streakeagle

I was just flying the Bf 109K-4 in the instant action cold start and whenever I used the radio to try to talk to the tower, my radio circuit breaker popped up. I would push it back in and hear the response from the tower, but whenever I talked again, it popped back up. An important note on my setup is that I am suing Voice Attack with Vaicom Pro for DCS. So I am keying what is called TX2 in Vaicom to xmit on the radio. I am going to try using the keyboard controls to see if this is a problem unique to using VA/Vaicom, in which case, this post is in the wrong place and I will copy this text and paste it in the Vaicom thread.

When you play the instant action mission "AJS-37 Paratroop intercept.miz", special channel 1 should be set to the wingman's 305 MHz. But it does not work and when you open the kneeboard, it shows a different frequency. When I open this mission for editing, I can see the correct frequency assignment. I can then save the mission in the user missions folder and special 1 now has the correct frequency without me actually changing anything other than opening/inspecting/resaving.

Use 3 x 4K TVs. But run them at 1080p resolution. The instruments won't be nearly as clear as they would in 4K, but it won't kill your frame rates. 3 x 1080p < 1 x 4K, so if your pc handles 4K, then the only limitations will be how DCS handles that widescreen resolution. It sure would be nice if DCS was aware of your hardware and scaled the image appropriately. Since it doesn't, you may need a software solution to rescale the output from DCS, which could even require an intermediate PC to take the image from the DCS PC and process it for your display. Not my area of expertise, but I know this kind of stuff exists, though it surely isn't cheap.

The MiG-19 is a joy to fly. But it is still a little rough with problems that have been long identified but never fully addressed. This could be among the best DCS modules with a little spit and polish to squash bugs, improve some systems modeling, and add some missing details like key bindings. The Mirage 2000 has come a long way, now the MiG-19 needs to get some development love :)

Tools, skills, money, and time... I am missing some or all of those, otherwise I would love to use your approach. For me, it is easier to scour eBay and Google for real parts, then adapt them to USB controls if an acceptable consumer solution isn't available. Right now, I am seriously looking at the Wingwing Hornet HOTAS... but I don't really want the stick, just the throttle and control panel, and I don't really need any of them. Given that I don't really "need" it and the price is substantial, it may be awhile before I commit. Or, all this overtime I am accumulating working from home instead of commuting might go into a Hornet throttle. Never know.

The 20cm curved extension can be canted. But for my purposes the curved extension is both too tall and the location of my stick is much better suited to a straight extension since it was dimensioned for a real F-4 stick, which is straight. Also, when you cant the curved extension, it offsets a bit to the right. The twist grip has a thick spot in the plastic collar with a cutout for a dead center locking screw. I suppose you could cut another slot to the side of the thick spot and lock it there, but it isn't structurally designed to do so very well. You would be better off using an extension.

It was little "details" that killed their Hornet throttle. I had not noticed that this one doesn't even match the switches of the original F-14A.

I don't think the Hornet throttle was that bad. But the production numbers were too low to properly debug them. When you offer something at that high of a price, it needs to be close to perfect out of the box and have support to finish the job right as quickly as possible if it does need some changes. I was seriously considering the Throttletek Hornet throttle. But they discontinued it before I had the money available to blow on it. I have been eyeing the Winwing Hornet HOTAS, but I just recently bought real F-4 throttle levers and mounted them on an F-101 throttle quadrant (both aircraft from McDonnell with nearly identical engineering function and compatibility). So, I am more interested in adapting this real throttle than buying yet another HOTAS as I already have two complete Warthog HOTAS and two VKB Gunfighter stick bases. I recently got the VKB F-14 grip, so this F-14 throttle is really appealing. If I saw really good reviews, I would be tempted to pull the trigger and buy it.

Grips that have the twist rudder axis at the base of the grip tend not to have the the slotted hole that permits angling the grip. The F-14 grip falls into that category. But that doesn't really cause me much of a problem because I use a stick extension, which retains the required slot to adjust the angle. If you don't have an extension, get the 10cm straight extenion, which is perfect for the job, but then you need to mount the stick 10cm lower. The problem I have is that the 10cm extension is a little too low and the 20cm extension is not only a little too high, but also curved. For now, I mainly use the 10cm extension, but later I am going to borrow the guts of my 20cm extension to provide ends on custom 12.5, 15, and 17.5 cm extensions cut from aluminum pipe stock I bought with interior and exterior diameters almost identical to the stock used in VKB's extensions. I have the pipe at work and some day will get around to having a co-worker with the right tools cut the lengths for me. The only thing I have that could even try to cut through it is a hack saw. It would work, but it would take a little bit of time and effort and wouldn't be as clean at the purpose built saws at work. But I am in no hurry as the 10cm extension is really only 2-5 cm too low for most of the grips. Only the SCG and F-14 grip really need the 15 to 17.5 cm extensions. The MCG Pro is a monster. 10cm is almost perfect, though the longer extensions would put it closer to the height seen in Russian pits in VR.

