Faelwolf

Yes, but as far as I know, you will have to edit the missions to make it persistent. You can also make custom loadouts that you can easily select in the mission editor rather than manually adjust each time. That will take a little bit of file editing work, which is a bit above my pay grade. But there are tutorials on it that should come up in a search.

There are certain buttons, and the paddle switch as well, that are not mapped to anything in the A10c which come in very handy for use with TrackIR. I personally use the paddle switch as a shift, and map additional functions to the throttle and stick such as landing gear, light settings, etc. that make life a little easier. I'll spare the details at this point, as it will make much more sense once you have the stick in front of you and have explored the settings a bit. Since I fly multiplayer with friends quite often and use TARS much more than the comm menu, I have my radios set up for normal radio switching to go to TARS, and shifted switching going to the comm menu. You may want to consider this if you find yourself in a similar situation. Once you get used to it, you are going to love having both the Warthog and TrackIR! You will get to the point that you don't even have to think about looking around and using the HOTAS functions, it will just come naturally. There are plenty of threads on this board to help you get it all set up and tweeked, but don't be afraid to ask if you need a hand with any of it, this is a very helpful community.

So far as flying a multiplayer mission solo, you can just fly it like normal, and limit the number of slots available and/or password protect your server when starting it up. Don't know off-hand any mission that meet your criteria, other than maybe Dragon's training missions.

Have you tried pushing the CMS switch down? (straight down, not back)

Try this thread, you can find a link for the profile, and some good info on VAC in general: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=79868

Just a heads up for any Cintiq owners who may not be familiar with it. The newest stable Nvidia driver, and the upcoming beta both have re-introduced the "Cintiq only seen as VGA" flaw. From the research I have done, it seems that the drivers aren't set up for the Cintiq's VGA/DVI dual channel ability, and can default to analog (VGA). For those that get hit with it, this makes the Cintiq display get very dark. Unfortunately, Nvidia has also chosen to remove the manual setting a while back, so once the drivers decide the Cintiq is VGA, it won't let go. This problem has reappeared for both the newer and older Cintiqs, and it is unknown if or when it will be fixed. The simple fix for this is to use the DVI-I to DVI-D adapter that came with the monitor (or purchased cheaply online if you are not the pack rat that I am). This will strip out the VGA signal channel, and force Nvidia to see the monitor as DVI. I did this, and have no further issues so far. This will also let you keep the current drivers and the increased performance that comes with them. Hope this helps save some time and aggravation for any who find themselves having to deal with it.

As Eno said, it acts as five buttons. It is the black hat switch located on the topmost part of the right side of the throttle. I use TARS with my friends, and have it set up for Teamspeak on up, radios to speak on TARS mapped to the appropriate radios, then using my paddle switch as a shifter, the same three radio switches to bring up the in-game communication menus. This works great for my situation, as I communicate with my friends much more often than I use the game menus. I use the press function as a pause switch for TrackIR. IIRC, it should already be mapped to the in-game menus by default, AM forward, UHF down, FM back. The up and press functions are unmapped, as to my knowledge, in the A10C (of this suite at least) up has no function in R/L, and there is no press function in the actual aircraft. (If I am wrong on that, I would love to get the skinny on it.) Edit to add: Yes for the in-game communication menu once you've selected a radio with the hat switch, you will have to go to the keyboard to select items from the sub menus. There is a voice command program available that some use to no longer have to do that, which can greatly help with immersion. I'm looking into it myself, as having to reach for the keyboard while keeping position for AAR is a real pain for me :P

Looks like a weather radar installation to me >shrug<

The Saitek pedals bug has been in since at least 1.1.1, I am hoping they have it fixed for 1.2.7 but it seems to be a low priority fix. The best luck I've had with working around it is to reduce saturation on each pedal's axis by about 30, and bump up the curve to compensate. I also set up my right pedal with a modifier, so I can use the one pedal for both brakes, to keep the bug from locking up one pedal and send me careening off the runway. Also, some airfields just seem to blow tires no matter what you do. I suspect it to be a terrain issue, possibly a bit of overlap making the sim think you've hit a bit of soft ground at high speed. But I am certainly no expert. I do know that on those airfields, I can reduce the number of blown tires by making an under speed landing, but it still does not eliminate it.

