New DCS A-10C Pilots

[dbeaty]

I've been learning the sim for about two weeks. A couple observations for new pilots struggling to figure things out. I've come to the conclusion that it will take a lot of learning to get up to speed - there are players here that have been flying daily since the open beta, they have a huge headstart, so don't think your completely stupid for not getting something. Each system in this sim may take days to master.

 

If you don't have a Thustmaster HOTAS, you are at a distinct disadvantage. This is the biggest obstacle I had/have. I have a TM Afterburner and it does not have the 50+ buttons of the A10C HOTAS. The manuals and tutorials all call for TM HOTAS buttons - Sometimes giving the keyboard equiv, sometimes not. Sometimes explaining what the HOTAS button does, sometimes not. Many of the HOTAS buttons functions are not entirely clear even when looking at the mapping in the manual. I wrote down the keyboard mapping for all HOTAS buttons and what they do or print our that section of the manual.

 

A Naturalpoint TrackIR5 is almost required to play. Consider getting one. The Num Pad / * keys zoom in on the cockpit so you can see the buttons and HUD better.

 

Work on one system at a time and learn that and memorize all the steps, then move on to the next one.

 

Shift Windows Pause will give you Active Pause, the plane stops, but you can keep working on set up.

 

My first challenge was figuring out how to drop precision munitions. LGB,s and GBU's. with the TGP. Here's what I learned that made a world of difference - again for new flyers who don't have much experience, these were the things I could not find in one place:

 

Choose the GBU in the MFD stores page, click M until Master Mode is CCRP bomb mode on HUD.

 

Open the TGP on the right MFD.

 

Click the A/G mode on the upper button of the TGP MFD. That opens the camera and the tiny box appears in the HUD of where it's pointed.

 

Click TGP a 2nd time to make the green box appear around the border. That makes it Senor of Interest - SOI.

 

Slew the cam around using the HOTAS or keys you mapped to: (,/;.) Zoom it in and out with the HOTAS (DMS fwd aft or keyboard End and Home keys)

 

If you have a target steer point on the HUD like in instant action, say the target is at steer point 2 on the TAD, you can make the TGP slew to that point automatically. Hit "China Hat Foward Long" or the V key. Long means hold it like 2 seconds. The camera will swing around and point at that steer point!

 

So good so far! But wait. Look at the HUD in the lower left corner it says "SPTI" That means the steering for bomb in CCRP is to "SPTI" steerpoint of interest. We want to use the TGP's target. So we are going to lock the TGP to a target first.

 

Look at the TGP, zoom in and find the target. Lock it by HOTAS (TMS up short or keyboard LCNTR up arrow twice until it says POINT on the TGP, if you need to redo it, TMS down short or LCNTR down to unlock)

 

Now we will make this target the one the bomb cues will follow on the HUD. Use the same key you use to lock the TGP but this time hold it "long" so TMS up long or the keyboard LCNTR up arrow long) ---this will put "TGP" on the HUD in place of "STPI" Now go bomb the crap out of that target since you already learned how to use CCRP right? Fly the line towards the target box.

 

You can increase accuracy by using the laser for ranging. The insert key fires the laser in a burst as default. If you want to keep the laser on during the run, in the TGP screen, choose CNT button on the upper section of MFD. Look on the right side of the TGP, you'll see "Latch". Click that to "on" to make the laser latch on with the insert key press. Now when you press insert key, a flashing "L" shows up in the TGP...meaning you are firing a laser constantly. I am not sure if the LGB's are flying down to this reflective laser or not. Obviously, if the laser only burst once, there wouldn't be a laser dot on the target.

 

Fly straight towards the target level. When the HUD shows Man Release. Hold the trigger until you are sure the bomb is released. Hit F6 and watch the impact if you want!

 

These steps have made bombing lots of fun for me. Keep practicing until you remember the steps. I'm sure I got something wrong here, but it works pretty good.

 

Another tip is to get some altitude for level bombing. 10000 feet or more. The high slant range makes the laser more accurate in providing steering for the bomb run.

 

dbeaty

[Frostiken]

If you don't have a Thustmaster HOTAS, you are at a distinct disadvantage.

 

Untrue. First, 'HOTAS' is an acronym, not the name of the product. Any stick / throttle combo is a HOTAS. Secondly, in order to play the game you would need any HOTAS with several buttons and/or programming software. The only thing really unique that the Thrustmaster Warthog provides is a split throttle and a dual stage trigger, the former of which is really not necessary at all, the latter of which can be worked around if needed and exists in other setups as well. However, the Thrustmaster Warthog is a luxury and is, in absolutely no uncertain terms, not necessary.

 

A CH Products Fighterstick/ProThrottle/ProPedals can be had for less than half the cost of the TM Warthog and is more than adequate for the game - the advanced scripting software unique to CH is a major boon and generally will be more useful in other games than you would probably find the Warthog, as you can do some really cool things with it.

 

If you're on even more of a budget, the X52 can be made 'good enough' and costs half again what a CH setup costs. Note that the TM Warthog has no rudder functionality at all, and the X52 uses a twist - you'll probably have to buy pedals on top of the TM Warthog if you go that route.

 

A Naturalpoint TrackIR5 is almost required to play. Consider getting one.

This is true. For the budget-minded, Freetrack works as well but only with the 32-bit version of DCS: A-10.

 

Work on one system at a time and learn that and memorize all the steps, then move on to the next one.

Better advice I think would be to learn a 'lesson', then play with it, and integrate your previous lessons into it. If you're learning the CDU, don't just learn the CDU - do a ramp startup, takeoff, use the CDU, and then navigate home and land.

 

Shift Windows Pause

will give you Active Pause, the plane stops, but you can keep working on set up.

Note that this isn't perfect - it appears that you freeze in mid-air but that's it - everything around it works as normal - weapons will still impact their targets, wingmen will buzz around you...

 

Obviously, if the laser only burst once, there wouldn't be a laser dot on the target.

Additionally, do not use the laser early, generally only 8 seconds of lasing is required. If you fire the laser the entire time the bomb is in flight, instead of ballistically reaching the target, it will try to fly straight to it, and run out of energy and fall short.

 

Another tip is to get some altitude for level bombing. 10000 feet or more.

A good tip for new guys, and not why you think - Hollywood and Afghanistan have lent this romantic notion to the A-10 that it's only useful when flying so low to the ground you can use rocks as AAA - the 'Hog can reach 20k feet easily, and that is necessary to avoid anti-aircraft fire and SAMs. Don't be scared of altitude, the only reason you should be dropping low is for gun runs, rockets, CCIP employment, or airborne threat evasion.
Edited May 21, 2011 by Frostiken

[Sinky]

If you don't have a Thustmaster HOTAS, you are at a distinct disadvantage. This is the biggest obstacle I had/have. I have a TM Afterburner and it does not have the 50+ buttons of the A10C HOTAS. The manuals and tutorials all call for TM HOTAS buttons - Sometimes giving the keyboard equiv, sometimes not. Sometimes explaining what the HOTAS button does, sometimes not. Many of the HOTAS buttons functions are not entirely clear even when looking at the mapping in the manual. I wrote down the keyboard mapping for all HOTAS buttons and what they do or print our that section of the manual.

 

I'd have to disagree as I used to regularly switch between using my TM Cougar and my Cyborg X. I honestly don't notice a difference but that's because I've properly mapped my cheap stick so it's got everything I need including multiple hats bound to the same hat switch. The only thing missing really on the cheap stick is a nice switch for the speed brakes that the Cougar has. Now I don't even bother with my TM Cougar, not worth the setup hassle and I'm going to sell it.

 

A lot of people have flown with a HOTAS for so long they can't remember what a properly mapped cheap stick is like. I had the advantage to chop and change since I didn't always have the time to set the Cougar up on the desk. Using the cheap stick I only use the mouse to flick switches and I only use the keyboard for slew to SPI, selecting the SOI, flaps and gear.

