DaveRindner

Yep. USAF constantly rebuilds the airframes , via Boeing. AMARC has so many retired B-52 airframes, they can keep B-52 flying for centuries. Today USAF uses B-52 as cruise missile and JDAM, JASSM truck. The aircraft is very fast and can haul vast amounts of munitions. I'd bet that B-52H will be the launch platform for Prompt Global Strike hypersonic cruise missile, the air launched version of it. Boeing and Northrop modified wing hardpoints tp carry dozens of Harpoon and SLAM missiles for naval anti-surface mission.

OK thank you. Crosswind landing in MIG-21bis, in DCS is still a bitch and a half. SU-25T is easiest to fly and land in DCS; MIG-21 is hardest A-10C is easy F-15 is more difficult to land then A-10C but nowhere near as hard as MIG-21 Both KA-50 and UH-1H as relatively straighforward to learn and fly in DCS. Provided noone is shooting at you.

Thats not a could, it has already happened in USAF , RuAF. USAF - three gens of USAF officers from same family flying B-52 and KC-135, and T-38 RuAF - Three gens flying L-39, TU-95/142

OK here is my understanding SFM->EFM->AFM->PFM Stnd Systems Modeling -> Advanced Systems Modeling.

Yikes. 50 years of operating MIG-21bis. Still on active duty. Talk about sqeazing every second of service life. Here I tought that 50+ years of USAF operating B-52H, KC-135, and U-2/TR-1 was pushing flight hours. One of those 'duh' moments is when it is realized that service life has climbed with cost of procurement, and cost of development of new systems. F-16, F15, F-18,Typhoon, Mirage, Raphale, MIG-29, and SU-27 are all expected to have 40-50 year service lives.

EFM is nice. PFM+ASM is much nicer. OK that said. I am having landing issues with large crosswinds. Smoke stack smoke 60 degrees from vertical as guide of m/s cross. The aircraft literally flies sideways, with full rudder deflection. The visibility of runway threshhold is seriously compromised. If this is real , OK, don't change it. Then Fishbed is really tough to land in high cross. In my case, full rudder deflection with bank into cross, to keep velocity vector aligned with runway. The aircraft is still pushed sideways. More then once, though I did not crash and burn, I bent up the leading main gear. Hard to get the timing of rudder just right, due to visibility issues of a screen.

Thank you. I was worried. Consider A-4R module. Or and F-8

Thank you. I may consider it. But no way, am I doing what is shown. I have to take apart the electronics, and put them back together. With multiple warnings that electronics are fragile. I wind up braking it.

I managed to smooth X-55 stick pitch and roll axis. But I am unable to smooth out stick rudder twist. It sticks, and jerks in the rudder twist axis. The twist would present different and erratic resistance, where constant twist pressure is impossible. As twist pressure is applied, the twist would then jump, then stick. With an slight audible creak and plastic sticking feel. Been trying to smooth it out with vaseline and silicone lubricant gel. No go. Removing the stick from base, still does allow access to twist gimbal. What to do? X-55 forum on SAITEK has no answers. I have poor opinion of this device.

OK thank you. I am running it under Windows 7 64. I think performance of 1.5 is slightly lower then that of 1.2.5.X, at least on my rig.

Probably asked, how is DCS 1.5 with Windows 10??

Seems to me that landing in DCS 1.5 is easy(er). I have not had a bent gear yet, and I have landed with heavy fuel. So is this now more realistic, i.e. less prone to VV gear damage, or less realistic.

OmiGod. Thats not 'Some Assembly Required." Thats "Kit Assembly. Some engineering skills required." Couldn't they just ship the thing assembled?

I just got DCS 1.5 working with MIG-21. Noticed that there is a skin for DRAKEN Int. A contractor out of Florida. Generally a training and tactical planning contractor. They have their own fleet of 15 Mig-21s, and other training and tactical aircraft. I am kind of surprised to see their name. Kind of cool, neat. I guess thats where military for low intensity conflicts are going. Private licenced, regulated, contractors, doing the job, when nations don't want to show their flag flying all over news. Lets hope no-one uses the M word. M Word- "mercenaries'.

