F/A-18 ThrustMaster Warthog throttle

[JT Animal]

Hi all, I am learning the F/A-18C I got my first air refueling “your taking on fuel”. Now if I can just hold this thing. It seems the throttle is sensitive. I looked in axis tuning but I don’t believe I can adjust from this. Is there some other way to adjust sensitivity on the throttle? Thanks. 
 

not easy refueling in the air! 

[razo+r]

You can adjust the axis curve but I wouldn't recommend it. Instead, I'd just practice more.

[JT Animal]

14 minutes ago, razo+r said:

You can adjust the axis curve but I wouldn't recommend it. Instead, I'd just practice more.

I can see adjusting axis would not help. I was just wondering if there was another way to reduce sensitivity in the throttle response. 

[razo+r]

No, the engines have a set reaction speed. 

[Foka]

Don't move curves. Practice.
Remember about two things:
1. Throttle has delay. Aircraft/engine will react 1-3 seconds after throttle movement. You have to be proactive, anticipate your actions, be ahead of the situation, and act accordingly.
2. When you correct throttle - after correct revers 50% of your correction back. For a long time you will always overreact.  Correction, then 50% of movement back.

[JT Animal]

49 minutes ago, Foka said:

Don't move curves. Practice.
Remember about two things:
1. Throttle has delay. Aircraft/engine will react 1-3 seconds after throttle movement. You have to be proactive, anticipate your actions, be ahead of the situation, and act accordingly.
2. When you correct throttle - after correct revers 50% of your correction back. For a long time you will always overreact.  Correction, then 50% of movement back.

I thought I was doing this, it just seemed like small correction were too big. It’s hard to pull back 50% when you’re moving the throttle so slightly. But I understand what you’re saying. I’ll try harder. I’m still just happy I got hooked up, it shows improvement, I’ve been working on refueling for a while now. Even watched some real life videos. When I was in the Navy I didn’t have enough respect for the skill level of the officers. The guys are good. 

[PawlaczGMD]

3 hours ago, JT Animal said:

Hi all, I am learning the F/A-18C I got my first air refueling “your taking on fuel”. Now if I can just hold this thing. It seems the throttle is sensitive. I looked in axis tuning but I don’t believe I can adjust from this. Is there some other way to adjust sensitivity on the throttle? Thanks. 
 

not easy refueling in the air! 

I've heard that the Warthog Throttle is pretty high quality, but if you're suffering from static friction that makes fine adjustments hard, the standard way is to apply Nyogel to the friction mechanism. If that's not it, it's a skill issue. I would not touch throttle curves, but technically you could make it more precise in the refueling range by making a user curve that's flat around the point you need. The tradeoff is that it will be all over the place in other regions.

[rob10]

Unfortunately, as previous posts have said, practice, practice, practice.  It seems impossible now, but the fact that you've gotten the "You're taking fuel" message at least once means you're over the hump (getting there is the hardest part IMHO).  Just keep working at it and it will slowly click for you.

[Hammer1-1]

2 hours ago, JT Animal said:

I thought I was doing this, it just seemed like small correction were too big. It’s hard to pull back 50% when you’re moving the throttle so slightly. But I understand what you’re saying. I’ll try harder. I’m still just happy I got hooked up, it shows improvement, I’ve been working on refueling for a while now. Even watched some real life videos. When I was in the Navy I didn’t have enough respect for the skill level of the officers. The guys are good. 

best thing you can do to mitigate sensitivity is to reduce the throttle friction. You can also halve the sensitivity by spooling down or up one engine rather than two. The trick is to spool the engine in the opposite direction of where you need to swing the nose to hit the basket.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Hammer1-1

[JT Animal]

1 hour ago, Hammer1-1 said:

best thing you can do to mitigate sensitivity is to reduce the throttle friction. You can also halve the sensitivity by spooling down or up one engine rather than two. The trick is to spool the engine in the opposite direction of where you need to swing the nose to hit the basket.

 

 It’s hard enough to get the probe in line with the basket, and I should add another factor?? Thanks but no. I’ve been practicing more. Got it hooked and taking fuel, lasted a bit longer but still some issues with power. I will take the advice of practice, practice, practice. Thanks all! This is answered.. 

[Hammer1-1]

10 minutes ago, JT Animal said:

 It’s hard enough to get the probe in line with the basket, and I should add another factor?? Thanks but no. I’ve been practicing more. Got it hooked and taking fuel, lasted a bit longer but still some issues with power. I will take the advice of practice, practice, practice. Thanks all! This is answered.. 

