streakeagle

Programming the axis to behave like a button can get the job done. But it also means having to switch profiles. For someone with only one grip, that is certainly a useful alternative. For me, it is just better to swap to a more useful grip. I haven't customized the profiles on any of my grips. I prefer to map all my controls via LUA scripting while leaving the stick in its "raw" state so that it will work with any other plane or flight sim rather than having to switch profiles every time I want to change aircraft. As a rule, I try to leave a particular grip installed for a week or more before rotating to the next one. Right now, I have the MCG Pro installed and have been primarily flying the MiG-21bis to evaluate the recent patches and maintain proficiency. When I get tired of that, I will probably rotate the F/A-18 grip into service to get my F/A-18 proficiency back up for the upcoming super carrier release.

VKB makes an adapter for the Warthog grip. They were out of stock for the longest time. When they came in stock, I presumed it would work with the F/A-18C grip, so I bought two of them. The first one installed without issues into the Warthog grip as advertised. But the bulged area for the F/A-18C grip's pinky lever prevented the second adapter from fitting. So I rounded down the offending edge until I could see daylight through the gap. I can't remember if I neede to file any of the mount on the inside part. That is to say, I recall doing so, but after I got the one edge rounded enough, I may not have needed to file anything else. But if I did file anything else, it was quick and easy to get clearance to fit into the F/A-18C grip wtihout damaging the grip. VKB should revise their adapter design to fit the F/A-18C grip, which would still fit perfectly in the Warthog grip, then they wouldn't need separate listings/part numbers. Of my 6 grips that I can use with the VKB gunfighter base, the F/A-18C is currently my favorite because it is comfortable to hold, feels solid, and is a reasonable representation of the grips used in many US fighters. The F-14 grip would be my 2nd favorite, but its lack of extra hats means that it is only well suited for older US fighters with B-8 grips. But if you want one grip to rule them all and don't mind the size/shape/odd control layout, the MCG Pro has the control options to mimic the locations/types of switches of just about any grip and aside from its Virpil twin, it is the only one with the analog brake lever used in Russian aircraft and the Spitfire Mk IX. While it has as many hats or more than any US grip, they are arranged in a peculiar way. It still works great when you get used to the layout, but I would still rather use the Warthog grip for the A-10C and F-16C and the F/A-18C grip for just about everything else. If spend lots of time in the A-10C, F-16C, and/or F/A-18C, and don't need the analog brake lever, the SCG Pro is much more suited to US sticks than the MCG Pro. I would use the SCG Pro a lot if I didn't have the F/A-18C grip.

I generally don't do "reviews" other than to answer questions posted on forums. The F-14 grip is exactly what I expected it to be: a reasonable replica of the F-14's grip which works as well as any other VKB grip. Having controls with the same tactile feeling, location, and operation, such as the unique weapons selector switch and DLC/flaps thumb wheel makes this grip a joy to use with the F-14 in VR. As a general multipurpose grip, it doesn't have the range of many other grips. You aren't going to fly the A-10C, F-16C, F/A-18C, or AV-8B without losing some much needed control hats. But the overall control layout isn't too much different from the standard B-8 grip used in so many aircraft from the 1950s to the 1970s (in DCS World, the F-86F and UH-1 serve as perfect examples). It has sufficient additional controls to handle slightly modified B-8 style grips as used by the F-5E. My only complaint about the grip is that it would be a little more useful in other aircraft if the DLC/flap switch had discrete switches at the ends of travel and the ability to press it down, which would have been perfect for the F-5E style grip. With a little creativity, it could have even tilted left/right like some mousewheels do, which would have turned the DLC switch into an optional 4-way hat with center press not part of the F-14, but used by so many more modern grips. As I have all the other grips and really only bought this grip for flying the F-14, this isn't really a problem for me. But if they want to generate more sales, the grip needs to appeal to more people than those that mostly fly the F-14. On the positive side, the textured areas of the grip feel like a soft rubber rather than a hard plastic. It feels very nice. I like the feel of this grip in my hand more than most of my other grips. The arrival of this grip inspired me to fly the F-14 exclusively for 2 or 3 weeks. I learned to use VAICOM to talk to the RIO and had a blast between practicing carrier ops and air-to-air combat. The landing procedure gives you lots of time to play with the DLC switch, which is really cool to use to adjust your flight path on final. I don't use the manual flap function in air combat that much because of the risk of jamming the flaps down. But I do enjoy using the weapon selector switch. No other grip has anything like it. For me, this grip is a work of art and engineering. It looks like the real thing and maybe feels even better than the real thing. It is worth every penny I spent on it. But if you can't afford multiple grips and fly a wide variety of aircraft, especially modern ones with two, three, or even four hats on the grip, this grip is not for you. If you want one grip that has so many controls that it can adapt to just about any other grip's control setup, the MCG Pro is for you. If you don't need the brake lever or an extra 4-way/center press hat on the side of the stick, the SCG Pro is probably the next most capable grip I have. But despite all the capability of the MCG Pro and SCG Pro, I spend a lot of time flying US fighters and like the feel/arrangement of the TM Hornet grip, which is not only a replica of the Hornet's grip, but nearly identical to the AV-8B and F-15C grips. Love the Tomcat? Got money to burn? Get VKB's F-14 grip!

