JaseGill

I imagine speed-brake closed is based on the fact that those big old paddles will hit the water before most of the airframe with the L/G already retracted and therefore induce a pitch forward as they hit or worst case shear the wings off. Some may wonder then why flaps down? Well its a necessary evil, I'm sure landing on water with a clean wing is preferable but you need the flaps to get speed off, its a trade off that's acceptable, which is probably not the case with air-brakes. It may be due to there being more strength inboard on the wings where the flaps are in comparison to the speed-brakes being very much outboard. I imagine the ditching procedure is based on the real A10C ditching procedure. In aircraft I have flown the idea is to have as little as possible hanging (hence stores jettison), put it down gently and allow it to in effect surf to a halt, then you jump out ASAP, hence canopy jettison in the case of the A10C (you'd lose engines and hence probably hydraulics soon after a ditch). Given the fidelity of the sim I'm surprised it doesn't mention tide direction in case of a ditching too, but that's probably just something to do with the tides not being modelled sufficiently to affect a ditch procedure in game?

Questrymj, Thanks, much appreciated. Good to know the Mimo's work in Win 7 too. Are you using Win7 32 or 64 and if so do you know if 64 is ok too?

I'd be interested too at the right price. Even if its a kit and you have to assemble yourself. My alternative would be a small touchscreen and TouchBuddy so you can see the sort of level of investment I'm already considering.

Gadroc, Thanks very much. Its good to get the info from one of the Helios magicians, Im seriously impressed by your work and commitment to the cause. I'm not too worried about getting gauge information out as I'm thinking only replicating the UFC. Should I wish to go the gauge route then I would get a bigger screen and attach my TM MFCD's to it as I have seen on here (and been very impressed with). Thanks for the steer on Win 7 64 too, I often forget that its not been around all that long and that some hardware developers don't support their kit quite as well as they should. As an aside, I cant find any but that doesn't mean they aren't around. Has anyone seen any small (10" or less) screens driven by "proper" graphical outputs rather than on USB that has a Touch-screen? I just don't think I currently have the room to use one of my "spare" NEC 2090 Multi-synch Touch-screens for Helios, no matter how much Id like to. Cheers, Jase.

I have been saying the same for a while. Its amazingly fast, smooth in both A10C and BS and I cant see any snags with it at all. Its a major step up for Intel and currently unbeatable in my humble opinion. That is at stock speeds too. Over-clocked an i5 2500K like mine supposed to wipe the floor with an i7 980X. Unbelievable until its proven and I can see why some doubted my reports early on but I'm sure its all over the internet by now how damn fast these Sandy Bridge are.

Feed, The Mimo and Liliput monitors I have been looking at just run off USB and seem to hint that they have their onw on baord USB graphics driver that makes it look as if its a "real" monitor. Im wondering if these are of any quality or one needs a "proper" video input to be of any quality using Touchbuddy?

Kuky, Thanks, much appreciated. In your opinion does a 10" seem overkill. I haven't used Touchbuddy before so some guidance would be helpful. Also I guess from your reply that the touchscreen isn't one of those that runs of USB inputs? I'm wondering if one of those would suffice. Thanks in advance, J.

That sounds like a good compromise to me. I've been looking at building a UFC and for the price and faff of building one I could get a 7 inch touch and use Touchbuddy I guess. The UFC is the one panel that I'd like to have as its the one I seem to spend most time clicking. An added plus would be I suppose is that the 7 inch touch is useful for other stuff than A10C too. I'm sold, I think I just talked myself into a purchase whilst typing this ;) Do you get any noticeable lag from the 7 inch 2nd screen Kuky? I assume its driven from the 2nd output of your graphics card? J.

They could drop it to 100 all in and I still wouldn't buy it again. I had one, lasted 6 months with it jumping about like a sack of badgers and decided I'd be getting rid soon as I could sell it on eBay I hadn't even planned to buy a Warthog but it came up at the right time and I haven't looked back since. Maybe its me but the Force Feedback, which I must admit at times felt like it could be useful for BS, wasn't enough to make me keep it, even on the odd occasion that it did seem to work. A lot of people will quite rightly say that its also down to the implementation in game by the developers that also has an effect but whatever software I used it in just didn't fell right. You'll also wait a lifetime for Logitech to even agree there is a problem, a year between its release and then a half arsed firmware update that felt like a Beta? Not my kind of support (not that I'm saying any other manufacturer is any better as I'm yet to see proof that any other manufacturer is any better either). I fly for real and some say that the force feedback adds some realism, partially true, but in most cases it just feels fake and like its getting in the way. Nothing replaces seat of the pants flying anyway and when something feels fake it just makes it even less real for me. Just my 2 pence worth and not saying others haven't got it to a place they like. All I'd say is if and when you can afford it buy the Warthog, I was up and flying in 10 minutes (including un-boxing it) and it worked straight out the box, feels right, performs right and most of all doesn't make me want to throw it out of the window as soon as I make a turn ;) J.