 

There are many people around who also fly with a budget stick and have no problems.

[EtherealN]

If you don't have a Thustmaster HOTAS, you are at a distinct disadvantage. This is the biggest obstacle I had/have. I have a TM Afterburner and it does not have the 50+ buttons of the A10C HOTAS. The manuals and tutorials all call for TM HOTAS buttons - Sometimes giving the keyboard equiv, sometimes not. Sometimes explaining what the HOTAS button does, sometimes not. Many of the HOTAS buttons functions are not entirely clear even when looking at the mapping in the manual. I wrote down the keyboard mapping for all HOTAS buttons and what they do or print our that section of the manual.

 

Thing is that one should not think of any such thing as a keyboard equivalent. Each of the HOTAS buttons has many functions depending on the mode the aircraft systems are in and for how long you keep the button depressed, so anyone trying to map specific functions will run out of buttons completely. Instead you should simply map the HOTAS things. Map a button to "China Hat Forward" and another to "China Hat Aft", and then you have exactly the same thing a TM Hog HOTAS owner has, and you have condensed a score of functions to two buttons.

 

Trying to map specific HOTAS functions to a specific key (like, "Slave all to SPI" to Button X) is doomed to failure. There's too many functions out there for any HOTAS on the market (including the Thrustmaster Hog HOTAS!), and you'll destroy yourself trying to remember the keyboard commands.

 

Same thing for the hats. Their functions change with mode, so just map your own hats to the HOTAS function and you'll get them all correctly on that hat without having to micromanage, and you'll suffer no real disadvantage. If your stick has too few hats, just use modifiers - like Hat=TMS, Hat+Pinky=DMS, Hat+LeftShift=CMS, Hat+LeftControl=Throttle Hat, LeftAlt+Hat=Radio Hat. There you have all hat functions it pretty easily reachable even on a stick with only a single hat.

Edited May 21, 2011 by EtherealN

[Conure]

Hi, nice post though I disagree with the distinct disadvantage comment. My X52 Pro is setup well and I can get to every command on the actual HOTAS very quickly - Add muscle memory to that and I can't really see myself being much less efficient than somebody with a warthog. That said I have no comparison..

 

TrackIR on the other hand...I quit playing RoF online until I had trackIR because I couldn't get a kill. Now, I can get a lot of kills. It makes a very big difference in a very real way!

[dbeaty]

I'd have to disagree as I used to regularly switch between using my TM Cougar and my Cyborg X. I honestly don't notice a difference but that's because I've properly mapped my cheap stick so it's got everything I need including multiple hats bound to the same hat switch. The only thing missing really on t

There are many people around who also fly with a budget stick and have no problems.

 

My post was only to give a new person wanting to bomb with GBU's a nice list of key commands.

 

The disadvantage I speak of is not in the brand of HOTAS but the fact that almost all the tutorials, manual and videos refer to physical buttons on the TM A10. When I started reading the manual - how it immediately begins talking about using the various buttons on the Thrustmaster A10 Flight Stick, I was thinking, wait...was a TM A10 supposed to be included in the retail package or something? Obviously it could be referring to the real aircraft stick but the docs seem to lean towards the physical TM stick.

 

For the first week, I was constantly trying to "translate" the usage of physical button names and locations on the TM A10 to my cheap ass HOTAS or keyboard. I call that a disadvantage.

[159th_Viper]

Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog vs Others is akin to comparing 600 grams of Filet Mignon to 600 grams of Tesco Value quick-fry Steak.

 

Sure - admittedly the result is the same but the Journey is soooo much better on the back of the Hog :thumbup:

[EtherealN]

My post was only to give a new person wanting to bomb with GBU's a nice list of key commands.

