StrongHarm

I have the Oculus Rift DK2 and it does add a huge amount of depth and movement perception. To put it into context; it adds so much to DCS that my inner ear expected movement on turns and it gave me vertigo. Concerning extensions; I wonder if anyone can explain how using a stick extension is necessary when the axis setup will allow you to emulate a longer stick. I don't dispute the use of an extension, but I am curious about the benefits.

LOL words of wisdom! I believe I'll heed them this very moment.. (while my mind continues to wonder at the disparities between the real stick/airframe and my axis curves)

That's a lot of assumptions there buddy. I do fall under most of those categories and am indeed a hack compared to the men who go out there and do it every day no doubt. I'd still love to learn what curve settings bring my TMWH closest to RL A-10C stick to flight surface ratio. Now, I'm no RL hawg pilot without a doubt but I do have a decent understanding of aviation. I was in US naval aviation, passed the NATOPS test, took the stick in more than one Navy bird, put several hundred hours in the Cessna Cherokee, started sims in the 90s, and started flying DCS A-10C Warthog as a tester long before it came out on the market. Assuming you'll throw me enough of a bone to believe I know what I'm doing as well as any slouch, I can tell you that I didn't have AAR down until I started washing the box and set my curves up a bit... and still would LOVE to know the "most realistic axis curve settings".

Thanks Snoopy, that explains it.. I tried to motor the engine up then ignite instead of just pushing the hump.

mvsgas, could you elaborate on how you did a cross bleed start of engine2 off of engine1 instead of the APU? Didn't work for me.

I think we also need to be careful about the 'relativity of truth'. Here's the solution set: PROBLEM: (summary of comments) How do RL pilots perform AAR with ease while I'm working for so long to master the operation.. I'm good with all other operations in the sim, so why is this one so difficult? PROBABLE ROOT CAUSES: Misunderstanding of procedure Disparity between RL control operation and Sim control operation PROBABLE SOLUTIONS: Ensure you have procedural understanding Ensure your controls provide reasonable precision of input Does RL relation provide reasonable precision of input? The burning and still outstanding question: Is the ratio of movement of the stick compared to RL affecting my AAR success? If they can do AAR with reliability IRL, is there some disparity between my virtual stick operation and RL stick operation? It's easy to say 'you can't do it because you suck'. Let's remove that from the equation. I personally have no problem with AAR because I've satisfied the input question and the procedural question for myself. Others are attempting to do the same.

You didn't think you'd give me advice to make my AARs so easy and not gain a fan didja? Plus.. I just dig those shooting vids.

And there ya have it folks.. the precision flying secret sauce straight from a USAF Aviator. I can attest to the method. After I started using it my AARs became routine. Thanks again Tuk! (also.. see Tuk shoot like a mad man)

Agreed Snoopy, it would be another instance where 'artistic license' is used for convenience. Like in the KA50 you would reset all, retrim one. But I do see your point; it would be at the expense of realism. Just about any choice between realism and convenience will go to realism for me as well. I think a dedicated key assignment would do the trick.. I use rudder trim a lot in high winds and having to go head down for reset sometimes involves significant pucker factor. Dejjvid, another good example of high value of rudder trim is when your crosswinds are so bad you can't see all your HUD indicators (it's locked to horizontal vector and doesn't have an adjustment like the F16.. probably because it's a flight safety SA cue) By the way: WayC00lio, I personally have rudder trim bound to Paddle+TrimHat LWD/RWD on the TMWH. It works pretty well. I also tend to view the trim indicator (RCTRL+ENTER) overlay when I have a high level of trim set. This overlay compensates for the fact that we can't 'feel' the degree of trim by touching our flight controls.

I put in a feature request long ago to allow rudder trim reset upon 'trim reset'. As for now, I believe you have to actually click the rudder trim knob to perform a reset.

Howdy Tuk! Here's the man I mentioned earlier in this thread who taught me the "wash the box" technique. It made all the difference in my AAR.. I was quickly able to connect and take on a full fuel load after I started using it. Johny2pt0, as a USAF Pilot, could you elaborate on this technique please? Also, to your personal taste, do you find the default curves of the TMWH to be likely anywhere close to the stick to flight surface ratio of the real Hawg? Snoopy Topic: That's why I asked earlier if someone had highjacked his account (only partially in humor). I talked with him quite a bit via voice when we were testers when A-10 was being developed, and I would call him a humble and standup guy. I don't disagree concerning his comments.. but there must be some recent situation that triggered his frustration and tendency toward dismissal.. it seems out of character for him in my opinion. There seems to be a trend toward contention and internal turmoil on these forums of late. I address it in this post.

