kingpinda

I'm doing the first campaign mission and flying home over the mountains. Because of the weather all circuit breakers are up. also the 3 that in the tutorial was mentioned to disengage because of warm weather. Now i'm high in the mountains and betty nags me about icing. I found in the manual that there is an icing panel in the upper left part of the cockpit. There are many switches and many cyrrilic characters. i don't read Russian so i don't know if they are on or off.... up is on i think? I only found a picture in the manual that that is the icing panel but nothing noteworthy further from that. help I don't want to plummit like an icecube :)

a few notes on rudder pedals. Rudder pedals use 1 axis for yaw. (steering left and right) if you push your left foot forward your right foot will be pushed backwards. Alot of planes taxi like this. If for example you engage nose wheel steering on the A-10C and you push the right rudder you will veer right. then when taking off and you get speed of 50? 70? knots you disengage the nose wheel steering and control the rudder instead of the nose gear which is now locked. this is vital for taking off in a clean way. At low speeds the rudder doesn't do much because of too little air resistance. I believe EVERY rudder pedal out there also has toe brakes. left and right toe brake. you push the brake down and if the plane has diferntial braking it will turn the craft that way. If you push down both you will come to a standstill. (eventually depending on speed) Also to be able to fly efficient you should also be aware if you are flying "straight" if you don't you bleed airspeed and you won't get optimal speed when dodging missiles etc. there is a little ball which slips left and right to let you know which way your nose is pointing in relation to your ACTUAL heading. Aviators learn to "step on the ball" meaning if the ball has slipped to the right, you push right rudder untill the ball centers and you are flying straight. this is also standard procedure in turns. When going to do air to ground gunnery, you can use the rudder to better settle the pip on target when you are not flying straight towards it. better way is to have no side slip at all but if you do a bit you can modify your aim. Now to come back to car pedals, gas and brake you obviously miss 1 axis. and you dont get the proper feedback when pushing say brake = left rudder and gas = right rudder. I thought initially that you meant those when you mentioned "braking pedals" as for brands.. I started out with saitek pedals, then Logitech G940 pedals and now MFG crosswind. The latter is relatively more expensive. Think about 300 euros including shipping if I recall correctly. But i dont think you need these. I longed for more precision because I fly mainly WWII crates and Helicopters. This is where "good" rudder pedals really shine. I believe you would be content with a "cheap" saitek pedals. I believe they are about 80 bucks. I didnt like the hardware center deadzone or the accuracy but I think 300 euros for the MFG crosswind is overkill for you. Now on to throttles HOTAS! Hands on Throttle and Stick. Most modern aircraft have the most essential functions within easy reach on the HOTAS. This is very VERY convenient so you don't have to acces the keyboard all the time. Having Throttle on pedals is a bad idea. With a car you put your foot on the gas and leave it there to maintain ground speed and take of your foot to drop speed. With a plane this works differently because there is way less friction. braking in the air is done by lowering throttle, pitching nose up to let gravity and friction reduce your speed (i'm not really qualified to explain this well there are alot of people on this board who can do a far better job. Suffice to say you don't kick the brake to go slower like in a car) or using airbrakes. these are special "flaps" which open up to increase air resistance. Usually you set your throttle to a certain percentage and leave it there untill you want to change it. For instance if you are trimming your aircraft nose up you will need more throttle to maintain the airspeed and or altitude. having your foot on the gas constantly will become a massive pain. Even more so if you want to delve in authentic landings. at landing the rules are changed when deploying landing flaps. Now throttle controls altitude and pitch (nose up nose down) controls speed. if your nose is slightly trimmed up and you increase throttle you will rise up. if you want to go slower you trim the nose up a bit more. iF you need to go faster you trim your nose down. in this manner you can safely control your descend. This is also not explained really well by me. It is indeed common that if you are right handed that you control the throttle quadrant with your left hand. I mean .. with what hand do you want to control your joystick? You can't control both with 1 hand. Unless you buy a joystick with a slider which acts as a throttle. but then you will use the left hand to control the slider on the joystick you are holding with your right hand. Your thumb does what you want with it. All throttles are highly customizable in game. I bought the Thrustmaster warthog but only because my Logitech G940 throttle was failing. The more buttons you have the more functionality you have under your finger tips. if you set up a "switch" in DCS. then you can double the commands under your fingertips minus 1 (the switch) or triple it with 2 switches minus 2 buttons. On the warthog throttle my thumb controls 1 4 way hat with middle button, 2 three way switches and one 2 way switch. there is alot to learn about throttles. I owned the old saitek throttle and i was content with it. Sad thing was that the joystick wasn't accurate enough for my needs. now that my logitech broke down I opted for one of the better throttles and also sadly the most expensive ones in the sim GAMING market. there are more expensive ones made for the military which are now also being made for comsumers but those cost a few thousand dollars. A good throttle quadrant does a few things. it controls the throttle. or in some cases two engines if you get a split throttle. You can indepently control 2 engines that way. And it provides buttons and switches so you can bind your crucial functions to them. microphone to contact tower, radar sweep and locking, selecting targets, selecting weapons, flaps, airbrakes, autopilot CHAFF/FlARES although you can also bind these to the joystick ofcourse A 3 lever throttle like the saitek throttle quadrant is not need for you. These are primarily used in WWII crates to control proppellor pitch, radiators, oil mix etc. or in airbuses which have quite a few engines with their mix etc. What you need is a mono or DUAL split throttle. something like the saitek or something. If i didnt hate the layout of the rhino joystick I probably would have bought that hotas. The throttle looks very cool and has a lot of functionality. now on to Track Ir. i am on the same boat that TrackIr will change your life. well not your life but your flying experience. A good throttle and Trackir are on the top of my list as well. Trackir or something dumbed down like facetracknoir do the following. you have the trackir cam or webcam on your screen. You attach a led system to your headphone or use a clip on a baseball cap( the latter is not advised if you wear reflecting prescription glasses because of interference with the device) Now the camera picks up in which way your head is tilted VERY ACCURATELY because of the 3 leds positions. If you move your head slightly the camera picks this up because of the leds being in different positions. now when you for instance turn your head 2 cm's to the left this will translate in game that your head has turned 20 cm's to the left. This is all adjustable ofcourse to be more or less sensitive. but anyway if you turn your head left 2 cm's or more the ingame image will pan the view to the left. So with correct settings you will be able to pan the ingame cockpit to look behind above or to the side of you with only slight movements and without taking your eyes from the screen. You can also MOVE your head/body to the left so the ingame pilot puts his head against the glass so you can watch alongside the nose to the left. Trackir has 6 degrees of freedom. Pitch up down, yaw left right, tilt diagonally and "zoom" in and out. the webcam face track does 4 degrees I believe but am not to sure about that. I urge you to watch some Trackir movies or streams where you can see both the ingame cockpit and the person with the gear. This works VERY intuitively compared to panning with a joystick hat. let me know if you need more information

