LawnDart

There couldn't be an easier way to win a free HOTAS Warthog or MFD Cougar Pack if you ask me! A handful of the ~800+ that have signed up will become lucky winners. Your choice.

Just one day left to sign up for our Prize Giveaway! Don't forget to share to update on your wall (a handful of people who like the update haven't completed this last of three steps; sharing the update...). Good luck!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! One week left to sign up for your chance to win a free HOTAS Warthog / MFD Cougar Pack if you haven't already done so. Cheers!

“In The Loop”, Winter 2012 Download your copy here: Newsletter Winter 2012 (Archive can also be found on our website).

Most likely FedEx 2-day air.

It's like the legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky said: "100% of the shots you don't take don't go in." The only guarantee is that there will be 3 happy winners of TM gear this winter. :smilewink:

After the dozens of manhours required between what little free time remains from work, travels, family and holidays. Hopefully sometime winter 2012... ;)

Thrustmaster Prize Giveaway Xmas 2011 Sign up on our Facebook page to be part of our free prize GIVEAWAY contest featuring the following merchandise brought to you by our sponsor Thrustmaster.* Contest ends at midnight (GMT), December 31, 2011. The winners will be announced January 2, 2012. A brand new Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog. A pair of Thrustmaster MFD Cougar Packs. *Note: To enter the contest follow the steps in the Facebook status titled "OFFICIAL Thrustmaster Prize Giveaway Xmas 2011".

Virtual Thunderbirds: "EFFTEN" Trailer for our VFAT 2011 performance (affectionately known as EFFTEN). Available on our YouTube Channel and Vimeo in 1080p.

Congrats!!! Well earned - I know how much work it took, and I'm glad I could lend a helping hand. :)

I use a Corsair H50 cooler with my rig (see signature), and it's been awesome! Easy to install, no mess at all. Just attach the retainment bracket on the mobo and it's as easy to put in as any other air cooled solution with fan and heatsink. The H70/80 etc. are better, but also louder and pricier. I currently have my i7-950 overclocked to 4 GHz (200 bclock, 20X multiplier). It takes a little tweaking of the voltages (Vcore, VTT etc. in the BIOS - just reference your motherboard's support forum for sticky threads and educate yourself). My core temps with prime95 (and IntelBurnTest) are in the mid-60Cs with the H50 cooler... Before I was using a Zalman fan and the same settings would yield core temps 80-90C under the same stress tests. That's a significant drop in core temps, and it even idles cooler now too. Not a single game comes close to hitting the same load as prime95... BF3 runs pretty high, but still about 10Cs cooler than any stress test I've done. I've only blue screened once or twice during testing, but it was solved by raising the Vcore another increment. I've rendered 1080p videos, played BF3, DCS etc. on max settings, ran 3DMark11, tested stability with prime95 etc. etc. and not a single issue since. Core temps have remained in the range of 38C - ~65C (idle to full load which only prime95 reaches - DCS core temps may hit ~50C max). Now, I don't expect you to soak up this info or even be interested, but I just wanted to show that you can overclock an i7-900 series processor up to 4GHz without any heat issues using the Corsair self-contained water coolers. The 32nm Sandy Bridge chip uses less Wattage and runs even cooler than the 900 series 45nm technology, and I've heard extremes of people OC'ing their i7-2600Ks > 5 GHz. All that being said, even at stock speeds these CPUs rock and will kill any game you throw at it with a good graphics card in the box. It's just nice to know that you can squeeze a lot of juice out of the i7s if you want to and these self-contained water coolers are an enthusiast's dream. Long story short: I'd highly recommend the Corsair H50/70/80 coolers. :thumbup:

Actually, this is the first time I think we've used this kind of music for any video we've made, and it was selected largely because no one really liked other music choices or genres in the past. Just goes to show you can't please everyone... Funny how 50% love this song selection and the other 50% seem to absolutely hate it.

Thank you all! I like the music, too. :P

Thanks for the compliment! :) That's the idea. We even use the same timing (TOT) as the real team, so as you can imagine it's a handful to learn for someone who's new to it (counting seconds and flying params to a tee).

@Lange_666 I thought your comment was funny and everyone's entitled to their opinion. At least it wasn't Katy Perry! ;) Just shows that no matter what genre of music is chosen there's always someone with "better" taste. It's all good and thanks for all the comments!

Virtual Thunderbirds: "The Heat" Highlights put together using footage from our practice shows flown November 13 & 14, 2011. Download here! Quality: WMV HD 1080p Length: 3:46 File size: 208 MB Also available on our YouTube Channel and Vimeo in 1080p.

Well, how many twin engine jets vs. single engine jets do you fly in your sims? Most of the time IRL I use both throttles as one, but it's a nice bonus to be able to "walk" the throttles as you fly. Other times it's nice to be able to taxi out on one engine to save fuel, but also keeps you from riding the brakes as much on the ground and not overtemping the brakes prior to takeoff in hot weather. If you want to secure one engine because of damage, you bet ya it makes a difference having separate throttles (IRL or A-10C). ;)

:megalol: Right on... bring it on!!!

This is ALL great news! THANK YOU ED!!! :thumbup: Can't wait for FC3 and the Nevada terrain, but flying the Heritage flights will be awesome too (like the photo someone posted of HABU flying the 23rd FW A-10C alongside the P-51). :pilotfly:

I have the same setup with a powered USB hub (also for convenience). Mine turns the gear off automatically when there's no longer a power signal from the computer, i.e. shutdown (won't work in sleep mode though).

I've had the Warthog for a year and a half now and had my first issue last night. The "O-ring" inside the housing came loose and I had to take it apart and re-glue it. http://www.warthogworld.com had some threads with pictures of the problem that helped, too. That's the first thing I've had a problem with over hundreds and hundreds of hours, but luckily it was an easy fix. I've not had any issue with stickiness. If I do I'll probably add some Tamiya Molybdenum hobby grease. Just be very careful when you open up and remove the "ball joint", those wires are VERY easily and accidentally cut. The outer housing and springs are easy to access though after removing a dozen screws. I used a FSSB modded Cougar prior to the HW and I would choose the HW today if I had to pick one over the other. The quality is superb!

A-10 East Coast Demo Team routine flown by "Lawndart" in DCS: A-10C. ACC 23rd Fighter Wing paintscheme by Greg German. Watch on our and Vimeo in 1080p.

I never realized how convenient having all your PDFs on an iPad would be until I got one. I've spent more time on the shitter reading manuals again than in a long time (just like the good 'ol days of Falcon's paper manuals). :D

FWIW, I think it looks more realistic. They need to fix the crazy halos around the PAPI though. I've never seen that happen!

Magnificent!!! :clap_2: