Radial9

I can’t believe it has been a year to the week that I started this DCS/A10C adventure. A whole series of life issues put my A10C training on hold. I had to replace the cooler on top of my homebuild CPU. I had a whole series of crashes in P3D from some original incorrect install config issues along with the cooler. All sorted out now. I made the decision to start from scratch and reinstalled W10 and all my flightsim gear. Then IRMA decided to make landfall right over the top of my house. Ten days living off a generator. Computer put on top of cabinets because if you listened to the local media there would be six feet of water in my house and we were all going to die. At the end of the ten days, at sixty three, I felt as if I had been beat about the head and shoulders with a baseball bat. But… we were more fortunate than many. Anyway…… life goes on. I must admit to dabbling into the Majestic Q400 virtual airline thing over the past few months. Always thought about reinstalling DCS but never getting around to actually doing it. Then last week I’m looking at Frooglesim’s weekly YouTube and watch him land the F18 Hornet on an aircraft carrier and my life changed. I now have a new TM Warthog HOTAS, two MonsterTech HOTAS/Throttle desk pedastals and TrackIR sitting on the floor here next to me. To put it as I put it to the wife when I showed her the video (she’s gotta “thing” for fighter jocks). “I gotta do this.” She replied: “Yes… you do”.The CH Yoke and THQ will get packed into a storage box for my nine year old grandson. I will start the hardware installs this weekend. Even though my retirement date has been pushed out a year, I can’t keep putting this off, especially after seeing the F18 videos. I believe I will have (or will make!) time over the next year or two to climb this learning curve. Also got all my DCS/A10C training materials; video’s, manuals, threads and documents all organized and reread and reviewed again over the past week. Everyone here at DCS, and in this thread in particular have been extremely kind in offers of help and encouragement. I hope I have not burned any bridges here. Life just threw a curve ball this way. Where I sit right now is DCS World 2.5 has been downloaded and installed. I have not clicked the icon to open it after the install yet. Thought I would wait until I pull all the CH gear and install the TM warthog. It is USB spaghetti down there, as I also have a few GoFlight modules. I have not reinstalled the A10C. I have some initial Warthog HOTAS install uncertainties after reading Chuck’s tutorial a few times. I don’t think I need a profile as I have read the A10C should respond to the TM Warthog pretty much out of the box. But Chuck discusses some axis binding that needs to be done. If I run into issues I’ll scurry back here ASAP if I can’t get through the documentation and manuals. If you have made it through this rather lengthy post…. Again, and Again…. THANK YOU for the kind welcome and your encouragement. It has made a difference in making the decision to fall down this rabbit hole. All the Best, Radial9 AKA “Bob”

Thank you for this thread and conversation. I was getting ready to pull the trigger on the Spit and the Normandy Map. I am coming over from the FSX/P3D environment. I have logged nearly 2000 hours over the past 10 years in a DC3 with a well known DC3 virtual airline. Was also getting ready to buy a TM Warthog Hotas and Throttle to sit next to my CH yoke, THQ and pedals. I was looking for a TH Warthog profile in the hopes of beginning to tame the Spit right off the bat with the TH Warthog Hotas and Normandy. Still might yet. At least I know now what I’m getting into. I must admit the draw of the A10C is also in my veins, but piston slappers have always been my first love. I’m a real pilot, although I have not flown in some years, I have flown real tail draggers. Thanks for these thoughts. They will help me decide the probability, pace and direction as I re enter DCS world. I had made a go of it a year ago, collecting a mass amount of tutorials, guides and videos. But… IRMA decided to make landfall right over the top of the house last fall and everything kinda fell apart. Just getting DCS 2.5 downloaded now. Still undecided on first focus, Spit or A10C. Does a Warthog Hotas profile for the Spit exist. If there is or is not one it will help me decide. I really want to buy this Hotas, but this thread made me stop and evaluate the situation. Would appreciate any thoughts from Art-J or anyone else. Thanks! Radial9

After getting slammed by IRMA coming right over the top of the house, some serious upgrade issues and real life hurdles; nearly a year later I'm reinstalling my DCS World and the A10C I bought last July. I spend months collecting training and tutorial info, so this time around getting started again should be a lot more pleasurable and efficient. I also now have 2.5 to work in. How nice. Anyway... I have a nice fast 2TB SSD I want to install DCS 2.5 stable on. I "may" install 2.5.2 beta down the road. Can I safely rename the top drive folder to "DCS World 2.5 Stable" without running to issues with hardware and software finding it? I can then install DCS 2.5 beta, "maybe" down the road into another root level folder. Anyone see any issues renaming the default install folder from C: Program Files yada yada to E;/DSC World 2.5 Stable" in the install wizard??? Thanks! Radial9

