I took the plunge!

[miguez]

No, not the plunge to buy DCS: BS, I have had that since it came out, that's a no brainer!

 

The plunge was to buy my first HOTAS, and I went with the X52 (not the Pro)! I had asked around in the forum for opinions between that and the Cougar, and the Cougar (with all of the almost necessary upgrades) was out of my price range. that and I figured that for my first HOTAS I shouldn't spend too much, to see what HOTAS is all about, and then maybe upgrade in the future when I know exactly what I am looking for. For the record, I got it at Best Buy for $99 plus tax.

 

I am very impressed with my first impressions (how's that for a catch phrase!). I fired BS up and went for a flight. Keep in mind that I have a Microsoft FFB2 stick (which I love, and may continue to use together with the X52 throttle), so going to a non-force feedback stick was an interesting change. But the X52 stick as very, very smooth in motion, very accurate in positioning, and all the buttons seem like are positioned in places where my fingers will have no problems going to once the muscle-memory kicks in.

 

I really like the fact that there are three MODES to toggle between for button assignments, so it looks like I could have one for Takeoff/Landing, another for Flight, and a third for Combat. The problem will be remembering all that!

 

I also like the ergonomic design of both stick and throttle, lots of human factors studies into that, it looks like. The materials used for construction are pretty nice too, and time will tell about durability.

 

I did snap the rotors right off the first time I tried trimming, since it is pretty different than doing it on the FFB2, but I am starting to use a technique suggested here in the forums of adding a little trim at a time, and it seems to work.

 

All in all, I am very happy an excited about finally acquiring a HOTAS, and very happy so far (3 flights) with the apparent qualities of the X52. Thanks to everyone that pitched in with suggestions, and to everyone else in the forums, this is a great place for information.

 

Oh, and if you have a killer X52 profile out there, post here! I've seen a couple other posts with those but have not tried any yet, and am thinking it might be better if I create my own, to better recall where all the assignments go, but i am definitely open to suggestions.

 

Best regards,

Edited January 26, 2009 by miguez

[Yellonet]

Good to hear your thoughts. I'm one of the people looking to invest in a HOTAS sometime down the line and it always helps to hear about other peoples experience. Was it the X52 or the X52 Pro you got?

[miguez]

Good to hear your thoughts. I'm one of the people looking to invest in a HOTAS sometime down the line and it always helps to hear about other peoples experience. Was it the X52 or the X52 Pro you got?

 

Hey Yellownet,

 

Good question, I have updated the original post with the info and added the price too!

[Sunjah]

Good to hear your thoughts. I'm one of the people looking to invest in a HOTAS sometime down the line and it always helps to hear about other peoples experience. Was it the X52 or the X52 Pro you got?

 

I wondered which to go for too, but I bought am X-52Pro at GoGamer.com for only $130. Lowest I could find it anywhere else was $165, so I was so happy to find the $130, only $40 more than the regular X-52 and from what I've read, I think that it is worth it.

 

For the plunger guy, I'm glad you like it. I went with the Pro mostly because I've read the MFD is better and the "strength" (i.e., Longeviety) of the stick works better. I could not tell you because I have not tried the X-52 to compare it, but I know I love all these buttons!

[Macka]

I have the same setup but ended up doing as you mentioned and went back to the MS FF2 as the prime JS and the X52 for the throttle. I have a problem getting a comfortable grip on the X52 JS when using, simultaneously, the twist rudder function and buttons/triggers. Must be just my awkward grip......:). Gotta say the trim is great when used on the FF2 and very natural.

[deadsmell]

wait a few weeks............X52 is a piece of garbage. I know, unfortunately I have one.

[HitchHikingFlatlander]

^Wish you could back that up with some evidence as my X-52 still works great after two plus years of heavy use. If yours went bad after a few weeks then there must have been a defect with that stick only because the majority of owners have good things to say about it. If you just got angry because you had problems and wrote the X52 off you should have tried replacing the stick at least, as with any product some have problems but that shouldnt represent all X52s.

 

Its like LOMAC Gold, I bought a version where the second disc didnt work because of a manufacturing error, rather than call the software a piece of garbage I called and got a replacement disc and everything was fine.

[miguez]

OK, quick update for whoever is interested:

 

Have been flying with both the X52 joystick and throttle. I still plan to go back to the MSFFB2 for the stick, but I wanted to give the X52 stick a fair run.

 

Trimming is definitely tricky without force feedback! I got the hang of it, but the sim feels very different with force feedback and, in my opinion, better. Hopefully Saitek will make a force feedback X52 stick in the future.

 

I had some problems with programming the buttons via SST in the beginning, but it was due to incompatibility between the drivers and the SST versions I had installed. After installing the proper driver versions, everything worked.

 

The programming interface in SST (the latest beta version, which you can get here) is very nice, and very intuitive. I had no problems getting buttons assigned.

 

My biggest problem is deciding what keypresses go where. I started by looking at what the real collective and cyclic sticks have in the Kamov, and used most of those, but then added a lot more, since the X52, with its 3 modes and shift capabilities, has a LOT more possibilities than the real helicopter sticks.

 

Right now, following a suggestion from this forum, I have Mode 1 as my Startup/Takeoff/Land/Shutdown mode, Mode 2 is my Climb/Cruise/Descent mode, and Mode 3 is for Combat.

 

I added pertinent keys to each mode, then flew the sim sometimes and kept track of whatever I had forgotten (and therefore used the keyboard), and added those too.

 

All in all, I am very happy with the hardware and software, and consider it a $100 bill very well spent. Thanks to everyone who helped me on this, and I hope this info might help someone in the future.

 

Best regards,

[opformaster]

you gonna put that x52 grip on your MSFFB2 or what?

 

_op4