Dallas88B

Me too. And the scenery makes flying nice and interesting. Thanks for sharing your excellent work. Its a credit to you.

That is really very good of you. Thank you. Great, and fun, to use as a training mission to hone skills. Yesterday I started learning using the RotorOps: Mission Creator Guide. As suggested in the guide, making my own scenario by opening one of the existing files, move the zones about etc.... but I have a long way to go to reach the level of expertise your missions exhibit. Thank you again for your advice and support, it's very much appreciated.

That is good of you. Thank you! I really like the video you created DCS AH-64D - RotorOps - Clearing Alpha Zone and posted here Great choice of location with the river hills etc.

@Raptor9 Thank you for your further comments. Helpful of you. Cheers.

Dont know. Maybe a corrupted download file?

I hope they ship to, and support Australia from there too

TL:DR I have a Gunfighter Mk.III Modern Combat Edition Ultimate with Twist and have updated to 2.115 successfully. Only because you asked, and expecting trouble, I went ahead and updated. Much to my surprise and relief it actually worked. DETAIL I was running VKB device config v0.92.17 (Njoy firmware 2.08.0). The stick, a Gunfighter Mk.III Modern Combat Edition Ultimate with Twist, shows up as Gunfighter MCG Ultimate Twist XT v2.090 Mk2. Using USBDview to interrogate the device the stick has : no serial number (its blank) a Vendor ID of 231d and Product ID of 0125 I downloaded the Firmware, the applications Configurator and the Bootloader. I deleted the pre-existing configurator and Bootloader software off my PC (used in the last firmware installation). I then started the new Bootloader and I followed the instructions here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5SoYSUYClE&list=PLDtbsvyzXZFDM720qqxDNlk-m_9Dgx8X6&index=7 After that was complete I started the new copy of the configurator ( VKBDevCfg-C.exe ) and completed the steps including calibration per https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4WREzN19pE&t=16s I did not reinstall the previous profile (it was just a default profile anyway with no special button or LED configurations. I checked all the button and mini stick functions using the VKBDevCfg-C.exe Test tab for Buttons and Axes and they showed up ok) The stick is correctly recognized by DCS as VKBsim Gunfighter MCG Ultimate Twist (same as before the firmware update). All the previously keymapped the buttons and ministick function correctly. Using USBDview still says the stick has : no serial number (its still blank) a Vendor ID of 231d and Product ID of 0125

A quick RTFM story. In the 1980's I worked in a Computer Bureau (before every company had their own mainframe and before PC's on every desk). My boss replied to a question with RTFM. A standard reply in the Information Technology industry in those days. This was also pretty funny since the 'manual' for this piece of kit was about 6 lever arch binders of several hundred pages each. When the retort was yes thanks very much for that he said something like : Binder 2, page 275, about half way down the page. Turns out he had a near photographic memory. I have never forgot RTFM.

All these years and I never knew that.

@Raptor9 Thank you. I did not know copy was updated at C:\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\AH-64D\Doc . I looked at DCS site documentation.... https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/documentation/AH64D_flight_manual_en/ Stupid me. Thanks again.

The latest manual update seems to be 3rd of March 2022 (unless I am looking in the wrong place) Are you allowed to say when the next manual update will be available?

So did I. @imacken thank you for your comments and advice about JoyPro. @dburne I looked up JoyPro https://github.com/Holdi601/JoystickProfiler git hub seems targeted at software developers.... but the site is way too complicated for me to bother with. I looked at Grim Reapers video but its out of date now. I found this one https://www.youtube.com/c/GottHoldNicetomeet/videos that has 18 separate videos on JoyPro (now thats dedicated ! ) No doubt JoyPro is ok when one can get it all set up but it aint for me. IMO its another bit of code to support, software incompatibilities to worry about. If ED update DCS and the middleman software joypro doesn't work then I am truely screwed. I remain disappointed in VKB for the reasons described. Especially given the premium price. Its great hardware, but if it died, I realise I wouldn't purchase another. I would satisfy myself with a Virpil plastic stick with and Virpil's far superior software and support.

@okopanja I had Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS over 5 years. Lesser sticks and throttles prior that. Warthog was good but neither throttle nor stick is in the league of Virpil and VKB. Early this year I purchased the Virpil CM3 throttle and, despite its considerable expense, I do not regret its purchase one bit. It's a great product - mechanically, software, support. Also, YouTube folk seem much more interested in creating tutorial videos about the CM3 (there are lots of them) and that is a help for me too. Virpil have a 16 page User Manual, a 5 page Software - Quick Start Guide, a 16 page configurator software user manual. The VPC YT site is only product release videos. As an aside I have a Gunfighter Mk.III Modern Combat Edition Ultimate (also purchased early this year) which mechanically is great, metal body, accurate movement, lots of buttons, interchangeable HAT : ministicks etc. But I think it fails in software and software support. Sadly, its software is sub-optimal - I only use the software for firmware updates and calibration (done once) and I only do that if its absolutely essential. VKB have created youtube videos with powerpoint text on the screen - no voice over at all - VKB claim that people love this format - I don't like the videos (or use them) at all any more. I cannot read the text and watch what they are doing at the same time so its a exercise in read a bit, rewind, watch it, read a bit more, repeat. Rewinding YouTube with much accuracy is hard so its just frustrating. I don't think the content is as good as YT creators Virpil videos either. There are (when I last searched earlier this year) very few 3rd party YT creators addressing VKB product tutorials. VKB do have a detailed 131 page PDF user guide.

That would be great if your so inclined and have the time.

I take it that the mission in your video is one you created yourself ?

Really excellent video. Very nice hovering and movement. Thank you for posting it. The work around for Force Trim Reset clearly works well for you. Your use of snap views it neat too - I must try that. Finally, thank you for the heads up about the RotorOps missions - I have downloaded the two demo's from the DCS user files and started looking at the RotorOps Mission Generator website - I was totally unaware of RotorOps - its quite a find for me - thank you.

When I see skilled YT and twitch streamers having the same sort of experience I know its not just me. Moreover nobody seems interested in producing proper up to date videos showing how its meant to to flown with trim, AT and AL Hold using todays software. Vids are all 3 months old stuff. I have to wonder why. 30 seconds of "how to, look here, I did it once", videos don't count. Like you I really hope it gets better in future updates. I really, really, hope that ED doesn't just move onto whatever is the next module (as has been suggested)

Me too. But I must agree the software is poor, the forum is awful, vkb "support" is just dismissive. I will not ask anything on their forum again.

For what its worth, I have a Gunfighter Mk.III Modern Combat Edition Ultimate, excellent build quality and its a great stick to use. The software is good for firmware updates... but IMO, sub optimal else wise. VKB has YT videos but they have no voice over and just text on screen. One must stop, read, rewind, stop, read, rewind - I gave up on them. VKB says that is what people like.... I have my doubts. I also have a CM3 Virpil throttle and it too is great hardware. VPC software is excellent and I make use of it's capabilities extensively. In addition there are many 3rd party YT videos (Havoc and others) available for Virpil and that really improves the Virpil experience.

Absolutely. Keep your own copies of the firmware for future use. Irritatingly there is zero information on VKB site as to what the firmware update does (despite users repeatedly asking for same) so its a mystery. I guess we are supposed to just try and see. Nope. Also there is no access to old firmware revisions on the VKB site so you cannot go back. And no way to read the VKB device VID and PID using the VKB software and no way to change same. (Unlike Virpil which allows the user to do both) Lucky you found a user with a copy of the old firmware. @dburne Thanks for sharing your experience. Re-assigning button mapping for every module is just awful.... so glad you escaped the problem. A salient warning to others.

Now that is a nice video.

With the Apache in forward flight it seems OK but transitioning to hover or to land remains, for me, pretty problematic. Sometimes its OK and other times it suddenly lurches off to one side. No apparent reason I can discern, its a basic test mission, light load, no wind or turbulence. Far as I can tell I am not doing anything different. Anyway, as you say @Raptor9 flight model and flight management is still WIP. I guess I am WIP too. Maybe the experience will get better.

Do contributors to this thread find the patch DCS 2.7.15.26783 Open Beta - 22.06.2022 improved SCAS behavior? and is the Central Position Trimmer Mode workable now? DCS 2.7.15.25026 Open Beta - 08.06.2022 Is hovering as manageable as it should be? Just trying to figure out if the challenge to keep the Apache stable especially at hover is just me.

Your welcome ! Forgot to mention: Make sure your logged out of DCS before you do the firmware update. Then check your Product ID number before doing the the firmware update and check again after the update. Make sure you only have only one controller connected at a time, when you do firmware updates, so nothing gets confused. When unplugging and re-plugging controllers make sure you use the same USB port when re-plugging the controller - dont swap them around - swapping to a different port can lead to problems. If the Product ID number has changed you can use the Virpil VPC Configuration tool to change it back to what it was. Then when you re-connect to DCS it will see the controller as the same device (same PID). This combined with what doing what @dburne said.... "export your profiles from DCS first".... and you should have no problems. As an aside - this is one of the many advantages of Virpil software compared to VKB software. I have a VKB Gunfighter Mk.III Modern Combat Edition Ultimate which is an excellent stick - but the software is, at best, sub-optimal, in my opinion.... I only use the VKB software for essential firmware updates

For what its worth my own approach to this sort of update is to check the suppliers change log and see if there are new features or if there are fixes for problems that I currently have.... if not then I normally don't update. Updates like Virpil's firmware are not security updates - they are bug fixes and improvements - it ain't like Microsoft windows that you need to do regardless (with around a 100 security problems month after month after month https://krebsonsecurity.com/ ) So I suggest just take a look at the change logs Virpil publish here https://support.virpil.com/en/support/solutions look at the releases that have come out since yours (you will need to search thru the list by the date - they are not in order). Update if its going to be of advantage to you. If it turns out that an update does create a problem for you there is plenty of support available at Virpil and in forums like this. Do what dburne said and export your profiles from DCS first. Use VPC Configuration tool to check the device PID before the update and that the PID is unchanged after the firmware update.