Flightsim Gear Thread

[Beirut]

A subject close to my heart.

If you want to discuss your flight gear - this is the place.

My humble HOTAS. (Hands On Throttle And Stick). (This is as much space as she will let me have on the table.)


An MS FFB2 main stick (sadly not made anymore), a Saitek Cyborg Evo as a cheap yet marvelously effective throttle, A Saitek PC Gamer keyboard with command pad, and a Logitech MX518 mouse. In IL2-Pacific Fighters, this setup allows 90% of your flying to be done without ever taking your hands off the sticks. With a HOTAS setup you'll immediately notice an improvement in both your flying and your enjoyment of flying.

The Saitek Evo is a fantastic stick. Inexpensive, super comfortable, can be adjusted for either hand, and is both easily programable and very versatile. The stick can be programed (as a left hand HOTAS) for throttle, flaps, gear, exterior view controls, multiple padlock controls, zoom, and map view all with only the top buttons. Your hand never moves off the stick. As a right hand main stick, it has 3-axis flight controls (it has a twist function for rudder control), multiple weapons controls and main cockpit view. (Oh, it looks cool too.)


The Saitek X52, the hot new HOTAS system, while excellent, is also expensive. http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/x52.htm A cheaper way to do it is to buy two Saitek Cyborg Evos (one could be an EVO Force Feedback model), and program one for each hand. It will cost less than half what the X52 costs, and you will have a super comfortable and very capable HOTAS setup.

A good HOTAS doesn't have to be expensive - it just has to be fun.

[Ianofsmeg16]

Beirut, what Flightsim do you have? I have fs2004, with no-addons but I'm hoping to get the horth-west England Scenery package, to show an in-depth Isle of Man!

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I'd love a proper HOTAS set-up like the X-52, but I just can't afford it. I use the Cyborg Evo myself, which is phenomenal considering the price, but the lack of a proper throttle if felt sometimes.

The FFB2 is a killer stick Beirut-I wish they still made them. I've seen them go on Ebay for astronomical amounts of cash.

[Beirut]

I'd love a proper HOTAS set-up like the X-52, but I just can't afford it. I use the Cyborg Evo myself, which is phenomenal considering the price, but the lack of a proper throttle if felt sometimes.

Are you using the Cyborg Evo as a throttle like me? I'm more than happy with it.

Beirut, what Flightsim do you have? I have fs2004, with no-addons but I'm hoping to get the horth-west England Scenery package, to show an in-depth Isle of Man!

Mostly the Il2 series. I fly the original IL2 when I want huge air battles; 100+ planes. I fly IL2FB + Pacific Fighters for the great variety and eye candy.

I also have BOBII (which I don't really like), FS2004 with the MegaScenery Pacific Northwest add-on (great terrain but it cost $60!), Lock On, and the new Falcon4:Allied Force.

I tend to get very mixed up with the keys when switching sims.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Are you using the Cyborg Evo as a throttle like me? I'm more than happy with it.

No, It's my primary stick.

[Dutch_guy]

I just use my regular keyboard for flight sims....

[Beirut]

I just use my regular keyboard for flight sims....

I can understand why you would use small print to say that.

Seriously, spend $10 and buy the lousiest, cheapest, most horrible flightstick on Earth. You'll fly fifty times better and have a hundred times more fun.

[orangat]

I still have a ch flightstickpro although I haven't used it for a long time.

The saitek evo looks like an updated cyborg 3d.

[Ianofsmeg16]

I agree, i used a keyboard until about two weeks ago, then i reconfigured my joystick, It was so much easier, and so much fun aswell

[Just A Girl]

I have a Decent set up for flight simes that costs next to nothing.

I have a st50 joistick, with digital throttle attacked and multiple fire buttons.
Then i bought a £10 usb adapter to plug in play staion 2 controllers.

in to that i plug in A ps2 steering wheel and perrdals.
with this combo I have rudder controll with the peddals. (pr steering wheel depending on the plane as some need good breaks Or you will die on landing)
POV Hat. with the d pad.
So i an look around.
The buttons on the steering wheel are for auto pilot.
auto climb.
Map.
Gunner change.
and The most importaint. Bommer View calibration.
Cos you just wont hit any thing without calibrating your bomb sight.

I can use the steering wheel itsef for rudder controll which is not as awkward at it may seem.
If i do this.
Then u use the throttle peddal and the break peddal.
for left/right Breaks.

I play aceshigh 2.
which is near enough 100% acurate Simulation.

So its not a good idea to be playing about with your keyboards as your coming in to land at 200MPh in a me262m Thats lost its aileron,
And is under fire.

Setup costs, all of £40.
And does exactly the same as those Expensive setups.

