WINWING F/A-18C HOTAS 2019.5.29 RELEASE

I mean this with no disrespect guys, but simply having a working prototype to make Youtube vids of, is a far cry from actually creating the retail chain needed to bring something to market. As an undergrad electrical engineering major, I spent two summers working at Boeing and watched as various projects went from pure CAD design to prototype to actual manufacture and there was an often quoted saying about the process, "Getting the last 5% right, takes 95% of the effort." Needless to say, these guys in China making these prototypes will need a manufacturer (likely more than one), a packager, a distribution system, sales agents in major nations, a returns policy and inspection center or its equivalent, etc... the list is long. It takes quite a while even for the best financed and most business savvy to get this up and running. And even if all that is sorted, the first batches of any product always have bugs, glitches and SNAFUs. Be realistic, .... drink a beer, ... keep using Thrustmaster (or Virpil or VKB), ... and wait it out.

Hi Aurelius,

As you mentioned TM, I think it's the only company I'm respect in this marketing right now.

TM A10 sell about 9 years, do you any one see a engineer change? 9 Yeas for only one version, that's call "industry class". Including the TM F18 GRIP, I think they need so much time to make it as a Industry Class. If they made it only with 3 months, the grip should be terrible.

About others, :lol: I won't say too much.

But as you are a employee from BOEING,please don't mix "workshop" with"standardized develop company" together.

About all pre-order money is now lock in paypal until we deliver packages.

If I want to fraud, is it too early to run away? I can get more pre-order by picture and video.

Well, how to summarise all this?

 

I agree that it is a bit of a risk preordering with a company with no track record of serving this community. However Winwing does already produce products for flight school markets / the non gaming SIM sector so the analogy to a kickstarter is not really fair / valid.

 

My PayPal contract states that I have 180 days to lodge a dispute so if Winwing continually misses deadlines then I will just log a dispute with Paypal. Indeed, I would not have risked $1k on a bank transfer without any recourse such as that provided by Paypal.

 

The guy that worked for Boeing... yes you are right of course. Anybody with business experience knows that this rule of thumb carries quite a lot of truth. Even more so with software development. But with hardware too.

 

I wonder why Winwing has been so quiet over the past couple of weeks? He used to log on here quite regularly in advance of the preorder, so now they have got a chunk of money / customer deposits it is disappointing if the attitude to customer communication has negatively changed. Usually no news, is not good news in these situations... usually means something is messed up, gone wrong, is late, or whatever and the vendor usually waits until the last possible moment to tell the customer "whoops, we are going to be months late".

 

Edit: I sent Winwing an email, asking them to - albeit briefly - update the community on their various deadlines and various questions. Hopefully we hear back from them.

 

Winwing, if you read this please update the community:

 

1) Your website says 15-31 August for the Shanghai launch event. This time window is only 2 weeks away now: are these dates still valid and can you be more specific... what day exactly?

 

2) Which testers will be getting samples? Do they have them already? When are the reviews coming out?

 

3) Do you have a product demo Youtube video of the throttle, similar to the one you did for the grip?

 

4) Are the first batch of deliveries still scheduled for "before 31 August"?

 

Hopefully you see this message and have opportunity to respond. It is better to communicate with customers, even if there is a delay so that you can manage expectations and avoid customers being disappointed.

Hi, milou, Thank you for your support,

All time point decide by the produce schedule.

Next week I will release some info for happy.

Good news is all in schedule, If any time point small change we will release next week.

In China there is no question about this project, because we keep talk with pilots by QQ/WECHAT everyday. later I will try to build a facebook group, and 24*7 online to update.

Thanks for getting in touch Winwing.

(The flight school installation looks impressive in scale and scope: a very nice facility for trainee pilots.)

I look forwards to additional information regarding your F/A-18C HOTAS from you next week.

https://winwing.cn/en/about

Chengdu WINWING Tech Company, Ltd. Founded in March 2013. We focus on Flight Simulation Training Device Development/Produce. As based in China where excellence in manufacturing, also we have the best hardware/software/construction engineers to produce quality flight simulator products at the most affordable price. Our goal is to provide Pilots, training schools and at-home flying enthusiasts over the world with the closest to the real thing flying experience possible in flight simulation.