Not sure what effort I could put in on top of what I have put in already. I have had it for 3+ months, and its not getting better. Pain in the wrists , my wrists, is pretty real. I have tried low placements, high placement, somewhere in between. The poor sensitivity, the jerkiness, the stickiness of the stick, poor ergonomics. Those don't get better with more effort. Its a poor product. But it sounds like you know of others who had difficulties with this product.

Agree on CH, but their products are not sold anywhere except Internet. Not at Fry's not Best Buy. I had CH stick long time ago before USB even. May go back to it. It is likely I will go to Thrustmaster HOTAS, but jeez, at $500 without rudder. Figure another $200 for rudder from Saitek Combat Pedals or something else, and we are looking $750 worth of equipment. Thats quite a bit for non-critical hardware. But at this point, $200 Saitek is a waste of money.

The buttons require too much force to push. What happens, is when I am doing something delicate, the push effort screws up the subtle hand motion. The shock wave of button push, jiggles the unit. Its subtle and shows itself in UH-1 and KA-50 modules, when hovering, or landing with rudder deflection, or firing weapons, or targeting, with rudder deflection. Strong hand is the opposite that is needed. But there is little to argue with when after 5-10 minutes, the carpal pain the wrist just becomes diffucult to bear, and even more difficult to do small suble changes. With helicopter sims, and also fine flying for refueling, its not the deflection of the stick with hand, its more of pressure applied. Well here is where it fails. It jumps, not a lot, but enough to make to jerk the nose of the ac off. I apply pressure and nothing happens, apply a tad more, there is a creake of plastic on plastic and a jump in deflection. Been trying to smooth it out with silicon lube and petroleum jelly, but its not good. BAD PRODUCT.

I want it to give it a fair chance. I figured 4-5 weeks for muscle memory development. Not with this product.

The unit is not defective. It was purchased new from Fry's , in El Segundo. The unit functions as it was designed, but it was designed very very very badly. It terribly unergonomic, and painfull to use. This classic corporate failure to properly design , test, and evauate the product before bringing it to market. Just shows that Saitek's new owners are not serious about market they serve. I've done all that is show on their site and Youtube, regarding springs and lubes here and there. Its no good. It is a bad bad product, that should not be on the market. I missied the whole X65F (F for fiasco), as the product was placed on market and very quickly disappeared without explanation. What ever happened to X65F anyway. X-55 is just a terrible product. X52 Pro was 'passable' after a short while. But there is no getting used to X-55. Its proportioned and designed wrong on all the critical levels. After 5 minutes by wrist develops carpal pain, after 10 the pain numbs and becomes to much. This is not a manufacturing defect this is a plain old bad design.

it, burn it, and bring in Jesuit Priest, a Rabbi, an Imam, and a Santa Ria shaman, to cast away evil and bad spirits, that come with with product. Dear God, all that it Holy, I have never used a joystick-HOTAS controller as utterly, completely, egregiously , numbingly bad as X-55. I do not understand how it was designed, by whom, and how on this God's green Earth did it get to market. It is superbly low quality product, anti-ergonomic, that squeaks, rattles, gets stuck, and is terribly terribly inaccurate. Everything, just everything about it is bad. ; Stick , regardless of spring, gets stuck, and jumps. Don't matter on how much lube and vaseline you use. Fine control of rudder is not possible. Rudder twist and hat button usage is completely impossible. The rudder twist places wrist in a painfull contortion, making thumb use extremely difficult. The pinki break handle is a switch, when it clearly needs to be a pressure axis. Button on stick. ALL OF THEM ARE IN WRONG LOCATIONS, difficult to reach, and even more difficult to use when twisting the stick for rudder action. It takes 5 minutes to develop carpal tunnel and 10 minutes before the pain make use impossible. The wrist rest is too low and cannot be adjusted. Hat switches, aside from being difficult to reach, even with large male hand, rattle, and their action is not positive. They work, they may not. Any kind of diagonal switch is tottally unreliable. Two of the hat switches interfere with each other. Throttle. There are no 8 way or even 4 way hats on throttle. There needs to be at least 1, 2 is better. Button are all very difficult to press. They require way to much pressure, and when they do click, they do so with loud clunk that shakes the throttle. Ergonomics are terrible. This is bad, poorly designed, poorly built, and overpriced product, that has ruined my SAITEK experience. I have used X52Pro, but it broke, after 6 years of use. SAITEK needs to recall it, before it is faced with medical lawsuits, from broken wrists. I have now used it for 4 months, and experience just keeps getting worse. $200 wasted, but lesson learned.