You wanted a tip, thats a great tip to follow. Pulling back on the right throttle will swing the nose to the left ever so slightly and so forth. You also use 50% less throttle movement just using one throttle, and you wont accelerate or decelerate as rapidly as using both throttles. All you have to do to counter that is just a tad bit of rudder pedal or rudder trim, and its not even that much. Take it for what it is or ignore it. Its not so easy in other aircraft, like, say the F-14. You can take those fundamentals to all the other aircraft, but you cant take the easy method for granted either. Those easy methods dont work in other airframes or high wind shear tanker patterns. You wanted a method to reduce sensitivity of the throttle, this method gives you 50% less.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Hammer1-1

[Lange_666]

If using Target Script you can adjust the Throttle response by the press of a button through SetSCurve, SetJCurve or SetCustomCurve commands.
(btw, that's how, for example, the F-16 works, the moment you open the refuel door, the HOTAS inputs differ from when the refuel door is closed)

[razo+r]

23 minutes ago, Lange_666 said:

(btw, that's how, for example, the F-16 works, the moment you open the refuel door, the HOTAS inputs differ from when the refuel door is closed)

But thats only for the stick, not the throttle. 

[Dragon1-1]

Not the throttle, though. The stick does go into landing gains with the AAR door open.

[Lange_666]

But that shouldn't keep @JT Animal from using it for the throttle in F-18.

[Sacarino111]

12 hours ago, JT Animal said:

Hi all, I am learning the F/A-18C I got my first air refueling “your taking on fuel”. Now if I can just hold this thing. It seems the throttle is sensitive. I looked in axis tuning but I don’t believe I can adjust from this. Is there some other way to adjust sensitivity on the throttle? Thanks. 
 

not easy refueling in the air! 

Hi.

I thionk of two tips:

1   Reduce the phiysical friction in your throttle. I guess there is a friction adjustment knob somewhere in the base, so the mouvements are smooth but controlled.

2   This one comes from a reallity show (jetstream, youtube it), where the instructior says to the student to "walk the throttles", meaning to move them by first one and then the second one, ever so slightly, but move them like walking, left right, left right etc. I can'ttell if it is a good practice as I don't have that HOTAS, but looks logical.

Saludos.

Saca111

[Foka]

13 hours ago, JT Animal said:

I thought I was doing this, it just seemed like small correction were too big. It’s hard to pull back 50% when you’re moving the throttle so slightly. But I understand what you’re saying. I’ll try harder. I’m still just happy I got hooked up, it shows improvement, I’ve been working on refueling for a while now. Even watched some real life videos. When I was in the Navy I didn’t have enough respect for the skill level of the officers. The guys are good. 

AAR need s skill, but also remember that in some apects in sim it's easier than real, in some much harder.
Easier - DCS has no basket physics, no turbulence influence on basket, no hose physics
Harder - unless you're playin VR - on monitor you don't have 3D vision, so it's harder to se distance on relative speed. Also you don't feel the aircraft with your body (it's like comparing driving in sim and real car), and also, what people tend to forget - IRL to get to AAR, you need to be skilled pilot, hundreds of hours in jets, you have to be officer, you need to have a collage degree, you spend Hundreds, if not thousands hours on learning and training. In DCS people buy cheap HOTAS, fly 5 hrs, then try to AAR and say that is so hard. It is hard for skilled pilot, so for us...

[JT Animal]

I asked about a throttle curve, here in this topic. The consensus was to practice more, ok that sounded like a generic answer but we all know it takes a lot of practice to become better in anything you do.  I thought I should come back and leave an update for others that may read this thread. I ran across a refueling video on YouTube, here is the link, after his refueling the guy talks about axis setting. He specifically mentioned the ThrustMaster warthog throttle, said if you want to save yourself lots of frustrations, use these curves. Take a look for yourself. I’m going to give them a try and see if it helps. I didn’t think it was possible or advisable to use curves on the throttle, but this guy seemed knowledgeable. Anyway I will try and update my experience. Hope this helps, and I hope others find this useful. Thanks all! 

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by JT Animal

[JT Animal]

Just wanted to update anyone that may encounter this same issue with their ThrustMaster Warthog throttle. I adjusted my axis tune as shown in my previous post, the throttle seems to be much better than the standard flat axis. I completed my first campaign mission that required refueling  Yes I finally have hope. It’s a small victory but I’ll take it. Those that struggle a bit will know that it keeps you interested when you finally do something perfect, something that you have been failing at for a while. So check it out and see if this helps you. Keep an eye on your six! 

[CBStu]

Good job. I see nothing wrong w/ adjusting an axxis at all. It's not like you can't readjust it.