Bob1943

Just received my new MFG Crosswind rudder pedals a few weeks ago. I ordered these with the hydraulic damper option. These new pedals replace a 20-year old set of CH pedals that had a left toe-brake die. The MFG pedals are very well made and the hydraulic damper really provides that smooth fluid feel of "heels on the floor" rudder operation. The hydraulic damper can be adjusted to whatever level of hydraulic resistance that suits your taste. As a former USAF pilot (T-37, T-38, F-111, F-100, A-37), these pedals are a great replication of the actual rudder operation feel that I remember in the planes that I flew. My home cockpit sits on a carpeted floor. Therefore, I had to build a mounting platform for the Crosswinds so that I could get a good replication of the "heels on the floor" operation. I bought a 2'x2'x1/2" piece of veneer plywood to serve as the base mounting platform. I then bought a 2'x2'x1/8" piece of black acrylic plexiglass to mount on top of the plywood. I then bolted the Crosswind pedals to the plywood/plexiglass platform. The plexiglass provides an extremely smooth surface for "heels on the floor" rudder operation. When using this platform, I only wear socks, no shoes. Since the mounting platform sits on carpet, I mounted 8, spiked carpet grabbers on the bottom side of the plywood. These were mounted using heavy-duty, 2-sided tape. So, far these carpet spikes have worked great, i.e., no platform movement at all when operating the rudder pedals. Here are some pictures of how the project turned out. Rudder pedals mounted to plywood/plexiglass platform: Carpet spikes on bottom of mounting platform: Mounting platform sitting on carpet: Home cockpit with new MFG Crosswind rudder pedals:

I just received my MFG pedals a couple weeks ago. I did no calibration with the MFG software. I simply connected the pedals to my system, opened DCS and saw that they were recognized under the DCS Settings menu. I then assigned the proper Axis bindings for the rudder movement and the Left & Right Wheel Brakes. I set the Dead Zone and sensitivity curvature for everything using the DCS tuning options menu. Everything seems to work fine. You can tune all your controller sensitivities in the DCS Settings menu, just adjust things until you get the feel that you want.

+1 on getting Tobii integrated into DCS.

Yes, I also wish that DCS would provide native support for Tobi. That is the only thing that has kept me from buying the Tobi Head & Eye Tracker unit.

I'm with Rudel on this one. Great way to have some fun! I did the same thing in an F-16 a few years ago. Went supersonic down "The Strip". Here is the link: Yes, I know, I made a typo on the runway designation at the beginning, should be 03R, not 03L. BTW, I actually flew the F-111 out of Nellis in 1968-69, with the 428th TFS. Went on to fly 165 combat missions in the F-100 (at Phan Rang AB, South Vietnam) in 1970.

Yep, you are correct. I had never dealt with dials/knobs before in DCS, so I had no real idea what I was doing, just trial & error on my part. But all is well now, I have been educated!

I just got a reply from "Total Controls". They said the lighting dials/knobs are programmed under the "Axis" commands. I just have to "invert" the axis (under Axis Tune) to get a specific knob for that device to rotate in the correct direction. Problem solved.

I just bought a Total Controls Multifunction Button Box. This unit has several rotary dials to control lighting. I am not able to find a way to program these dials in the DCS Settings menu. For example, when I go to the Formation light setting for the F-16, I select the "Add Combo" under the Total Controls MFBB and select the key box, rotate the MFBB dial and nothing happens to link that action to the rotation of the Formation lights knob on the left console in the F-16. So, what it the trick to programming rotary control dials on hardware connected to DCS?

Thanks for the replies. Would have never guessed that they were actually using that kind of material. As far as I can remember (been over 50 years), all the USAF planes that I flew (T-37, T-38, F-111, F-100, F-4, A-37) had some type of synthetic, dense canvas type material on the seats.

My F-16 cockpit shows a furry, fabric covered cockpit seat. Hard to believe they actually upholster the real F-16 seat with this type of fabric. Is there anyway to get the seat covering to show a leather or vinyl type upholstery in the DCS model?