That Bottle of Spitfire. lol, you should have seen some of the original advertising campaigns that were considered. Off target here but: You should have seen the original tag line for the beer it read something like: "Spitfire, shooting down fockers all over Kent". The beer is brewed in Kent, one of the counties that saw the majority of the Battle of Britain on its doorstep overhead. It was removed by the Advertising Standards Commission here in the UK as it wasn't considered very Politically Correct. Some that got through were: "Not for Schlossers, Wagners or Kuntz" "Rotten Luck Johhny's Landed in the Drink" and my personal favourite: "Downed all over Kent, just like the Luftwaffe". British humour and somewhat bad taste (unlike the beer, its great tasting) I grant you but it works here ;) I apologies in advance to any of our German cousins, obviously. J.

Yep, Im not at all surprised Rusty. The Sandy Bridge rig I have now flies too. Yet to test BS as Ive been away from work on a course but hoping I can have some stick and rudder time this weekend. J.

EtherealN, I was the same, pretty much an AMD guy until about a couple years ago. They need to get their act together because if nothing else the market needs Intel and Nvidia to have some competition. The good old days when they flipped back and forth seem an age away and I remember checking it out and following it with great interest. Its just not the same now. Bring on AMD's next generation, its the only thing that will push the bondaries of performance and keep the price war alive and well. God knows we need that. J.

I was wondering the same. I have done some C# and VB.NET development so wondered how hard it could be? j.

WOW Boot, that rocks. Looks really good mate. Especially like the way you have done the PCB. Any idea what you're going to drive it with? Leo Bodnar or one of the many others around? J.

Fair enuf y2kiah. Probably a good move. Good luck in figting us all off mate ;) J.

Pretty damn good I'd say. Want so share those Leo Bodnar custom made panels? I have one and would love to see what you have done with it. J.

y2kiah, Methinks you're going to be inundated as soon as you announce availability. Good prosperous businesses are made this way :) J.

Konolov, Yeah sorry its a typo, I didnt look hard enough before I compared i7 980's with the i5 2500K. I just looked at the fastest other CPU and saw a massive difference. Doh! Yeah not a massive difference in price when you compare like with like (ish). Im just happy that I got cheaper for faster if you can believe all of the online reviews, which Im always going to take with a pinch of salt. J. p.s. Kuky, thanks for the rep. It takes a bigger man than most to get involved with some sort of discussion and not stick to their ideas without backing down. To be honest I think were both right, FPS still drops on cannon hits but not so noticeably and I have to agree on the reason you gave. I have also read that floating point has improved, I don't know how A10c is coded but it wouldn't surprise me if that's the case. p.p.s Rep reciprocated by the way, you've been here longer than me and seen more of this than most it seems and your comments have always been fair and without prejudice.

All, Just so everyone knows my settings. Graphics 1920 x 1080 full screen. Everything on High. All the ones on the bottom right (HDR, FSAA and the other one I can never remember) ticked. No mirrors as I completely forgot to put them on (didn't used them with the e6750) but Im keen to try them when I get back home on Friday no that I have remembered them. I'll repeat what I have said so many times and seems to have got lost in all this apart from a couple of posters noticing it: I saw no noticeable pause in game-play on firing the GAU8. Yes there is an FPS drop but read back to my 1st post, I said I had only had chance to do a couple of missions and I had not noticed the pause some had reported. As an aside there are FPS drops in busy areas and sometimes I notice them, but having played properly now for at least 4 or 5 hours I can honestly say its very very smooth. Without FRAPS limiting it to 30 FPS I have seem upper 70s in the cruise and 40's over the battlefield when looking at the inbuilt FPS Counter. Once its fully optimised and no longer Beta I reckon on Sandy Bridge this is going to be very smooth, as it is for 1st gen i7 users and some i5 and AMD too I'm sure. If I had been 1st gen i7 would I have upgraded? Probably not for at least a year, but for most here who don't have what were 1000 GBP processors and 300 GBP motherboards I'd say an effectively 375 GBP upgrade makes one hell of a difference and is a bargain. Thats what I was trying to say in my 1st post (badly I'm sure) that for the price differential Sandy Bridge is one hell of an upgrade. On Overclcockers UK where I buy all my gear the i7 950 is still 500 GBP more than the i5 2500K, add the motherboard plus the need for triple channel DDR3 and the price pumps up even more. Whilst were on the subject has anyone else seen the reviews coming out? Some are saying the i5 2500K is up there with the 1st gen 980X in some cases, a 500 GBP price differential. Im not sure I believe them, though I do believe what I see when I play now. J.