Yes, Eno is right, net, not LAN. Pretty obvious what technical issues I've been working on lately eh? Got too much LAN on the brain! lol!

Make sure you are set to the same flight number in LAN, each plane with it's own ID. So you would both be in say, flight 1, your plane ID would be 1, his would be 2. I have not seen it set up automatically in any multiplayer mission. LAN is found on the lower right TAD screen, entries are made through the UFC, I found it best practice to set "own ID" first, then flight if needed. It won't allow two planes to have the same ID number within the flight, so setting Own ID first can avoid conflicts and having to re-enter the data.

Best way to learn this sort of thing is by doing! Have fun!

Signed up for moral support if nothing else. It would take me a while to save up for one of these the way things are financially right now, so a preorder just isn't in the cards. I will be passing a link along to a friend who has a very strong interest in the Huey, and would love this stick! I hope this works out great for you, I am always happy to see someone take the initiative to innovate a product like this, especially a member of the community!

I have a similar problem, in that only the throttles are out of synch, when everything else is good to go. In my case, it seems to happen most often after flying the first mission, but is not always predictable. I have already gone through the suggestions given above in the past, with no fix. So, I have developed the habit of running both throttles up to full then back past the indent when first getting into the cockpit. This has gotten them re-synched for me, and made it no more than a minor annoyance. I have also found that if the throttles are not in the full back position when starting a mission, doing an adjustment while the mission is loading tends to create or exasperate the problem. So I don't make any adjustments to throttles until the mission has loaded and I am in-pit, and try to make sure that everything is set before loading. I have had this problem through the last 3 or 4 major patches, along with no HOTAS/G15 controls working while in snap view, and the "sticky" brake pedals. None of which are a game breaker for me, but I would be very happy indeed if they got fixed. Quick edit, when starting airborne, Milli's solution works for me as well, without having to do a full throttle throw. Looks like the sim just needs a nudge to get the throttles synched.

If you mean the long bar that closes as you line up it's called the "Course Deviation Indicator" [Edit] Might as well add here that I will be getting a start on the .pdf soon, it may take a while due to other r/l issues I have atm. There are some great training vids on YouTube, but not everyone learns well by watching vids, some like to have a guide they can refer to and work through.

