Is anybody regularly flying Alexey Yuzefov's great Yak 18T trainer? This is one great airplane, but I am having real trouble figuring it out. (And I have RTFM). I normally dont fly the russian birds even though most are beauties, mainly because I dont want to try to figure out the arcane ways they operate the cockpits and the Cyrillic alphabet labels on gauges etc. However I figured this was short sighted and I'd do myself a favor and figure this out, hence I downloaded and have been working on this Yak.Now a some of what seem like dumb questions...1. How do I get the landing gear to raise? The manual says there is a secuity lock that has to be removed/unlocked to get the gear to raise. I cant find it. I can get the gear lever to raise and I hear sounds that appear to be related to raising gear, but the gear stays fixed. Very frustrating.2. I wasnt able to get the nose wheel to steer but fixed that one in the aircraft.cfg. There was no steering angle set in the cfg file. Likely this means differential braking for steering, but I dont have rudder pedals, so I fixed that one.3. getting the radios to work for comms has been impossible. However, I continue to work with the manual etc to figure this out. Eventually I am going to install an RXP 430 or 530 into this cockpit and that should fix the Russian radio issues.Anyway, if I can get advise on the gear issue alone, Im ahead of the game.kind regardsEric

Search for Yak-18T here http://www.protu-154.net/forum/search.php?mode=results

If you are not already, use also the Yakovlev Yak-18t Addpack 2.2 for this aircraft. This solves a few issues. It is currently unavailable from AVSIM due to the hack, but I have requested a re-upload so hopefully it will back soon. For the time being you can get it from flightsim.com; search for filename 'yak18a22.zip'. I was glad we were able to get the Yak-18t itself back, as this was missing due to the hack as well.Also keep in mind the engine on this aircraft is very temperature sensitive. You'll have to monitor the temperature and work closely with the cowl flaps, propeller pitch and throttle to keep the temperature in check and not blow the engine. Its a great and challenging bird to fly.For the landing gear, maybe you're going to fast when you try to raise it. I've noticed this sometimes tends to happen when you try to retract the gear and have already gone above its maximum speed limit. Also try the Addpack 2.2 I mentioned above.

Its a great and challenging bird to fly.

she sure is!.....I feel a Yak-18T mood coming on. :(

Its a great and challenging bird to fly.

she sure is!.....I feel a Yak-18T mood coming on. :(

she sure is!.....I feel a Yak-18T mood coming on. :(

Agreed on that, one of the most complex and challenging (not to mention good looking) GA aircraft simulated for FS; and also highly enjoyable (even though sometimes technical flukes spring up). I haven't flown her for a while, will correct that immediately.If you like this Yak-18T, can also try the Antonov An-2 from Anton 'Xomer' Nikolaev, its been around for a longtime and is among my favorite GA planes. There's also a good An-14 from him as well, with incredible STOL performance - perhaps too much STOL in the flight dynamics on that one, but its still nice with a really good 3D model and VC; and a lot less complex to start up and fly than the other two options mentioned here.

If you like this Yak-18T, can also try the Antonov An-2 from Anton 'Xomer' Nikolaev

I have tried the excellent An-2 also. I am a big fan of the Ruskie FS developers ... the Tu-154M, An-12 and IL-18 are my favourite Russian flavours.So much so I am planning a trip east to photograph the said cockpits in detail. :( I would like to improve the Yak-18T cockpit also. :(

I would like to improve the Yak-18T cockpit also. :(

Any improvements would be welcome. If you can, go for it. There's also a decent Yak-12 out there: http://harrierpanels.avsim.ru/eng/Yak-12.html It would be great to see some improvements to that one as well, starting with a pilot in the cockpit.

I am a big fan of the Ruskie FS developers ... the Tu-154M, An-12 and IL-18 are my favourite Russian flavours.

So am I, they've made some great FS stuff over the years. :( The Tu-154 has been done unbelievably well by Project Tupolev and there's a good An-12BK from Vladimir Zhyhulskiy available. It would be a blast to see an updated Ilyushin IL-18 ( http://il18.fluo.net ) with a VC as well.

