FSX
I've been lucky enough to have had an early look at Mike's work and have put about 20 hrs on the Bf-109G-6 and Buchon as of now - it's addicting! With the flight dynamics being as accurate as they are, it is a fantastic learning experience - when you don't do things right with these aircraft, you know it, and you can't wait to go back and try to do better/improve yourself on the next go. You always hear about how 1/3 of the total Bf-109 production were written off in take-off and landing accidents. This being largely due to the design of the landing gear, making the aircraft unpredictable in the direction it may choose to head off in on take-off and landing, while the aircraft is also very tail-heavy, causing the tail to always want to overtake the front. But it also has to do with the amount of p-factor and torque the engine/prop combination makes up front, on such a small airframe, with only so much tail fin/rudder to counter it, and it is also quite crucial to be mindful of the airspeed in this aircraft, with its high wing loading. Lift off too early, and it will quickly dip a wing and shoot you off into the grass. On landing, it is important to slow the aircraft down enough so that you put it down with all three points at once, making a three-pointer (the only landing technique recommended in the 109/Buchon), and not so fast that you simply go skirting off across the whole distance of the field. But it is also important not to get too slow on landing, as when you do, the aircraft will simply fall out of your hands when you attempt to flare.
In learning to master flying these aircraft, I've consulted with several different modern pilot reports, flying both stock Buchons and DB605-powered Bf-109G's, and I've found there to be a great deal of similarity/accordance between all of them. In the air, the 109/Buchon is described as being just another airplane, with no real vices. It turns and rolls really well, has plenty of rudder authority, but is heavy in pitch (no looping maneuvers allowed under 500-ft) - it has its own traits that separate it from its competitors, good and bad. Until it reaches cruise speed, without the luxury of rudder trim, you have to carry a little right rudder, but it is hardly noticeable. Pilots talk about how you have to keep your feet on the rudder all the time in the 109/Buchon, as with such a small tail fin, even in level flight it can easily diverge in yaw, and just as easily in either direction - which is also put to the reason why rudder trim would be unnecessary/of no use in the 109/Buchon. (The ability to slide the aircraft around in the air with the rudder, being able to swing the nose side to side in wide swaths, has also been attributed to having allowed Bf-109 pilots to put a larger spray of bullets across their targets with greater ease.)
For take-off, whether it be the 109 or Buchon, the typical setup is 20-deg of flaps and +1 nose down trim. This is done in order to lighten the tail, and pilots also tend to always hold forward pressure on the stick to both lift the tail early (within reason) and keep the aircraft on the ground until sufficient airspeed is reached. Some pilots will also hold right stick pressure to keep more force on the right gear/counter the effects of torque and landing gear design.
All of the pilot reports I've read indicate similar/shared technique when it comes to setting up a proper landing approach in the 109/Buchon. It starts with making a fighter style overhead approach, flying the length of the runway and then pulling up and over into the downwind leg - this is almost a requirement of the type, so as to bleed off enough airspeed. With the airspeed down to below 300-Km/h (160-kts), pulling into the downwind leg, the gear is lowered and flaps starting to be cranked down and working the elevator trim. A "highish-rate" descent with a curved approach is recommended, turning onto finals after passing the downwind leg threshold of the runway, with the airspeed at the start of the turn being quite slow, down to about 215-Km/h (115-kts). As you're making the curved approach, you are cranking out the last bit of flaps, cranking more elevator-up trim, and continually decelerating with the slats automatically sliding out about halfway through the turn. The whole time, the throttle is well back, power well off. The last airspeed to look for is 180-Km/h (90-kts) as you're flaring over the threshold and cutting the power, at which point you can't see anything straight ahead, just focusing on the cones of vision you have out the left and right sides of the windscreen (trying to match the view/attitude still in your mind that you had when sitting in the aircraft prior to takeoff). They say that brakes are required in the landing roll-out on the 109/Buchon, and due to the tail-heaviness of the type, they can be pressed to the floor without any concern of nosing over (much unlike the Spitfire). All of the 109's/Buchons flying today, that I'm aware of, have modern disc brakes that the pilots flying them today tend to speak highly of, both for greater directional control and being able to reduce the landing distance. Operations in the 109/Buchon are restricted to crosswinds not exceeding 10-kts (it is actually placarded in the cockpit of all UK-based Buchons) - as Mark Hanna wrote in his pilot report on the type, if the winds are such that making a three-point landing is inadvisable, the aircraft remains in the hangar.
Speaking to the challenges of operating the 109, take for instance the history of just one of the aircraft, Hispano Buchon C.4K-75, which is covered in Mike's product (it's the one painted as 'Yellow 11' for the movie "Battle of Britain"). Following the making of "Battle of Britain", it was to be used in the movie "Patton", but was heavily damaged on take-off in 1969 on what was going to be its ferry flight for the filming of that movie. The damaged airframe then passed through a number of owners, eventually ending up in Wyoming by the 1980's, where it was restored back to flying condition. However, in 1986, with the restoration completed, the aircraft was significantly damaged in a crash on one of its first test flights and was repaired only to static display. In 1997 the aircraft was sold to the Messerschmitt Air Company in Germany, who over the next 7-years restored the aircraft to Bf-109G-4 configuration, fitted with a DB 605 engine. Registered as D-FWME, the aircraft first flew following this restoration in 2004, painted as "Red 7", but the aircraft was significantly damaged less than a year later in a landing accident in 2005. By 2007, running short on cash restoring the aircraft back to flying condition, it was sold to EADS/Messerschmitt Foundation. The restoration was completed in 2008, but on its second test flight the landing gear failed to extend and it was forced to make a belly landing. The repairs took almost a year to complete before the aircraft took to the air again in 2009. The aircraft from that point on continued to operate routinely until 2013, when it was forced to make an off-airport belly landing into a field, after the engine quit during an aerobatic performance. Following repairs, the aircraft was first flown again a year later, in mid-late 2014. Then, in 2016, with a pilot reportedly inexperienced in the type, the aircraft crashed on take-off after becoming airborne prematurely, dipped a wing and wound up in the grass at the side of the runway. As a result, the aircraft again has been undergoing ground-up rebuild (the freshly rebuilt fuselage was just recently delivered back to the Messerschmitt Foundation in late 2018). Perhaps the "unluckiest" 109/Buchon, for all of the trouble its seen, or perhaps the "luckiest" 109/Buchon, for all of the people who have continued to keep it going after every setback, always to see it rebuilt and alive again.
One of the things I've heard and seen various 109/Buchon pilots do as they climb out of the aircraft after a successful flight, is to tap on the aircraft a few times, telling it "you didn't get me this time!".
Originally Posted by JensOle
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