I am probably misunderstanding exactly what you are asking, but you should not be pausing the game to set-up anything in the cockpit - that is not realistic. I am a former F-100 pilot (Vietnam era) and obviously real pilots do not have the luxury of pausing the airplane during flight to set-up anything in the cockpit (radios, TACAN, weapons switches, etc.). Before you ever climb into the cockpit, you should be completely knowledgeable of where every switch, button, knob, etc. is located, and how to operate them. Certainly, you would want to have the aircraft trimmed up as much as possible to keep a stable attitude while you may have a hand off the stick and are manipulating any cockpit switches. This never presented any issues when I was flying real jets. My apologies if I misunderstood what you were trying to do.

That solved the problem Andre. Thanks for the suggestion.

Using SimShaker for Aviators version 1.3.13.0

For reasons unknown, my Simshaker Sound Module no longer works with my base shakers while flying in DCS. The only vibration effect that works in-game is the stall shudder. All vibrations work perfectly in the Simshaker Sound Module Test menu, but with the exception of the stall shudder, they are all muted while flying in DCS. I use the beta version of of SSM with Windows 10. Can Windows updates trigger this problem?

Thanks Flappie. The reason that I was puzzled, was that it used to work, although somewhat intermittently. The triangle is completely inop now. Will wait for the new Stable release.

I know the F-5 TACAN has always been somewhat problematic. I can no longer get the station bearing triangle to operate for any of the TACAN stations on the NTTR map. I get good tone, distance and course line information, but the station bearing triangle stays locked at the 12 o'clock position. I use the DCS stable version. Anyone experiencing a similar problem?

You might review this thread for some more ideas. It includes several pictures of the bass shaker system that I built as well.

Happens to me in single player. But the guy only keeps walking for about 3 seconds and then turns and stops and resumes normal motion.

Update: I finally got a lock on my F-18 in the F12 Static Object View with the camera positioned on the deck. It just takes patience and several tries using the NP "." key. I kept hitting NP "." several times while the plane was on final - it finally locked onto it and followed the plane through the entire landing sequence. I have several static planes positioned on the carrier deck. I think the "lock" key may be cycling through the static planes before it finally locks onto the moving F-18. Anyway, it can be done, just takes several attempts.

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, that got me to the carrier, but now I can't figure out how to lock the free camera to a fixed position on the moving carrier.

I am using the F12 key to position the camera on a carrier to record an F-18 landing, I have the camera positioned close to the arrestor cables. I am trying to get the camera to follow the plane as it catches a cable and continues down the deck. I thought I could do that by pressing the Num Pad "." to lock onto the plane when it was on final approach, but that does not appear to work, i.e., the camera will not rotate to follow the plane down the deck. I swear this was working at one time in the past but, but no luck now. So, is there anyway to get the camera to follow the plane during a carrier landing? The F11 Airport Free Camera view might work, but how do you find the carrier in the middle of the Persian Gulf?

I think I found the solution. I used the F12 Static Object View and that brought up the carrier. I was then able to use my mouse and maneuver around the deck and zoom-in to any location as much as I wanted.

I'm trying to zoom-in to different locations on the Super Carrier deck in order to get some close-up shots of landings. However, the F9 key is only allowing a very limited amount of zoom before it stops, i.e., it does not allow me to get in very tight to any deck location. No success at all in getting close to the arrestor cables. Am I missing something with the F9 key in trying to get these close-up deck shots?

Unfortunately, building that type of device doesn't fall within any of my skill sets. Don't recall any of the USAF fighters that I flew back in the late 60s-early 70s (F-111, F-100, A-37) having any type of mechanical lock on the landing gear handle, as far as I remember, it was simply an up & down lever. Don't know if the Gen 4 and up fighters have any kind of mechanical lock on the landing gear lever or not.

Sounds were updated about a year and a half ago, based on some real world cockpit recordings. Take a look at this thread: