Uncle Jack Simulations

Hey there Cub! The current lack of binding capabilities has already been addressed, and a set of bindable commands are coming for the next update! You'll then be able to control systems using your Honeycomb Alpha! Respectfully, Dan.

Hey there, CubPilot! From what I could see, it seems to me you are trying to steer the aircraft while its tailwheel is unlocked. The PT-19 has this tailwheel locking mechanism, which may seem odd at first, but a breeze once you get the hang of it. Too much rudder input will cause the tailwheel to "snap" out of its locked position and will free castor. This is useful for tight turns on the ground, but it makes everything else pretty much impossible. To lock the tailwheel back in its place, you must first bring it under its "lockable amplitude" (which means it must not be too far left or too far right from the center of the rudder), and then push the stick back in order for the locking mechanism to work. You'll hear an audible, metallic "clank" when locking occurs. After this, taxiing the aircraft should be done with moderate rudder input if you don't wish to unlock it again. Using differential braking makes this a lot easier, even though it seems very hard at first! If you don't want to deal with this, you can simply go to the 3D menu and select to have the tailwheel always locked. This will make the PT-19 behave just like any other addon you're familiar with, and the tailwheel will never be unlocked again. This is a convenience feature. About imbalances: If the aircraft is fully repaired and functional, one thing that often takes pilots by surprise is the fact that fuel tank management must be done manually. The aircraft has 4 fuel tank selector positions: 2 Both OFF, Left and Right. After about 15 minutes of flight or whenever applicable, you should manually change the fuel tank switch position to the other tank, as it may become out of balance otherwise. Other than that, the PT-19's flight model does take into account the natural yaw tendency of the real aircraft. This means that, even if perfectly balanced and trimmed (elevator trimmed), you must always give it a little rudder input here and there in order to have a smooth flight. Flying this antique aircraft requires way more hand-feet coordination than modern GA aircraft, but it is a worthwhile endeavour! And finally about grass vs pavement performance... This is a known issue with how X-Plane sees grass and pavement. Unfortunately, the PT-19 does require more RPM than it should in order to start moving on grass, and extensive testing show that it does require about 150-200 more RPM than it should in order to break inertia and start rolling. The PT-19 in real life does behave like this on grass, but not to THAT extent. Unfortunately, this is a limitation on the simulator's end and how it "sees" the ground friction values, and changing this behaviour would break the accuracy of the aircraft's landing performance. I hope this helps you somehow! Please feel free to follow up with questions or comments! Respectfully, Dan.

Hey Cyril! I totally agree! I can't give you any dates; but rest assured that human interactions in the cockpit are one of the systems that are being thoroughly researched (: Thank you for your feedback!! Respectfully, Dan.

Hey Cyril! As of right now, there is no paintkit available yet, I'm sorry! But I'd be glad to make you a livery for her, so feel free to reach out with your ideas! If you are familiar with programs like Quixel Mixer or Substance Painter, you can use those to make some liveries yourself (even without a paintkit). I'll try to find time to include one after this major update. Respectfully, Dan.

Hey Cyril! Sorry for the delayed response. This is due to the fact that the tanks are ruled directly by datarefs, and not X-Plane commands. For the upcoming 1.0.3 update, I'll include a few commands for you to bind! Thank you for the suggestion! Dan.

Hey @garyh! First of all: I'm sorry you feel this way! I've been working on object optimization for the PT-19 for the next 1.0.3 update, among other features. Even though it is a small aircraft; it's level of detail and textures can easily become "too much" for some systems. While that update isn't out yet, i want to suggest a few things that you can try! - Switch to Vulkan! Vulkan is the alternative to OpenGL (X-Plane's "Graphics" tab), and the PT-19 is compatible with it! It greatly reduces the amount of VRam that X-Plane uses, and is a true game-changer! If you haven't tried Vulkan yet, then please give it a try. - Double check plugins and scenery. Demanding simulation-rich aircraft demand more resources than usual, so flying with a lot of scenery and other plugins/addons may be just the combination for disaster. More often than not, all those addons and plugins (some even out-of-date) can cause performance hiccups. And don't remove Gizmo. Gizmo is essential and the aircraft simply won't work without it, as it powers all the custom systems. As oldflyguy said, taking a look at your "log.txt" file (located on X-Plane's root folder) can be extremely helpful, so feel free to send yours; i'll take a closer look! I hope this response helps you somehow, please don't hesitate to reply to it. It is true that the model is very detailed and, even by checking all the automatic options on the menu, operating it without properly reading the including manuals can be very frustrating (like the real aircraft). Respectfully, Dan.

It's great to hear that it's now running! Yes, the Alpha Yoke has grown to be very popular, and i'll focus my attention to this hardware interaction that you described. Happy Flying!!! Dan.

