MFG Crosswind - Review

Got mine recently and have been able to do a few flights now. For some strange reason I end up flying the Kamov all the time now...

MFG is quite responsive if you have questions, shipping was a bit slow after payment, I guess don't go ordering at the verge of the holiday shopping season if you're in a hurry :smilewink: Other than that how Milan operates the business seems very professional: there's a date published several weeks in advance for when your bill will arrive if you order today and so on. A little different from some other well known brands of top of the line sim controllers :music_whistling:

The sensors seem very precise, and mechanically they're heavy and well built. Pedal movement is extremely smooth with a progressive increase in force at extreme left/right, and there is no centre bump like with the Saiteks (I fly light aircraft and the centre bump found in most controllers (pedals or otherwise) has always felt very unrealistic). It's great to find a controller that's solved this problem.

 

That said, if you like a centre bump, you can swap out the CAMs for a different profile that has one, as well as adjust spring tension to your personal preference (more detail on the website). Pedal force and angles are also adjustable.

Pretty much my overall first impression. Quite accurate controller, should still make a re-test against my old twist joystick. Feels surprisingly light when operating! I wanted an accurate feeling so I went with the cam6, haven't tried the new softspring as I think that would be too soft! I want crisp centering so I'm using the inner slot for the spring hook and I cranked the spring out for some 20mm for a bit of more centering force.

I got the pedals because there seems to be something in the product philosophy that resonates with me. If you got regular plastic pedals you'd still pay almost a half the price of these - and MFG seems to have many advantages, above all configurability. This is probably lost on most users though as pretty standard settings and about a minute of adjustment made them certainly good enough for me :D But basically you can make them behave exactly how you want in a number of respects. (Even the width can be modified with some limitations, I think in the smaller direction at least. The default seems very good for a person of regular or slightly large size.)

In the center there is a bit of vagueness - the feel is like a bit sticky or sucking sensation, quite gradual and it doesn't lock in the exact middle but usually you would be 1% off if you try to carefully center it. This however is eaten by a deadzone of about 4 inside DCS. A more digital center position could be interesting but then again it might feel very abrupt - I can imagine this being a rather difficult aspect to optimize. I wonder if one could make a small careful adjustment with a file - for a perfectionist it might make sense to ask for a double of your favourite cam profile to be shipped with the pedals, as the part is cheap to manufacture and most of the cost is probably in the additional hassle involved.

I did little setup for the firmware - basically a 5 minute calibration of the 3 axis and saved that. Already works great and I'll check out the rest of the settings later. The pedal plates and toe springs feel just fine with the default settings.

My thoughts so far are a little mixed. The high quality is apparent and obviously the product delivers what it promises. Then again it starts to be the expensive kit in your simming and it feels a good throttle brings more value per buck. (Also these are my first pedals ever so I don't have much comparison point.)

If you must have all top of the line kit, go for them. Going to anything even more expensive would be a hard sell, at least for me :D Perhaps skip otherwise... for serious helicopter flying they are obviously a good choice, will make your spinning more accurate and natural. Plus I guess the two toebrakes will yet be useful for something...

If you've experienced cheaper rudders, the sheer *lack* of drama is what elevated MFGs (and other high quality, but hard to order) rudders. You end up constantly battling the imprecise movements of the rudder. This is especially apparent when flying choppers and you want to make precise rudder movements. And as you noted, it'll last you a LONG time.

Yeah they do feel very smooth and precise. Not sure if it's the pedals or more the throttle/HOTAS that makes a difference but the last few weeks I've been flying almost entirely just helicopters, it's a pleasure and even on the first try I nailed the nosewheel take off and the landing with Mi-8.

Should probably try some games for ground vehicles... are your controllers of much use with CA?

I've just increased spring tension to 30mm but think that's more than enough, would add just more strain to reach the extreme deviation. My chosen CAM and other settings probably are pretty much optimal, there's little benefit in changing. Could maybe decrease brake tension by one notch, not sure of the same for pedal angles they seem quite ok-ish.

How the tension feels with current settings there's a smallish area in the middle with a more tense spring, quickly the tension decreases and there's the large area with mild tension until close to the very end of the movement range it stiffens somewhat again.

Think I'll just fine tune it a bit lower to find the balance of required tension and a light touch. I guess a fine-tuned CAM could still improve things in a minor way but that could be very subjective how much benefit it brings.

Durability and configurability probably add quite a bit to resale value.

For helicopter flight you can just unhook the spring entirely.

Feels a bit odd in general but works well, especially in windy conditions.

