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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Alternative AT-6 Flight Dynamics

As stated in the book, Fighters of World War II, by Jeff Ethell and Robert Sand, "The AT-6 was the first dose of real horsepower given to Army Air Force Cadets and they took to the beefy trainer with unbridled enthusiasm, much to the horror of local townspeople who were constantly buzzed and chased at all hours of the day and night. It was intoxicating to ride behind 600 horsepower with the canopy slid back and the landing gear tucked up. A pilot's first taste of "rat racing" in trail, leader trying to shake those following, came with the Texan."

"Once we got into advanced training with a hot 600 hp airplane, we flying cadets considered it the hot rod we never could afford during the Depression. We could cruise about the Texas plains after dark, harassing train crewmen to the point of serious injury. We would spot a slow freighter ambling down the track, fly ahead of it for several miles, turn and meet the locomotive at cab level, and wait until we were right on the engine before turning on one landing light. The engineer would know that he couldn't avoid a sure collision, and order the fireman to jump before the "other train" hit. The engineer promptly slammed on the brakes and ground the wheels flat as the AT-6 roared overhead and we hightailed it back to base with our night flying training completed. This was great sport for both Army and Navy pilots." - William Bell, an AT-6 flying cadet.
 
Bomber_12th said:
"Once we got into advanced training with a hot 600 hp airplane, we flying cadets considered it the hot rod we never could afford during the Depression. We could cruise about the Texas plains after dark, harassing train crewmen to the point of serious injury. We would spot a slow freighter ambling down the track, fly ahead of it for several miles, turn and meet the locomotive at cab level, and wait until we were right on the engine before turning on one landing light. The engineer would know that he couldn't avoid a sure collision, and order the fireman to jump before the "other train" hit. The engineer promptly slammed on the brakes and ground the wheels flat as the AT-6 roared overhead and we hightailed it back to base with our night flying training completed. This was great sport for both Army and Navy pilots." - William Bell, an AT-6 flying cadet.
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man..that was just mean....funny as hell...but mean....:icon_eek:
 
Dumonceau, I have them all, so I'll put the same flight characteristics together for the Alphasim/Virtavia models as well, and upload them all together as one set (covering all three sets of FSX AT-6 productions).

The reason why I don't tend to fly the Alphasim/Virtavia model is because the view from the cockpit is far more restrictive than it really is in the real aircraft, due to the way they modeled the canopy and windscreen. As you can see with the more accurate Wozza and SU models, the canopy on the AT-6 is quite tall, and when you sit in the AT-6 you also sit quite tall as well, almost able to see over the nose, with a great amount of vision provided to you. The Alphasim/Virtavia models, however, of course have a large amount of superb repaints, and it is a solid aircraft.
 
Bomber_12th said:
Dumonceau, I have them all, so I'll put the same flight characteristics together for the Alphasim/Virtavia models as well, and upload them all together as one set (covering all three sets of FSX AT-6 productions).

The reason why I don't tend to fly the Alphasim/Virtavia model is because the view from the cockpit is far more restrictive than it really is in the real aircraft, due to the way they modeled the canopy and windscreen. As you can see with the more accurate Wozza and SU models, the canopy on the AT-6 is quite tall, and when you sit in the AT-6 you also sit quite tall as well, almost able to see over the nose, with a great amount of vision provided to you. The Alphasim/Virtavia models, however, of course have a large amount of superb repaints, and it is a solid aircraft.
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Thanks Bomber, you're a true Gentleman!! I tend to agree with you on the view in the AS one, but IMHO the modelling and especially the VC is superior to the other offerings. That is of course just MHO.

And to be totally honest here: I can't get the Wozza one to start... You can have a laugh now! I'm just not the accusim kinda simmer...

Thanks again!

Dumonceau
 
Speaking of the Virtavia/Alphasim model, does anyone know of a fix ever having been made for the propeller? I noticed it spins the wrong way.

Regarding the Wozza Texan, Dumonceau, if you do remain interested in flying it, it just requires that you have a fuel tank selected (when you start off, the fuel selector will always be off) and the mag swith to both, and then all you have to do is just press Ctrl+E (if you don't want to go through the full startup procedure).
 
Bomber_12th said:
Speaking of the Virtavia/Alphasim model, does anyone know of a fix ever having been made for the propeller? I noticed it spins the wrong way.

Regarding the Wozza Texan, Dumonceau, if you do remain interested in flying it, it just requires that you have a fuel tank selected (when you start off, the fuel selector will always be off) and the mag swith to both, and then all you have to do is just press Ctrl+E (if you don't want to go through the full startup procedure).
Click to expand...

I'll try that, thanks again John!
 
I was fortunate enough to get a fair bit of stick time on both Harvard Mk.IV's and an AT-6G Texan when I was a member of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum several years ago and the Six is my favourite aircraft, hands down. It has a spacious and roomy cockpit (a definite plus for a six+ foot, 200+ pounder like me) that offers excellent visibility once airborne, the joystick falls naturally into hand - unlike yoke-controlled aircraft , it's surprisingly light on the controls for an airplane that is easily on par size-wise with WW2 single engined fighters, and it is, plain and simple, just one solid ball of fun to fly! If I ever won the lottery I'd be happily slapping down a couple of $100K for one in an instant.

