SuperChief141

My mentor when I was training for my Private Pilot ticket a million years ago was a former Dustoff pilot that, along with reminding me that Warrant Officers are addressed as 'Mister', and never 'Sir', had stories to tell. Shame this a family forum or I'd share a couple!

I fly with VR and the first time I loaded into the Huey I was startled by this dude sitting next to me who bears a striking resemblance to a friend I had years ago. I actually said aloud something along the lines of "Hey Brad, whacha been up to? Didn't expect you here!" The door gunners?................Pete and Repete obviously. BTW: Brad was in the Army, I'm an Air Force Vet, which is why I'm the Pilot in command and he's ballast!

I would say just do it then. I'm deep into my 60'S and the reality is the Bucket List clock is ticking. Find a helicopter school, plunk down $300.00 or so and get yourself a no obligation (as in signing up for lessons) Discovery Flight. Bragging rights for life. Sounds like you were a bit more in command of the aircraft than I was! In my defense, I'm a very rusty pilot. Stopped flying 20 years ago and since then have only flown a plane once about 10 years past. Your sim setup is similar to mine, I also use the Warthog throttle as a collective. Interestingly because of the short lever moment the Warthog/collective is very sensitive (as I'm sure you know). This led me to under control the collective in the R-44. Under controlling a heli? That's about as common as leftover bacon. You Sir, are a Grand Master of the understatement. You win the Internet!

As a low time private pilot that lost his medical years ago, I've been itching to get behind the stick one last time. A "Fini" Flight as we called it in the Air Force. Flying a helicopter had always been a bucket list item for me as well, so I decided to combine the two. After all I learned to fly a UH-1 in DCS and have more than a few hours in it. I had no misconceptions that my DCS Huey experience qualified me for the R-44 but I was curious how it would play in real life. Thought I share a few impressions for those that might be interested. First and foremost a HUGE shoutout to Dallas from Helicopters Northwest in Seattle. (In which I am in no way affiliated) As our Instructor she did an excellent job of making us not dead. OK, impressions in no particular order: This aircraft was very clean. I was an aircraft mechanic for 35 years and rarely, if ever have I seen an engine/accessory compartment so spotless. The anti torque pedals don't self center like my Thrustmaster pendulars. I never quite adjusted to that. No trimmer! In my Huey the trimmer is life, not so with the Robinson. In my 30 minutes of stick time I never felt the need to trim the aircraft as I changed altitudes and airspeeds. I recently added a 4" extension to my warthog stick, and while it made sim flying easier, the feel and geometry of the R-44 "top down" cyclic was quite different. This is something I think I could adjust to fairly quickly though. Turbulence was a factor. In DCS my UH-1 weighs in at a couple of tons and I generally fly with weather off. Spoiled me rotten. The R-44 is a little 'ol thing and as we were flying off of the several square miles of tarmac that is Boeing Field the thermals bounced us around a bit. (23 c on the ground) Dallas gave great advise here, telling me to just let the helicopter fly thru the bumps and not try to correct for every bounce. My closing thoughts: Could I have taken the R-44 off? I'll give myself a maybe here. Could I have hovered the R-44? GAWDS NO! Could I have flown the R-44 from Point A to B? I can honestly say yes here. Once in the air it is pretty much point and shoot. Could I have landed the R-44? Please expand upon your use of the word "landed." Could they have reused the R-44? See above question/response. This was not inexpensive but for a life experience/bucket list item it was worth it. Lastly I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my young friend Anneliese who came along as my photographer...Imagine, this was her first time in a helicopter and she had me as a pilot! YOU ROCK GIRL!

Found 'em! Thanks to everyone that chimed in. With that help, Thelma and I took the Mystery Machine straight North from Tankerton Beach and there they were. Great help, lads. (but that doesn't mean I won't shoot you down at the earliest opportunity........because DCS LOL) Who's next? Apache? Black Shark?........................Harrier?

Thanks for the tip Qcumber, just out the door for work and will check this afternoon. Thanks!