I even get people asking me what setup i have,
As they know people cant usualy Bank And roll a turn at the same time unless they have sperate rudder controlls.

(being able to use your rudder to turn faster through yur banking manoover can be the diference between Life and death in a dog fight.)

[Xiahou]

I use the cyborg evo. I'm pretty happy with it for as many flying games as I use- my only gripe would be the throttle.

[Beirut]

I use the cyborg evo. I'm pretty happy with it for as many flying games as I use- my only gripe would be the throttle.

You mean the throttle on the Evo or using a second Evo as a throttle?

[Xiahou]

You mean the throttle on the Evo or using a second Evo as a throttle?

I mean the throttle on the Evo. It's a pain for games that have a portion of it for reverse- it's near impossible to find the 0 point.

[Beirut]

I had problems (though small ones) using the Saitek programer software that came with the Evo when setting up the stick as a left hand throttle.

I wanted the center/rest position of the stick to be 0 throttle, but it always came out as 50%. In the end, though, this was fine. I can slow cruise with the stick at rest, given that it keeps the engines at half-throttle, push the stick forward for full power, and pull all the way back for no power. Very... physical. Good flying fun.

Would you consider getting another Evo to use as a HOTAS throttle?

Oh, what sim are you flying?

[Xiahou]

Oh, what sim are you flying?

Actually, the only thing I really use it for right now is flying choppers in BF2, which I love it for.

I orginally bought it for flying spacecraft in 'X2:The Threat' and have tried maybe a handful of other sims. I'd be open to suggestions on a fun, yet accessible flight game though. The few I've tried never really grabbed me.

[Beirut]

I'd be open to suggestions on a fun, yet accessible flight game though. The few I've tried never really grabbed me.

Definitely a prop sim. You can get IL2-Forgotten Battles Gold and the Pacific Fighters expansion pack pretty cheap these days. $40 Cdn buys you both. You can be up and flying in minutes. The flight modelling can be set as easy or as hard as you like. Excellent variety of planes and scenarios. This is one of those games where if you're not having fun, it's probably your own fault. The size and variety of the sim is incredible.

You can chase V1 rockets over Leningrad in a Mig-3, dogfight in a snowstorm in France in a P-47, fly through the mountains in an Me-262, simulate WWI action with numerous biplanes, attack tanks in the dessert in a Spitfire, run torpedo missions on convoys in an He-111, and have full carrier air battles in the Pacific flying a Hellcat. Or any mix of the above, and much, much more. And the graphics for all of this are outstanding!

Also, and it takes less than five minutes to set up, you can fly bombing missions over burning cities at night while ground searchlights hunt your plane and AAA hammers all around you. Incredible stuff. There's simply no limit to what you can create.

Best of all - there's another free add-on (in a series of free add-ons) being released on the net within days (I hope) with several new planes including a Mosquito! Can't wait!

Check out this page of screenshots:http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums...31045132/p/126

[Xiahou]

Sounds entertaining, if I find a place that carries it I'll probably give it a go.

[Sjakihata]

[Beirut]

Is that what you have?

I've heard very good things about the X45. Looks solid. Do you like yours?

[orangat]

I saw the saitek evo at compusa, it seemed a little stiff and creaky and had a tiny bit of play. The x45 by comparison was silky smooth. The logitech models were also quite smooth.

[Whacker]

Heh... I splurged awhile back and dropped the $ for the Cougar HOTAS. I gotta say, it's by far the BEST joystick I've ever had in my entire existence. Solid cold metal, each unit weighs a few pounds easily, and the construction quality is amazing. The software that comes with it is a bit quirky, but insanely powerful. The only thing I'm missing are rudder pedals, but I've been trying to butter up the boss and see if she'll let me get some.

Here's the site for the gear: http://cougar.frugalsworld.com/ . These guys are nuts, some of them have mods done that cost just as much as the joysticks themselves.

If ya'll can afford it and/or are really serious about your military flight sims, I can't recommend anything else.

[Judge]

well i played Sturmovik forgotten battles , with aces campaign add on and pacific fighters, but i sold all of them and bought the whole shabang in STUROVIK 1946.

i use the Logitech extreme 3D Pro

and man are some of them pilots awesome in mp

[Husar]

I also have a Cyborg Evo, but what I don't like about it, is that for some reason I have to recalibrate it every time I restart Windows.
I'd like to get an X-52 Pro, but that's a bit expensive and lately I don't fly that often anymore, so...

[Beirut]

Heh... I splurged awhile back and dropped the $ for the Cougar HOTAS. I gotta say, it's by far the BEST joystick I've ever had in my entire existence. Solid cold metal, each unit weighs a few pounds easily, and the construction quality is amazing. The software that comes with it is a bit quirky, but insanely powerful. The only thing I'm missing are rudder pedals, but I've been trying to butter up the boss and see if she'll let me get some.

