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controls the rudder. This is used to control the aircraft’s yaw.
Drag the slider to the left to turn the aircraft to the left, and
drag it right to turn the aircraft right. For a visual representation
of yaw, see the Flight Dynamics appendix.
The button on the bottom left (number 4 in Figure 2.1) toggles
the brakes on or off. When it is lit up, the brakes are on, and
when it is off, the brakes are off.
The button to the right of the brakes (number 5 in Figure 2.1)
controls the gear. When this button is lit, the gear is down, and
when it is unlit, the gear is up. Of course, this only applies to
aircraft with a retractable landing gear.
To steer the aircraft left, tilt the device left. To steer it right, tilt
right. This movement—when the wings dip down or rise up
while the fuselage (the main body of the plane) stays pointed
in the same direction—is referred to as roll. To pull the
airplane’s nose up, tilt the device back toward you, and to
push its nose down, tilt the device down away from you. This
movement—when the wings remain at the same attitude, but
the fuselage moves—is called pitch. See the Flight Dynamics
appendix for a visual representation of this.
Because X-Plane Mobile does not take input from a third input
axis for yaw (as it does from a joystick with a twisting handle in
the desktop version), X-Plane will attempt to stabilize the
aircraft’s yaw for you.
Basic procedure for taking off (covered more in depth in each
app’s specific chapter) is as follows:
1. Turn off the brakes.
2. Drag the flaps about 1/3 of the way down to create
some extra lift for takeoff.
3. Slide the throttle all the way up.
4. Drag the RUD (rudder) slider left and right to steer down
the runway.
5. When the aircraft reaches its takeoff velocity (which is
different for every craft—heavier planes need greater
speed), tilt the device back toward you, thus pulling
back on the craft’s flight controls.
6. Once the airplane is safely in the air, drag the flaps back
up to the top of the screen and toggle the gear up (if
applicable).
7. Level the plane off once it is a few feet above the
ground so that it can build up speed. This will act as a
“cushion” to prevent it from stalling once it begins to
climb in earnest.
8. Climb at around a 10 degree incline (more powerful
craft can handle higher climb rates) at full throttle until
the desired altitude is reached. Note that once the
power is set at full, the performance of the plane (in
terms of its climb rate and airspeed) is controlled by
pitching the nose up and down. If its nose is pitched too
high up, its speed will drop until it stalls. This can be
thought of as being similar to a car trying to go up a
hill—an excessively steep hill will cause the car to go
very slowly and its engine to overheat.
Note: When your aircraft crashes, go into the settings menu
and select either a new airport to take off from or a random
flight. This will reset the airplane after the crash, giving you a
brand new one to fly again.
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