I was able to find some time to run through the first six lessons of the training. MUCH was simply following rote commands without really knowing what was going on, but as per the excellent advice to do this, it should help a great deal over the next few weeks as I find time to read the flight manual, Chucks Guides and a few other resources I have tucked away for the trip. I have no experience flying a HUD. I can see I’m just going to have to spend considerable time doing basic maneuvers to get learn to trust the instruments rather than my eyes on the horizon. I was able to accomplish a few 360’s within 500 feet either side of altitude and keep fairly consistent airspeed.. I’ll take that as a win for now. When landing there was indeed WAY too much going on, but after I was able to pause the sim, get the ILS programed for Batumi I was able to find my way there. Over shot the runway on approach and reciprocal headings half a dozen times before I was able to align, on the reciprocal runway, don’t you know, and was able to get the flaps and gear down and land the beast about 20 feet off the side of the asphalt. I’ll take it as a win. Pretty much convinced me I need a MUCH better HOTAS. I’m using a TM T-HOTAS X, with no programming or profiles. But fun was had by all concerned and it did give me MUCH more of an idea of the cockpit as I read more over the next few weeks. Great advice, thank you!

OK Gentlemen... Thank you for the advise and thank you for the warm welcome! Was able to install DCS 1.5 and the A10c. Configured them and am quite pleased with the results. Was able to watch the first tutorial video. Hopefully will be able to watch a few more before heading out. I feel like a 16 year old kid with a new toy. Tempting to set my responsibilities aside and crank up another tutorial. But..... Another quick question. Was able to get a summer special of the A10 and the Black Shark for a good price. They also have the A10 for 2.0 along with a mission on sale. And... Normandy and asset pack. Serious coin for something I may not be doing for months yet. Should I take advantage of this or do these sales come up every six months or so? Don't want to miss out. Will give some thought to a HOTAS while I'm bored at 30K feet for 9 hours. The Warthog is serious money. Not sure how I'm going to take to blowing the $$it out of stuff yet. It's the cockpit and the flying that is the attraction here. Might just be able to fly just fine with a CH stick. But who knows, I might find air to air combat a wee bit of fun.... Thanks again!!

Home Fries... Thank you for the advice. Will make every effort to follow it. Schedule is a bit tight a few days before a three week business trip. Makes perfect sense though. I'm going to assume the tutorials are a bunch of watching rather than doing. Let's see if I can make it happen. I will attempt to at least get a start on them if I can't get all the way through before I head out. Thanks!!

Now that the PC is up and running I’m going to start out with the A10C, of course. I have downloaded the 700 page manual, the Lobo version 8d checklist guide and bought a digital copy of PC Pilots special issue dedicated to the A10C. I am getting ready for an extended business trip to Alaska, where I spent most my life, for business. The fun of these trips was gone years ago, they are a PITA now. Three weeks of LONG jet rides and boring hotels. Good time to start reading these manuals. I’m a bit of a nerd about these things, but I really enjoy reading these docs. So…. Question is. When I get home and have my HOTAS, MFG Crosswinds and my beautiful 32 inch 4K monitor in front of me, which version of DCS world is going to make the most sense, 1.5 or 2.1? I understand the differences of geography. I also understand the Mapleleaf missions and much of the earlier training stuff is all centered around v1.5. Will I be at a disadvantage to start from ground zero training in v2.1? Would be nice to have the benefits of v2.1 with all this new hardware, but I don’t want to limit my training. Anyone out there been where I am with this decision? I suppose I can go v1.5 for 6 months to a year as I gain proficiency and then move up to v2.1 as we get closer to “the big migration”. Any thoughts, experience or informed opinions would be most appreciated.