Post a track. It could be rotor collision by pulling too much collective and doing wild manuevers but without a track its anyones guess. Also which campaign are you playing? if you are playing oil war I think, then the first mission with Wags voice brings you awfully close to the frontline. So you could have been shot down!

Ok thanks.

Hi there, just bought the Mi-8 in the flash sale and its a beast! Been flying it a couple of hours after I did the initial cold start tutorial and then went to the vertical take off demonstration. Ok.. So is the instructor drunk? He was trying to do a rolling take off where he stated that banking to the right is normal to stay on the runway.. Then pitch down to get some speed and take off. Nowhere in this entire tutorial did he actually "take off"... He exited the runway to the right where i thought he would get some altitude but instead he skidded across the country side hitting bricks and bushes.. even a F3 view of him bouncing up and down in the grassland..

This was not the reason why Peter couldn't lift off. I played the track and took over and was perfectly able to take off by just increasing collective.. Its really weird that saturation at 100 percent doesnt work properly on the thrustmaster warthog Throttle. I have the same device and with default axis settings I get the full range... Peter it just occured to me... Did you install the afterburner clip in the throttle... Meaning you need to pull up the throttle to get over the bump to get full range? Maybe you bought it from someone who has had it installed. This means you have two bumps. Bump one lift throttle from off to idle and bump 2 from end to max?

Thanks Raptor9 and AlphaOneSix. That makes perfect sense. I will start practicing in high wind scenario's and step on the ball while banking in the wind.

Thanks that helps :) Its just that after flying this sim on and off the last couple of years and the Huey making me realise I still need to learn lots, I only just now feel proficient enough to try and fly "elegant" and/or precise. And for some reason I thought that stepping on the ball would be just as important as it is with fixed wings :) I do that though because of instincts I guess in turns but now I know I am not doing anything wrong flying the shark in a simple straight line with cross winds :)

I have a question about something thats been bugging me. I am used with Fixed-wing aircrafts to always step on the ball. With the KA-50 however I feel that if I do that I veer off course with wind coming from the sides. Is this how we should fly? slightly nose offset into the wind direction? thus the helo slipping? or am I missing some fundamental understanding?

