Carenado Waco takeoff solved.

[oeker 4]

First - there is a reason why trike gear was invented..

I am using the study level A2A Texan as a yardstick. A taildragger with large radial motor. I learned a lot from flying this. 

Some theory - The rotating airflow from propeller hits one side of the tail, creates a yaw. More significant is the gyroscopic effect from the heavy radial. It kicks in with rapid pitch change..

To mitigate this, you need a lot of clean straight airflow over rudder for rudder authority.

Takeoff:  

Tail wheel lock. There is handle above trim wheel to lock tailwheel (shift g) - but it is best to assign a button.

Line up  up on runway PERFECTY prior to lock tailwheel. Trying to correct an initial wrong heading with tailwheel locked ends up with disaster..

Lock tailwheel and taxi forward a bit while kicking rudder, to confirm lock.

Takeoff run - Keep stick back pressure as the airspeed increase. The more clean airflow over rudder, the better.  Release the stick sloooowly to neutral. Remember a rapid pitch change induce gyroscopic yaw.

There will be a yaw move. Try to anticipate it with rudder input - but with increased airflow you will have plenty of authority.

Landing:

 - Tailwheel unlock - .  Do not land too fast, dancing on main wheel  Try to remember the attitude when aircraft is parked. Touch down in this attitude gives you a 3 pointer. Slowly flare to this attitude a few feet above the ground while stall warning sounds. Stick all way back during roll out. Continue to fly until complete stop. This is fork lift steering at high speed.

Final - I find the needed takeoff yaw correction  slightly more in Waco than A2A Texan. I am not a real pilot , this could be due o a larger tail in Texan... -- And again -  there is a reason why trike gear was invented..

 

[lewandell 0]

I love this plane, especially in vr, but I hate using it in vr because if the stupid pilot carenado put in. Even if I remove it through using the pad  its still there, so if I lean back slightly, I'm blocked by his head. I'm having to fly with my nose pressed to the instruments. Any ideas?

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

32 minutes ago, lewandell said:

I love this plane, especially in vr, but I hate using it in vr because if the stupid pilot carenado put in. Even if I remove it through using the pad  its still there, so if I lean back slightly, I'm blocked by his head. I'm having to fly with my nose pressed to the instruments. Any ideas?

Interesting, in 2D there is no pilot in cockpit view, must be a VR thing.

I suppose an alternative is remove the front cover using the tablet and assign a key to co-pilot view and fly from the front.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Glenn Fitzpatrick

[Dillon 2,197]

On 2/19/2021 at 9:21 AM, oeker said:

First - there is a reason why trike gear was invented..

I got a better one.  Avoid crosswinds as much as possible (within reason).  The wind sock is your friend...

[LouP 116]

And I always thought the way to fly a taildragger was to get the tail up as soon as possible so you can see where you are going.  What did I know?  lol

LouP

[Republic3D 1,232]

The real Texan / Harvard was used as a training aircraft for new pilots in various air forces and navies.

If it's as bad as the Waco, they would have been dying in the hundreds on a yearly basis. 

There's something wrong with the Waco as it is now. 

[wim123 763]

5 minutes ago, Republic3D said:

The real Texan / Harvard was used as a training aircraft for new pilots in various air forces and navies.

If it's as bad as the Waco, they would have been dying in the hundreds on a yearly basis. 

There's something wrong with the Waco as it is now. 

nope , not at all, the waco is just a much more difficult aircraft to fly than a texan.

and we have the flaps bug now.

[Bobsk8 12,735]

1 hour ago, LouP said:

And I always thought the way to fly a taildragger was to get the tail up as soon as possible so you can see where you are going.  What did I know?  lol

LouP

Hundreds of hours in the A2A Texan and that is the way I do it, let the tail come up when it wants to, and then keep the nose straight with the rudder. Landing can either be a three pointer, or a wheel landing, I practiced both all the time. On the wheel landing, you want to keep the tail from dropping, with some forward stick, until the airplane really slows down. Then when the tail starts to drop, keep it firmly on the runway with some back stick, and some slight braking and rudder to keep you on the runway. Crosswinds are always a challenge. 

[lupedelupe 315]

If you watch real radial-engined taildraggers take off two things stand out:

1. The tail comes up very early
2. Large rudder inputs (with tail up) to keep it going straight, but the yaw reaction from these inputs is massively delayed

Unfortunately, neither of these points apply to the Carenado Waco for MSFS. It's still a lot of fun to fly, but more realistic ground handling would make it a LOT more enjoyable. 

[sd_flyer 6,045]

1 hour ago, Republic3D said:

The real Texan / Harvard was used as a training aircraft for new pilots in various air forces and navies.

If it's as bad as the Waco, they would have been dying in the hundreds on a yearly basis. 

There's something wrong with the Waco as it is now. 

Taxan are actually very stable aircraft! I know some people will have problem with it but IRL it flies like "on rails" LOL In fact when I first flew Texan (SNJ-4 variant in my case) after Cessna, Piper and Citabria are was literally blown by it's stability!

 At the same time it is classic stick and rudder plane if one doesn't pay attention it won't as forgiving as C-172 or PA28. 

Carenado Waco is not perfect but much improved after initial release. What I like about Waco is that it very strict in term sof cross wind control. If one can get away with sloppy x-wing technique in 172  Waco will punish him right away! LOL