Weird character orientation when possessed during simulation

Hey all

I have come across a strange problem. I’ve implemented a custom player character (inheriting from ACharacter) with a third-person camera setup. The character behaves perfectly fine when I spawn it in a PIE session, i.e. it spawns, is oriented correctly, drops to the floor, etc. All fine.

The Problem

When I simulate and then possess the character, it spawns but is oriented in a weird way. When (in the editor viewport) I face the landscape when possessing, the character will be tilted to face the floor. When I look at the sky in the editor and then possess the character, it will be spawned lying on its back.

Any ideas what the cause could be for this?

Cheers,
M.