 

The disadvantage I speak of is not in the brand of HOTAS but the fact that almost all the tutorials, manual and videos refer to physical buttons on the TM A10. When I started reading the manual - how it immediately begins talking about using the various buttons on the Thrustmaster A10 Flight Stick, I was thinking, wait...was a TM A10 supposed to be included in the retail package or something? Obviously it could be referring to the real aircraft stick but the docs seem to lean towards the physical TM stick.

 

For the first week, I was constantly trying to "translate" the usage of physical button names and locations on the TM A10 to my cheap ass HOTAS or keyboard. I call that a disadvantage.

 

But the disadvantage wasn't related to the stick, it was related to the fact that you were (with respect) "doing it wrong". The systems modeled is the real A-10C, so in your simulation you are using whatever you have physically in front of you to manipulate the A-10C HOTAS in the cockpit. Thus, talking about those controls is entirely appropriate.

 

Basically: the manual is referring to the real aircraft HOTAS, and the TM HOTAS happens to be a pretty faithful replica of that HOTAS. If you do not have a TM Hog HOTAS, map whatever you do have to the actual real buttons on the real HOTAS, not to specific functions. Doing the former will cause you to have no disadvantage at all, doing the latter is to set yourself up for frustration because you are doing the opposite to how a real jet HOTAS actually works.

[Pyroflash]

Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog vs Others is akin to comparing 600 grams of Filet Mignon to 600 grams of Tesco Value quick-fry Steak.

 

Sure - admittedly the result is the same but the Journey is soooo much better on the back of the Hog :thumbup:

 

I wouldn't think of my stick as a Tesco steak, but more of a prime rib.

 

Sure it isn't the select cut, but it gets the job done, and is still significantly more tasty than the Tesco steak, which I can only assume to be something like a Logitech 3d stick...

 

My post was only to give a new person wanting to bomb with GBU's a nice list of key commands.

 

The disadvantage I speak of is not in the brand of HOTAS but the fact that almost all the tutorials, manual and videos refer to physical buttons on the TM A10. When I started reading the manual - how it immediately begins talking about using the various buttons on the Thrustmaster A10 Flight Stick, I was thinking, wait...was a TM A10 supposed to be included in the retail package or something? Obviously it could be referring to the real aircraft stick but the docs seem to lean towards the physical TM stick.

 

For the first week, I was constantly trying to "translate" the usage of physical button names and locations on the TM A10 to my cheap ass HOTAS or keyboard. I call that a disadvantage. [/Quote]

 

No, I don't think so, when I first got A-10C(in beta) I was still using my X52, and was far too lazy to map commands and all the modifiers. Thus I had absolutely no problem memorizing the equivalent keyboard commands and using them in flight. I didn't feel that I was at some sort of disadvantage whatsoever, in fact, I think I was able to deal just fine with most of everything using just the keyboard.

 

I don't have that problem now however, since I have an X-65F which has more than enough hat switches for me to assign all of the A-10C HOTAS functions to in one go, with no modifiers. If you want a marginally less expensive alternative to the TM Hog(Which I still plan on getting BTW), I would strongly suggest this stick(though if you plan on using it to fly the shark, I would suggest you get used to flying trimmed, as flying untrimmed results in a rather painful experience with constantly applying pressure in order to keep the bird straight).

Edited May 21, 2011 by Pyroflash

[Conure]

I'm probably in a minority but I really like my X52 pro :) Probably couldnt go back to it if I used a metal stick though...But for the cost it's incredible!

[Wartski]

The way I had my Cougar setup when using Falcon4 was to use the Up/Center/Down function of the T7/T8 button. Up for Air-to-Air, Center for Navigation and Down for Air-to-Ground. I had 186 commands programmed. I believe Falcon4 with SP2 had 315 commands. lol Two Cougars and four hands would have been perfect.

 

Now I need to do the same for this sim.

[dbeaty]

But the disadvantage wasn't related to the stick, it was related to the fact that you were (with respect) "doing it wrong". The systems modeled is the real A-10C, so in your simulation you are using whatever you have physically in front of you to manipulate the A-10C HOTAS in the cockpit. Thus, talking about those controls is entirely appropriate.