Hey there! I spent the previous days trying my best to reproduce this issue, but still no luck. Have you tried starting the engine manually (no use of the menu helpers) for a change? I know unplugging those devices may be tiresome but, during debug, everything that can be excluded should be excluded. I am still investigating this on my end, since it's the only bug report that remains, but i still insist that you try booting the aircraft up with no additional flight controls attached, just to be 100% sure this isn't the cause. Respectfully, Dan.

Just reporting back that this is top priority right now. I am investigating this further. Just because you didn't mention it, i'll remark that loading the aircraft with "Start with engines on" and trying to reload it from the Developer menu are known causes for this erratic behavior. While i'm trying to reproduce this in my end, i'll kindly ask you to try 2 things: - Try booting the aircraft up without any flight control hardware attached. - If able, try installing on a different computer. Your license supports multiple computer installations at the same time, to don't worry about that. And i'll go back to trying to figure this odd behavior. Dan.

Hey Johnson! I am just using X-Plane's default camera system. That means, Arrow keys move me up, down, left and right, and dot and comma move me forwards and backwards. Holding down "Shift" makes the movement become quicker! I don't believe X-Camera nor TrackIR can somehow reproduce this behavior that you described. I would, however, suggest that you try running X-Plane and the PT-19 with just the bare minimums (Which is the Gizmo Beta plugin, that is installed alongside the aircraft), and then we can see if this keeps happening. The reason for this is because i could see from the Log file that you have quite some plugins installed, and this has been the only report of such a phenomenom. If you have followed the video i posted down to the letter and still faces these issues, then running with no plugins is the next step. I think we're almost getting there! Dan.

I made you a video and, hopefully, this will get sorted Let me know if, even when following all of this, this behavior still persists. Respectfully, Dan.

Hey Noam! Thank you for the kind words! Hope she's giving you a lot of enjoyment Of course! I intend to have a "walk mode" and a "towing mode". The things is... I have no idea how to do this. But rest assured that, if i can make it, it'll happen! Respectfully, Dan.

Hey Johnson! That makes me believe you had an older airframe already. The addon simulates for occasional faults on the magneto ground wiring. It would also explain why it's harder for you to start the engine even when allegedly doing everything by-the-book. Respectfully, Dan.

To get a new "factory new", simply delete the file "states.dat" from the PT-19's root folder, then load the aircraft again. You can get the prop out of the way by cranking the starter once or twice. If the prop still won't get truly out of the way, rapidly rotate the starter to shift the magneto actuation point.

Hey Jjohnson!! Your engine is catching fire because it is severely overprimed. Disclaimer: Never select X-plane's "Start with engines running" OR try to reload the aircraft via the developer menu. That will break things. Load another aircraft, like the stock C172, and then load your PT-19. First, let's make sure your engine is looking great, by checking the maintenance menus. Also make sure your spark plugs are on, by going to the big opening in the front cowling, and seeing if there are these wires going all the way into each cylinder. Check for sufficient fuel, too. On the PT-19. there is no "BOTH ON" for the fuel selector, so verify you are hooked to an actual fuel tank. Check oil quantity too while you're at it! About priming (which was the issue in your case here), you can prime by doing 2 things: - Using the external primer next to the starter crank (precise priming) - Moving the throttle back and forth (works but it's not very precise, and you must know what you're doing or things can get out of control). The engine retains the fuel that is primed into it, so i recommend you get rid of that, too! To do that, you can: - Move the ignition switch to "OFF" and crank the starter multiple times - Remove and reinsert the spark plugs (drains everything) - Leave the throttle open and wait for some time (5 to 15 minutes) so the primed fuel evaporates Don't prime just yet. It's the last thing you do. So try this: Once you get fuel pressure built, mixture rich, throttle 1/8th open, fuel selector in a valid position, and no problems whatsoever in the aircraft, then you go outside, unlock the primer, and operate it at least twice. Right after doing this, set ignition to "LEFT" position and crank the starter. It should wake up the Ranger. Keep in mind, if the aircraft is old already, then it takes perseverance. It's normal for it to be moody and not want to start up in the first tries. You gotta be lucky with old aircraft. Hope this gives you some light! It's complex, yes, but once you get to know her, it'll be second nature! Respectfully, Dan.

EDIT** Read Cam's post below! Disregard this Hey burningbee!! Yes, you will start "fresh". Try backing up the file "states.dat" that is located on the aircraft's root folder, and save it somewhere safe. After the update, you can paste this file back in and it should have your data there! The way the aircraft loads and saves data has been slightly changed in this update, so if you have any issues with doing that, then just delete the file altogether and you'll be fine. Hope this helps! Respectfully, Dan.

