It’s hard for me to imagine that it has such a strong effect. Regarding the little plane, what’s your experience with starting the 35A with engine realism on in difficult weather conditions? Sometimes I try 10 times, and by the time I get everything ready for taxi, the engine dies and I can’t start it again 
Yes, the Wilga rotates counterclockwise, so you will need to actively counter the resulting P-factor, especially during takeoff and landing, where it can strongly influence ground roll and directional control.
Regarding autopilot, the Wilga does not feature an autopilot or in-flight adjustable aileron and rudder trim in real life. That said, we live in a time where many users value accessibility alongside realism. A large portion of the community wants to fly the Wilga hands-off while following the magenta line, or to fine-tune controls to reduce P-factor effects.
Because of that, we chose to implement full trim axes and autopilot support in the Wilga. In some configurations, this may be as simple as a flight director that stabilizes pitch and roll. In others, such as when using the GTN-750, it provides full autopilot capability. These features are included based on community feedback, even though they are not present on the real aircraft without significant aftermarket modification.
At Got Friends, we follow a “choose your own realism” philosophy. If you want realistic engine behavior and failures, enable Engine Realism. If you want autopilot, install the unit. If you want three-axis trim, enable it. If you prefer a purist experience, configure the aircraft accordingly and fly it as close to real world operation as possible.
Our goal is to ensure everyone can enjoy flying the Wilga, whether that means bush flying, following navigation guidance, using an Xbox controller, or stepping away for a few minutes while the aircraft cruises straight and level.
The realism comes from your choices. We simply provide the options. Those options are the reason our aircraft resonate with purest, beginners, enthusiasts and casual simmers. We try to ensure that you can enjoy your flight regardless of hardware or technical level. We simply make sure that the data behind the flight model is as accurate as possible. If the user chooses to add layers of assistance on top of that baseline, that’s their decision.
To answer the AP question specifically, every time you enable the flight director, you are trimming for level flight. Upon deactivation, those trim axis will stay as they were trimmed. So if you want to introduce P-factor again, simply reset your aileron trim back to neutral. Otherwise, the flight director is working as we intended and designed. Our recommendation, if you want the purest formula, remove the autopilot unit and enjoy that stick.
Got Friends
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However, during flight some 80, when I engage the FD, the knob even though it’s set to 0 shows 1R when I hover the cursor over it, as if it’s stored somewhere by default. Maybe that’s why the effect is so strong, and resetting the FD fixes it.
I’ve read that these “metal livery” add-ons could have changed something in the cfg file, which then synced with the cloud, and now I end up with a broken plane 
Rudder input is also required during climb. Ordinarily left turning planes need some right rudder during climb, and some left during a glide or descent. In this case, you would need left rudder on climb and a little right on descent.
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I’ve been testing the aircraft with different settings and configurations, and I’m starting to think something is wrong on my end.
When I take off for the first time, the aircraft has a very strong bank tendency. I usually have to use a trick with the Flight Director — turn it on, let the aircraft stabilize, then turn it off. After that, the aircraft flies smoothly and behaves normally.
However, after I land at another airport and take off again, the behavior feels correct. There is a noticeable but pleasant P-factor, the aircraft yaws as expected, and once airborne it flies normally.
The strong initial effect only happens on the very first load of the aircraft. On subsequent takeoffs, everything feels properly implemented.
From what I understand from other users, the developers of the Wilga, and my own experience with it, if you’re experiencing straight and level flight hands-off after takeoff - that’s the bug.
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To clarify, this is not about normal yaw or drift during takeoff or landing.
The issue is that after liftoff and initial climb, regardless of airspeed or configuration, I cannot release the controls even briefly — the aircraft immediately rolls to the right. This happens in stable flight and is not related to P-factor behavior.
However, if I reset or stabilize the aircraft using the Flight Director on the first takeoff (FD ON → stabilize → FD OFF), the issue disappears. After that, all subsequent takeoffs behave normally.
On later flights, I experience only the expected and realistic yaw during takeoff and landing, and in cruise I can briefly release the controls without the aircraft rolling aggressively.
This strong right-roll tendency only occurs after the very first load of the aircraft. Once cleared, the aircraft behaves as expected for the rest of the session
This is correct, at least based on other user experiences, the developer’s comments, and my own experience.
Just to make sure I understand this correctly:
Is the Flight Director meant to be used to set the aircraft so it can fly hands-off without requiring constant control corrections, or is it supposed to cancel propeller effects? This is where my main confusion comes from.
In my case, using the Flight Director once during the flight seems to remove a very strong effect that causes the aircraft to roll to the right. After that, the aircraft behaves normally.
During later takeoffs and landings, I can still feel the expected and realistic yaw and drift, but in cruise I am able to briefly release the controls without the aircraft immediately banking to the right.
My understanding is that the Flight Director should not cancel propeller effects such as P-factor or torque. Because of this, the behavior I’m seeing feels incorrect and suggests that enabling the Flight Director is clearing or resetting an incorrect aircraft state rather than compensating for normal aerodynamic forces.
Are you talking about the first time the aircraft is loaded into an overall sim session or within a single loaded flight? In other words, by “flights” do you mean every time you take the aircraft off the runway, or every time you exit out to the main sim menu?