Over the last 6 years, we have successfully delivered many fantastic CESSNA 172 /Diamond DA40/42 simulator or desktop training systems worldwide as well as a multitude of GARMIN G1000 desktop trainer. Our customers order from the US, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and Asia. Most are FTOs (Flight Training Organizations), but many home flyers are now buying directly.

I don't think there is any reason not to trust them. This photo from the winwing chinese community group.

Well, how to summarise all this?

 

I agree that it is a bit of a risk preordering with a company with no track record of serving this community. However Winwing does already produce products for flight school markets / the non gaming SIM sector so the analogy to a kickstarter is not really fair / valid.

 

My PayPal contract states that I have 180 days to lodge a dispute so if Winwing continually misses deadlines then I will just log a dispute with Paypal. Indeed, I would not have risked $1k on a bank transfer without any recourse such as that provided by Paypal.

 

The guy that worked for Boeing... yes you are right of course. Anybody with business experience knows that this rule of thumb carries quite a lot of truth. Even more so with software development. But with hardware too.

 

I wonder why Winwing has been so quiet over the past couple of weeks? He used to log on here quite regularly in advance of the preorder, so now they have got a chunk of money / customer deposits it is disappointing if the attitude to customer communication has negatively changed. Usually no news, is not good news in these situations... usually means something is messed up, gone wrong, is late, or whatever and the vendor usually waits until the last possible moment to tell the customer "whoops, we are going to be months late".

 

Edit: I sent Winwing an email, asking them to - albeit briefly - update the community on their various deadlines and various questions. Hopefully we hear back from them.

 

Winwing, if you read this please update the community:

 

1) Your website says 15-31 August for the Shanghai launch event. This time window is only 2 weeks away now: are these dates still valid and can you be more specific... what day exactly?

 

2) Which testers will be getting samples? Do they have them already? When are the reviews coming out?

 

3) Do you have a product demo Youtube video of the throttle, similar to the one you did for the grip?

 

4) Are the first batch of deliveries still scheduled for "before 31 August"?

 

Hopefully you see this message and have opportunity to respond. It is better to communicate with customers, even if there is a delay so that you can manage expectations and avoid customers being disappointed.

As far as I know, Jabbers is one of the streamer. The names of others are not known.

There still have throttle video before review.

and one more thing. HOTAS reddit have winwing channel in their discord. should be a good place for quick QA. https://discord.gg/szqaJE7

Next week I will release some info for happy.

Looking forward to it. I would like to request though that you release the dimensions of the throttle console ASAP. I’m working on a cockpit project, partially because of your throttle. I want to try and get my project done quickly because of an impending knee surgery.

Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looking forward to it. I would like to request though that you release the dimensions of the throttle console ASAP. I’m working on a cockpit project, partially because of your throttle. I want to try and get my project done quickly because of an impending knee surgery.

Do the dimensions listed here help?

https://shop.winwing.cn/p/JOYSTICK_en.html

WINWING F/A-18C HOTAS 2019.5.29 RELEASE

Do the dimensions listed here help?

 

 

 

https://shop.winwing.cn/p/JOYSTICK_en.html

Unfortunately, no. That includes the desk mounts, and doesn’t give the height of the console.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Has this been seen?

Yep that's been out for months.

Question:

Will WinWing support customers building and interfacing their own throttle (or stick) grips for more obscure aircraft by providing pinouts and other electronics construction guidelines, or will this sort of information stay proprietary?

Naturally not covered by warranty, performed at own risk and so on.

Sorry if this has been asked but I dont recall it.

I was reading on a post about braking, ie, the process of pressing the wheel brakes on landing, that the F/A-18 throttle has some mechanical intervention with weight on wheels and the idle setting, IIRC with WOW idle throttle is 65% once you get over that a mechanical pin extends to prevent you going below that.

Can anyone comment on that? It may be a development opportunity for Wingwing if they were unaware?

Hi, milou, Thank you for your support,

All time point decide by the produce schedule.

Next week I will release some info for happy.

Good news is all in schedule, If any time point small change we will release next week.

