Marky146

My 10p worth. Long ago I was a fixed wing flying instructor. Lots of flying lessons in a Cessna 150/152 plus occasionally a 172 and a 182. My total time was approaching about 1,000hrs so not a brand new pilot or anything. I'd trained in PA28 and PA34 Seneca for my CPL/IR tests and couldn't get a job in the mid nineties so instructing was what I did to build hours and get noticed. Anyway. I paid for a single hour lesson in a Sweitzer/Hughes 300 helicopter. Within about 10 minutes I was hovering, transitioning in and out of hover and by the end of the hour I was flying circuits and approaches back into the hover comfortably. We ran out of time to get into Autorotating exercises though.No money for a second hour...... The point is a competent pilot can learn to fly a helicopter quite quickly. And I mean a small agile training helicopter, not a stabilised, heavy and far easier to fly one as depicted in the DCS. It's perfectly possible. I can say I never managed to fly the MsFS helicopters, or X plane. Really struggled until I went VR. Instantly it was a doddle again when I did!

They work as buttons but not through the TARGET software. I think you have to manually bind them but to be honest I haven't used it for a while. Complicated but I'm concentrating on my airline setup for practice while stuck on Furlough. Day job comes first....

Orion wasn't available separately either. I've put the old TM Cougar stick on my Orion Stick. Will be interesting if they do the F16 Throttle and adapter plates with a Stick handle as a combo. The F16 should really get a rigid force stick though.

With wings swept, the centre of gravity is well back on the Tonka. Thus the moment arm of the fin is short and it needs to be large, not only for asymmetric power situations. Wing sweep gives you strong secondary roll with yaw, so with so much sweep, the last thing you want is an aircraft not rock stable in yaw. With hindsight, and also something the Typhoon designers forgot, the large single vertical stab is a huge rader reflection. two smaller ones would give far better radar signature.

English as a second language can be difficult to get some spellings, Clyber, I'm sure he didn't mean anything rude. I think you might have some interference in settings. Perhaps you move USB to a different port sometime? I would definitely use the Thrustmaster TARGET software for all calibration and testing. Never had the problems you describe though, but I did use TARGET.

Bear in mind some parts of a radar's performance is still classified many years after they leave service. DCS programmers do have to guess sometimes and don't always get it right.

I've not renewed my Avast subscription. Happy with Defender for now.

Just received my Orion half an hour ago. I ordered an Orion, but only really wanted the throttle, a Super Libre base, and extension and a TM converter. Now fitted the converter and have the old Cougar stick on my Orion stick ready for my first go. The F18 stick is a lot lighter than a Warthog one. Noticeably so. My TM F18 stick never came out the box for various reasons and is on sale on Ebay right now, so I can't really unpack it to weigh it against the Winwing one, but I'd say it's 2/3 the mass roughly. I don't think the springs on this Orion are strong enough for the extension. Just a thought as it's about the same pull force as the Warthog, only smoother. You can tell it's running on bearings right away. Too late in the year for me to set my rig up for Military flying, as it's practice time in the 737 next few weeks ready for my return to work. Edited. TM Hornet is 837g, vs 428g for the Winwing F18 stick. Virtually half. Feel is almost identical and switches definitely feel better. Unlike the WH, I can free fly the A10 without having to rim out an inherent roll that always seems to be there in the Warthog. Luckily I kept back my F16 Cougar grip to use with hte WW adapter parts.

Hi guys, never got round to finishing this lot off! Good project for anyone who wants it. Cheers. http://ebay.us/sJA7Fd?cmpnId=5338273189

Sorry if I got some of the order wrong. I only fly civilian in real world and I remember years ago I had to jump out and put the chocks in and start the GPU and plug it in, then guide the passengers in myself. It was the FA Cup Final after all, so the ground ramp guys were busy...... Nowadays, its very rare indeed to arrive at the aircraft and not for it to be powered up on GPU or fixed Ground based AC. Usually the engineers will have started the APU for air conditioning and to align the INS as well. We run a mixed fleet of old and new aircraft, and the APUs on the dinosaurs were quite unreliable so they liked to start them early to give them time to sort issues. Nowadays, its to get system air pressure and AC power on to warm the brewers so they can get a Coffee or Tea before the passengers start boarding. Back to topic, I agree it's just eye candy to have animations, but the chocks are pretty essential......

Would any self respecting crew chief allow the pilot to get to the aircraft first? A COld and Dark start in reality would have all weapon load safety tag son, covers off, ladder in place, ground power in place, and running and chocks in place. Depending on type Ground air also in place. Now we have ground crew on the Super Carrier, I'd really like to see a Chief and two Techs on station to assist in starting and removing equipment on command.

Yep, I agree with everything CFI has said, bongo and others too. Years ago, when Pontius was a pilot, I was an air cadet in the school CCF. We went to RAF Newton for our AEF flying. As a Cadet Warrant officer and Flying Scholarship victim, I had my scholarship wings on. (and a PPL freshly issued) ans spent the day strapping the younger kids in. When all were done, the Station Commander came out and offered me a flight. Not only that but he jumped in the back! So, fresh from 40 hours total in the C150/152/172, there I was in an RAF Chipmonk, WG304, in the front seat for my first actual takeoff. Needless to say I gound looped it spectacularly to much hilarity and laughing from the back! Once facing the right way and remembering which foot was needed, I did a reasonably straight take off, had a brillianty fun 30 minutes and also got the landing down on all three points successfully. So different in the front seat than the back! Had a couple of goes in a Cub since then, but I do miss TW flying! This winter, I will set up my DofReality P6 and fit the warthog with a long extension and with my Bruner pedals will finally get to enjoy the collection of TW Warbirds in DCS. Can't wait!