The information about the cam profiles is copy/pasted from Milan's pdf.

erm I was under the impression you used a throttle axis bound to the collective. I simply pulled my throttle further back (inverted settings in axis tune to emulate helo style collective). If you don't use a Throttle Device then yeah Num+ is the key command I believe...

VincentLaw is on the right track I figure though... Because with the civi heli you didnt have this problem. The civi heli is offcourse much lighter and would need less collective to take off. So yeah probably your throttle/collective axis is not calibrated correctly.

You were in hover torque. from what i could tell by pressing ALt-Enter is that your collective was set to approx 70 percent. Your throttle was all the way open to auto so that is good. I took control and pulled the collective further to 80/90 percent and i needed only slight forward motion to get off the ground. Keep in mind that you always need to go forward. When your helo starts to shake it means it is getting the speed needed to get increased lift. this is when you can get altitude. remember that with landing that you need approx 70/75 percent collective to get in to a stable hover. Many make the mistake to descend and think OH NO i'm gonna hit the ground and then pull collective to 80 percent which when they nearly touch the ground because of the ground in effect bounces them back up! anyway... just pull collective more and try to get forward momentum going. When you reach more than 40 knots i think you will start to ascend. Here is your track which I took over. Mind i haven't flown the Huey in a while :) Bit rusty from all my KA-50 Flying. take off huey and landing.trk

Yes FeistyLemur they are quite expensive. But they fill the gap perfectly between simpeds, saitek whatever... and the pedals that cost 1500 dollars or more! Its a lot of money for a a device with 3 axes but boy do I smile when I fly :) The upside though is, that these units are build to last. Great aftersales contact with Milan from Croatia. An issue had crept through quality control and he offered me to replace the parts if they werent functioning as expected, a partial refund or different cam profiles and spacers. I tested my device and the problem was purely aestetic so Milan shipped me the spacers and the CAM 5 profile for free. Milan has mentioned in the past that beyond the warranty he will always make parts if needed. Not that they would break in 20 years I think because they are really build to last but who knows what happens and then you can order the broken parts. Even if he stops production he will post all the information online so we can make our own spare parts. I can't wait what he will eventually think of next :) This guy is a genious when building sim stuff :) @GeneralDynamics: you lucky sod!!! I had to wait 5 months for my unit :)

Dude everything improves when using the MFG Crosswind instead of the saitek pedals :) I use no curves. I do use the CAM 5 profile and spacers, but Nummer 4 or 6 would do nicely also. The real kicker is that because of the profiles and when you set the desired spring strength, you will have muscle memory at some given point. Because the pressure you need to apply increases the more the rudder needs to travel, you will instinctively know what amount of pressure you need to give to receive the wanted effect. No more thinking: how far have my rudder pedals traveled anymore. But just kick and feel. Just like in a car where you will know how much gas or brake you need to apply. edit: but to come back to your real question... I believe the saitek pedals have a hardware deadzone.. I have had these pedals ages ago so dont hold it against me if i don't have my facts straight. The G940 pedals which I threw out the window also have a hardware deadzone. The MFG Crosswinds do not! And furthermore... You can hardware calibrate the pedals!!! This is mandatory if you change the pedal angle. In other words... Because of the spring you can (not inch) but millimeter the pedals from center to either side with utter precision and depending on what CAM you use you can opt for a noticeable center or smooth center. The one thing I have to do soon though is to hardmount it on the floor. So i can even kick a single rudder with one foot without it toppling over. In the huey you often need left rudder and sometimes keeping both feet on the rudder is tiresome. But man is it great :) Edit: Milan explains the differences between the cam profiles below. I personally opted for the most realistic one (Cam 5) but 4 or 6 will suit you as well: CAM4: It is voted by testers and first customers as best all around CAM. It feature very low center detendt which gives you realism and precision around center ( no "bump"). It is realistic untill you try to reach the ends of deflection becouse curve is slightly modified on the middle of deflection in order to reduce strenght at the end - not full progressive , and not linear increase in strenght. It is made as a compromise, reduced realism a bit toward the end of deflection so it's not so hard to press the pedals fully. CAM5: similar to CAM4, same center detent, but has cleaner progressing increase in force toward the end of deflection. It is the most realistic CAM for piston driven planes with simple wired rudder controls. However, becouse of it's realism - to achieve end of deflection require a lot of force. If you are a PC fighter pilot for example, in the ends of deflection you will not be very precise ( arguable, but common opinion) Pedal users that previously used „Simped's“ find this CAM too big transformation ( Simped's had only linear and very weak centering, and large center bump) . But after they get used to MFG Crosswind for 1-2 months ...they tend to go from CAM4 to CAM5 if they pursuit realism. CAM6: completely different from CAM4 and 5. Feature noticable center detent , not big like on simpeds, saiteks etc, but well noticable compared to CAM4-5 ( half way in between). Toward the end of deflection it has much less progressing increase in strenght compared to CAM4,5. It is made such for two purposes : - realisticly model forces of airliner ( adjust to very tight spring settings and outer CAM arm position) - best compromise for precision PC dogfighting. ( very weak spring combined with inner CAM arm position). Center detent gives possibility to keep the rudder straight without concentrating - to achieve top speed. Less progressive increase in strenght gives better aiming accuracy toward the ends