An old but effective answer to the question of how the landing gear works: RTFM. From the DCS MiG-21bis manual:

I can't speak for the Virpil products, but I have installed VKB adapters in both my TM Warthog and Hornet grips. It was not hard to put the adapters in. As you can see in my post in the VKB forum, I now have 6 grips that work with the VKB with the arrival of the F-14 grip. The VKB stick base feels smooth, has user selectabled precision and filtering, and can be readily adpated to the feel you want with cams and springs. I personally prefer using sticks with extensions sized to provide the same range of motion as the controls of the real aircraft, which should negate the need for programming axis response curves if the in-game stick is programmed correctly. The extensions available from VKB are a 10 cm straight and a 20 cm curved. The 20 cm curved came with my MCG Pro / GF2 combo. My setup is home cockpit is setup to work with a 15 cm straight extension with the Warthog, so the 20 cm curved one ends up being too high and over my lap and the 10 cm straight is just a little too low. I bought a long piece of aluminum pipe with the correct inside and outside dimensions. Whenever I get around to cutting it up and drilling holes, I intend to have various straight extensions around 12.5, 15, 17.5, and 20 cm to give me more flexibility depending on which grip I am using and which aircraft I am flying. I opted for the GF3 upgrade kit for my pair of GF2 bases just to stay as current as possible, but there was nothing wrong with the GF2.

I had to do a bit of filing to make the VKB TM Warthog grip adapter fit the new TM F/A-18C Hornet grip. I only had a large metal file and was more interested in getting it to fit than making it look pretty, but it works perfectly. I really like this grip and it works great on the VKB Gunfighter base with this slightly rounded off adapter.

I now have every grip that is compatible with the VKB Gunfighter (I have MK2s updated with MK3 kits).

It is worth the wait!

Yes, the SCG Pro is very capable and will accommodate just about any aircraft as long as you don't need an analog brake lever. It is very comfortable, and the control arrangement is very similar to US fighters. But as far as running out of buttons and hats... the MCG Pro has even more, and I never leave any of them unassigned. The SCG Pro is more comfortable and the controls are arranged better, but the MCG Pro's extra hats/switches/axes allow it to be used for everything the SCG Pro does and more, especially if you retrofit it with the twist axis. If you fly Russian aircraft with brake levers (or the Spitfire Mk IX), you should consider the MCG Pro. In many aircraft, I try to reserve a spare hat switch. I use that hat for: kneepad open/close, page left/right, current position mark, and to show pilot, which is extremely useful when flying in VR. As for the Warthog throttle analog slew control, I highly recommend buying the replacement slew stick sold on the Thrustmaster subforum. It vastly improves the control in every way (shape/size/feel/precision) to at least equal if not beat the VKB analog hats.

My only question: how does this work when you are still using a real-world HOTAS setup? The way I want something like this to work is to know when my hands are on my real-world stick and/or throttle so that it "bonds" the virtual hands to the stick and/or throttle until I release one or both to push a button, etc. Of course, I would like the option to have the hands to be attached to the virtual pilot as well! Questions/problems/wishes aside, that looks very impressive!

