TripRodriguez

Thank you for the excellent info @Sryan . I already own the Huey, and I'm loving flying it, though hitting a ground target is another matter entirely! I have some further questions Sryan, if you don't mind: Is the stick and rudder flying of the Ka-50 (with all those assists) still the challenge I expect of flying a helicopter, or is managing those systems alone the tricky part? The multiplayer part of the Gazelle sounds really cool (what I'd been hoping Huey would offer), but there isn't much content for the Gazelle right? Thanks a lot for your previous reply, it was very informative. @j0nx I'll let you know about lead time once I hear back from Komodo. Naturally I want the control right now, but I've got plenty of other sim stuff to keep me busy for however long it takes, not to mention my other long neglected hobby I've vowed to return to in the next few months. Trip

How about campaigns for the other helicopters? The more I think about it the more I think I should go with the controller with the most buttons because I can fly all the Heli's without any issues. I'd love the specific controller for the chopper I most fly but then I'll be annoyed when I want to use it for anything that leaves me with a button shortage. Looks like I'll probably get the Gazelle cyclic instead. Auto Hover? Eeew! Modern aircraft are just too easy to fly. I like flying something that makes me work for it! :joystick:

Hey guys! I hope you don't mind the borderline necro, I was really happy to find this thread. Thanks to a gift from my father (WWII vet and civilian pilot turning 90 years old this Sunday) who enjoys flying on my sim I was planning to order the VKB Gunfighter with it's dry clutch feature appropriate for helicopters. Now I'm thinking I might take that same money and instead spend it on the Komodo Cyclic. Maybe even somehow milk the budget some more (three square meals of Ramen per day!) and somehow manage to get the collective as well (I was planning on building one which is how I found this thread). The pedals look fantastic as well, for authenticity but that's just getting greedy, especially as I'm already flying with MFG Crosswinds. I'm fairly new to DCS, with less than a hundred hours of P-51 flight time and just a couple hours of Huey flight time thus far. My understanding was that the Huey module included an excellent and pretty extensive campaign. Is that not the case? I also found the community made 400+ missions thing which seems like a good place to turn after that. I'm fully prepared to go all-in on the Huey but some of your comments here about lack of content made me hesitate just the tiniest bit. I'm not too worried about multiplayer, though co-op would be fantastic. Thanks for your time, Trip PS- Which helicopter in DCS has the most content available? Are any known to have new DCS 2.5 campaigns coming? I'm interested in immersion above all else. When it comes down to it whichever set of Komodo controls I buy will probably be used to fly all the DCS helicopters, though I worry about not having enough buttons in the gazelle if I buy the Huey controllers. :huh: PPS- This might sound crazy, but I'm afraid of the Black Shark possibly being too easy to fly. :rolleyes:

Also a note that might be helpful for future SimShaker sound module users: I have two Aura ST bass shakers and one Buttkicker Mini LFE. Before SimShaker I preferred the Buttkicker, but with SimShaker I much prefer the Aura-ST's (which are cheaper). Part of the reason for this is I feel the sound coming from the Aura's adds to the effect and just feels more real. The landing gear sound module effect with the Aura's on the P-51 is one of my favorite things in a sim ever! The one caveat is that the Aura's sound like a muddy set of speakers, so if noise is a problem the Buttkickers will be a bit better. Another note, since the amp for bass shakers can be an expensive component. If you have a home stereo type amp you can run two or three Aura ST's in series off that. Just check the impedance rating on the amp. A single one is only 4 ohms (too low for this type amp), two in series is 8 ohms (good for many amps). Two in parallel is 2 ohms, don't do that! Three in series will be 12 ohms etc.

One quick suggestion to try: Make sure you run both DCS and Voicemeter as administrator. This suggestion is not specific to this software, but something that very often works when hotkeys for one program are not working while running another program. Good luck getting it sorted!

Just make sure if different exports (obect is currently being discussed) causes problems and you have to turn them off don't turn off player export unless absolutely necessary =). Lots of happy jetseat users now and also me at least with the full motion sim.

Correct, face mounted sensor is the way to go, though multiple sensors I'm sure would be better. Hell, hard mounted sensors to show your hand in relation to a physical sim cockpit so you can flip real switches without feeling around to find them would be ideal!