When I'm in a turn I control my vertical aspect by making the wings completely vertical so the nose will drop at the appropriate time.. I'm prone to counterclockwise turns to setup my target and keep an eye on it as long as I can. I'm sure that we suffer from lack of sensory input due to not feeling the Gs. One way that I compensated for this was by creating smoke plumes that look like a balloons at various altitudes near my practice range. It helps me to analyze my turns and descents so I can replicate the best procedure. Once they complete the Oculus Rift we'll have some additional sensory input in the form of depth and movement perception. My DK2 is great for that, but I can't abide by illegible text and readouts so I don't really use it. Check out my gunnery instructional mission, Tank Busting 101.. it has the balloons and other training aids.

Alright.. not funny.. who highjacked Snoopy's account?

Could you? Seriously.. smart@ss responses aside.. Can you think of a way to determine from a hawg pilot if the ratio of axis response of DCS/TMWH is anywhere close to the ratio of axis response of the real Warthog stick to flight surfaces? I'll bet you a bottle of single malt it's not. Probably why axis tuning is necessary.

My personal taste is to use some axis curve. Here's a post on it. You don't need the full range of the stick when curves aren't present anyway, so making the 0-20% range of the stick less sensitive doesn't hurt. Just my pref. Here are some of the things that closed the AAR gaps for me: 1. Set your curves to cut some low range sensitivity 2. Find proper alt under boom 3. Find proper speed THEN trim 4. Don't fly the boom.. lock the HUD frame to tanker and hold that 'site picture' (I use upper left and right corners and lock them onto a point of the tanker.. it's like 'aim small miss small' with marksmanship) 5. Wash the stick (thanks Tuk!) *Washing the stick was taught to me by a USAF Pilot. You move the stick in a slow counter clockwise motion (like stirring something) and it allows you to make very precise corrections. I know it sounds crazy, but it really works.

Press on brother.. and reap the reward. I'm right there with ya. I have a prosthetic, but there's a medal on my license plate not a handicap symbol... that's just who we are and how we do. If you've functionally overcome learning how to operate something as complex as the Warthog, it seems to me that you've refused to let it define you and wooped it's ass proper. There's more than one way to be a warrior.

Jateu, we're in agreement... as is WBK, who did in fact apologize (see quote). If we read through the entire post we can contribute, if not intelligently (to your point.. sorry for your struggle) then at least in an informed manner. I just really think that after he apologized we didn't have to pile on 10 more posts about how it was a dick move.. and on the other side of the coin we (I'm guilty too) need to be careful about how we point out people's misunderstanding of the sim (as WBK did in error.. but apologized for). I'm not taking sides.. as I readily admit to being guilty on both sides of that coin from time to time. Read my post again please, and consider trying not to default to disagreement, but at least take the time to consider what I'm saying. This forum is full of people with a passion for realistic milsims.. how much more like minded could we be? I just think we should keep it in mind when we interact. There's no argument to be had here.

Hey, I say the following not in anger but with the intention of opening intelligent dialog with intelligent people. And that's not a stretch, I would say DCS attracts some of the most intelligent people in the gaming/sim community. This post is about personal responsibility, morale, and continuity... it's not about calling anyone out. As a community I think we need to attempt to communicate with one another with a spirit of intelligent and mutually beneficial discourse. Yeah, WBK posted a response with too much assumption and not enough patience.. and he clearly admitted that. He jumped on what he thought was a question formed without forethought or research.. he thought OP was referring to the targeting pod vid by calling it closed circuit television. WBK is often very helpful and patient.. I know I've benefited from his help. My point here is this; as much as we need to be patient and foster an environment of intelligent discourse and high moral, we also need to read through entire posts and cut each other some slack.. especially when someone graciously admits that they were wrong. All too often we see posts where someone makes a small mistake (no surprise, most of us aren't U.S. Military Aviators after all) and people jump their ass with brutal glee to point out their mistake with haughty superiority. We each one of us have to resist the urge to respond like this, and instead remember that the DCS community isn't a manual we visit as individuals to gain knowledge... it's a community that we collectively embody and direct. I know.. that sounds pretty corny.. but you know we all want that comradery.. but we don't all always realize that we ourselves have to create it. Let's each of us take personal responsibility for maintaining this community of like minded virtual pilots that ED has provided us. I say this not with pointed finger, but with humble request.

