Virpil sticks

[Gman109]

Just made this post/pic as a response to StreakEagle's (great member here and at other sim forums) post/pic in the VKB forum regarding the same subject. Salud!!

 

 

StreakEagle, I like your style. All of my VKB stuff save one Mk2/Rev B Gunfighter is at our other place, and once the Covid thing is over I'm going to assemble my entire hotas collection together for some pics. I'll take some of what I have here maybe later tonight, a bunch of our TM/CH/Virpil/VKB stuff, about 25 different pieces or so I think, not counting all the pedals - I only have one set of my VKB peds with me at our home in Sask in Central Canada.

 

Anyhow, I have all of the Virpil sticks with me save the Alphas, which are incoming to me shortly (I hope, some pre order guys have gotten theirs very recently). I too fly a lot of micro to mid size helos, I'm going to buy some of the new gen Blade stuff that's out now, they have 3 or 4 I went to pick up, the new 150, mCPX, the 270, and maybe the 330. The quadcopter in this pic was one of if not THE first quad that was avaialbe as a retail unit for sale. It's completely hands on flying, no assists/gyros, nothing. Still a good little unit, and now 8+ years after it came out, it's still running 100% on all original parts.

 

The Virpil sticks I've had great luck with too, no issues at all, and they all have their positive and negative points. So far I've been really happy with their performance. Also, all the Virpil bases have worked very well with both my Cougar and my Warthog sticks. As stated, I still feel that a Virpil Warbrd base with either a Cougar or Warthog metal stick, is the best bang for the buck, for someone wanting a very solid custom stick solution. I'll take some pics later of its base unit set up with both of these stick options, and compare its height to the VKB Gunfighter, CH Fighter/Combat sticks, TM Warthog and Cougar, and maybe some Saitek stuff.

 

Virpil F14/VFX, TM Hornet, TM Cougar, Virpil Delta, Virpil WarBRD/PewPewPew, TM Warthog, Virpil T50CM (first gen, I have a T50CM2 stick as well).

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Gman109

[streakeagle]

Nice collection of helis and a drone. I have one more heli stored in a box and four little drones my son and I have gotten as gifts over the years.

 

It is nice to reach a point in life where you can afford to have a variety. I like to try out the hardware and find out was is best for me. Not what is cheapest nor most expensive nor what is best for someone else. I am extremely happy with the VKB and have a lot invested in grips for it, so I held back on the temptation to try the Virpil stick. For me, the Virpil stick has two key advantages:

1) Native compatibility with the Thrustmaster Warthog and Hornet grips.

2) A grip loosely modeled on the classic B-8.

 

But I got lucky and managed to get two VKB adapters, which allowed me to use both Thrustmaster grips without having to swap bases. I also have a cheap base model VKB SCG grip that I am going to gut to convert a real B-8 grip into a VKB grip. So I don't really need the Virpil since the VKB is already going to deliver everything I want.

 

With VR, I really enjoy matching the grip to the aircraft I am flying. I only wish I could match the rest of the cockpit controls as well. I would really like to build a sim pit frame that would support quickly and easily swapping out left/right consoles and front main panels along with the ability to adjust angles, weights, and widths to match the geometry of various cockpits. Just a matter of time and money :)

 

My next big target is possibly the Winwing F/A-18 HOTAS. I am not really interested in the stick. I want the throttle plus the control panels around it. If I end up building a dedicated Hornet pit, I might even try the stick. But I already have two Gunfighter 2 bases (updated to Gunfighter 3 standards), so it would be better to use a VKB with the Thrustmaster Hornet grip and be able to swap to any of my other grips as desired.

[Gman109]

Nice collection of helis and a drone. I have one more heli stored in a box and four little drones my son and I have gotten as gifts over the years.

 

It is nice to reach a point in life where you can afford to have a variety. I like to try out the hardware and find out was is best for me. Not what is cheapest nor most expensive nor what is best for someone else. I am extremely happy with the VKB and have a lot invested in grips for it, so I held back on the temptation to try the Virpil stick. For me, the Virpil stick has two key advantages:

1) Native compatibility with the Thrustmaster Warthog and Hornet grips.

2) A grip loosely modeled on the classic B-8.

 

But I got lucky and managed to get two VKB adapters, which allowed me to use both Thrustmaster grips without having to swap bases. I also have a cheap base model VKB SCG grip that I am going to gut to convert a real B-8 grip into a VKB grip. So I don't really need the Virpil since the VKB is already going to deliver everything I want.

 

With VR, I really enjoy matching the grip to the aircraft I am flying. I only wish I could match the rest of the cockpit controls as well. I would really like to build a sim pit frame that would support quickly and easily swapping out left/right consoles and front main panels along with the ability to adjust angles, weights, and widths to match the geometry of various cockpits. Just a matter of time and money :)

 

My next big target is possibly the Winwing F/A-18 HOTAS. I am not really interested in the stick. I want the throttle plus the control panels around it. If I end up building a dedicated Hornet pit, I might even try the stick. But I already have two Gunfighter 2 bases (updated to Gunfighter 3 standards), so it would be better to use a VKB with the Thrustmaster Hornet grip and be able to swap to any of my other grips as desired.

 

 

Are you in Canada or the USA? You can borrow my WinWing throttle before you buy it if you like (pretty expensive Hotas considering the stick isn't nearly as good/useful as their throttle). My Province is going to be relaxing restrictions shortly, so I might be able to sneak from Sask to Alberta to our other place and grab some stuff shortly.

 

 

Agreed with all points in your post - one thing with the Virpil connection commonality with TM...it's a dual edged sword, as VKB (as I'm sure you've noticed, hah) has a much more solid (and better IMO) connection system for stick and base. I only have one TM adapter myself, and I hope frequently that it doesn't go tits up, as we've discussed before, it's the one item that's been hard to get both in the past and recently too.

 

 

That quadcopter doesn't quite deserve the title of drone - it's just a 4 rotor heli, no smart brains, you have to hand fly it just like any other copter, but it's really fast and a lot of fun still. I've got a few larger helis, some Blade 450s, a 500, and 600 from back in the earlier 2010s when they went right up to a 700 class. Shame they discontinued anything over about a 450 size (their 300 series are about the same size as their bast 450 class). I've got some Align and others as well, but mostly medium and small ones. I need to get a new radio soon too, been a lot of advances since I got my DX6 Spektrum long ago now, I just haven't been as into the hobby until recently.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Gman109