I've got a question about the FSX version of the Wozza T-6. Has anybody had problems with it not starting? I've gone through the listed procedures time and again, even tried Cntrl-E, but no joy. She shuts down as soon as it comes on to the screen, and she'll crank and she'll crank, but won't catch and start.

N.
 
Neil, to get it to start, there are only two important things you'll have to do every time you load the aircraft:

1. Select a fuel tank via the fuel selector switch (every time the aircraft loads, the fuel selector will always be "OFF", and when pressing Ctrl+E, the a fuel tank will not be selected for you automatically)
2. The magneto/ignition switch in the VC needs to go to "BOTH" (through the hidden gage code, this aircraft's ignition will not be on unless you use the switch in the VC, even when you press Ctrl+E)


Once you've done those two steps, the aircraft will fire right up when you select Ctrl+E.


For a manual start, using all that the aircraft has to offer, do the following:

1. Fuel selector on RIGHT TANK (make sure there is fuel in it)
2. Turn Battery and Generator ON
3. Using the wobble pump located between the trim wheels, you will need to pump up 2 lbs. of fuel pressure into the system (the engine gage on the instrument panel will show you this)
4. With fuel pressure in the system, prime the engine THREE STROKES (if you do more than this, the engine may catch on fire due to over-priming, which you will see by black smoke and the engine not starting (if you press Ctrl+E at this point, it will start up and the fire will go away)).
4. Turn the magneto switch to BOTH
5. ENGAGE the starter switch and push the mixture to FULL RICH
6. If the engine fails to start, add another shot of primer and engage the starter (I've found that if I had used three the first time, and then more than one on the second try, it is prone to catching on fire from over-priming). Continue this until the engine fires, adding only one shot of primer between start attempts. It will typically start right up on the first try when using 3-strokes. At any time, you can press Ctrl+E and the engine will start, as long as you have a fuel tank selected and the actual mag switch in the VC is on.

The fact that you have to use the wobble pump for the manual start is one of the items I love most about Wozza's Texan, as all AT-6/Harvard/SNJ pilots experience that with every time they start the engine, since the aircraft doesn't have a fuel booster pump.
 
Thanks for that. Found out I wasn't manually turning the mags to "BOTH"'; I was using the M+ command. Once I got that sorted out she started beautifully and I had a delightful flight out of Oshkosh. Thanks for the mod.

One last question: is the canopy functional on the Wozza-FSDS T-6? I tried the handle in the cockpit, which moves and makes the "Exit Open" banner appear, but the canopy remains closed. Ditto with SHIFT+E.

Thanks again.

N.

I like that AS-V Texan as well, but I, too, was disappointed with the heavy canopy framing
 
With the canopy, the "Shift+E" just de-activates and activates the lock on the forward canopy. To open it once it is unlocked, you just click on the canopy framing and slide it back manually, as far or as little as you want.

Perhaps the most commonly unknown feature of the Wozza Texan is that when you are seated in the back you can toggle to have the pilot figure show-up seated in the front VC cockpit. The switch for that is the gage cover plate on the rear instrument panel. This way, if you want to fly from the back cockpit (as popular when training for flying WWII fighters), it provides for a more challenging and realistic experience, to have to look around the guy in the front. All of the SkyUnlimited Texans/SNJ's/Harvards have the same type of feature as well, triggered through different means.

There is a readme file that covers all of these items, including the engine start items, in the original set of files, but I believe that original readme is over-written with one that doesn't cover those things when you add the update.

Speaking of engine start details, the SkyUnlimited SNJ-4 has a very nicely done inertia starter simulation.
 
Here are some screens from a few recent flights in the particular example I enjoy most, the SkyUnlimited Harvard, which is the only true Harvard model for FSX. More than just an AT-6 cockpit with a spade-grip, the instrument panel is correct to the type, and the cockpit is filled with the correct assortment of U.S. and Birtish hardware (note the british type gear indicator and radios). The mixture control setup is also different, being backwards from standard U.S. aircraft. The cockpit also hat hot air controls related to the unique setup on Harvards, where heat is ducted off of the exhaust - the reason for the much longer exhaust stack (and you can see this ducting in the VC/cockpit). On early versions, like this one, the tail wheel was locked via a control arm that sticks out in front of the engine controls, which you can see. On later variants this was changed out to the control stick-controlled tail wheel locking mechanism similar to the one of the P-51 design.















 
Jesse and his development team did an outstanding job on the Texan and the Harvard. With your mods, John, they truly come to life. I really enjoy your insights as to the details and differences in the models. :salute::medals::icon29::guinness:
 
My Dad flew the Harvard during his pilot training in the BCATP. I was highly motivated to get the details as right as I could. It's hard to express just how satisfying it is to have someone outside the dev team take notice, especially someone who has a world-class reputation as a modeler himself.

 
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