There are a lot of people who will dismiss deep GAU questions with "That's the A-10A variant anyway, the C attacks from high altitude". That's obviously not the case with reported 30MM expenditures being in the millions since the 80s, and only 783,514 of that number during Desert Storm. I'd sure like to know the USAF procedure for GAU popups myself. I hope someone comes back with concrete information. As for figuring out what works, I created a mission called Tank Busting 101 that helped me to refine my personal procedures. The mission contains instruction, but the instruction is for 'my method' not the USAF prescribed method. Check it out, deep procedural analysis and refinement goes a long way.

It's just above the emergency hand brake and looks like a little box with 1 vertical and 1 horizontal switch. It's the HUD camera control and is inactive to the best of my knowledge. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=124645 http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1705625 If you don't mind the suggestion: training videos might seem like a shortcut, but when it comes down to it, there are no effective shortcuts.. they'll all leave you short changed. There are some great vids out there, no doubt, I really enjoy Gary Abbot's vids but I would recommend you start with the manual and end with the vids.. it will save you time in the end. If you start with the vids, you'll undoubtedly end up in the manual eventually. If you don't read the whole thing before using it as a reference you are without context. From a previous post: The A-10C manual may seem like dry reading at first, but once you have the self discipline to sit and read it you'll find it's invaluable. The fact is, you have two options: RTFM - 80% within 30 days - Spend a couple of days to read the manual. You don't have to memorize it. You should just scan it so you'll have the info in your head to connect the dots.. and it will be a much more useful reference in the future. After reading the manual, look for other sources to bring the subsystems familiarization you gained to practical use. Click Learn/Vids/Ask People - 60% within 180 days - Click learning is possible in a lot of games and sims these days.. this is not one of them. There are extremely useful aspects of the aircraft sensors and capabilities that people don't generally discuss. You may never find that critical component, that for you, makes you effective in every sortie you fly. I've read the manual several times and will probably do it again.. it's really good. I'm confident that it's the reason why my sorties contain no hesitation.. only devastation.

Good info Snoopy, thanks! We often used a huffer in the Navy for engine start.. maybe AF has better APUs :) mvsgas, is there a crossbleed switch, or can you just; APU start > Engine1 > APU shutdown > Engine2(auto crossbleed from Engine1)?

In RL you have a huffer you can use to start the engines.. it's basically an APU on wheels to save the service life of the aircraft APU. We used to put small critters we'd find in liquid oxygen, then throw them in the exhaust on the top of the huffer. The over oxygenated frozen critter would become a very bright ball of flame flying far up into the air.. that would hopefully burn out before it came back down. Question: Is it possible to do a cross bleed start from engine 1 to engine 2? Does anyone have a procedure?

jcbak.. high for what? It has twice the hardware for half the price he's doing his build for...

Agree with Rangi, you'll have much better luck all around with an nVidia vid card. Here's what Tomshardware had to say about the GTX960 @$209 (EVGA makes the best nVidia cards in my opinion): Excellent Efficiency In A Midrange Gaming Card The new GeForce GTX 960 is capable of running with the Radeon R9 280 and 285, but uses significantly less power to get the job done. It requires only a single 6-pin PCIe cable to feed its modest 120 Watt TDP, and as such, may be a very attractive alternative to the similarly-priced Radeon R9 280. Add an SSD to your build for less than $200. Use it for your operating system and DCS. Put all of your media and docs on the other drive. An SSD makes a huge difference in reboot times (mine is 8sec) and apps with a high frequency of access. People are going to scream foul, but there's a cheaper alternative in purchasing a refurb from Dell. Check their outlet site. They can sell new PCs cheaper than you can build your own. The refurbs are typically PCs returned by people who don't know how to set their system up, and even if it did have a real problem, they replace every subsystem that had a problem when they do the refurb QA.. I've never received a bad one. It's also under the standard hardware warranty, so it wouldn't cost you anything if there was a problem. I like building my own as well, but when you can get an Alienware for half the price you have listed here, that has twice the hardware.. it's something to consider.