But mostly I prefer a slight centering force, that I find working for everything. But un-hooking the spring the spring takes about 30s.

No calibration hassle or anything.

Had a few situations where I just landed the chopper, un-hooked the spring and took off again, biggest hassle was taking the headset and the rift on and off.

Anybody has had issues with the MFG Crosswinds causing Windows 10 to go into a reboot loop at start-up? Sometimes none, most often just one reboot and sometimes 2 after which Windows starts doing an auto-repair.

Doing a quick google I did find other people reporting this problem.

No issues with mine

None here. This thread is a good reminder that I've had mine almost 6 years now. :joystick:

What can I put under the pedal to keep it from slipping while I use it?

How far away from the wall are they? A plank of wood cut to size would be my first suggestion.

anyone have any idea if the combat addons are still likely to appear?

Anybody has had issues with the MFG Crosswinds causing Windows 10 to go into a reboot loop at start-up?

No such problems here, they just keep working fine.

No such problems here, they just keep working fine.

same here, no issues. have been working fine for the last 2-3 years. :thumbup:

Yeah, I 'm pretty sure it's not a Crosswind problem but rather a combination of old mobo + W10 + the Crosswinds.

How far away from the wall are they? A plank of wood cut to size would be my first suggestion.

30 cm.

Yes mount them on a (9mm) sheet of MDF. I drilled three sets of fixings 50mm apart to give me options on distance from wall.

What's the difference between the Crosswind V1 and the V2? They look pretty much the same as far as I can tell in the pictures. I've got a graphite V1 I bought a few years ago and I was just curious about what they changed.

edit: nevermind, figured it out!

I have never been able to get the Wheel Brakes to work on these pedals. Flying FA18, or trying to at least, but no joy with the brakes at all. I have right and left brakes to the appropriate axis NOT just the wheel brake. Do you guys who are flying F18 have the brakes separated right and left OR do you just have the wheel brake option, forget the separate brakes? Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. The rudders work great BTW

I have never been able to get the Wheel Brakes to work on these pedals. Flying FA18, or trying to at least, but no joy with the brakes at all. I have right and left brakes to the appropriate axis NOT just the wheel brake. Do you guys who are flying F18 have the brakes separated right and left OR do you just have the wheel brake option, forget the separate brakes? Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. The rudders work great BTW

I use separate LH and RH wheel brakes for all planes (incl. the Hornet) in DCS World, and I use MFG pedals. They work just fine.

For the Hornet and several other planes you need to tick "Invert" in the "Axis Tune" screen of course.

As above.....invert the axis in the Axis Tune area

I have never been able to get the Wheel Brakes to work on these pedals. Flying FA18, or trying to at least, but no joy with the brakes at all. I have right and left brakes to the appropriate axis NOT just the wheel brake. Do you guys who are flying F18 have the brakes separated right and left OR do you just have the wheel brake option, forget the separate brakes? Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. The rudders work great BTW

I use separate LH and RH wheel brakes for all planes (incl. the Hornet) in DCS World, and I use MFG pedals. They work just fine.

For the Hornet and several other planes you need to tick "Invert" in the "Axis Tune" screen of course.

Same here for me, toe brakes working fine.

I have never been able to get the Wheel Brakes to work on these pedals. Flying FA18, or trying to at least, but no joy with the brakes at all. I have right and left brakes to the appropriate axis NOT just the wheel brake. Do you guys who are flying F18 have the brakes separated right and left OR do you just have the wheel brake option, forget the separate brakes? Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. The rudders work great BTW

Have you installed the MFG software and calibrated the brake axis?

I have never been able to get the Wheel Brakes to work on these pedals. Flying FA18, or trying to at least, but no joy with the brakes at all. I have right and left brakes to the appropriate axis NOT just the wheel brake. Do you guys who are flying F18 have the brakes separated right and left OR do you just have the wheel brake option, forget the separate brakes? Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. The rudders work great BTW

Other possible issues (and sorry if these are obvious and/or already checked):

- Make sure there is no other controller mapped to the brake function (e.g., I have a PS4 Dualshock controller that DCS loves to default map to a million key inputs and axes for every new module I install).

- Make sure that the key presses for the wheel brakes are not also mapped to the pedals. The toe brakes on the MFGs can functions as buttons or axes, and I've had issues in another sim where even though I had mapped them as axes, somehow I'd gotten them also mapped to the keyboard command for brakes. Thus I was getting 100% braking regardless of the axis input.

I had the same issue with mine..As LeCuvier said above...Click on the Inverted box, then all will be well...