Thanks Okona, that means a lot coming from you. As far as the four point harness I do have one, and had it installed previously, but even during the wild ride I get when racing I don't think the platform could throw me. Check my latest youtube video here: =). Still I will probably put it on again. I agree 100% on the gimicky motion setups. So many people are fixated on 360/inversions! So many terrible designs showing up. People link them to me all the time. I used Thanos AMC1280USB and 6DOF extension board, and I purchased the motors, gearboxes, and Inverters that he had posted were used in a successful build using his electronics: http://motionsim.blogspot.com/2013/05/6dof-platform-photo.html I used some but not all the dimensions from GA-Dawg 's thread on his forums, namely the upper hex platform. DoctorD on the X-sim forums supplied the drawing for my torque arms. I came up with all other ancillary stuff myself, some through trial and error! So far I've used only Ian's BFF Simulation software. I intend to use SimTools also when v.2 comes out as it has the best compatibility. My capacity is only a very rough estimate but it's supposed to be something like 400kg if I remember right, including the upper platform. I'd estimate that weighs maybe 150 pounds tops. I know it can handle a friend of mine who weighs 240lbs without missing a beat. By envelope you mean how far it can travel? I haven't done any measuring except for heave, that is about 12.8 inches. I don't use nearly all the rotation range I have, in VR less is more. You can see the surge work nicely in that racing video I uploaded to YouTube today as well. So far I'm using it for P3D/FSX, DCS, and Dirt Rally. There are maybe a dozen titles with direct support from BFF Simulation. All of the stuff that works with BFF has proper telemetry export, many of the things SimTools has plugins for are hacked to work but I haven't touched that yet as SimTools 1 doesn't have proper support for a Stewart rig. Okona, thank you so much for talking me into going 6DOF. I'm not going to enjoy paying off the credit debt the next couple years but it was worth it! Trip

Hey guys. I've got my heavily modded FFB2 (which I use for antique planes) available as well as my Gladiator Pro with Warthog grip. Does it make sense to use the FFB setup for helicopters? Two separate factors: Is it more realistic? Is it beneficial in any way (like stall shake in planes)? I'm flying the Huey if that matters. Apparently the Gunfighter with those clutches is a great helicopter option. I want one but don't think I can manage it.

I've got the Gladiator Pro and Warthog adapter, I think gunfighter is an excellent option if you have a 'Hawg or Cougar grip. The stock VKB grip does feel like most joysticks, very plastic feeling. That said I'm using this grip anyway with some mods when flying the P-51 as it's the only WWII type grip I've got.

Hey guys, I have a question out of curiosity. Are contact lenses not an ideal solution for VR users who need corrective lenses? Prior to VR finally coming into it's own I'd definitely have opted for glasses if my vision started to deteriorate. After DK1 I'd have definitely gone for contacts for this reason alone. I'd be curious to know if that's the wrong route to take, just in case I do get to where I need them.

Not at all, that was just ridiculously harsh criticism. CV1 in 1.5 is fantastic, in fact it's the only thing I've been playing for weeks. Yes, we all want higher resolution displays but the current one is good enough to enjoy plenty. I use mine for 5+ hours straight several nights a week, and have spent up to a ten hour stretch in it several times (minus bio breaks).

Update: Both of the PCB's are now in the hands of a friend of my brothers who is a true pro at soldering, for the tiny resistors to get put on the boards. While that is happening I've disassembled the sticks and started looking at merging the two mechanisms together based on the OP but trying not to have to order those motor mounts. My extension needs to be shortened and improved from when i was using just one stock FFB2, so that's taken apart as well while I decide the best way to build the extension.

Photographic evidence of content of previous post. You can kinda see there's also a prop from a Stearman up there that he ground looped when he was earning his pilots license. Supposedly has a tiny crack somewhere but he could never find it. The thing hanging from the column by the way is his throat mic from his flight engineer days. @FrazMann He was very impressed and loved it. He'll be flying once in a while. I wanted to get a cheap used flight yoke and buy the B-25 for FSX/P3D and have him fly that for his birthday but my finances are borked this month due to unexpected expenses cropping up.