Very happy indeed. £4.81 all in. I think from the teaser video that they've removed the old laser designator pod from the aircraft. Should make it easy to spot if you're running the right module.

Anyone doing the mod using original board and GVL224's sensors, may I recommend you take a note. Brown wire on sensor wiring, if you snip the pots and put the contacts directly onto the O.E. wires, marked as PIN 1 is directly linked to the RED wire on the USB input plug. It's the 5V feed. This goes closest to the Blue box on the GVL board. Red wire, in the middle on the PCB, is the Signal wire. This goes furthest from the Blue box on the GVL224 board. Orange Wire, No 3 on the Cougar board, is the earth and goes on the middle pin of the GVL224 board. Get it right and remember the blue boxes are set accurately and shouldn't be twiddled with. I made that mistake...Doh.

I've literally just finished putting mine together. Test run as my sensors from gvl224 aren't here yet. First impressions are a silky smooth feel, really nice, but as said, not really much self centering at all. it also has no damping force at all so will wobble freely for several seconds. I'm really only doing it to rescue a classic, with no intention of using it much myself. Good luck on the Cam action one, it should solve those problems.

Crazy to be selling it dude. I've just got mine, and can confirm the 20A is because you are on 110V in the US. In the UK or Europe, where we run 220V you'll only pull half the current so a normal domestic 13A outlet is fine to use. My rig is still sat in it's box till I clear some space to set it up. DofR box these things up beautifully. It's almost a work of art in itself.. The steel parts are welded well, drilled squarely and the powder coating is first rate. Really lovely crackle finish. I'm very impressed. Best part is you can start with a H3/P3 and upgrade later. The price is about the same for all or in two parts, except for postage which will cost you twice. I went for the P6. My main problem is the seat interface, as I struggled with the fore/aft distance of the mounts. a 6mm alloy plate will solve that. Running a Rift S I need some decent way of cancelling motion. Not sure it's as easy as the Reverb.

PM Sent.

Never ignore a wave off. The guy doing it is a pilot. He's at least as good as you, and has a far better view of what's going on. If its a choice between ejecting an aircraft with no fuel left and busting a wave off, you line up and bang out.

Happy to split a pair with you.

Hi, i sent you a PM on the facebook page. Time to do something with my Cougar set. One broken O.E. gimbal and a throttle that is crazy loose and over greased by previous owner. I like the look of your base. Lots of wasted room in the original. I'm hoping to use the original electronics boards as they seem fine. I can't get hold of much stuff where I am, very limited on availability in hardware stores. Hope you are well. Following your page intently.

No no. If you look closely, and I'm in the process of designing an alloy sheet replica. If the seat base is set level, according to the pressed edge of the side panel, then the seat back is inclined at 15' to this. Thus installed, the A10 and F15 would have a 20' rear incline and the seat base would lean back only 5'. On the F16 the seat baser is 15' and the seat back therefore 30'. On mine, i'm trying to make a very lightweight alloy water jet cut set. The rails are mounted to a DofReality set so it needs to be light. Where I'm having an utter nightmare is the variable of being able to place the seat at differing angles and still fit it within the size. The F16 has effectively a low seat angle so the front edge doesn't sit to high. Enabling all the different positions and also to make it a normal seat with the ACES side and top removed is making me lose more hair than is good for me.

I'm watching it as i wait for the download of SC. taking ages!

Learn something new every day. thanks.

I gave the info to the machine shop hoping they would CNC it but the owner just made it by hand so no economy of scale possible. I tried several different shocks. To be absolutely honest, none of them were strong enough for the springs and leaked badly. The problem is there isn't enough self centring force at all once you extend, and when you pitch up the stick just stays there. If only I had my own mill and lathe I'd be knocking out custom solutions to stick bases. No room and no time until I retire in about 10 years. For a seat I will finish my design off, build one or two then post up to see who wants them. I will have a couple of bucks made up in steel to allow easy bending of the sheet tabs, and one to dimple the holes, otherwise it will be a dwg file to give to a shop that has a water jet cutter and they can make one locally for you. I plodding on slowly with it for now, but may end up recalled to work before I finish and have to finish it off next Winter.

Thanks. Might just stretch to the P6 as it's faster and more robust. I plan on giving air cadets and scouts the flying experience if I can get the motion compensation working... Making the seat out of 1.5mm and 3mm alloy plate as it's pretty good value. The water jet can pilot my rivet holes, cut all the lightening holes out for the swaging tool and loads more. The work and effort is all in the design phase and fortunately I have Autocad and a laptop that can show realistic images quickly too. A sheet of 1.5mm is £17 all in, plus cutting costs are negligible, so it's more than a match for MDF on cost and so much lighter. Hence going for alloy. I've got about another month to work on it under this lock down too. Normally tinkering is a Winter habit.....