What HOTAS for AH64D?

[Rabies]

56 minutes ago, kgillers3 said:

you like the maxflightstick? I'm considering how I want to do my next upgrade, if I wanna go the chair route or a more permanent setup similar to that.  

permanent is wrong way of saying dedicated I guess

I’m very happy with it, I’ve not had any issues and it’s very comfortable to use over a long period of time. My model was an earlier version which I purchased in 2017, the latest models look far superior and also have the starter trigger implemented. 

[Lurker]

On 10/12/2021 at 11:28 AM, Bedouin said:

I bought the VBK MCG Ultimate with a 20cm gooseneck extension to use with the AH-64.. I think the dry clutches will help with setting it up

Can you please let us know how it works out for you and how it ends up working with the helicopters in DCS World? These are soo damn expensive, but if they are worth every penny, I might bite the bullet. 

Edited October 20, 2021 by Lurker

[DeBo 238th]

Once you get a collective you will never want to go back to using a throttle for any helo. I have the Winwing collective and have been having a blast with the UH-1 Huey and the CH-47mod. 

[skypickle]

has anyone seen the virpil AND the winwing? Ive heard the winning has different friction in one direction from the other.

[Remco]

7 hours ago, skypickle said:

has anyone seen the virpil AND the winwing? Ive heard the winning has different friction in one direction from the other.

I've tried both of those (and others) and love the Virpil collective. Meanwhile, I'm just going to say it, the Winwing one is absolutely terrible. Its just a collective grip slapped onto their throttle tech which is clearly not designed to handle the offset weight. The only advantage that Winwing has is the modularity of taking the throttle grips of and putting on the collective grip when switching between airframes, and while this idea is great in theory, and there's nothing wrong with the Winwing throttle as a throttle, it just doesn't work well at all as a collective. The friction is subpar, and with the extra leverage of the lengthened collective you'll easily break the mechanism if you pull too hard.

I'm not affiliated with either (I am with another company, however, hence why I tested them all  ), trying to be as unbiased as I can here.

[skypickle]

@Remcothank you . I was looking at the TCS base vs the TCS plus. It seems the TCS base is designed to mate with their sharka grip whereas the TCS plus has the throttle axis is for their UH60 grip which has no throttle axis, but a switch? Anyway, isn't it necessary to the throttle up when pulling the collective up ? It would seem using the uh60 grip requires moving your hand between two different positions to maneuver the collective vs using the controls on the collective. 

[Scaley]

On 12/26/2021 at 8:08 PM, skypickle said:

@Remcothank you . I was looking at the TCS base vs the TCS plus. It seems the TCS base is designed to mate with their sharka grip whereas the TCS plus has the throttle axis is for their UH60 grip which has no throttle axis, but a switch? Anyway, isn't it necessary to the throttle up when pulling the collective up ? It would seem using the uh60 grip requires moving your hand between two different positions to maneuver the collective vs using the controls on the collective. 

So by way of clarification:
You can put any virpil collective grip on any base. You can also put the left hand Alpha flight stick on the collective base.

Regarding throttles - you would only need to be manually adjusting the throttle if you are flying something without a governor, like an R22.  That is basically confined to small piston engine aircraft theses days.  Nothing you'll fly in DCS requires constant throttle adjustments. You set the power levers to "fly" (or equivalent) and just leave them there unless something fail/breaks/takes battle damage.  The governor/flight management computer/etc takes care of the throttle setting in a modern helicopter with a governed rotor.  

Edited January 2, 2022 by Scaley