I have tried the excellent An-2 also. I am a big fan of the Ruskie FS developers ... the Tu-154M, An-12 and IL-18 are my favourite Russian flavours.So much so I am planning a trip east to photograph the said cockpits in detail. :( I would like to improve the Yak-18T cockpit also. :(

Ed if you improve the Yak 18 cockpit, I hope you will share... :-) This bird is cranky but I am learning to fly her. Eric

The Yak-18 is basically a Mooney Bravo. Use the Mooney panel. Go fly. But the aircraft cfg has 'issues' too. Same with air file. So you may want to tweak the Yak-18 cfg and air files, using MB cfg and air. Or just use the MB cfg and air and just rename them. Cheers. The date of MY mods say 'Oct 9, 2009'. I made a video showing it in FS9 and FSX at YouTube. In search key in: 'Yak-18T FSX' and it should pop up. Was thinking of uploading a fix back then but I forgot all about it (because it did not use the original panel-too much work-I quit on project). CBNapamule

The Yak-18 is basically a Mooney Bravo. Use the Mooney panel. Go fly. But the aircraft cfg has 'issues' too. Same with air file. So you may want to tweak the Yak-18 cfg and air files, using MB cfg and air. Or just use the MB cfg and air and just rename them. Cheers. The date of MY mods say 'Oct 9, 2009'. I made a video showing it in FS9 and FSX at YouTube. In search key in: 'Yak-18T FSX' and it should pop up. Was thinking of uploading a fix back then but I forgot all about it (because it did not use the original panel-too much work-I quit on project). CBNapamule

The Yak-18T is not really a Mooney Bravo at all, not even close. Using the Money Bravo cfg and air files would be a waste here. You'd miss out on the impressive Yak-18 dynamics developed for this bird. I don't see the point of switching the panel to the MB as well, you'd be substituting an impressive VC and superior panel set-up. It would become just another aircraft in FS, equal in simplicity to the defaults. It all depends on what you want, if you want a challenging and rewarding flight experience with detailed systems then stay away from the Mooney Bravo modifications. If you want something really simple, then try it; but if you do that you might as well just fly the Mooney Bravo instead. Also personally I always found the default FS9 Money Bravo flight dynamics to be a bit rubbish, they could really use some improvements for the sake of realism. Like the ones RealAir Simulations did for the default Cessna 172, those were a vast improvement and very good.

Gear problem might be related to the pneumatic system switch (no 41 on manual). In Yak flaps and gear operates pneumaticly and front wheel is not steerable so steering is only possible with differential braking. One more note if rpm drops below 41% generator fails so it necessary to bring rpm over 41% and reset the generator. Lastly for receiving NDB signal the switch on the upper part of ndb reveiver must be kom position.Best Regards

Gear problem might be related to the pneumatic system switch (no 41 on manual). In Yak flaps and gear operates pneumaticly and front wheel is not steerable so steering is only possible with differential braking. One more note if rpm drops below 41% generator fails so it necessary to bring rpm over 41% and reset the generator. Lastly for receiving NDB signal the switch on the upper part of ndb reveiver must be kom position.Best Regards

Could be, without the pneumatics you won't even be able to start the engine.

The Yak-18 is basically a Mooney Bravo. Use the Mooney panel. CBNapamule

Each to his own, but no. That would be a little like using the default 737 panel with the PT TU154M. But no offence intended, just politely disagreeing.

Hello there, I actually own a Yak-18T, so if you have any questions re flying/operating/controls of this airplane, feel free to PM me. Cheers, Phil.

Also keep in mind the engine on this aircraft is very temperature sensitive. You'll have to monitor the temperature and work closely with the cowl flaps, propeller pitch and throttle to keep the temperature in check and not blow the engine. Its a great and challenging bird to fly.

:( :( :( This is amazing to me! I have a number of third party aircraft that feature cowl flaps, The Shockwave Spitfire Mk1a, The Carenado Bonanza V35B, The Fiat CR42 to name a few and in none of them do the cowl flaps have the slightest effect! Not on either tempurature (Cylinder head, coolant or oil) or drag. In looking through .air files and aircraft.cfg there seems to be no parameters for cowl flaps at all.Is this aircraft unique in this department or what am I missing here?! I had come to the conclusion that this was something that FS9 just chose to ignore.Cheers................Todd