Just Flight Piper PA-28-161 Warrior II

I bought this plane last week, after sitting on the fence about whether I would actually bother to fly it since I have both Arrow’s already. But for £16 it was worth a punt.

It’s a great little plane to fly, but I’ve noticed what was posted about twice before. My yoke’s rudder trims don’t seem to work on it, but the VC dial does work. I don’t have this issue on other planes, just the Warrior.

I saw it was mentioned on a release note back in October, so I guess this didn’t get fixed?

I flew it again last night, and this time I could set the rudder trim. I could even see the little knob rotating as I did so, and that definitely wasn’t happening before. Glad is working though.

My only comment on that when observing the rudder trim percentage when moused over, and when I press the two way switch on my yoke is it takes a lot of presses to adjust it by even 1%.

Yeah … where the elevator trim is too fast, making precise adjustments impossible, the rudder trim is too slow. That’s a problem with the Warrior as well as the Arrows.

Elevator I had no problems with, either with my two way switch on the yoke, or my Logitech trim wheel encoder. But for the rudder trim I can lean on the switch for several seconds, and when I mouse over the VC trim wheel it will report something like 2%. If you just tap it repeatedly it takes far longer than that.

All that said I’m having a lot of fun flying this plane, which I didn’t think I would even buy as I already have both Arrows. I think I have my landings pretty much dialled in now, coming in at around 70kts with full flaps. I tend to get smooth landing more often than not now, so that makes me happy. :slight_smile:

I have to admit I love this little one more than the beefier Arrows too. :slight_smile:

Main problem I have (and I think this applies to all 3) is that the starter doesn’t seem to trigger right from my Honeycomb yoke (using spad.next to send commands via SimConnect); I have to use the mouse to turn the ignition in the VC to start it up. Once started, works great. :smiley:

It’s no speed daemon, but I like the low-n-slow planes. :smiley:

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From the Just Flight support FAQs:

Honeycomb Yoke Start Issue
Users with that yoke will need to backup/delete the engines.cfg file from the aircraft folder and then rename the ‘engines.cfg_HoneycombYoke’ file to engines.cfg.

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I have the starter problem also, and do on other planes as well, using my Logitech switch panel.

I believe the binding I have is correct, but the virtual cockpit version does something different, like the difference between an instantaneous press, and an press & hold. I need to revisit that, but couldn’t figure it out at the time.

Just saw the post above. I will inspect the difference, and see if the same fix would work for me. Depending on how that change is implemented, I may be able to apply that to other planes.

I think the Payware Goose also doesn’t work for me, and I have to use the VC switches instead.

I also noticed in the Warrior that some of the lighting issues I was having with the Arrows may be resolved. For the life of me I just could not get those little rotary light switches for Panels, and Nav to work properly. When I bought the Warrior I simply copied the SPAD config for my Arrows over, and was delighted to find that pretty much everything worked from the get go, including the rotaries. :ok_hand:

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Oh nice, thanks for that link! I’ll check it out.

No change in behavior. It may not be designed to fix the problem with SimConnect, perhaps, or else it’s being overridden by the encrypted Marketplace files.

Aha – I was able to resolve it though, by switching from sending MAGNETO_START to SET_STARTER1_HELD (with param 1).

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I will look for that also, thanks.

I have all three of this line of aircraft through the Contrail App, have no issues whatsoever expect the nagging flight characteristics that I call nose dancing. Having time at the helm of a warrior and arrow, I have never seen such exaggerated yaw moment from such little aileron input. Hope they get it sorted out. Not as prevalent on the Warrior compared to the Arrow.

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I like a lot of things about the Warrior, but the pitch swings have always annoyed the heck out of me. Is this a characteristic of the aircraft itself, because of the wide flex wings? Or is it exaggerated in the sim? It’s to the point, along with the trim issues, that I rarely fly the airplane now, which is a shame, because I like so many things about it and JF.

The Warrior - in real life - is sensitive to speed changes. Once established though, the Warriors I’ve flown have all been very stable.

In the sim it is difficult because there is no feedback on the yoke. In real life it is much easier to adjust trim to eliminate any control pressure on the yoke.

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Agreed. I don’t fly any of the PA28’s from JF for this reason and I can tell you for a fact that this is not how the real aircraft behaves.

The flight dynamics engineer at JF is aware of the issue (and has been for quite a long time). They are currently awaiting some feedback from Asobo and are planning a complete rework of the flight model for the PA28 range when this is received.

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The starting issue with Honeycomb Yokes and Saitek Switch panels has been discussed ad-infinitum in the past :smiley:

TLDR Honeycomb starts only work if the aircraft is programmed for an unrealistically rapid start, without cranking for a bit. This is because the Honeycomb/Saitek starter switches just send a single pulse when first flicked to start. As a result the engine cranks once and stops no matter how long you hold it in the start position. With the mouse it will keep cranking till you let go of the mouse. With Honeycomb leaving the switch in the start position does nothing.

Solutions:

  1. Use the alternate config file that increase starter torque and hold time so the engine fires almost instantly.
  2. Flicking the Starter switch on and off several times a second will keep the starter engaged and eventually the engine will fire. Be aware it may not be good for the switch though.
  3. Just use the mouse to start
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I have a question as someone that is particularly sensitive to pitch sensitivity in the sim.
Have you flown the DC Designs Stearman or the Big Radials Goose? I am curious what you think of either of those in comparison to the Warrior with regards to pitch sensitivity.

Trim nose up on take off roll to take the weight off the nose wheel. That’s what I do with the Arrows, and I’ve not seen the Warrior do that once.

I’m afraid I haven’t flown either of those, I’ve spent most of my time in the Warrior and Arrows, or back to the default 172. I spent a good deal of time in the Milviz 310 until I stopped flying it. So I don’t know how it compares to those 2. I’ve also got probably 50 hours in the JPL 152, none of those aircraft have this issue, but they also have KAP 140s that can set climb rates. But even before I engage the AP, I never see that windshield wiper of climb rate I do in the Warrior.

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I’m trying to map the avionics master switch to a button. Is there a standard binding or LVAR?

Luckily what I am describing isn’t witnessed during takeoff, primarily witnessed when landing and more noticeable when less power is being applied in landing configuration. Basically, small aileron input results in exaggerated yaw moment where the yaw is induced from even the slightest aileron input to keep your course correct. Left - Right aileron, even the slightest corrections to maintain course on final result in the yaw moment Left - Right, vice versa. It’s so prevalent that it appears as if you’re giving it rudder input even though you’re not. What happens is that when the yaw is induced by the aileron input the yaw moment occurs then the yaw corrects to a certain extent aerodynamically, but then you find yourself needing right aileron and thus another instance of yaw moment to the right and then back straight again, but the yaw never really stabilizes, it’s as if the tail is tied to a horizontal rubber band. Consequently, the whole time on final I find myself with a nose dancing side to side and having a hard time to just keep the nose flying straight. Something I cannot recall ever having to face in a Warrior or Arrow.

I’m not having that issue myself. And I suspect the reason why is I am not a real life pilot, so in essence I have learned to fly the sim, and what I do in the sim would not apply to a real world aircraft, and perhaps applying real world techniques might lead to situations you describe?

I haven’t had the nose wheel wobble since I learned elsewhere here about the up trim trick.