Hi all, apologies if this has been asked before ...

I bought the 707 a few months back but never gotten around to flying it until last week. It's a real change from the DC3's I've been flying!

I've noticed however that the a/c has a tendency to want to turn to the left. I have checked trims, fuel load etc but cant seem to figure out why it's doing it.

Anyone have any ideas?

aha, i guess this might be the answer

http://www.captainsim.com/cgi-bin/kb.pl?p=b707&i=20#q199

'cept I turn to the left. Probably didn't look properly in the fuel panels.

There is a actually another thing that might be affecting it. I've noticed that a few joysticks can cause the same problem too, so before you start moving the aircraft, rotate the joystick and then it should be fine.

That's what used to happen with my joystick, so might be the same thing happening here.

yes, I'll try recalibrating the joystick (I use the CH Yoke thingie), that might also be doing it. The effect is certainly more noticable on the 707 though, but worth a try nevertheless.

One other question while I'm here - on climb out, whats your feet-per-minute rate? Whats normal for a 707?

I think its about 500 ft per minuet (for landings anyway). For take-offs its about... 700 maybe? I'm not sure myself, so I just try and not exceed 1000 ft per minuet.  ;)

Incorrect fuel trim was the problem. Balanced it out and she now flies straight as an arrow  :)

On the climb out though, jeez, it takes *ages* to get to any sort of flight level. On a flight tonight it took the best part of 20 minutes to get to FL220. Surely cant be right?

20 minutes? It should take way less time than that. Maybe the weight is making it take longer to climb?

I would venture to say that the problem is weight. I've loaded the 707 down to the degree that it would take seemingly "forever" to climb to FL300. Climbing at 700-1,000 ft/min will make a person want to take a nap ;D