Bob1943

Received the new dampers and cams yesterday. Installed the dampers with the FBW cams. My original Warthog stick is mounted directly to the AVA base, i.e., I do not use a stick extension. Been flying the F-16 now for 2 days with the new hardware. I have not been able to notice any discernable difference in the feel between the JET cams (that I was using previously) and the new FBW cams. I am sure there must be some difference in the feel with the different cams, but it did not jump out at me. The new dampers do give the stick a smoother, more fluid feel, which I do like. I tightened down the damper screws pretty good in order to get a good damper feel. I use the heavy springs with tension cranked to about 90% - same as I was using with the old stock dampers. Still playing around with the curves and dead zones (in DCS) to find the sweet spot for refueling the F-16. Have not quite got there yet. An FYI for anyone that might order this new hardware. The new screws in the packages that I received had a lot of blue locktite on them, to the extent that I could not even get close to fully tightening down the new hardware without fear of stripping the drive section (slot) on top of each screw. I had to soak the screws in alcohol and use a wire brush to remove most of the locktite so that the screws were useable. Conclusion: I would certainly recommend the dampers. However, I am not feeling any difference in the new FBW cams. Maybe if I kept swapping out the cams every 30-minutes, I might detect some difference, but that is more effort than I am willing to spend my time on to detect any marginal difference in the stick feel. Would like to hear from anyone else on their impression of the FBW cams.

Just ordered the new dampers and the FBW cams. I will put together a Before & After review as soon as I receive them and get them installed and do a little flying.

Could not find anymore real-life videos with heavy rain at launch. I just setup a "Heavy Summer Thunderstorm" mission at Nellis in the F-16 and took some screenshots at various speeds on takeoff to have some comparisons as to how fast the rain drop streaks are dissipating. Here is that sequence from stopped on the runway, to 74-knots, then to 184-knots. This does not look too bad, it was definitely looking much better at 74-knots which is consistent with my vague memories from over 50-years ago in the F-100. Still some streaking on the sides of the canopy at 74-knots, which seems reasonable. The canopy geometry would impact this as well. My concern was the effect while up in the 300-knot+ range - DCS seems to show a little more canopy rain effect at those speeds than I would have imagined in real life. Any former F-16 pilots out there that could give some input?

Here you go, some real life footage of an F/A-18 during a rainy carrier launch. Notice how fast the rain disappears. The actual movie footage, plus 2 screen captures they posted from the movie.

Agreed, the rain stays visible on the canopy glass at too high an airspeed. It was not like that in real life (former F-111, F-100, A-37 pilot). It has been over 50-years since I have been in the cockpit in rainy weather, so hazy memory here, but I seem to remember the rain effect being no longer visible on the canopy glass shortly after brake release on takeoff. Depending on rain intensity and canopy geometry, it was probably pretty much gone somewhere in the 60 to 90 knots range. The F-100 had an exterior air blower system to help keep rain off the front windscreen. It seems like previous versions of the DCS F-5 had it nailed pretty good, i.e., you could get rid of most of it by just increasing your taxi speed. I have been flying some rainy ILS approaches in the F-16 lately and the canopy rain effect is appearing at way too high an airspeed. Definitely needs to be dialed back a little. Try Googling some actual cockpit Go-Pro footage of rainy takeoffs in the F-5, F-16, F-18. That would be the definitive guide.

Here is a late afternoon picture that I took from the backseat of an F-4 as we were turning into the traffic pattern at Nellis in 1968. You can see the ends of Runways 03L and 03R and the shadows on the Sunrise Mountain at the right side of the photo. Poor quality photo, but it might give you a benchmark for comparison.

Former military pilot here as well (T-37, T-38, F-111, AT-33, F-100, A-37). Completely agree with Reusenfisch regarding the danger of auto nosewheel steering engagement upon touchdown. In all the aircraft that I flew, nosewheel steering was manually engaged at the pilot's discretion upon the landing rollout. Perhaps the real F/A-18 does incorporate auto nosewheel steering engagement at touchdown (I don't know). But if it does, it sounds like a dangerous feature that I would not be comfortable with.

Much appreciated, thanks.

Good tip, thanks. Yes, the refueling curves are definitely too sluggish for normal flying. I will try to trim those refueling curves back a little more with practice.

I found the problem. I had the mission setup with too high an airspeed. I had the tanker in a 16,000-ft MSL orbit at 330 KIAS. I did some research on F/A-18 AAR specs and saw that I needed to be down around 275 KIAS at 28,000 to 30,000-ft MSL, staying below Mach 0.8. Plus, the probe has a max 300 KIAS limit for extending and retracting. So, I reset the mission to 275 KIAS at 28,000-ft MSL and that made all the difference in the world. That higher airspeed that I was originally using was just making the pitch control way too sensitive, even with adjusted DCS axis curves set up around 25. Even at 275 KIAS, I have still dialed in axis curves of 18 in pitch and 14 in roll, Dead Zone of 3 for both axis. I am getting hooked up pretty consistently now, just need a little more practice to be consistently smooth on every attempt. Thrustmaster still needs to release some heavier dampers for the AVA base in order to reduce that springy feel in the stick. I understand that they are planning on offering optional dampers at a future date.

Recently replaced my old Warthog base with the new AVA base and then put the Warthog stick on the AVA. I have tried about every combination of DCS Axis curves, Dead Zones and spring tension on the AVA base and I still am not having much luck with aerial refueling in the F-18. Just getting too much sensitivity when getting in close to the drogue basket and getting the dreaded pitch oscillation, with barely even touching the stick. Wake turbulence is turned OFF, so that is not a factor. And, No, I don't focus on the basket, I use the refueling pod as a reference. Anyone care to share their DCS Axis curve settings that works for AAR with the F-18 and an AVA base? For background purposes, I am a former F-100 pilot who actually did AAR across both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans behind a KC-135, it wasn't that hard in real life! Picture attached that I took as we were over the Pacific, enroute from Vietnam back to the U.S in late September 1970. I think the lack of peripheral vision and un-natural stick forces in flight sim hardware are complicating factors. The stick forces in the real jets that I flew did not have that "springy" feel to them, i.e., they had a much more smooth and fluid feel. Thrustmaster needs to add some much heavier dampers to the AVA base in order to smooth things out and reduce that springy feel.

Those are good pictures to use in correcting the lighting transparency in the landing gear handle in the Re-Mastered F-5. Hope ED will take note of those and make the change.

Smashy, That did the trick! Thanks for the help. Bob

I tried that yesterday, it did not work. If I push both buttons at the same time, only the one that is pushed a millisecond before the other one will register. If I hold down the first button (and it registers) and then push the second button, then only the second button will register, i.e., it replaces the first button.

I am re-entering my joystick bindings since upgrading to a new Thrustmaster AVA base. Several of my bindings include the "+" symbol. I cannot remember how to add that "+" symbol when assigning multiple joystick buttons to a single command. Must be simple, but I have been unsuccessful so far. For example, how do you program this button sequence: JOY BTN4 + JOY BTN16