Smoky

I have a couple ebay auctions up for some flight hardware I had laying around. Folks here might be interested in these two controls. Hardly used, highly discounted, works great. I'm happy to make a deal off of ebay as well and end the auction. These controls are USB and work in any Flight Sim. They are designed as Heli controls but can be used as airplane flight stick and the collective can be used as an e-brake for driving sims. Let me know if you have questions. Flight Link G-Stick III Cyclic http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220909965465&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123 Flight Link Collective http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220909965233&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

There are apps for this as well, like LiveATC so you can use your phone instead of your processor.

Spot the launch or aaa fire as it happens. Thats how you pinpoint the location. THEN go evasive. Then when you are safe again, mark the position. Takes practice. And it all happens in a few seconds. It helps to save and replay tracks, especially after a shoot down. Revisit the map, the enemy locations....review the monent a sam went up, tracked you, and killed you, and learn what went wrong. Use the replay external views to pan around during a kill and learn what to look for the next time (eg. What a sam launcher looks like from a distance when it fires, or to recognize the aaa muzzle flash from the air, or how aaa groups around sam and missle batteries, etc...) Practice!!!

^^^^^^ Other more experienced folks will chime in but what i do is to bait sams and aaa into turning on their radar and firing. If you mind your speed, alt, and distance from the area of the threat (via the tws) then you can evade enemy fire all day long. It gets easier trying to spot the source of the munitions being thrown at you. Since the enemy tend to group together, once one fires then at least one group is now exposed (take care!! Crafty mission designers can ambush you if you drop your guard! Always expect and second or third group that you dont know about). It's all discipline...don't let yourself get too close to a high threat area. Bait the enemy. Expose them. Use your tad to mark their positions as you spot them, then egress, form an attack plan, and ingress the target area for an informed kill. I'm very interested to hear others' tactics as well!

I don't post a whole lot. Mostly I lurk and ask cockpit building questions. But this graphics card is so effective for DCS sims I felt compelled to post about it. Installed a new video card last night. eVGA GTX 580 3GB They are out of stock through the usual outlets but ebay stores have them available at retail price so I was able to pick one up from ebay seller styletechgroup. Even arrived overnight for $10. All I have to say is this is the biggest performance leap from an upgrade that I have ever seen. I feel like I am really taking advantage of the Core i7 Extreme now. And this is running a single card, as opposed to the dual GTX 295 setup I was running previously. Frame rates have increased by 50% overall and doubled in some games. I use a projector so I'm running 1920x1080, which is nothing compared to the widescreen gaming going on these days but it means a huge savings and translation to rendering horsepower. Playing iRacing I have all settings max'd out and am getting 130fps+ with a grid of 10 cars on screen. Playing DCS: A10 I have all settings max'd, MFD screens @ 1024 every frame, HDR set to normal, trees/clutter (distance cues) set to 50%, mirrors on, and I'm still averaging 120fps+ without fail. With the previous setup I could maybe get 30-40fps with those settings, and 90fps with reduced trees, MFD resolution, etc. I don't think a second card is necessary unless you are running multi monitors. And I've given up on SLI. Next year we get new motherboards and CPUs that support PCI 3.0. The new video boards will come out and, somehow, double the pipelines, throughput, etc of the board I am using now. All new technology that I will let settle before digging into (I learned my lesson with DX10). This board will no doubt get me through the buggy growing pains of using a new bus until gaming dev's start taking advantage of it. My only regret is not buying one in April when it was first released.

Incredible Sickdog! Great work!

^^^this

Nice!

Just buy more memory and bump yourself up. Memory is dirt cheap anymore.

+3 for latest command list, including UFC and CDU controls.

Has anyone tried that Saitek warning display panel? Wondering if a couple of those could be used together for DCS sims, such as the A10 warning light panel. Always worried stuff like this is so FSX-specific that it can't be reused for anything else.

For what it costs to get a pro-printer to print up the manual, just get a tablet like an iPad and load up the PDF. My ipad is my kneepad! Manual, maps, all in one place. Still looking forward to the formal offering though for a printed manual!

Just look at Lock On and the overhauled LOFC as the "cheat" game-mode as compared to DCS A10 "simulator mode" and you'll have what your statement suggests that you want. Ie....DCS might not be for you if that's what you are asking for. No shame in it. DCS is challenging! But the intent is realism. Can't have it both ways.

Jettison the canopy in FC made things a lot louder.

This is awesome! You should make a few of these and sell them. I don't have time to build stuff anymore and am using a CH MFP but would prefer to use something like this! I'd buy one for sure!

Someone hasn't read their manual! :doh: CMS = Counter-Measure Systems The buttons are on the HOTAS left thumb switch of the flight stick. 7 = HOTAS CMS forward 8 = HOTAS CMS aft 9 = HOTAS CMS left 0 = HOTAS CMS right - = HOTAS CMS Z axis Hopefully that helps. When in doubt, RTFM! :thumbup:

This is a great tutorial and will come in very handy, thank you!! I have a clarification question... is this just what we have to do "during beta" to map these controls? Is the premise that the final version will allow us to map all controls via the GUI? I ask because I have two CH MFP panels that I am using, one for the CDU and one for the UFC. When the final version is released will I be able to map these more simply using the GUI, or will I always need to use the method described above to map these keys? Thanks!

Thanks!!

Hello If I was forced to take a break and am still running Beta 1, can I just download the latest Beta and install it over Beta 1 or do I need to install each Beta version in order? If the latter, then where can I download the Beta versions I missed? Thanks

Which ones? I've never had to configure anything more than a checkbox (in older sims) and I've been using tir since v3. Tir is one of those things best left to set itself. Other than the occasional curve tweak in the software, but I really don't even need to do that anymore since the v5 software came out.

Hey I'm 36, which is "old" compared to the windows-spoiled "never typed a directory path in DOS" crowd. But I also know plenty of flight sim guys in the 50+ demographic, but most of those are more than willing to learn. The ones who aren't....are a HANDFUL. lol

Totally agree. While I'm completely on-board with helping new guys with technical issues, we're not here to fish for you, just to show you how. Anytime I hear someone cry "I'm not computer literate" or "not well versed with computers", then what I believe is actually being said is "I do not want to learn, please tell me over and over again how to do this." DiabloSP said it perfectly...if you don't have the patience for this stuff you either need to develop that patience or move on to other games that will not be so taxing. I understand the flight sims draw in the older/less skilled crowd, but cmon! Besides, learning to deal with computers is a fraction as complex as learning the ins-and-outs of this A10. If you think the TIR workaround is stressful then you really need to see about getting your money back from DCS A10, and go buy an Xbox or something. You will be MUCH happier and experience MUCH less stress in your life. The very existence of this thread (one of about 10 on the same subject) suggests that the OP is a wee bit on the lazy side and didn't even bother to search first. Again, I don't have a problem with computer illiterates who WANT to TRY and LEARN. But those who cry out at the smallest of procedures are in over their head with DCS. DCS "study" sims are for folks who enjoy learning. There's no way around it.

Sooo...about walking around and getting out of the plane? I'm more interested in that conversation.

+10000 for cardboard mockups. Makes your world a ton easier. Put the effort into refining a REALLY nice mockup....nice construction paper and that is sturdy but easy to cut and shape and draw on. Once your mockup is satisfactory you end up with a set of templates for the final parts. MUCH easier than going the other way around.

Thanks! Funny thing is I have several of these "Inside the A10" kind of books. Only one covers the C. And within it the pics are all off angle, as if taken during a cockpit peek at an airshow. These pics you guys are providing are great! Thanks again!