 

Exactly. It's being new and trying to translate the reference in the tutorial or manual from, say China Hat forward or Coolie hat left or pinkie button...to what I had mapped it too on the keyboard, or modifier plus hat switch on my Afterburner. After all, this is about the 10th time I've fired up the game, from my perspective. It's a bit daunting and that was one frustration. I bet there others like me. And of course, others who insist I am wrong. LOL.

[Maverick]

New pilot?

 

Well not yet. I'm waiting for the release of the printed manual before buying this sim. You hear that ED? I would like to get it sooner than later.

[Helios]

I think this thread was a nice initiative, so kudos to OP for sharing his thoughts :-)

 

If you don't have a Thustmaster HOTAS, you are at a distinct disadvantage.

 

Not necessarily 'distinct' compared to alternatives for operating the HOTAS, but I would say at a slight to moderate disadvantage. Obviously the Thrustmaster Warthog piece has the upper hand being a copy of the real thing. You would probably have to do a pretty good job configuring <some other HOTAS> to come up with a better design and setup than the creators of the plane. It is not just about getting everything on the buttons, but having it logically placed. Though I got pretty much everything onto my X52 Pro, I have to "cheat" for some things - e.g. there is no 3-way for a "Boat switch middle", so the middle position becomes a "hold" version. And the boat switch buttons are china plus pinky etc.

 

For learning to fly, obviously OP has a point - it's a lot easier if you plug in the HOTAS and just start using it, compared to having to mentally sort out the workings of how the real thing works, and map that onto your own HW, configuring all commands etc. Took me a while at least to come to a decent setup.

 

A Naturalpoint TrackIR5 is almost required to play.

 

Quite happy with my TrackIR4, and as others have mentioned there are alternatives. So probably doesn't need to go for the more expensive option.

 

Work on one system at a time and learn that and memorize all the steps, then move on to the next one.

 

Mine is a variation of that - focus on one relevant skill at a time, and practice on using it in a relevant context. I can't muster the energy to read the whole CDU section of the manual in one piece, it's probably a good documentation of the CDU as a reference document, but it is not a good learning tool. Plus it's hard for all that knowledge to "stick" when you don't get to immediately practice it.

 

However, when the need arose I would happily set out to learn entering UTM/LL coordinates and creating mission waypoints, and then create a practice mission for myself to bomb something at known coordinates. A lot more fun, and a lot more relevant.

[Nikeleye]

Exactly. It's being new and trying to translate the reference in the tutorial or manual from, say China Hat forward or Coolie hat left or pinkie button...to what I had mapped it too on the keyboard, or modifier plus hat switch on my Afterburner. After all, this is about the 10th time I've fired up the game, from my perspective. It's a bit daunting and that was one frustration. I bet there others like me. And of course, others who insist I am wrong. LOL.

 

wow 186 commands. I don't have a WH controller so I have to use a lot of keyboard, 100 buttons and only 20$ its slow to learn but over time you get used what you need to press. making your own controls also you can remember them because you made them. I think when learning new controls it isn't so bad not to have the 400$ joystick because you are learning from the beginning anyway so shiftQ is the same as hat #6 left. I try to make the hat keys as groups of 4 keybaord keys tho so I can think of them logically left/right/up/down.

 

Trying to program each HOTAS (Hands-On-Throttle-And-Stick) command that the A-10C Thunderbolt II has onto your keyboard is a recipe for disaster. Not meaning any offence to your methods but the easier way forward for 99% of people is "modifiers". This means that let's say we want to program both the Target Management System* and the Data Management System** onto a set of keys to use quickly and efficiently while flying. Assuming you have no Hat switch (4- or 8-way Point of View button) on your joystick/HOTAS available.

