and 3 notches of flap (half flaps) is a good initial landing configuration. Adjust throttle to maintain about 150 MPH. Save full flaps for short final as the aircraft has a tendency to sink rapidly at full flaps. Aim for 110 MPH over the fence. Level the aircraft and try to fly it to the runway to prevent bounce. At 10 feet AGL, cut the throttle and let the aircraft glide down onto the runway. On touchdown, push the stick full forward to maintain a wheel landing with the tail high. Let the airspeed bleed off naturally. If possible, stay off the brakes to prevent the aircraft from nosing over. Keep steering with the tail rudder until the tail drops by itself. After it drops, pull the stick all the way back to give more steering authority to the tailwheel. If performing a short-field landing, rapidly “pump” the brakes to rapidly decelerate while preventing locking up the brakes. Watch the nose. If it begins to pitch forward, release the brakes immediately.


Although it is recommended to land this aircraft with a wheel landing technique, with practice it is possible to do a 3-point landing where all 3 wheels contact the ground at the same time. 3-point landings have an advantage of shortening your ground roll so are useful for short-field runways. However, the slower airspeed inherent with this landing technique must be very carefully controlled prior to touchdown. Too fast and it runs the risk of floating which would negate a short-field attempt. Too slow and it runs the risk of landing short of the runway or stalling. The key is to bleed off as much airspeed as possible just prior to the flare to minimize the tendency for this aircraft to balloon. With a slight nose-high attitude just a few feet off the ground, the aircraft should stall gently onto the runway on all 3 wheels simultaneously.


If the aircraft bounces on touchdown, push the stick forward and level the wings to “fly” the aircraft back to the runway.


If a take-off and go-around (TOGA) is necessary, apply throttle to about 40 - 45 inches manifold pressure. Gently raise the nose and be prepared to apply right rudder to counter engine torque. Establish the climb. Clean-up the aircraft when safe to do so.


If the aircraft is too high on landing approach, use the forward-slip technique to lose altitude quickly without gaining significant airspeed. Essentially, a forward-slip is a cross-controlled configuration where the aircraft is banked and then opposite rudder is applied to prevent the turn and track straight with the nose of the aircraft at a slight angle to the forward flight path. This landing configuration presents the aircraft's fuselage into the airflow thereby creating large drag which reduces the aircraft's airspeed and rapidly drops the altitude at the same time. For taildraggers, an additional benefit of this technique is that the skewed angle allows for better visibility of the runway which would normally be obscured by the nose of the aircraft. Used appropriately, the forward-slip is another useful tool in a pilot's flight toolbox to employ for safe landings.


Another useful landing technique is crosswind landing. Crosswind is particularly tricky in a taildragger because on a wheel landing where the tail is kept high, the wind wants to push the tail around like a weather vane. The key is to always be on the pedals to use the rudder to keep the aircraft straight on the runway centerline to prevent a ground loop. As they say, flying a taildragger is not done until it is parked, engine off, wheels chocked, and tied down! Mastering crosswind landing in a taildragger is very difficult but critical skill to have as a pilot.


The aircraft appears to stall at 90 MPH indicated airspeed. In general, if on top of things, the aircraft stall is rather benign and standard stall recovery techniques apply. However, there is one particularly nasty situation if the aircraft enters a nose-high stall. Instead of spinning, the aircraft appears to go into a falling leaf, high angle of attack, yaw oscillating motion which exacerbates the stall condition. To get out of this, try to get the nose down first to gain airspeed and then apply opposite rudder to stop the spin. As can be seen, it made for quite an interesting ride!

The stall / spin conditions and their respective recoveries shown in the video are:

• Power-Off (Clean) Stall
  
• Power-Off (Dirty) Stall
  
• Spin
  
• Full Spin
  
• Power-On Turning Stall - aka the "Moose Stall"