All, Track has been recorded in FRAPS and yes indeed, surprise surprise the FPS drops when the cannon is fired, did I notice it with the naked eye? No. Did it drop, yes. By how much, about 1 to 2 fps whilst firing. As I was due negative Rep for saying I didn't notice a drop I guess I should be due some positive rep maybe now as I said no noticeable drop. I wont hold my breath. Link: J.

Cool, will do. J.

Kuky, Fair enough. I haven't run it yet so cant comment on whether there is an FPS drop. What I can say, and did say initially is that I didn't notice the pause that others have reported. What I said in the original post is that I had no noticeable pause, and I stand by that statement. I had pauses before which were noticeable in other situations which in one case ended in it continuing with my aircraft burning having flown into the ground whilst frozen. It may have impacted FPS but given that I was used before to 20 to 30 FPS the pause would have been noticeable should it drop to 10 - 15. Now that its been in high 50's (according to the in built FPS counter) I guess I would notice it less if it dropped to 20 or 30 FPS from the high 50's? What I said is that I had no noticeable pause, and I stand by that statement. I'll run it when I get back this evening and post something up. Either way its a hell of a lot smoother than it was before and I'm very surprised by that even with the optimised Beta 4 code and the machine upgrade. I had read before that even i7 over-clocks were seeing slow downs so I didn't expect even a Sandy Bridge i5 to be that much better. As an aside I'm guessing FRAPS only running for 30 seconds is plenty? I'm not paying 37 USD just to prove a point. J.

Kuky, Very true, though your reply does seem a bit confrontational. Negative rep for being honest and saying that I didn't notice any slowdown in firing the GAU8, a bit severe don't you think? If you read my comment back again you will see I said that I experienced no noticeable pauses as previously reported, not no loss of frame rate. Does your rig actually pause or just slow down when you fire the cannon? I haven't flown Beta 4 before this as my machine was in bits waiting for the Sandy Bridge gear to arrive. From what I have read around here people have a noticeable pause when firing the cannon, something I didn't notice myself. Should I give you negative rep for not reading my post properly I wonder? Yes I should qualify it with the previous rig, which was a e6750 again water-cooled but overclocked to 3.2GHz. Obviously it was a different motherboard (Gigabyte) and only DDR2 memory (but still at 4GB). SO I guess the noticeable difference in performance shouldn't have been such a shock. I have just downloaded FRAPS so that I can do the same mission (CAS Mission that comes with the standard install) and show everyone the results, I don't have a you tube account yet but I suppose I can get one. Dont expect anything tonight though as I dont have the time or a massive desire to take time out of my plans to prove anything to you ;) J.

All, I can truthfully say that Sandy Bridge is one hell of an improvement. With my rig, as per my sig I get 60+ FPS at the airport, same over cities and around 45 in combat environments (tested using the CAS Mission). No pauses with firing the GAU8 either which I was surprised about. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an upgrade soon. I'm very pleased. J.

Guys, Well, as you can see from my Signature I'm now Sandybridged up. Went for the i5 2500K so that I can overclock at some point if I want and a P8P67 ASUS Motherboard as the reviews were great. Must say I'm very impressed so far. I haven't had a decent test of the machine yet as I re-installed Windows 7 64 Bit and everything else, which has taken most of the evening (I know priorities - should be battering A10C). So, a few screen shots of CPU-Z to come and then I'll do some flying on Beta 4 and let you know. Something up here by tomorrow evening I hope. In case anyone wonders how I got the CPU before the 9th, well as per my previous post, I was lucky to get an order in with Overclockers UK on the 5th when Intel sent out the wrong email and they released the sales NDA rather than the Reviews NDA. I guess Intel gave them permission to release CPU's to those who got orders in. Lucky me :) J.