The hardware on the 20cm curved is easily removed and installed onto a custom cut pipe. But I would love to be able to get additional cables/ends without having to buy more 20cm curved extensions I don't want or need.

This isn't an oversight. It is standard for sticks with a twist axis. The easy fix is to use and extension. The extension can be offset. I prefer the 10 cm straight extension over the curved 20 cm extension as it better replicates the grip position for most aircraft and keeps the grip centered between my knees when the extension is twisted to provide the desired offset. I bought some aluminum pipe with the correct inside/outside diameters to make my own custom length straight extensions, i.e. 12 cm, 15 cm, 17 cm, 20 cm, etc. I can borrow the fittings/wire from the curved 20 cm extension to make any one of these custom lengths work. I got my grip today, too. I love it!

My new favorite grip! This is very close to my preferred B-8 grip with a few enhancements that make it more comfortable and more capable. I love the soft rubber checkered/diamond texture, which gives the grip an even better feel than my real B-8 grip. I do see a missed opportunity: the analog flap axis on the side of the stick could have been made to permit a press/click function like the trim hat. This would have made the F-14 grip a better stand-in for B-8 grips. The side button will do the job, but it would be more intuitive to have been able to press down on the analog flap control switch. This is not the grip to use for flying the F-16, A-10C, F/A-18C or other aircraft with all the extra 4-way hat type controls. But it is great for just about anything else.

Should be arriving very soon, though DHL says it is still in Hong Kong as of tonight.

I compared the motion ranges to the numbers in the F-4E Pilot's Manual. The angle sweep from Full cutoff to idle is nearly identical. The angle from idle to min burner is nearly identical. It is only from min burner to max burner that the range is dramatically smaller. But there is not stop at min burner when the throttle is inboard. The min burner stop only works when afterburner is engaged. I could engineer a stop to make it so that you would have to go outboard to advance past minimum burner. But I will only mess with that after I see how the whole thing works in the game. One way or the other, this will work just fine with DCS World. Just a matter of personal preference on how I make it work in the sim.

The handles popped right in and it works very well.

It looks that simple... but life events keep taking up all of my time. I may get to try tonight. But I had fun working the voodoo levers. They work differently than the F-4, but in a way that is very compatible with flight sims. The afterburner control range overlaps the max mil power range, moving the levers outboard while in the afterburner range engages the afterburner and limits the throttle to minimum afterburner. The levers must be moved back inboard which disengages the afterburner to be able to move below the min afterburner position. Instead of finger-lift detents for idle, the throttle levers stop at idle while inboard. They must be moved outboard before they can be retarded to hit the throttle stop. Also, while outboard, the throttle levers can only be advanced to just above an idle. Some DCS aircraft will work perfect with the switch that is engaged while you are outboard in the afterburner range. In most cases, this will work better than the F-4's version where you go outboard to advance past max mil power.

After receiving my code, I forwarded it to VKB via the help ticket system and they refunded me the discount within 30 minutes of me sending the ticket. It was 10%, so I saved nearly $20, which will surely go towards a bottle of rum in the near future while I am flying the DCS F-14 Tomcat with my new VKB F-14 grip :)

I just got my F-101 Voodoo throttle. I don't have time to take it apart and test fit the F-4 handles, but visually it looks very compatible and way ahead of anything I was capable of making myself in terms of quality/sturdiness/feel. The main problem is whether the inboard/outboard toggle function will work, but at a glance, I would say I have a 90% chance that the F-4 lever is dimensionally identical and that I can figure out how to get it apart far enough without breaking anything so I can swap levers.

That was an extremely fast response! The $20 I saved will surely go to some rum in the near future, which is my preferred drink while flying DCS World in the evening.

Looks great! Can't wait to receive it.

It would have been nice if I could have received the email and/or found the discount code before I received the notification for order availability. But if it can't be retroactively applied, I preferred to order the grip immediately rather than wait for a code and miss out on the first batch.

I didn't receive a code. I didn't want to wait for resolution either because I don't want to miss out on the first batch. So, I guess I lose $20.

Thank you for the quick response as I have grown dependent on VAICOM for enjoying DCS World, especially with the F-14 Rio.

This pit looks awesome. Maybe I should dredge those plans up and see if I can make them work as well as they did for this build.