Please please, for all that is good and Holy in this world. Stay away from Saitek X-55 Rhino. If you shopping for new HOTAS, get anything else. If you already bought it, burn it, and bring in Jesuit Priest, a Rabbi, an Imam, and a Santa Ria shaman, to cast away evil and bad spirits, that come with with product. Dear God, all that it Holy, I have never used a joystick-HOTAS controller as utterly, completely, egregiously , numbingly bad as X-55. I do not understand how it was designed, by whom, and how on this God's green Earth did it get to market. It is superbly low quality product, anti-ergonomic, that squeaks, rattles, gets stuck, and is terribly terribly inaccurate. Everything, just everything about it is bad. ; Stick , regardless of spring, gets stuck, and jumps. Don't matter on how much lube and vaseline you use. Fine control of rudder is not possible. Rudder twist and hat button usage is completely impossible. The rudder twist places wrist in a painfull contortion, making thumb use extremely difficult. The pinki break handle is a switch, when it clearly needs to be a pressure axis. Button on stick. ALL OF THEM ARE IN WRONG LOCATIONS, difficult to reach, and even more difficult to use when twisting the stick for rudder action. It takes 5 minutes to develop carpal tunnel and 10 minutes before the pain make use impossible. The wrist rest is too low and cannot be adjusted. Hat switches, aside from being difficult to reach, even with large male hand, rattle, and their action is not positive. They work, they may not. Any kind of diagonal switch is tottally unreliable. Two of the hat switches interfere with each other. Throttle. There are no 8 way or even 4 way hats on throttle. There needs to be at least 1, 2 is better. Button are all very difficult to press. They require way to much pressure, and when they do click, they do so with loud clunk that shakes the throttle. Ergonomics are terrible. This is bad, poorly designed, poorly built, and overpriced product, that has ruined my SAITEK experience. I have used X52Pro, but it broke, after 6 years of use. SAITEK needs to recall it, before it is faced with medical lawsuits, from broken wrists. I have now used it for 4 months, and experience just keeps getting worse. $200 wasted, but lesson learned.

I7-3770 3.4 GHZ. 32 GB ram. Win 7 X64 Pro, PNY Nvidia Quadro 4000. Sim run at 1920X1200. Cont: X-55 Rhino latest drivers. Make Model: HP Z230 wkstation.

Depth Of Field Heat blur (high) FSAA Qx MSAA -4X

MIG-29K RuN Aviation has picked MIG-29K to replace SU-33 on Kuznetzov, and make it standard RuN naval aviation fighter.

When I was on active duty, in US Army, I explored scenarious of Russian, Chinese invasion scenarios of Alaska and Aleutian Islands. Alaska is a strategic US territory, center of North American Ballistic Missile Defense, and energy extraction. Would be interesting to see an Alaska, Aleutian Islands, North Pacific scenario map. Possibly also Arctic scenario. Definatly an Eastern European scenario around Eastern European NATO members. Baltic and Scandanavian Theater. Second Falklands scenario would be interesting once Mirage2000 and Typhoon modules are out. Since Argentina is likely to receive second hand Russian SU-24s and second hand Brazilian Mirage2000 airframes. UK currently bases flights of Typhoons on Falklands for air sovereignty missions.