There was a thread about their F/A-18 throttle that was briefly available. It was fairly nice hardware, but had several issues, so they discontinued the F/A-18 throttle.

At some point, I want to make boards with functional switches that can be interchanged and the mounting points should be able to be moved up/down/left/right and angles forward/back/left/right. Then I could use one adjustable frame to become any aircraft I want, I just have to build console and panel boards with USB interfaces to connect to the hosting frames.

I have had multiple problems for the past several nVidia driver releases. It all started with a black flash while browsing anything with video content in Microsoft Edge and at some point it broke Vulkan when using Oculus VR to play Aerofly 2. So, I went back to this same 436.30 that you chose and now any and all applications with graphics issues are running smooth. DCS World VR performance seems stable and fast. I am tempted to advance through the driver versions to establish when the problems started developing, but "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" If I don't have any driver issues, I am sticking with these until I upgrade to newer hardware.

I have always had the opposite experience: shots at center mass on AI were largely ineffective, but give me a good line on one of the wings, and I can shred them with very little ammo. The ultimate is getting a pilot kill shot, but with the way the AI flies, it is hard to set up such a shot with a decent chance of hitting.

I haven't flown this mission in a while, certainly not since the terrain was updated. I used to fly it all the time. What an amazing difference in the quality of the oil rigs. I used to see all kinds of graphic anomalies the way the oil rigs were drawn/textured. Now they look beautiful. The fog was a lot thicker, yet I had flown the mission so much, I knew where to go by instinct/muscle memory. The search lights look pretty decent, but they still don't illuminate some things, like the water. I always enjoy flying the UH-1, but I have been focused on more recent releases like the F-14B, F/A-18C, and F-16C. So, it was relaxing and fun to go back an fly some of the missions I had flown so many times in the past, but with even better graphics. Some day, if the UH-1 ever supports multiplayer, I am going to try to get my son interested in being my co-pilot or door gunner. Maybe I can suck him into DCS World. For the moment, he only plays the games that are trending with his peers, fortnite and such.

Awesome work. Very practical setup and pretty good looking, too. Are those rudder pedals your own design?

I am impressed. VKB has nearly everything in stock. I only saw the KG12 stand-alone grip out of stock. The F-14, MCG, and SCG are all available. Even the KG12 is available if you order a complete Gunfighter base/grip combo with options for tabletop, short 10 cm extension, or long 20 cm extension. The only key item I see out of stock is the Thrustmaster to VKB adapter that allows you to use a TM Warthog grip or Hornet grip (with a little filing).

The key isn't the invention of the Cobra maneuver, but the discovery that the MiG-21 could operate way past the AoA limits in the manual, and that doing so could possibly save your life in certain circumstances. The Cobra looks cool in an air show but has little tactical use. The ability to pull a split-s at an unprecedented low altitude proved useful in combat at least one time if the report is true. But it is not a normal maneuver to use, but a last act of desperation that pushes the limits of the aircraft and pilot.

For my purposes, trying to replicate an F-4 cockpit as best as possible, the TPRs were the simplest, most cost effective solution. In terms of quality, precision, and feel, I don't think you can beat Slaw's F-16 style combat pedals. But I specifically wanted pendular movement and the alternatives were to build my own or buy some really high end Boeing airliner reproduction pedals. The high end type even has the little handle you turn to adjust the pedal reach, which is present in F-4 Phantom cockpits. But the cost was insane, making the TM TPR pedals look very cost effective. My long used Saitek Pro pedals that I have had forever were still working okay with absolutely no noise or spiking, but the plastic was failing. The pedals lost their spring locking pins for length adjustments. The mechanism for springing back to zero on the brakes had failed, which I didn't even notice until I was replacing them with the TPRs because gravity and/or the weight of my feet would leave them at zero. Overall, I am happy with the results. The TPR pedals look and feel good. They also have plenty of adjustments you can make to suit your particular installation. I think that even includes the angle of the pedals. They work great for me when flying fixed wing or helos. I have seen people post mods to optimize the feel the their specific needs in terms of centering, etc. But I haven't had any reason to modify them beyond the built in adjustments which you have to choose when you are assembling them.

