Best All-Round Collective for DCS?

[CommandT]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any good suggestions for a collective for DCS that would be a good all-rounder for different helicopters? For me it would be for the Huey, Bo-105, Kiowa, OH-6 Mod. So nothing too complicated like the Apache.

I have 1 main desire though - I would really like to have a zoom axis of some sort on the grip if any of them have something like that? I currently use a Virpil CM3 throttle and it has a nice zoom axis at the front of the throttle which I can use without taking my hand off the throttles. Do collectives have something like this? 

And I have 1 major constraint: the collective has to be mounted directly onto a wooden panel below it. I had a look at Virpil's collectives - they look good but they have a base plate on the right side to be mounted to your seat, I can't do that, so I need to have the base plate/ bracket either directly under the collective or to the left of it, definitely not to the right as it will not slide under my seat. Unfortunately Virpil's ones don't have the option to switch the base plate from the right side to the left side  

Any ideas? Cheers!  

[SharkWizard]

I believe you could mount a virpil collective stick in the way you described if you used the higher mounting point on the bracket the opposite way around after you have removed the lips on the bracket which would interfere with the collective using a hacksaw. 

an out of scale drawing:

the "blood" denotes where the cut happens. Maybe some virpiler can confirm this?

 

In theory it might also be possible to attach the bracket top side down and roll the stick on its axis, and then attach it. But it would require a modified or a new limiting cam for it work sensibly after that.

[Goose489]

2 minutes ago, SharkWizard said:

I believe you could mount a virpil collective stick in the way you described if you used the higher mounting point on the bracket the opposite way around after you have removed the lips on the bracket which would interfere with the collective using a hacksaw. 

an out of scale drawing:

the "blood" denotes where the cut happens. Maybe some virpiler can confirm this?

 

In theory it might also be possible to attach the bracket top side down and roll the stick on its axis, and then attach it. But it would require a modified or a new limiting cam for it work sensibly after that.

flip it to the other side and mount it on the other side.

[CommandT]

On 3/14/2024 at 11:23 PM, SharkWizard said:

I believe you could mount a virpil collective stick in the way you described if you used the higher mounting point on the bracket the opposite way around after you have removed the lips on the bracket which would interfere with the collective using a hacksaw. 

an out of scale drawing:

the "blood" denotes where the cut happens. Maybe some virpiler can confirm this?

 

In theory it might also be possible to attach the bracket top side down and roll the stick on its axis, and then attach it. But it would require a modified or a new limiting cam for it work sensibly after that.

Cheers! I'll play around with it. Worst case I'll just saw part of the bracket off. 

On 3/14/2024 at 11:26 PM, Goose489 said:

flip it to the other side and mount it on the other side.

According to Virpil support you can't do that. I was surprised about that 

[Scott-S6]

8 hours ago, CommandT said:

Cheers! I'll play around with it. Worst case I'll just saw part of the bracket off. 

According to Virpil support you can't do that. I was surprised about that 

I mean, you can reverse it but then it it'll be moving from angled down up to horizontal. You'll have to build an angle into your mount and if you could do that you'd have just made a mount.

[CommandT]

On 3/17/2024 at 10:54 PM, Scott-S6 said:

I mean, you can reverse it but then it it'll be moving from angled down up to horizontal. You'll have to build an angle into your mount and if you could do that you'd have just made a mount.

This is what I will do. Seem like the most reasonable solution. 

[X-31_VECTOR]

On 3/9/2024 at 6:08 PM, CommandT said:

I have 1 main desire though - I would really like to have a zoom axis of some sort on the grip if any of them have something like that? I currently use a Virpil CM3 throttle and it has a nice zoom axis at the front of the throttle which I can use without taking my hand off the throttles. Do collectives have something like this? 
 

I'd suggest a left-handed Virpil Constellation Alpha grip... it has an analog thumb stick as well as a thumb wheel. The thumb stick of course springs back to center, and if that doesn't bother you (i.e., for momentary zooming), then the new Virpil Apache collective grip also has an analog thumb stick.

The thumb wheel on the Constellation Alpha doesn't recenter, but it's also not a true axis; it's a radial switch that gives a series of presses of either an "up" button or a "down" button. However, you can program it in the Virpil software to essentially mimic an axis. It's a little fiddly, but I got it to work and use it for zoom myself (on my right-hand Alpha that I use as stick/cyclic grip). The thumb wheel can also be pressed down (like a mouse wheel), and I use that to recenter/reset the zoom. 

[X-31_VECTOR]

On 3/17/2024 at 6:54 PM, Scott-S6 said:

I mean, you can reverse it but then it it'll be moving from angled down up to horizontal. You'll have to build an angle into your mount and if you could do that you'd have just made a mount.

I had a similar problem to @CommandT and found exactly what you describe -- if you just flip the collective and mount it on the other side, the angle is all wrong... provided you use the screw holes that are currently drilled in the steel mounting plate. 

The easiest options are to either drill new holes into the (steel) Virpil mount, make your own, or to do as @SharkWizard suggests and cut the mount. I opted for a variation of the latter as best for my setup.