Pulling donuts trying to take off

[Shooter1-1]

As the title says... I keep pulling donuts while trying to take off.  No matter how gentle I am on the rudder pedals and how easy I am on the throttle while taxing I keep ending up spinning around. Yes I have my tail wheel locked for take off and unlocked for taxing.  I even turned off both wheel brakes thinking that one of them was possibly stuck in the on position.  Unfortunately, nothing I have tried has allowed me to take off anything a BF-109 to a P-51.  

I've been flying DCS for 15 years and just recently started flying IL-2 BoS and all my gear is Virpil. I very much like lying BoS but its hard when you can't fly any mission that requires taking off from a runway.

Any help or tips would be most appreciated.

Regards

Shooter 1-1

[Gutholz]

After you have taxied with unlocked tailwheel, lock it and then pull forward 1-2 meters to straighten it. Otherwise it might still be pointed sideways from the last turn.

Slowly increase throttle, full throttle is usually not nessecary.

Then basically just apply rudder and/or brake in the opposite direction to counter the sideways pull.

I think there is no special trick to it, just takes some practice.

[Stonehouse]

Also hold full back stick until you get enough speed to have rudder authority and then when you have directional control with the rudder you can relax the stick to neutral or slightly back depending on aircraft and load. You want to keep weight onto the locked tailwheel as this helps keep you straight.

For the P-51, pulling the stick fully back should lock the tailwheel and somewhere between full back and neutral controls the tailwheel will unlock and be able to caster. You can use this feature plus true left and right brakes to taxi the P-51 very easily unlike some other aircraft like the Spits or Tempests etc with differential braking.

[R33GZ]

16 hours ago, Shooter1-1 said:

As the title says... I keep pulling donuts while trying to take off.  No matter how gentle I am on the rudder pedals and how easy I am on the throttle while taxing I keep ending up spinning around. Yes I have my tail wheel locked for take off and unlocked for taxing.  I even turned off both wheel brakes thinking that one of them was possibly stuck in the on position.  Unfortunately, nothing I have tried has allowed me to take off anything a BF-109 to a P-51.  

I've been flying DCS for 15 years and just recently started flying IL-2 BoS and all my gear is Virpil. I very much like lying BoS but its hard when you can't fly any mission that requires taking off from a runway.

Any help or tips would be most appreciated.

Regards

Shooter 1-1

Sounds pretty crazy man. Given you've got 15yrs with DCS, I dont think there's too much point going into the nuance of ground handling.

I assume your using rudder pedals from the sound of it? And they are correctly configured. The Mustang is one of the easiest aircraft to handle on the ground in my opinion. Generally speaking, dont try to go too fast on the ground. Going  slowly, with minimal to no throttle changes, use rudder and brakes to slowly maneuver.

Definitley important if your playing online, as you'll nearly always have to taxi to the threshold for takeoff

[FlyingH]

If I´m not all wrong, the P51 tailwheel still have a +\- 6° movement, when locked, to easen wide turns.

[MaxPower]

You can use differential braking to gain some directional authority at low speed.  When you're trying to keep the aircraft straight, use quick stabbing motions with the rudder controls rather than trying to finesse it.  Move your feet (or twist axis or whatever you've got) like the fists of a boxer.

[Felipe_Czar]

On 8/14/2026 at 12:45 PM, Shooter1-1 said:

As the title says... I keep pulling donuts while trying to take off.  No matter how gentle I am on the rudder pedals and how easy I am on the throttle while taxing I keep ending up spinning around. Yes I have my tail wheel locked for take off and unlocked for taxing.  I even turned off both wheel brakes thinking that one of them was possibly stuck in the on position.  Unfortunately, nothing I have tried has allowed me to take off anything a BF-109 to a P-51.  

Lock the tail wheel with the BF-109s or pull the stick back with the P-51. Slowly increment throttle. Very slowly. Wait to gain speed to set takeoff thrust. The wait is larger when you don't have enough finesse yet. It will be shorter and shorter the more you know what to expect.

Use the brakes and rudder to slightly correct for anything necessary.

On 8/14/2026 at 12:45 PM, Shooter1-1 said:

I've been flying DCS for 15 years and just recently started flying IL-2 BoS and all my gear is Virpil. I very much like lying BoS but its hard when you can't fly any mission that requires taking off from a runway.

Which planes from DCS? Modern or even old jets don't count at all. They are a breeze to takeoff.

The TF-51/P-51 is much harder on DCS than here.

Gotta practice on those takeoffs to fully enjoy the game/sim.
For many, it is been years since they botched a take off and they can do it everyday many in a row.

It is more a matter of muscle memory rather than intellect. Get those practices going.
The quick mission generator solo is a good way to do it.

Cheers.

[Shooter1-1]

Thank you all for your contributions.  I will try everything and hopefully I'll get this all sorted out.  The P-51 is indeed much easier to handle both taxi and takeoff.  I will also try working the curves to get a smoother input.  Thanks again.

BTW, in DCS I always flew the A10C II.  I never flew any WW2 aircraft up until now in IL-2.  I actually built a full size working replica of the a10C cockpit.

[R33GZ]

God damn... thats one hell of a setup!!!! Another thing worth remembering is that tail draggers are much 'harder' to taxi than a tricycle undercarriage setup, you've really got to stay on top of the rudder/tailwheel inputs and dont over correct. Gently, gently, slowly slowly 🙂

[Shooter1-1]

Except for the HSI and RWR, everything else works.

"tail draggers are much 'harder' to taxi than a tricycle undercarriage"  You got that right and I'm find that out now with these WW2 airframes.  I've had much sucess with following many of the suggestoions noted above.     The suggestion that I do this...Gently, gently, slowly slowly has been the most successful suggestion so far. Thank you.

 

[Gutholz]

Nice cockpit!

Some more notes:

In singleplayer quickmission you can select "start from runway", meaning you are always perfectly lined up. No need to taxi.

During taxi it is not always nessecary to unlock the tailwheel for turns. If you push the stick forward to take weight of the tail then you can turn tight enough to take the turns of most taxiways with locked tailwheel. (it might squeak a bit)

Use the wheel brakes only for the first few meters, then only use rudder to keep the plane straight.

Full power is not needed for take-off, 2400 rpm (or even lower) is enough.

Practice at an airfield with a wide grass field, no runway. When the plane pulls to one side only do very mild corrections and let just it go whereever it wants to go. There is enough space and it prevents you from overcorrecting. 

Set prop pitch manually to "12:00" until airborne, then back to automatic. I have not tried that much but appearently that is the correct procedure and it somehow helps.

[Shooter1-1]

Thanks Gutholz.  I just discovered the "start from runway"  and have been doing that to practice.  Great suggestion especially for us IL-2 noobies.  Everything in this thread are good suggestsions.  I am now capable of takeoff without pulling donuts (most of the time😄).