I flew the exact same mission I flew the last time I left the gear lever up and had the gear fail: Instant Action Nevada Interception. I intentionally left the lever up until on final approach. Landing gear worked just fine. I don't have a track saved from the time it failed. The intercept mission requires a steady climb to 11km with pretty much continuous use of afterburner. So what aspect of that mission profile could cause a valid landing gear failure as opposed to a random bug in the simulation's gear logic?

AIM-7Ms got the best kill ratio of any variant at about 35% in Desert Storm. 25% sounds pretty close to reality :) In Vietnam, it was more like 10-15%. In DCS with the F-14, I have had very good luck with them taking out MiG-23s head on. But against maneuvering targets and/or countermeasures, not so much. Despite its horrible performance record, it is still my all-time favorite air-to-air missile. If the radar and missile are maintained and the pilot really knows the firing envelope, they can be deadly. Steve Ritchie loved them in Vietnam.

Awesome! About the only way to beat that is to actually fly a real one. A little to expensive to own and operate for me.

The extension has the same kind of connection as the grip, so it is easily removed My setup was designed for a real F-4 stick, but I got tired of cleaning pots almost nightly to get rid of noise spikes, so I shoe-horned a Warthog stick with a straight 15 cm extension in its place. It was a perfect fit in terms of height and the range of throw in the pitch axis compared to the real thing. When I got the MCG Pro, the 20 cm extension caused two problems: it is too long and it is curved. I could still use it, but it was less than ideal. Because the MCG Pro is such a long grip, it is almost the right height with the VKB straight 10 cm extension. But I need a 15 cm straight extension to use with the other normal, shorter grips. I have aluminum tubing with the right inside and outside diamters to use the fittings and cable from the VKB 20 cm extension I just need to cut it to various useful lengths and drill the necessary holes, maybe 12.5 cm, 15 cm, 17.5 cm and 20 cm. As for the springs, I didn't read the manual and was inspired by someone elses post here to try 2 x #50 springs on each axis. The textbook limit is 2 x #40. One of the bearings on my roll axis failed. I was able to replace the bearing. I tried 2 x #40 and went back to 1 x #50. That leaves the stick fairly easy to move near the center, but still requires some pull to reach the full back position. I love the smooth increase in spring force as you pull back. It's the next best thing to force feedback.

I am more of a "do-it-yourself" kind of guy when it comes to chair, throttle mounts, and stick mounts.

I had read every post, so no one needs to feel like they in any way contributed to my errant post. But let me make up for my obknoxious off-topic comment by saying I experienced the exact same problem the other night. I left my gear lever up until I went to land. My air was out. My gear didn't extend. I presumed that the landing gear depended on air pressure to be actuated, since that is the only thing I noticed being wrong (i.e. touching the brake lever got zero response from the pressure needles). So, I just ran a test flight. I intentionally left the lever up and drained down air pressure to zero. Again, I verified I was out of air by touching the brake lever. After doing so, I was able to lower/raise the landing gear at will 20 times. I did not experience the failure I had the other day. It seemed like the landing gear was taking a little longer to deploy after so many lower/raise cycles, but that is probably because I the hydraulics were being pushed too hard or I was just imagining the slightly slower response. So, back to the original problem: why did the gear not deploy despite being independent of the air, not just for the original poster, but in my experience the other night as well? Could it be the hydraulic system is also programmed intentionally or accidently to bleed pressure if the lever is up too long after takeoff? I didn't do anything to damage my systems the other night, beyond leaving the lever up. So, either: 1) The MiG-21bis is programmed to have random landing gear failures, but that is highly unlikely because I have never had a failure before until the other night. 2) The hydraulic system is programmed to eventually fail if the landing gear lever isn't returned to the neutral position. 3) There is an intermittent bug in the code causing this problem. Based on my experience with the MiG-21, having flown it since it was released, I vote for number 3. But if it is a bug, there should be a way to replicate it so that the programmers can confirm and fix the problem. If it happens again, I will look for odd hydraulic indications. But the other night, I had full control of the aircraft, I just didn't have landing gear, brakes, or drag chute deployment, and incorrectly assumed all three were tied to the loss of air pressure. I saw no evidence of loss of hydraulic pressure as my controls worked perfectly. I used the emergency gear deployment levers and the emergency brake lever, so I landed just fine. But I didn't think twice about the gear not deploying until I read this series of posts.

You can't go wrong with the MCG Pro / GF3 combo with the 20 cm extension. It is smooth and precise. I don't use any curves or deadzones. A good stick like this combined with VR is the way to go. VR give you a better sense of your attitude/rate of motion. The stick gives you the smooth precision you need to make small, exact adjustments. It makes flying helicopters much easier, too.