Regardless of the above, if you are experiencing only a slight roll tendency after the first flight in contrast to an initial aggressive roll tendency, you may indeed have something going on with the configuration.
I just flew the 35A. I would qualify the right roll tendency as “slight,” but I usually fly warbirds, so my impressions may be skewed. It would be nice to see a video of the initial roll tendency on your end, or a measurement of degrees of bank per second.
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To clarify, I am referring specifically to the very first takeoff after launching the simulator and loading the aircraft.
If I do not use the Flight Director during that first flight, the aircraft has a very strong tendency to roll and requires constant control input.
However, once I activate the Flight Director at any point during the same session/flight and then deactivate it again, the excessive roll tendency is greatly reduced or disappears.
After that, for the remainder of the session, the aircraft behaves normally and does not require continuous correction in level flight.
Because of this, I am trying to find a technical way to record a video that clearly shows the behavior before and after using the Flight Director.
Still not clear to me. We’re mixing up words. For the purpose of this conversation:
Session = From the point the simulator (MSFS software) is launched until it is closed.
Flight = Starting a flight from the main menu of the simulator until it is ended and you are back at the main menu.
I’m not trying to be overly nitpicky here. It’s just that I have noticed some rare but strange things happening when loading multiple flights within the same session. For example, I can’t for the life of me get the F6F Hellcat to stick to a custom control profile for one of its 3rd party liveries. Another example is that if I change the default loading configuration on the AH P-51D, it will carry over to a new flight, almost like persistence, but it will go back to default if I close the sim entirely and load it again (not persistence). I’ve noticed these oddities, but they aren’t intrusive enough for me to investigate why they are happening.
If we are talking about one given flight (as defined above), the idea that engaging flight director and then disengaging it leading to the elimination of the roll tendency would tell me that everything is working just fine. The aircraft does have a persistent right roll tendency. When I flew it earlier, I noticed that the roll tendency seemed to persist, albeit to varying degrees, regardless of power/RPM settings, which has always seemed odd to me. I would think that there would be some cruise power setting where the aircraft would indeed fly straight without a need for control input, but I don’t know that for sure. Back when I flew the Wilga a lot, I remember managing my fuel consumption so as to carry less in the right tank as compared to the left.
Regarding flight director, your impressions are correct. It does not directly cancel out prop effects. In the sim, flight director replaces the need for manual control input by manipulating trims. As one of the devs said above, the real aircraft has neither AP nor roll and yaw trims, but they included them in this addon for accessibility reasons. So there are trims for roll and yaw that can be adjusted manually by binding them to your controller(s). When you engage flight director, it is adjusting those trims. While it does not cancel out prop effects directly, it counters the effects that the prop has on roll and yaw by adjusting the respective trims. Before engaging flight director, you have an aircraft that has a tendency to roll right. When you engage flight director, it counters that by adjusting roll trim to the left. When you disengage flight director, the trim stays in the same place, leaving the aircraft without that right roll tendency.
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In that case, how can I manually set the trim so the aircraft doesn’t have that roll tendency, like it does after using the flight director? As far as I can tell, there’s only elevator trim available, not roll trim.
I recorded a video. You can see that right after takeoff, when I release the stick, the plane immediately rolls onto the right wing. This happens regardless of speed, altitude, or configuration. Then you can see that when I engage the flight director, stabilize, and then disengage it, the plane flies steadily for a longer period after I release the stick.
When I land and take off again, that initial roll doesn’t appear anymore. Sometimes, if I engage the flight director before adjusting anything, moving the cursor over the roll knob already shows, for example, +1R. This time, that didn’t happen.
That’s why I’m confused about this dependence on engaging the flight director. The roll you see at the very beginning after takeoff seems too strong to me and unlike what I’ve experienced in other planes in the game. Maybe I’m being oversensitive, but what exactly is being stabilized when I use the flight director?
I don’t have the plane, but my guess is its setting trims that don’t exist in the real aircraft. A crutch, if you will.
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I’m starting to understand that the aileron trim is implemented in the plane, but there’s no dedicated switch in the cockpit for it, you just have to assign some buttons, which I didn’t have.
The Flight Director (FD) simply stabilizes the aircraft for me because I’m not doing it manually with buttons.
So now I’m thinking correctly, and that’s where all the confusion came from?
Possibly…? If they had never implemented an optional autopilot, or “invisible” trims, the only questions would be “Why does it roll to the right?”, and “How can I stop it?”.
The answers might be “It’s normal for a CCW prop.”, and “Use that stick in front of you!”.
You can cheat the game a bit by removing the co-pilot and cargo before boarding. The Wilga isn’t an easy plane to fly; for level flight, you need to adjust power and RPM, as well as rudder. This isn’t an ordinary plane, but rather a woman named “Mrs. Wilga.”
I’ve noticed that the fuel or cargo distribution doesn’t affect this roll for me
I figured out what’s going on. I actually assigned the aileron control to buttons, and now I can manually stabilize the aircraft. I had no idea you had to assign it manually since the original plane doesn’t have this control. Case closed
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