My dad turns 90 in 15 days and he flew the P-51 in VR on my Motion Sim last week. :thumbup: He was ground crew just after WWII mostly on P-47's. He was later a Flight Engineer in mostly B25's, but also flew in the C-45, A-20, PBY Catalina. We have the control column from the C-45 hanging on our living room wall, it met it's demise by catching the landing gear on the fence at the end of the runway on takeoff after an engine went out.... with my Dad in the co-pilot's seat!

Thanks for the tips! I did feel the marker sometimes made it harder to ID targets and I had forgotten that there is apparently a zoom feature that works in Rift (but not in Vive I'm told) that I need to find and bind. I'll be sure to bind both of those up before my next flight. :pilotfly:

I agree, which I why I posted this in mods and apps. I'm hoping someone might do it as a community mod.

Los, I didn't mean that finding the switches is a problem, only that it's less immersive for the fact that you have to find the switches etc. by feel rather than look at the switch and put your hand right on it as you would in real life.

I had an idea to help mostly VR players, probably not a good one but wanted to post it and see what people think. The thing is that with the low resolution display of VR headsets (totally worth it!) it can be far more difficult to id a target. The idea is to make a way to ID airplanes as friendly or enemy but only once you get close enough that you would be able to ID it if you were on a monitor. What if there was a target marker on planes that is red or blue but only visible within 100 meters or so? I'm not pushing for this, just want to see what people think!

I will neither confirm nor deny that I shot down a Spitfire last night in my Mustang, but I do request that someone point me to where I learn to identify friends and foes better. Actually seeing what plane I'm looking at is tough with the low resolution of a VR display. I saw something about Channel 4 in the briefing but don't know how to use it. I had a blast getting shot down a bunch of times, thanks for turning on the Player Export for us! Trip

Sweet thanks for fixing that. =) Thank you to everyone for the compliments!

Thank you for the very kind words. Yeah it's been great, spent tonight on Burning Skies and last night on Steel Balls. It's difficult to give a number on my sim for a few reasons. First I spread the buying parts out over two years and didn't keep track. I maxed out the credit cards, payed them down a bit then maxed 'em again! Doing it all myself, and getting lucky with a few things laying around I could use and a couple things I got cheap or free I think I spent under $6,000 on it but I think anyone going in should be prepared for quite a bit more than that. Maybe $10,000 if you don't have a lot of tools and such and can't weld. Of course if I were to pay myself minimum wage for the hours I spent researching, building, going back to to the drawing board and building again, etc. It' would be over $10,000 I bet =P.

Hey guys! I just wanted to show off my recently "finished" motion simulator. I put that in quotes because no such project is ever truly finished and I've got lots of add-ons already on my radar. :music_whistling: In addition to the 6DOF motion I'm running SimShaker for Aviators with two Aura ST bass shakers and my JetSeat will be arriving tomorrow. Even flying with motion but without SimShaker just feels wrong now! ...and a quick DCS video of it running: I don't know why the video embedding never works for me.. here it is: Sim info: Software: Ian's BFF Simulation 6DOF Controller hardware: Thanos TronicGR AMC1280USB and 6DOF extension board 6- AC motor (0.75HP) : MTR-P75-3BD18 6- GearBox (60:1) : WG-262-060-D 6- VFD inverter (1HP) : WJ200-007SF

Yes please! My body is ready!

So... this thread blew up in some interesting directions! As for my original topic: I'd be very happy with a P-63 instead of the P-39, whichever would be better for DCS gameplay. My love for this plane by the way is based on features (mid engine, huge cannon, tricycle landing gear) and not performance. I just always thought it was a super cool innovative design (but I'm also a Pontiac Fiero and Chevrolet Corvair fan IRL if you can see the pattern here! Innovative vehicles that were ultimately failures LOL). As for the argument of whether or not the P-39 belongs in Normandy and by extension whether or not the variants of the WWII planes we currently have available belong there, I kinda suspect the WWII planes that were made for DCS so far weren't chosen based on whether or not they'd be in Normandy. The Zero is in the works and pretty sure they weren't in Normandy right? At any rate I wasn't looking at the plane historically fitting into the Normandy setting as a prerequisite, maybe I was wrong i that regard and maybe not. I hope someone eventually makes a P-39 or P-63 for DCS and if they do I'll definitely buy it. On the other hand I can see based this thread why it's unlikely to be selected. =( Lastly let me say I'm very impressed with the knowledge of some of you folks, and I sincerely thank you for the education.