I am green with envy. I heard the Cougars aren't the best for prop sims, but for jet sims they have no equal. I'd love to try Falcon 4 with a Cougar system. Wow!

What are you flying?

I also have a Cyborg Evo, but what I don't like about it, is that for some reason I have to recalibrate it every time I restart Windows.
I'd like to get an X-52 Pro, but that's a bit expensive and lately I don't fly that often anymore, so...

When you say recalibrate, do you mean redo all your settings, because that definitely shouldn't happen. I have to select my flight profile whenever I turn on my computer, but that's no big deal and I'd have to do it anyway because I have several flight profiles for different sims. Did you install the Saitek drivers?

For my part, although the X52 is nice, I think using two Saitek Evos is a better choice. The flightsticks are ambidextrous and with two of them you have enough buttons and switches to ignore the keyboard and keep your eyes on the screen. Also, two Evos together cost about 25% of the price of an X52 system.

I'm using an Evo as my left hand throttle and I think it's great.

[Husar]

With recalibrate I mean the "move stick to center, now move in a circle, now back to center....etc"-process and I think I tried it with and without Saitek drivers, didn't seem to make a difference.

I personally think the idea of two joysticks sounds a bit weird, heard it before though, but if the throttle can go four ways...
The dedicated solutions are also full of additional buttons and sliders which may be useful, but like I sadi, currently I'm concentrating on other games anyway.

[Beirut]

With recalibrate I mean the "move stick to center, now move in a circle, now back to center....etc"-process and I think I tried it with and without Saitek drivers, didn't seem to make a difference.

Very weird, and very annoying I'm sure. I'll look into this.

I personally think the idea of two joysticks sounds a bit weird, heard it before though, but if the throttle can go four ways...

It may sound weird but it works wonderfully. You push forward for more throttle and pull back for less, the center being 50%. For combat prop sims, it gives fantastic control for A2A scraps. Faster, smoother, and more accurate than a conventional throttle like on the X52 (I think). For FS2004, I just use the buttons for throttle control. No need to play the speed so much in a Cessna or a 707.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I have a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. It's not the best or most expensive flight tool, but it works for me. I'd recommend taking a look at it.

[Xiahou]

With recalibrate I mean the "move stick to center, now move in a circle, now back to center....etc"-process and I think I tried it with and without Saitek drivers, didn't seem to make a difference.

I was pretty sure you could just move the stick thru its full range of motion without having to actually use the calibration wizard. In other words, just do a full circle and full to 0 throttle and it should be fine.

Could be wrong though, I used to have the evo, but now have an X52 and haven't used that in awhile either.

[Whacker]

I am green with envy. I heard the Cougars aren't the best for prop sims, but for jet sims they have no equal. I'd love to try Falcon 4 with a Cougar system. Wow!

What are you flying?

Mate, for that kind of cash, you're going to BELIEVE it's the best for any military flight sim, whether or not it really is!!

Well, over the past few years I've been mainly flying the IL-2 series. Recently bought 1946, and I think it's a good value. A year and some ago I was flying LOMAC, but promptly uninstalled that when I found out it used Starforce and my DVD drive started to take a dump. Real shame too, it wasn't half bad at all, and I REALLY miss having a good multi-plane modern military sim.

So for now it's mainly just IL2 1946. Waiting until I get a new PC to get MSFSX, haven't ever done the MSFS series but I hear great stuff about them. Am not really impressed with MSCFS3, so never spent much time on it. I hear rumors that there's a new military sim in the works based on MSFSX, so hopefully we'll hear about that soon. Been trying to get my old but absolute favorite Janes/EA games running again on XP without much luck... That'd be a dream. Might also go buy Falcon 4: AA seeing how it's only $20. We shall see.

Got any other suggestions?

[Beirut]

Got any other suggestions?

Flightsim suggestions? Always.

Be a shame to miss out on that lovely A-10 and the new graphics in LockOn - Flamming Cliffs.

If you have the patience to match the quality of your flight gear, then Falcon 4:Allied Force is your baby. The graphics are, well, they suck. Mind you, the dogfights look good. The padlock system is excellent and planes fly as planes should fly. The sim is so insanely deep and detailed, and the scraps so excellent, it will knock your socks off. Running SEAD missions in F4:AA, especially with the Cougar of yours, would be a helluva lotta fun

MS CFS3 is dog food. I agree.

Haven't heard about the FSX military sim , but I'd love to see it. Also, there a high-fidelity, super high detail F-18E being developed for FS9 and FSX. Looks to be the nicest military jet ever made for MS FS. I'll post the link if I can find it.