Erm you mean so you can zoom with the scroll wheel on your mouse? You need to bind it to the scroll wheel of your mouse then...

cool :) glad to see your lua clean and without error :) edit: @below: No problem man! Just donate me your simpit and we'll call it even:megalol:

I think because the Arg_lim is {{0,1} it will read over the -1 because its not in the range. Just to humour me try the following line instead so we can both get some sense out of this :) {down = 3001, value_down = 1, up = 3001, value_up = 0, cockpit_device_id = 39, name = _('Landing Gear Up/Down FT'), category = _('Landing gear panel')}, Ive appended underscores to the name and categories and brackets because for some reason yours have dissapeared.

I think you misread the information. You used this line yes? elements["PNT-LNDGEAR"] = {class = {class_type.TUMB,class_type.TUMB}, hint = _("Landing Gear Lever"), device = devices.CPT_MECH, action = {device_commands.Button_1,device_commands.Button_1}, arg = {716,716}, arg_value = {-1,1}, arg_lim = {{0,1},{0,1}},updatable = true, use_OBB = true}Arg_value is direction and units. -1 and +1. Arg limit is what you need. off is 0 and on is 1 You can go from 0 +1 to 1 and from 1 -1 to 0. So the arguments are 1 and 0. Comma's are seperators in lua as I understand it. Periods are used for decimals. Below is a line from the KA-50 lua clickable: elements["PUI800-AUTO-PTR"] = {class = {class_type.TUMB,class_type.TUMB}, hint = LOCALIZE("Manual/Auto weapon system control switch"), device = devices.WEAP_INTERFACE, action = {device_commands.Button_5,device_commands.Button_5}, stop_action = {}, arg = {403,403}, arg_value = {-direction*1.0,direction*1.0}, arg_lim = {{0.0, 1.0},{0.0, 1.0}}, use_OBB = true, updatable = true}You can see the value is direction and units of 1.0 multiplier. if the limit would say: {{0.0, 2.0} instead of {{0.0, 1.0} then this would be a Three way switch instead of a two-way switch. Because the multiplier takes you from 0.0 to 1.0 to 2.0. But in above line the Limit says {{0.0, 1.0} so the states are just 0.0 and 1.0

Great :) Now fly safe! :pilotfly:

Google some reviews. the ones I saw state that the button layout on the stick are not well thought through... Like buttons blocking eachother. Say you want to use the upper hat, the hat below that is in the way... This is compared to the Thrustmaster Hotas which is a bit more expensive.. I would say try and get your hands on a display model and fiddle with it a bit. Its too much money in my opinion to come to the conclusion it sucks when you already payed for it. Edit: Also I didnt sell my G940. I use the stick primarily for helos and WWII crates in combination with the thrustmaster warthog throttle. For all other planes I use both the Joystick and Throttle from Thrustmaster warthog. My G940 Throttle is broken beyond repair and I exchanged the rudder pedals for a more precise on. The MFG Crosswind.

Hmm maybe then a repair may be in order. I have heard of weird lua bugs from time to time. Just backup your custom lua's if you have them.

Glad it works :) although I see a comma in your first argument instead of a period. Are you sure this works?

@skunk160 I found with trial and error that modifiying icommand lines isn't very reliable. If the switch is not synchronised there will be trouble. The correct way is to follow [FSF]Ian's post #141 on the top of this page. Getting the 300# command and its Device_ID and the correct argument values. This way if the switch is out of sync it will sync back if you flick the switch. With a three way switch you need to insert two lines. The up/center line and the down/center line.

Just to check a number of things: Are you using saitek software or the in game bindings? I find that binding in game results in the least errors. Further you are binding the keys in Black shark SIM profile? Good. Make sure you have set the game to realistic as well in the options or the arcade profile will take over. Also make sure that there aren't any duplicate binds. Check in axis binds that pitch and roll and rudder are only bound in the joystick and check that collective and throttle, zoom etc are only bound in the throttle collumn. This may be already familair to you. In that case please provide more information. The most likely problem is that another profile is active. for instance arcade instead of realistic. Also make sure the saitek software isnt interfering with its profiles.