My new build is up and running. Still doing some testing under load and will begin to install my flight environments. Going to start out at DCS with the A10c and see how it goes. Truth be told I'm just new to DCS. I have been flying my beloved DC3 with DC3 Airways for nearly 10 years. DCS, the A10C, then the Spit then a Huey are in the future, no doubt. I'm going to set up a new CH Eclipse, THQ and a set of MFG Crosswinds. All have been ordered. The Crosswinds won't even ship till nearly the end of August. I thought about a YoYo Yoke and THQ but in the end decided to give DCS a year or two to see how I take to blowing the $$it out of stuff before paying that kind of money. Same for the HOTAS. Will get a CH stick and throttle for the A10c. I'm thinking of sticking with CH for now. I will also be installing a powered 5 slot USB 2.0 PCI express card in the PC. I want to buy two GoFlight Private Pilot towers that hold 7 panels each. Lots of USB stuff. Mostly for the DC3, but I'm sure I can find uses for the switches, toggles and dials for DCS. So... if I leave everything plugged into the USB 2.0 plugs on the system will I be able to configure all this and not have any conflicts. And... I know how to use FSUIPC. should I stick with it for all 5 flight control devices, including the Crosswind? Thanks!

A few weeks later and the build is up and running. I had a bad MB. The MB would not read any memory. ASUS was great. They determined it needed to go back. A week later they sent me a new board. Works great! I used the ASUS 4.5ghz profile and have it running tests to make sure all is OK. The board temp under load is reading 58-61 C. This is going to be quite the noob question. I got 3200mhz Corsair sticks, 32G. When fired up and running the BIOS tells me they are running at 2400mhz. Is there a utility or someplace in the BIOS that I can turn them up near 3200? I have never juiced a system before and just need to go slowly on this. Going to start of with the A10c once things settle down. Any suggestions on the ram sticks would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

Over 85% of WannaCry ransomware victims were Win7 users. Everything has a price. It's going to get MUCH worse before it gets better. "You will be assimilated..." BillGatus of Borg

Thank you for the comments. Between P3D, FSX, and DSC and looking down the road 2T of SSD should keep my environments separated. I know scenery gets pulled from the magnetic drive as needed so no big issue there with the amount of ram I’m installing. I have a sh$$load of ORBX scenery for my loved DC3. There is more to come. Looking forward to South America coming out this year. I keep hearing about this “Star Citizen” as I read reviews and watch Youtube. Had to go out and look. I was most interested in seeing the crowdsourcing record it set. I have a 8 year old grandson that lives close by. Perhaps grandpa will have to “oversee” the development of the young lads training.

Hello… I introduced myself to the community a few weeks ago on the Tutorial & Guides forum. Looking at retirement the next few years. Have been flying (FSX) for over a decade, although not in the last two years. I have my real PL but am not current. Found DSC and am rapidly falling down the rabbit hole here. I have spent a few dozen hours over the past few weeks reading forum posts, a few of the recent builds here, Chucks Tutorial Guides for the Spit, A10c and Huey and have watched hours of Youtube video’s each evening while the wife watches murder and mayhem on TV. Yup, down the rabbit hole. I have the following stack of boxes siting here. In no particular order: Intel 7700K Asus Maximus IX Hero Corsair 32G 3466 DRAM Fractal Design Define R5 Case Corsair H100i V2 Cooler DVD Burner Samsung 960 1T M.2 SSD Samsung 850 1TB SSD Seagate 3T HD Asus ROG GeForce GTX 1080Ti -011G Strix GPU Corsair 1000W 80 Plus Gold BenQ 4K 32” Monitor Logitech G910 Gaming Keyboard Logitech G502 Gaming Mouse I have both Win7 and Win10, not sure if I will do one or the other, or dual boot. FSX P3DV4 I have built 5 computers over the past 15 years, but I have never OCed one. Going to give this one the shot. I have a CH yoke, THQ and pedals. I have over a 1K hours in the MAAM DC3 along with hundreds in a Beaver. Still undecided about a new HOTAS for DCS. Probably a TM Warthog, but want to make sure I can learn to refold aluminum onto the ground in a helicopter and the Spit along with the A10c. So… I sit here with crumpled up aviator hat in hand hoping as I get into this and the feces hits the oscillating device during this build, which it will, I might have here a resource to assist putting together my toys. I’m going to make an educated guess that I might be sticking around the community over the next few years, or longer. First question: Would anyone suggest some basic big picture resources to wrap my head around the OC process for a complete noob. What monitoring software, what to look out for, examples to follow. I can, and will, RTFM and take the time to educate myself. I’m going to start putting the hardware together this weekend. I will get a stable OS before I begin to wander into OC land. Just need to begin lining up some resources to begin to wrap my head around the process. I have bookmarked a few Youtube sites and some guides, but most are for builders who are more experienced with OCing. I have a bunch of other DCS related questions too that I have written down that so far I have not found answers for, but they can wait until this build is father along. Thanks for any help here. It is greatly appreciated. Radial9, AKA Bob