First a huge to the Devs for all the hard work. I haven't done any combat on the map yet but am having a ball exploring. The obligatory inverted pass under the Eiffel Tower, ditto the Tower Bridge, landing a FW-190 at Stonehenge (Dicey, but doable) and other assorted antics. But what I haven't been able to find are the Maunsell Sea Forts. I googled the Lat-Long and have been flying a grid over the Thames Estuary but no joy. If it makes a difference I am on the full fidelity map. As someone that lives on the U.S. West Coast and never had the pleasure of visiting England, I was hoping one of my UK Brethren could point me in the right direction. Yup, a Yank asking a Brit to tell him where to go, take your best shot!

Greetings! First I'd like to thank you for this wonderful mod. I've been thoroughly entertained. I have run into one minor issue that may be on my end (question ? mark) and i have a question as well. Issue: The anti torque pedal animation is reversed. I.E. Push left pedal, aircraft responds correctly but right pedal depresses in sim. Question: Are there any future plans to unlock more control bindings? I fly in VR so keyboard commands are problematic at best. Again, Well Done!

I'll take ...um...intrigued! Again just a proof of concept so it's not pretty. Made another trip to the thrift store for FAA certified UH-1 parts (by that I mean another desk lamp) to beef up the linkage a bit. It certainly isn't perfect, there is some slop in the linkage and the 'stiction' the TWCS is famous for gets amplified though the grip. Still far better than using a Warthog throttle as a collective. If I were to get serious I would build up the links from scratch using steel rods with proper rod end bearings. BTW, That is a calibrated brick. It's the optional "Auto Stability" Package

As a fixed wing pilot in sims & RL, I've always viewed helicopters as expensive, noisy and overly complex means of committing suicide. Then on a whim I bought the Huey and saw the error of my ways. I found using my Warthog throttle as a collective worked but I wanted a 'proper' collective. A little looking showed that available sim collectives are few and expensive. Enter my Thrustmaster TWCS Which I.ve been hanging onto as a back-up for the Warthog. Largely repurposed stuff ( writing table top, desk lamp, R/C plane linkages and the rear end out of a 56 Pontiac.) I did make a rule that I couldn't alter the TWCS in any way other than some disassembly, that way I can return it to normal service if needed. Just finished this prototype (don't judge too harshly) today and it seems to work well. Still dialing in the curves and saturation but the fine control is so much better. (just kidding about the Pontiac)

Well, just spent a good part of the day tweaking sliders, turning VSYNC on and off, playing with NVIDIA settings all to no avail. Then I Googled "DCS Channel Map Low FPS" and it brought me here................*sigh* It is a beautiful map and I look forward to it being optimized, howerver for me in VR it is presently unusable. I also have a Track IR that mebbe I'll try tomorrow. I've had enough playing Junior Hacker for one day.

So as soon as these came back in stock I ordered the pair. That was Oct 30. After several days of not being able to decipher SimStore's awful order status page I sent a polite Email inquiring to the status of my order. Here is their reply: ( Spelling, grammar and punctuation theirs ) Dear Sir, Thank you very much for your support, and very sorry for the delay. As too much order of new panels(they sold out in 48 hours out of our plan), the girls in warehouse are very busy in deliver. so a little delay. but don't worry ,all package worldwide will leave our factory as soon as possible. Please don't hesitate send me mail if anything more I can help you. Best Soooo.....Lemme see if I got this right. SimStore announces panels are back in stock. (I will assume for the sake of argument they know how much inventory they have.) Along comes a simple schmuck (me) who jumps on it. Simstore processes order and happily takes the afore mentioned schmuck's money but has no inventory to back order. Now SimStore has Schmucks money and Schmuck still has no idea when panels will arrive. Seems Legit

Yup. There they are. ( Right where I should have looked in the first place ) Thanks!

Anybody seen the dimensions on these? I managed to snag 'em both before they went OOS. While waiting for them to arrive I'm trying to figure out where to put these and my Logitec switchpanel as well. I fly with a Rift so tactile functionality over aesthetics for me. My 'pit doesn't normally look this chaotic. This picture was taken during active W.I.P. while I was installing the Warthog. Please don't judge!