 

For ease let's say we program the arrow keys. But what if these are already set to slewing your Targeting Pod camera around? We use a "modifier". So in the keybinding options screen you want to go to Modifiers and set up a key commonly used for changing the functions of buttons such as CONTROL, SHIFT or ALT and set it as a Modifier. Then in the screen where you program a key for 'HOTAS TMS Up' you would press your Keyboard Up Arrow, and click the drop-down modifier list to select whatever you called your CONTROL, SHIFT or ALT. You can repeat the process with a different Modifier for HOTAS DMS Up, such as CONTROL.

 

The end result would be that without moving your hands anywhere and leaving them touching the same keys, you can use the arrow keys by themselves to slew your Targeting Pod, then while holding SHIFT use the arrow keys (which represent TMS as long as you hold SHIFT down) to set a target as your Sensor-Point-of-Interest (SPI), and while holding CONTROL and the arrow keys (which represent DMS now) you can lock your Maverick onto that target or create it as a Markpoint.

 

I hope that helps your thought/learning process - I apologise if I was too verbose but I too was a newcomer to the DCS world but a few months ago and had just a cheap HOTAS with 5 buttons and a keyboard rammed full of different commands. Using Modifiers changed my approach to A-10C and made my entire game experience much, much more enjoyable.

 

* - TMS for short, which controls things like setting your Sensor-Point-of-Interest (SPI), Maverick tracking and locking, creating Markpoints on the TAD, depending on which Sensor is your Sensor-Of-Interest (SOI).

** - DMS for short, which is in charge of many important commands like slewing your Litening AT Targeting Pod onto your current Steerpoint or SPI, broadcasting your SPI, scrolling between Markpoints and weapon systems, depending on which Sensor is your Sensor-Of-Interest (SOI).

 

 

Though I got pretty much everything onto my X52 Pro, I have to "cheat" for some things - e.g. there is no 3-way for a "Boat switch middle", so the middle position becomes a "hold" version. And the boat switch buttons are china plus pinky etc.

 

As a fellow X52 Pro user I too stumbled when trying to bind the 3-way BOAT Switch. 90% of my HOTAS is programmed via DCS rather than the Saitek Profiler software however this is one of the exceptions.

 

You can use Saitek's "Bands" system - set either of the Throttle rotaries to "Bands", I then set three bands of 0 - 33%, 33% - 66%, and 66% - 100%. Then right-clicking in each of the band areas I set an 'Advanced Hotkey' to depress and then release 100 milliseconds later one of my numpad keys (being a TrackIR user I have three of my numpad keys to BOAT Switch for this workaround), which prevents the Saitek software from holding down that key when you're not moving the rotary, which can get mighty annoying and potentially cause unwanted key combinations being pressed in-game and when alt-tabbed. I did this for each of the thirded bands and set 0% - 33% to BOAT Switch AFT, 33% - 66% to BOAT Switch CENTER, 66% - 100% to BOAT Switch FORWARD.

 

Now when the rotary is centered - where you can feel the slight indent - it's on BOAT Center (or CCD mode on the TGP), push it full forward and it's on BOAT FWD (Black Hot TGP/MAV mode), pull back and it's on BOAT AFT (White Hot TGP/MAV Mode).

[Helios]

You can use Saitek's "Bands" system - set either of the Throttle rotaries to "Bands", I then set three bands of 0 - 33%, 33% - 66%, and 66% - 100%. Then right-clicking in each of the band areas I set an 'Advanced Hotkey' to depress and then release 100 milliseconds later one of my numpad keys (being a TrackIR user I have three of my numpad keys to BOAT Switch for this workaround), which prevents the Saitek software from holding down that key when you're not moving the rotary, which can get mighty annoying and potentially cause unwanted key combinations being pressed in-game and when alt-tabbed. I did this for each of the thirded bands and set 0% - 33% to BOAT Switch AFT, 33% - 66% to BOAT Switch CENTER, 66% - 100% to BOAT Switch FORWARD.

 

That was a clever trick (have not yet mapped those two rotaries), thanks for the tip! :thumbup:

[klytus]

This is going to be slightly off topic but please bear with me a moment. I've been reading these forums trying to decide wether to purchase or not especially when it comes to trackir (or similar), you see the problem is i suffer from chronic arthritis etc which has seriously affected my neck movement with the result i can not move my head much more the a few degree's left/right and down (no movement up).

