dual throttle controls...to lock or unlock?

I'm interested in knowing if it's just personal preference or is there some good reason the dual throttles should be unlocked.

What do you guys do?

I have never locked mine once.

You need to be able to move them independently, otherwise how do you do startup/shutdown properly for starters?

Signle engine aircraft: locked

double engine aircraft: unlocked

Never lock mine.

I lock my TH Warthog after start, can't bear the thought of having asynchronous throttles...even if it's only a few percent

I lock my TH Warthog after start, can't bear the thought of having asynchronous throttles...even if it's only a few percent

The same

Air start/engine failure, high winds on landing, plenty of reasons to require differential thrust. No reason to not keep them unlocked in a dual engine plane. The F-14 has an async thrust limiter built in anyway. Should be able to judge where both throttles are by looking at the fuel flow indicator, so it's not difficult to keep them in sync.

Always unlocked.

Thanks all for your input. When I had a single throttle HOTAS I always used a shortcut key to independently move right and left throttles to idle for the start-up, I didn't realize that with a dual throttle HOTAS you don't need shortcut keys to do that.

I've tried both ways, still find it a bit easier with them locked when flying. I didn't know to use them independently to adjust for cross wind landings, I thought crabbing was just flying the plane off center line as much as you needed to compensate.

I see the F-18 doesn't have them locked

Thanks again!

I asked a former fighter pilot about this once- it never occurred to me that such a thing doesn't exist on real throttles.

I do lock them for helicopters and single engine aircraft, that way the other half of my throttle controls are still where I expect them to be.

I asked a former fighter pilot about this once- it never occurred to me that such a thing doesn't exist on real throttles.

 

I do lock them for helicopters and single engine aircraft, that way the other half of my throttle controls are still where I expect them to be.

"it never occurred to me that such a thing doesn't exist on real throttles." Are you referring to throttle lock?

You guys that are locking your throttles do realize that second throttle can be assigned to another axis right?

You guys that are locking your throttles do realize that second throttle can be assigned to another axis right?

I'm assuming you lock throttles and use mapping to single thrust leaving 1 lever available?

Can you please give an example of what you do.

Signle engine aircraft: locked

 

double engine aircraft: unlocked

This.

This.

Sorry I don't follow you?

Sorry I don't follow you?

Look at what she quoted....

I lock my TH Warthog after start, can't bear the thought of having asynchronous throttles...even if it's only a few percent

You would make a good P-3 Orion Flight Engineer - gotta get those engine powers balanced perfectly lol! Each finger has it's own power lever. Generally try to perfectly match all 4 TIT/HP's. Good example below of #1 & #4 having worse performance than #2 & #3.

Now we just need DCS to have varying engine performance so we can get some split-throttles happening ;)

Look at what she quoted....

 

 

 

You would make a good P-3 Orion Flight Engineer - gotta get those engine powers balanced perfectly lol! Each finger has it's own power lever. Generally try to perfectly match all 4 TIT/HP's. Good example below of #1 & #4 having worse performance than #2 & #3.

Now we just need DCS to have varying engine performance so we can get some split-throttles happening ;)

 

I know you're supposed to lock single engine and keep dual engine unlocked, what my post was about was why some do and some don't. I've learned a few things with this post.

I was curious about what dburne was referring to when he wrote about using an extra axis.

You mentioned something interesting about the fact that some planes may have an imbalance in engine thrust that a functioning dual throttle would allow you to compensate for.

Also I will see if it helps with crabbing in crosswind landing as already mentioned here.

"it never occurred to me that such a thing doesn't exist on real throttles." Are you referring to throttle lock?

Yes. The guy I spoke to flew *a couple of twin engine fighters and never encountered anything that locks the throttle handles together. It's just something Thrustmaster added for user convenience.

Yes. The guy I spoke to flew *a couple of twin engine fighters and never encountered anything that locks the throttle handles together. It's just something Thrustmaster added for user convenience.

"For the sake of easy gameplay". :joystick: :D

Including in Saitek X-55/6 throttle are a internal switch that mix the two axes response in one when throttles are locked together.