It says much about a community when members, who appear to be quite involved in the community as well as RL, take a moment to welcome a complete noob. Thank You! All of you. It’s appreciated. I have a stack of boxes sitting next to me. All my components are here for a top shelf dedicated FS build. I have to leave on a business trip so the build is going to have to wait a week or two more. All in good time. I’m going to wait to buy a stick and throttle. I spent a bunch of time on Home Fries pages looking over the work you have done. Pretty impressive. WAY over my head at this point. I need to work on getting ANY of the planes in DCS up and down without refolding any metal. I absolutely LOVE that Navy Aviator signature! Read it to the wife on the lani early this am over coffee. “Yup… met a few of them over the years.” I will give your rotary craft suggestion some cogitating… thanks. I come to a flight stick decision with no previous preconceived bias or fondness for stiffness, functionality, or layout. At this point it might make sense to lean toward a TM Warthog. Especially since I see scripts and layouts for most all the piston slappers in DCS as well as the A10C. Is there a rumor of a DCS C47? That would be as good as it gets as the saying goes. Again, thanks for the outstretched hands. Always makes it easier to move forward into the unknown here. Cheers, Radial9

Thank you for the welcome. Sorry for the delay in getting a post back up. The site is having some issues remembering me and my passwords. I think I have it worked out. My new dedicated flight sim computer is going together nicely. Should be done and ready for software in a week or so. Have spend many hours reading posts, manuals and tutorials to begin the learning curve climb. I'm taking notes as I go and will just slowly try to get questions answered and if I can't find the answer will post. Trying to decide now how much $$$ to drop on a flight stick. LOTS of opinions. I don't think I will be doing any other stick flying outside of DCS. I use, and have used, CH products for years and love them. I have 1000's of hours in the DC3 with them. Will be seeking advice on a stick here soon. The Warthog looks temping, especially since I will be staying in DCS. Just want to make sure it will be the right choice for the piston slappers and maybe the Black Shark too. Thanks again!!

Perfect Timing... Thank you!

I don’t see a place for intro’s here so I’m hopeful I can just post this here. Retirement is soon looking me in the face. Two years ago I hung up my flightsim hobby after a major hardware issue after flying for over ten years. I am a real pilot, although not current and have not flown in 15 years. Looking around I made the call when the old system crashed not rebuild. So, I have been out of computer flying a few years now. Now LMT has come out with P3Dv4. The future looks much better! Today I pulled the trigger on a nice new system, very similar to what David OC and a few others on the hardware build board just built. It will be a few weeks before it comes together. I have built 4 systems over the past 12 years, but I have never tried to OC a system. I’m going to try to do so on this one. So… I stand here with crumpled up aviator hat in hand and see if, over the next month or two, I can have an additional resource to get me up and running. A place to come to when the feces hits the oscillating device, which it no doubt will, multiple times I’m sure. Although I have flown mostly piston ac the past decade online, mostly the MAAM DC3. I was, and will be again, an active member of DC3 Airways. Thousands of hours all over the world. One of the nicest bunch of COF’s you could ever fly online with. I’m thinking of reaching for other new flying horizons along with the usual DC3 Multiplayer flights I join in on weekly. And to the point of why I’m here… I dabbled a few frustrating years with Jane’s Longbow Apache many years ago. The A10C and Black Shark here are REALLY drawing my attention. I have spent a few weeks here in the shadows reading and watching YouTube to learning a bit more of the DCW world. There is no doubt once this system is built that A10 and I will be spending some serious time together over the next few years. I have ordered a nice joystick, so I guess the fall down the rabbit hole has begun. I’m mature, I’m patient, I RTFM and know it is going to be a LONG climb to anywhere near proficiency. But hey, I’m getting ready to retire and I hope to have some serious time to dedicate to the efforts. Down the road some, after this build and dozens of hours of A10C flight training, I might be looking around for other COF’s (certified old farts), and of course brazen young bold pilots, with which to fly with. Might have to have a look over the P51 and Spitfire too, being especially fond of piston slappers. . Thanks for reading! Again, I see no noob intro site so I thought guides and tutorials was a good place to start. Look forward to being part of the community. Cheers, Radial9