This reply was 1 week ago. You said that you would provide an information update this week. Please can you do so and provide answers to the previous questions, or at least some visibility into progress?

Any updates?

Hi Winwing. Can we get an update even if it's a quick one please. Release month and haven't heard a peep. Thx

hope it is not a hoax

Yeah me too. The past that had me concerned is I've been in this aviation business for over 30 years and I've never heard of the company. But that's why you pay credit card companies stupid amounts of interest. To protect you against fraud. Not saying this is fraud, but just saying AMEX has my back covered regardless.

I'm hoping they are busy getting production units ready to ship, but it's not a good look when vendors are really engaged up until people hand over their money then go silent.

fwiw, I placed my order a week ago, fingers crossed everything turns out ok.

Their launch event starts this week so they are probably very busy.

Update notice

Hello everyone, we would like to keep everyone updated with the status of our pre-order products and production, so today we’re pleased to share some new photos and news.

We have been working tirelessly to catch up with the existing backlog of pre-orders. Because our products are oriented to the global market, we want to ensure that all products must satisfy our customers. The life of the product must pass our new requirements. For this first batch of small batch test products, we conducted a large number of reliability tests. This has also caused delays in progress. We can now calculate a timeframe for all preorder orders. Production progress was delayed by 2-3 weeks than expected.

We will ship the first batch of products in early September. We decided that all streamer would use the customer use products for review. We don’t want make review units of different quality. so, their shipping time is the same as the customers.

Due to the delay, we decided to adjust the timing of the pre-order event to ensure that players who want to watch the review. We sure you can catch up the pre-order event.

We will give another notice regarding the date of the Shanghai launch event.

Z Axis kit and extensions will release next week and begin for pre-order next week.

And one more thing, We have official Facebook group now! Welcome everyone join us. It’s free for everyone come and give us more suggestions.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/HOTAS/

Thank you very much for your support to our first HOTAS products.

I'm hoping they are busy getting production units ready to ship, but it's not a good look when vendors are really engaged up until people hand over their money then go silent.

 

fwiw, I placed my order a week ago, fingers crossed everything turns out ok.

Yeah me too. The past that had me concerned is I've been in this aviation business for over 30 years and I've never heard of the company. But that's why you pay credit card companies stupid amounts of interest. To protect you against fraud. Not saying this is fraud, but just saying AMEX has my back covered regardless.

Their launch event starts this week so they are probably very busy.

hope it is not a hoax

Hi Winwing. Can we get an update even if it's a quick one please. Release month and haven't heard a peep. Thx

This reply was 1 week ago. You said that you would provide an information update this week. Please can you do so and provide answers to the previous questions, or at least some visibility into progress?

Dear all,

Don't worry about money , not in my pocket, in paypal and very safe.

Welcome to our FB group, will be there more time from now on. You all will be the hot custom there :)

We have confidence of the perfect HOTAS, so I can peace work with the 1% now.

Thank you for replying to my email from this morning to update the forum: appreciated and no doubt reassuring to people. As to the delay itself: don't worry... I think most people will be tolerant of some degree of delay when you are bringing a new product to market. And speaking personally, I'd much rather it be done 'right' rather that 'on time, but at the expense of imperfect/ poor quality'.

Personally, I don't use Facebook and I have no intention of doing so. I can't stand the company. For other people that want to communicate with you on there: fine. Your and their choice. But you initiated pre-order sales through the DCS forum: please would you continue to communicate with customers on this forum?

One specific question I have is regarding the throttle afterburner detent. On the video currently on Youtube of a prototype there seems to be very little travel within the afterburner zone. Is this modelled accurately? I though that there was a range of throttle movement within the afterburner zone of the throttle movement in the real aircraft. Or was this just a prototype issue, that has been changed on subsequent evolution of throttle design?

Cheers, Milou.

Dear all,

Don't worry about money , not in my pocket, in paypal and very safe.

Welcome to our FB group, will be there more time from now on. You all will be the hot custom there :)

We have confidence of the perfect HOTAS, so I can peace work with the 1% now.

Winwing, can you please post here as well? Some of us don't go onto Facebook much, if ever.

Thank you.