 

My point being is that post after post i get the impression with no trackir its going to be very difficult to use A10 the way it should be without serious inpediment or downright unplayble and frankly its putting me off (and i suspect a lot of other potential buyers with similar problems like myself).

 

Is A10 Warthog playble without trackir without being seriously handicapped (excuse the pun lol)? I have a x52 hotas, wish i could stretch to TM but no way even trackir is abit dear in my opinion but i suppose its demand v supply.

 

Apologies to the op,hope you guys don't mind, look forward to reading your replies and maybe finalise my decision.

[159th_Viper]

....Is A10 Warthog playble without trackir without being seriously handicapped (excuse the pun lol)? I have a x52 hotas, wish i could stretch to TM but no way even trackir is abit dear in my opinion but i suppose its demand v supply.....

 

Most definitely.

 

At most you will lose the trim switch, alternatively utilize a modifier to have it function as both trim and POV switch. I personally flew LockOn/IL-2 when I started for a year or more prior to getting TrackIr and was none the worse off for it. Granted, the movements are not as smooth, but definitely not a game-breaker.

 

Should you decide to dabble in TrackIr in future, keep in mind that your arthritis should not negatively interfere with your enjoyment thereof. TrackIr profiles utilize minimum head/neck movement by default and can further be tweaked to suit your individual needs. As for up movement, again utilizing TrackIr coupled with the POV switch for looking up would sort that issue out.

 

To summarise - with a 8-way POV switch and a couple weeks of playtime you'll barely notice the difference. I did not: On the contrary, it took me approx a week of conscious effort to get used to the TrackIr. I almost binned it on more than one occasion in that initial 'teething' period :)

[sobek]

I have a x52 hotas, wish i could stretch to TM but no way even trackir is abit dear in my opinion but i suppose its demand v supply.

 

If you know your way around (very) basic soldering, you might want to check out FreeTrack.

[Inverselaw]

I have X52 and no track IR, I mapped POV to the front hat of the trottle that way i can still use my right hand for the mouse. It works fine since the jackbaur profile maps CMS hat to that hat and nothing else. I just moved CMS to pinky+hat.

 

I programmed everything with the profiler only the radio buttons and joystick axis are in the game file. Its got two modes, first mode is look, which dosent have CMS, slew, boat or NVG and gives you 6dof head movement and you can use the mouse on the trottle, mode two gives you all of those commands but you can only rotate the head.

 

I tried using one of the rotary as a zoom but it dosent work to well. I guess i could set it the same way as the speed break but it makes fine control very hard.

 

Anyway i included the profile in the post. All the buttons are named so feel free to give it a look.

A-10C.zip

[S77th-konkussion]

Not having a HOTAS of any kind is a DISTINCT disadavantage. That's pretty close to the end of that statement's validity.

 

CH- does almost everything the TMWH does. I would really like a physical 2 stage trigger- but CH makes this quite easy to overcome. PAC systems work just peachy through software emulation..

 

I'd LOVE to have a physical LAAP mode switch. I'm not at home, but maybe I could add that function to my CH too. Haven't checked to see if it has an assignment, and what type if it does.

 

I'd LOVE to have split throttles.

 

As you can see- these "shortcomings" do not really present any serious tactical disadvantage. I can do anything the TMWH does otherwise.

 

As you go downscale in HOTAS equipment, you begin to lose the number of HATS, etc.. some programming limitations, things like this. But with a little work these too can be overcome. Perhaps not to the same level as a higher end- but certainly do-able.

[Frostiken]

Konkussion - check out my CH profile on the... Profiles forum. Has a 'dual stage' trigger that gets around irritations with shift modes or separate button functions, as well as a LAAP setting cycle.

[S77th-konkussion]

I'll check it out for the LAAP. I have a throttle switch with some room.. Already got PAC handled. Thanks