Thank you, Speed!! YES, this is great material for anyone looking into aerobatics on the PT-19, and development also relied on it for some specific airfoil tunings Again, thank you! Respectfully, Dan.

I see! Well, after that traumatic experience, i'd still suggest loading other aircraft first, then coming back. That seems to "reset" the PT-19 and allow for it to properly start, and should make these systems work correctly, too! Thanks, Steve! Hope it Helps!

I'll take a closer look into this. It doesn't seem to affect all liveries, so it may be easier to fix. Thank you, CaptCrash!

I was so far unable to reproduce this issue with the 3D menu autostart and the with Jerry's superstrenght... Have you by any means tried to reload the aircraft through the developer menu? This is known to also glitch the aircraft into this catapulting state. I'd recommend loading the default glider and then loading the PT-19 back, making sure to check if any systems got broken during the glitch, and then attempting to use those functions again. Respectfully, Dan.

Update: I have just now fixed the issue with the oil cap not being interactable while the cowling is removed. Should ship along the next update! Again, thanks for your report! Dan.

Hey there zkalos! Yes, you should be able to remove the oil cap with the right cowling removed, so rest assured i will look into this phenomenom closely. The sounds of the aircraft's wheels rolling through paved or unpaved surfaces do change a little bit, and since the floor panel is close to the ground, rocks and shock absorption from the tailwheel do make quite some noise! In fact, if you taxi with the flight stick pulled towards you, you'll even be able to hear the constant contact sound that the tailwheel mechanism makes when being forcefully dragged across the ground. About smoke and flames: I implemented a custom smoke system on startup, actually! When you start the engine, the amount of smoke the engine will produce is directly linked to the residual oil that makes it through to the cylinders. This depends on wether or not the engine is warm, and how long it has passed since the last flight. After startup, it's no common for the engine to smoke, or release flames. There are videos showing some flames coming out of the exhaust, but i investigated and found out they were using experimental fuel on the Ranger. The original type of fuel that is recommended by the manufacturer does not produce such effect (which i wish it did, because i wanted an excuse to model this, too!). I totally agree there could be an option for wearing a helmet or not, which would muffle the sounds. This will probably be implemented in the near future! The same goes for rain effects, both visual and auditory. I decided to not use Librain effects since they are too heavy on performance, so i'm currently developing my own technique for this. Thank you for your kind words and suggestions! I hope this answer was able to give you some comfort. Respectfully, Dan.

Hey there Steve! First: Thank you for the positive feedback! Yes, anti-aliasing does make a big difference in performance, specially for 4K textures and detailed meshes. What we tested was to actually disable AA inside the Sim, and use something else to control it, for instance, nvidia inspector. That helps performance-wise a lot, and will deliver good visuals too! For the Toe-Brakes: They should work! There is this issue with X-Plane when the aircraft is rolling on grass or other unpaved runway, where the brakes won't hold you still above 1.700 RPM. If you're over paved surfaces, the toe brakes should work flawlessly, so i'd double check for any calibration deadzones. Let me know if these work out for you! Dan.

Hey Giacomo! Thank you for the kind words! The aircraft was built for the experimental flight model I agree that being able to move the control surfaces by hand would be a really cool feature, i'll look further into that! I am working on a "leaky" texture set for when the aircraft is flying with the fuel caps open (which is a mechanic already present in the current build). This could certainly be expanded to include an over fill situation! AviTab is a bit tricky. The thing about it (and its current design limitations) are, i believe, the major reason why mostly all implementations of AviTab are through tablets. Imagine for instance having this vintage map displaying modern approach charts! I think one thing that you would like to know is, for the most advanced IFR models of the PT family, i plan to implement an advanced 1940's interactive flight-planning tool that should help you out. And for future updates, i think it would be nice to ship a manual flight computer that can be used while you fly Hope this was helpful! Dan.

Hey folks! I knew you online pilots out there would ask for some kind of transponder / radio. There are lots of modified PT-19s, and even full PT19 conversions of other models, like the more advanced PT26. I believe it would be more enjoyable to have a historically accurate version of the bird resting in our hangars, and i tried my best to commit to this vision when developing it, but rest assured i'm planning something that may satisfy your needs. It is my intention to release an expansion for the PT-26 and even the PT-23 (radial) aircraft, and those do have an electrical system among the other quirks that come with them (like IFR capabilities, oil dillution systems, and some other fun stuff!). When i get the backbone of those systems coded, i will release a completely free upgrade to PT-19 owners which adds the PT-19B variation (has a battery and basic, very basic IFR capabilities, along with some radios on its side). Well, for VATSIM and IVAO, i do know you can have a remark stating the time you are simulating, eg: Simulating daylight and clear weather. So nothing stops you from "RMK/Simulating clear weather daylight VFR 1941" and carrying on! -jk, don't try this.