I must admit that I haven't fired up the PAD Twotter myself yet, only the AeroSoft one for, I believe, only three times now. So I'm not sure if what I am about to say for the AeroSoft one, also goes for the PAD one.
The ground handling of the ski version is notably different from the wheeled version. There is definitely way less lateral stability. It's like as if it is standing on ... snow
, sliding to the side if the wind is not directly head on. There's a lot of rudder work to keep her tracking in the right direction. The other big difference with the wheeled version is the braking action, or better: the lack thereof. And the resistance of the skis on the ground will make you want to use up pretty much all of the runway at Castlegar to gain sufficient speed. Or was that because I was fully fueled and maxed out on pax and cargo... I don't know, but I was surprised by the runway length I needed to get to Vr.
The skis are like shoes put on the wheel shaft structure. The wheels peep underneath the skis only a little bit, so the plane should actually drive, not slide, on tarmac. I guess that is difficult to model, since also on the tarmac, it feels like standing on snow.
Do you have separate rudder pedals, Andy? I ask, because Aileron movements significantly increase the take-off run, because of extra drag (and if you don't have rudder pedals, then you'd have rudder coupled to aileron, and then you would need to move the stick to stay on track, which in turn also imposes Aileron movement). Does the PAD have a proper pitch trim indicator?
I won't be able to play with this until Monday evening, so that's why my 1000 questions for the obvious
I intend to fly the next Trans Siberia event leg that evening, but if I get home in time from work, I'll give the Twotter a little spin before that.
EDIT: Dominic typed his reaction in parallel to mine