My post has nothing to do with TACAN, he has the wrong arrow in mind. I think the confusion is coming from me trying to keep it short and not overwhelm you with technical terms and such, so I did a pretty lousy job of explaining it. Let me see if I can explain it better and expand it. This is just a simple trick to visualize the orientation of the runway, give you an indication of which side of it you will want to head to for your turn on final, and help you spot it, not a replacement for procedure or proper navigation. Use your HUD to orient yourself towards the airfield you wish to land at. Once you have the runway heading dialed in to the HSI, the big center bar of the HSI that has the long movable section in it and an arrow at one end will act as an virtual runway for visualization purposes even though it is actually showing a "course line". It is letting you "see" the airport from any distance away, so you can plan: The arrow on the course line will show you the direction you will want to land on the runway, so you now know to adjust your course to the other side so you can turn on final heading in the right direction. For example, if the arrow is pointing right, aim to be to the left of the airfield, relative to your current position. (Point your aircraft a bit to the left of the tadpole) You also now know you will need to make a right turn to get on final and can anticipate it. This can really help to prevent disorientation in bad conditions. Looking at the angle of the course line, you now also know the relative angle of the airport to your current approach, so you know how sharp a turn you are going to have to make to turn on final. Also, if it will be a very sharp turn, you know to set a course to a preliminary point, then turn to the point you need for final, to ease the turn. Especially when you are new, you don't want to turn more than 90 degrees onto final, it's just too big a pain in the butt when you are trying to close the bar. The shorter the turn, the better. By being able to visualize the runway, you can plot a course. :) As you approach visual range to the airfield, the arrow will act as a reminder of where to look for the runway. The bar does not change direction to point at the airfield, it is just showing you the relative angle, so you know to look for it lying at that angle, which makes spotting easier. As you look out, you will see that the runway angle relative to you matches the angle indicated on the HSI. If you are passing the runway, and it is 90 degrees more or less to your right, you will note the bar has closed and is passing through to the other side by then. (You missed your turn, big time) But the arrow itself will not change direction, the relative angle of the airfield to you will not have changed. You want to begin your turn when the bar starts closing, or even a little sooner, depending on how big a turn you have to make. (Which is why you don't want large turns, small turns don't make you guess when to start the turn.) As you make the turn, closing the bar will put you pretty close to lined up on the runway, and since you are changing direction, the indicator will start to move, indicating the relative angle of the airport is changing, too. (You are actually aligning yourself with the course line, but we are using it to visualize the runway right now.) Remember though that the heading is not perfect, so the bar does not necessarily close completely when you have good runway alignment. But the line should now be more or less vertical, with the arrow pointing up. Looking out, you should see the runway directly ahead of you, and can make the minor adjustments to get centered up for landing. When making the adjustments, use small course changes, try not to over-correct. A great way to think of it that was given to me by my instructor was to think of it like changing lanes in a car. You don't change lanes by whipping the wheel around ;) The further out you are from the airfield, the slower the bar is to close up and the easier it is to turn on final, but don't get too carried away with it, you don't need (or want) to turn on final 50 miles out :) . For a total beginner, about 8 miles out is not a bad start, bit of a ways, but gives you plenty of time to make the turn, and some practice holding glide slope. As you improve, you can shorten final. Practice until you intuitively know how the bar closing is relating to your position and bearing to the airport so you can judge your turn timing in bad conditions better when you can't see the airport. So to start with, you are using both the bar closing and your visual on the runway to make the turn, eventually you'll be able to make the turn in the blind using just the HSI and get it fairly close, if you have to. You are still not going to want to land fully in the blind, as the A10C is not rated for a full precision instrument landing. You must be able to land visually once near the runway threshold. Another handy rule of thumb, for altitude. Multiply your distance in miles from the airfield by 300 and it will give you the rough altitude in feet you should be at for a reasonable glide slope. So at 8 miles out, 2400 feet should be about right. Nose-down to -3 and bring her in. So now think about it, if you know you want to be at 2400 feet at 8 miles out, what should you be doing about your current altitude while heading there? :) No instrument is a replacement for common sense and good judgement, these are aids to a good landing, not absolute controls. Don't obsess with closing the bar just to find yourself landing in the dirt on the side of the runway or worse! I have also had the cross bars on the ADI try to fly me into a building/the ground. Stay alert, stay aware. Also practice landing by the seat of your pants. It not only will give you a good feel for what a good landing should look like, but you may find yourself with a badly damaged aircraft, and will have enough problems on your hands without having to learn a new skill at the same time! I hope this made more sense. I really need to start work on a .pdf of this and a few other things so I can include illustrations, etc. to make it easier to understand.

