RightYouAreKen

That's awesome. That's gonna be similar to my desk soon hopefully. As you know I have a CM3 already, and I ordered a Gunfighter MK III MCG Pro - S (100mm extension model) on Tuesday and it was picked up by FedEx yesterday. Can't wait to get it. I'm coming from a CH Fighterstick which is nice, though I'm looking forward to the metal gimbal with an extension for center mounting (rather than sidestick mounting). The angular deflection on the CH is also a bit uncomfortable for my hand during hard dogfights. Maybe when my Gunfighter arrives you can help me learn the VKB software

I realize I left out the physical button to logical button step, which could cause a lot of confusion, so I've edited my post above and inserted some more screenshots to illustrate better.

That's strange that you're having problems getting the LEDs to stay lit. I had problems getting the LEDs to turn off! in the LED page, are you setting the colors there for the first 6 LEDs on the top row on the left side? Those appear to control the lights on the CM3. The other squares on that page are just "extra". BTW, sorry you were potentially exposed to COVID. Hope you and your wife stay healthy!

You can get the latest software here: https://virpil.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/47001164128-vpc-software-setup-version-20210102- When I first plugged mine in and fired up the software it prompted me to update the firmware automatically.

No, mine shows it everywhere as the CM3. In fact the little picture of the device shows a CM3 with finger lifts too. Are you using the latest software with CM3 support? https://virpil.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/47001164128-vpc-software-setup-version-20210102- As for buttons 128-128, you need to add them to the logical button mapping table as shown in the red box in this screenshot.

Here's what I did to set up detents for the Hornet with my CM3 that I received yesterday: Calibrate full range of motion of the axes. Don't worry about the detents. Install the physical detents roughly where you want them (I used the Warthog style rear detent for idle cutoff and the aerobatic front detent for a full mil power "bump" that I can push through). Check to see where your throttle settles above the idle detent but pulled all the way back. Mine are at 14% or so. In the axis to buttons mapping in the Virpil software, I set the following: Axis 1 idle setting 10-13%, button 125 Axis 1 fuel cutoff setting 0-3%, button 126 Axis 2 idle setting 10-13%, button 127 Axis 2 fuel cutoff setting 0-3%, button 128 In The Virpil software, go to the buttons page and create new logical buttons (I used buttons 65-68) to provide a Windows recognized output button for the physical buttons 125-128 (which are internal to the throttle) that you created in the previous step (NOTE: ignore the read lightlights on buttons 61-64 (physical buttons 041, 043, 045, 047) as those are unrelated to throttle detents...they are just active in this picture). Then go into DCS and map buttons 65-68 to their respective functions for the left and right engines. Then go into the throttle axis curves in DCS for each throttle axis and change the curves so that when you pull the throttles back to idle (above the detent) you're truly getting full idle in the sim. you can see my user curve drops down the curve so I'm hitting 0% throttle at 15% or so on my axis. This lets you have a true idle position but still have travel on the axis for your fuel cut detent. Adjust the top end of your axis curves, along with the physical position of your afterburner detent, to match the full mil power position on the throttle but again, still be able to get full power/max afterburner at full travel on your throttle axes. I didn't mess with the Virpil detent settings cause I couldn't really figure them out. Hope that helps!

This youtube video was what made it all click for me. It really explained trim, AOA, and how to manage attitude during turns really clearly for me. https://youtu.be/Xso1mMo_1Mg He also has several other awesome carrier ops videos that for some reason are unlisted, but are linked in this article. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/21790/f-a-18-pilot-gives-incredibly-detailed-instructions-on-how-to-actually-land-on-a-carrier

<Update> Your tip to keep altitude high in the training fights worked great. On my 3rd attempt on the mission I kept angels above 20 and kept Prince alive in order to proceed with the mission. Glad I gave it another go and played through to the end. Well worth the effort! [original post] Exactly my problem as well. Both times I've tried it tonight he's crashed into the drink. The first time, I used the F10 menu to report hits until he called joker and a climb to Angels 28, but after that I was so confused as to what I should do that I just cruised back towards the carrier, used the radio callouts, landed, but still didn't get mission completion. The second time I just exited out after he crashed because I hadn't read this thread yet. How do we actually get the mission to complete successfully if Prince crashes?

The flak wasn't that thick. It appear to be just an unlucky shell. The rest of white flight did continue on back to base following the waypoints in formation, but made the turn back to the north across the channel before we got very close to the FWs. I could see them on the horizon but the AI guys never saw them and we put distance on them as we started to get out over the channel. So no air engagement happened.

I also had a strange instance of getting sent back to mission 1 after completing mission 2. In my case, I completed the mission what I thought was successfully in that I didn't die and I landed back at base. However, after the turn to the east over France, I believe the flight leader of white flight got shot down by flak. After that time, I never heard any more radio callouts all the way back to base. The last one I heard was "watch out for flak guys!" or something, then he got shot down shortly after. After I landed and shut down I exited the mission and it gave me a fail (I think it gave me a score of 25 if I recall correctly) and now when I try to resume the campaign mission 1 launches.