I haven’t and probably never will fly a real WACO or anything else for that matter.
I am flying in a game/simulator that at best is probably no more than a very loose approximation of what real piloting is all about.
I just “adjust fire” to try to create a fun experience while always learning about all the various ins and outs of aviation. When it ceases to do that for me, I’ll just move onto something else.
Here’s another video. As you will see I managed to both take-off and land all right with the tail-wheel UNLOCKED.
I had no control, however, over that crazy developer who drove his truck through my tail section!
No problem with that. But if you were flying a well-modeled taildragger, one of the ins and outs you’d learn about is a groundloop.
I’m doing something similarly unrealistic by keeping the tail down all the way through the takeoff roll.
It’s just that it’s much more satisfying - and more fun - to get closer to the real thing in a good simulation that forces you to learn something about real-world technique. The A2A Texan for FSX and P3D comes to mind.
The WACO is pretty, but it’s not a good teacher. Good teachers are more entertaining.
I reinstalled the plane and it feels better. Interesting, I wonder if something was just bugged. The takeoff does work best with the tail wheel locked, there is still some steering available as I gain speed. Now it seems to work fine.
I solved the audio problem, I had the game set to “headphones” and switched to “default”.
You do not have to keep the tail down all the way. Up to 40 mph is enough and let it go up and anticipate the right rudder and a bit of rudder dance. It is really a matter of practice and after a few tries, you learn to keep it rolling completely straight until reaching take-off speed.
Maybe some of you have not updated it yet? Before the update it was wild… after the update it became much more controllable.
Yeah I wonder if mine updated correctly the first time. Because now it behaves like I would have expected it to. There’s some dancing on the rudder required but it’s normal and not the full deflection with no reaction. I can start rolling and feel it become effective and then relax the stick, rotate and be up and away.
Yes, updated. It’s more controllable, but still not representative of a real WACO where the tail is up nearly at the start of the takeoff roll, and there’s not much rudder input. For example. And another. Flying calls it “a taildragger - a tame one…”
Not every handling difficulty is a failure of technique.
If anyone is interested in the real WACO, this guy pretty much confirms what most of us already know.
In its day it was the “Cadillac of the sky”, pretty much a dream to fly, but more of a challenge on the ground.
He does play with the rudder quite a bit, very quick jabs… i do it like that in the sim and it stays straight as well… maybe it is not that much different from reality. I guess it is too snappy and overdone in the sim?
That’s basically it. Any taildragger does need that kind of quick, alert footwork on takeoff and landing. It’s just that the effect in the WACO is overdone - a combination of MSFS groundhandling problems that affect all aircraft, and taildraggers in particular… and some issues with the WACO itself. The model acts like an airplane with much more horsepower. And that nose swing at 40 knots is a dead giveaway because it’s triggered by speed, not by power.
If the model was more accurate, you’d have to apply some of the same techniques - just not as much, and the consequences wouldn’t be quite so severe.
What’s frustrating is that it’s decently close - a bit more work would get it reasonably tamed, but Carenado tends not to take those last steps.
Personally, I put these issues at the feet of the MSFS flight model mostly, I think Asobo still has a bunch of work getting that transition between rolling and flying right, as well as, as you noted, the effects of wind on the plane still needs a bunch of work. To me, things do feel a little better after SU4, but it’s not there yet.
I agree. The problems start with the bizarre ground physics and the weathervaning in takeoff transition. Though it’s interesting also that the small default taildraggers are better-behaved than some of the add-ons. Makes me think that the not-yet-complete SDK is a contributing factor, too.
In FSX/P3D, the best taildragger modeling was done outside the sim. We might have to wait for the same here… if and when developers are able to deliver that.
Wow. I’d completely missed seeing that Thanks for sharing! Explains a lot. You’d hope - especially with team members participating in the thread - that a fix would be forthcoming at some point.
I think in the case of the WACO we’ve got these fundamental sim issues coming together with the problematic tailwheel steering angle and some fudging that Carenado has done to produce that leftward excursion at a speed value rather than at a power value. Makes me hopeful, though, that if the lateral stability and weathercocking issues can be straightened out in the core sim, a bunch of aircraft, including the WACO, would suddenly get easier to deal with.