Handy beginner tip: Once you have set the heading into the HSI, the bar will show the runway as it appears from your current position/bearing, and the arrow will point in the direction that you will be landing on that runway. (The arrow is also pointing in the direction the airfield is relative to you, if it's pointing, say, up and to the left, you will find the airfield is ahead to the left. If it's pointing down, you might want to head back the other way..........) So you can "see" the runway long before you get near it. So, if by some chance the bar is vertical, you are aimed right at the runway and can land directly. If the bar is horizontal, and you head directly in, you are going to find the shortest and widest runway you've ever seen! :) This really helps with making a decision on what bearing to take to set up your final approach when there is no tower to direct you, and when there is, helps with understanding just where they are sending you. The 130 is the nearest compass direction you will be facing when lined up on the runway for landing. It's usually off by a few degrees, I won't confuse you by going into an explanation of magnetic variation and declination. The 130 will be close enough as the A10 is not rated for full ILS landings. But it will be close enough to let you set up for final. If you are not getting tower info, you can get the same runway info from the divert page in the CDU, or from the airfield charts. I have a set printed out for quick reference. You can download them from the downloads section on ED's site, and several squads have sets available too. QFE is the barometric pressure at the airfield, so you can set your altimeter to match and be more accurate. In this case, rotate the knob on the altimeter until it reads 29.89. Or do like many and use the radar altimeter on the HUD and the Mk.I eyeball, which do fine (though some squads are sticklers about procedure) Frankly, I find that the analog altimeter is not accurate enough even with QFE to trust in socked in conditions, I wouldn't bet my life on it. Also, when landing without info from a tower, you won't have it, best not to get too dependent on it. Baby steps are the way to go! I found that practicing near the field in clear conditions was a great help, after a while it gets more intuitive, and I often find myself glancing at the HSI and just "knowing" where to look to find the airfield and line up an approach. It just takes practice.

The only time I've used it is at the very beginning of an instant action, so I can set up weapons, etc. which would normally have been done by the time I'd have gotten to that point in a regular mission. I find that instant action tends to put me practically right on top of the first objective, with no time to prepare properly.

I got a fix by changing my UIMainView from = Center to copying and pasting my info from the center view and creating a specific file for it. Using Center just centered it up and spread it across both monitors. This is pretty similar to the = GUI setup, but more direct. So what I ended up with was: UIMainView = { x = 0; y = 0; width = 1920; height = 1200; viewDx = 0; viewDy = 0; aspect = 1.6; } The actual numbers will change based on your main monitor, of course. Also, for some odd reason it wouldn't work without the callout for Dx, Dy, and Aspect, so I made sure to copy and paste the whole thing.

Don't forget the sticky brakes problem in old bugs. I still have to keep my axis curves and saturation set to high levels to keep from being forced off the runway by one brake or the other sticking at half when released.

If you were saving snap views, they are not saved in the game folder, so repair won't fix it. You need to delete them from your saved games folder.

My Leap arrived yesterday, and I got to install it today. I found the software to be primitive, and it totally lacked precision. The mouse emulator is bad, and it barely worked on my desktop. I brought up DCS, and it's a no-go, the cursor was extremely erratic, and it was impossible to click on any switch. There is no support in the mouse emulator to assign motions so no differentiation between switch throws or dial turns even if it could find it's way across the screen. A conversation with tech support revealed they are currently relying on camera drivers from Microsoft from 2006 with some modifications. This thing seems to still be well within beta stage. I personally recommend holding off on it until they can get their act together with the drivers / software, and ED makes it directly compatable. At this stage it is more a toy than a serious tool. Not worth the $$ IMO. For those of you with limited USB space, it also requires a direct connect, no going through a hub, so some rerouting may be necessary if you do decide to try it out for yourself..

What airport are you landing at? There have been reports of some airfields causing landing gear damage way too often. Kutasi (spelling? It's too early for me yet this a.m.) is one I can think of right off that has a bad rep. I don't know if it ever got fixed.

Didn't help the Iraqi Army :)

If you both have the skins installed, only the host would need to have changed the skin loadout in the editor. Obviously, if you are taking turns hosting, you'd each have to have made the edit. Anyone who wanted to enter the hosted mission would get the skin callout and would have to have that skin installed. The key is to have them installed on each machine so they will display. However, if you want to use a consistent skin, once you have made and saved the changes, it will stay changed, so you and your friend would only have to do it once. And really, it is not difficult or time consuming to edit just that one parameter in the mission editor.