for those having probles with the airplane torque effect after the tail leaves the ground try turning off torque effects in the game settings.
a radial engine of that size in a light airframe will create torque effects and they are modeled as they should be.
additionally, don’t slam the throttle all the way up for take off but do it gently and apply full throttle only after the tail has lifted and, again, progressively and gently.
I whish they had included a panel with retro instruments, the only thing holding me back for the purchase of this one, besides MSFS not supporting biplanes flight model, is the panel with modern instruments.
it is cool to have an IMC able biplane but I’d prefer to have the option with vintage instruments and fly Richard Bach’s cross country flight from Biplane.
How do you know they’re modeled correctly if you haven’t flown the plane? Would love to see you pull off a smooth takeoff in this plane so you can teach us all how it’s done, because I definitely can’t figure it out.
I have tried smooth throttle. You can get the tail off the ground at about 1/4 throttle, maybe a little more, but it doesn’t matter. Soon as that tail comes off the ground, this plane is going about 90 degrees off the runway. If you compensate with full rudder the other way, it takes a bit for it to do anything, then it goes 90 degrees the other way. If you turn Auto Rudder on, it still can’t keep the thing on the runway.
try to apply some weight on the rear, if that sorts out the torque effect then it could be a balancing problem.
nevertheless…there are three seats in this waco, that seems to be definitely an error.
I’d be honestly surprised if carenado (who have a very long history of flight simulator addons) had released a plane with a flawed model as that would have been very explicit during the test phase.
there are many resources in the net and video showing the so called “rudder dance”, especially concerning taildraggers.
this is a very good example (boeing stearman, very similar layout to this waco), look at the work that has be done witht the rudder to keep it centered, no wonder that people with autorudder and twist joysticks are having issues.
and also here, there’s an interesting comment from a real world pilot learnning to fly the real world waco:
another very interesting point, have they modeled the tail wheel locking? that is essential to taildraggers and, if I remember correctly, the waco has a tail wheel lock.
I had already attempted to add weight to the rear, putting in the maximum allowed. It didn’t change the center of gravity issue very much at all (from -9 to -6) and didn’t change the issue on takeoff. If you look at that guy’s video, he’s making pretty modest changes in rudder back & forth. With this plane, you’re going full rudder just to keep it on the runway and it’s still moving. It’s full rudder left, full rudder right, rinse & repeat until you’re airborne. I was able to find a way to get it off the ground consistently though, but it’s quite a battle. If you go half throttle until it gets to about 35 knots, then slam it to full throttle and be ready to go full rudder just after that, you can keep it off the grass, then full rudder back & forth. It’s still moving quite a bit, and very jerky, but can get flying at least.
Yeah, and the balance figured out. Don’t get me wrong, when this thing gets airborne, it’s a dream, at least for somebody like myself who is too dumb to know whether the biplane flight model is accurate or not. The sound is amazing too.
I flew it last night twice. Take off very challenging but doable. However this morning every time I click ready to fly it ends up nose down into the ground and I “crash”. If I try arriving in the air the throttle is not responsive and I deadstick land. I found the fuel pump off and fuel tanks not open.
I love the plane, the flying and the landing but not the start.
You can lock the tail wheel with a key in the menu. But when the tail wheel rises it is so difficult to hold the Waco in straight direction.
In my opinion it’s a really good price for this beauty.
so I bought it and didn’t have any problem taking off straight applying the same techniques I use with the xcub (by bush league legends) or savage cub.
pull stick full aft and apply power progressively (with the savege you can be brutally on-off though)
when airspeed indicator comes alive be ready to apply right rudder (in the video I was a bit slow to react)
keep pushing that stick all the way until about 50mph…at that point release the stick and the tail will lift gently…again be ready for rudder dancing.
from 50mph is just like taking off in any airplane.
too bad the manual does not explain anything about this, I really miss the days when scenery makers and airplane makers would include PDFs with documentation of your bought airport and area and for the plane you downloaded. sigh.
but, try it. apply 25MP with full stick aft, when airspeed comes alive be ready for some right rudder and go full power and, finally at about 50MPH release the sitck, again be ready for rudder. The tail will lift the ground on its own.
many planes engage tail wheel lock with backpressure on stick, from small taildragger to old WW2 fighters like the FW190, probably also the P51
Thank you for sharing this technique. Pulling the stick back until it’s stable enough seems to help a lot. It’s just hard to use the rudders at the same time if you have no room to install pedals. That’s what auto rudder should help with but it doesn’t seem to work on this plane. Never had any issues taking off in other tail draggers.
I flew for about 30 minutes this morning. Take-off is brutal, even knowing it might be possible with the aft-stick procedure mentioned above I’m disappointed with its state at release. I don’t trust the rest of the flight dynamics either, but if they clean up take-off and give us confidence the rest of the flight envelope is replicated well I’ll be very happy. It’s gorgeous - exactly the kind of payware aircraft I have been looking for in style and cockpit. I hope they fill out the systems with circuit breaker functionality and temps, etc.
Well done. Unfortunately, with a stick without pedals, that technique is extremely difficult, and auto-rudder seems to do nothing. It can be done, just not very smooth, and you’re basically jerking from one side of the runway to the other. I have never had an issue with any of the other tail-draggers though, just this one. You’re able to counteract it pretty well, but you can see in your video how jerky and sudden the plane is when it decides to move in a direction during takeoff.
Just keep pulling the stick back as adviced on this thread – while taking off, and landing. Makes the Waco much more easier to handle. I have no problem using a Logitech 3D Extreme Pro.
