stick for helios

I use warthog stick n throttle, but have modified the spring to help with it being too strong, especially when flying copters, needing a bit more love n care.

can you recommend another stick, to couple with the TM throttles, which is light enough just to be used when flying them?

I really love the MS FFB 2 - it doesnt have too many buttons though but its a treat when it comes to flying.

Also trim works like a charm!

You'd need to check eBay & co for it as new ones arent available anymore.

Then I didn't own a stick until Elite dangerous launched in 2015, and this summer I wanted an upgrade. And I started DCS primarily to get a better use option for buying expensive sticks and pedals I had bought.

Namely the Virpil t50-mongoose and the MFG crosswind pedals.

I then had to get a better throttle, so currently using a warthog, but I also have a virpil throttle unit coming, I hope.

Took me some tweaks to get the gimbal to my liking, but my liking is an extremely light action.

So I am using the extra Cosmo-sim cam's that don't increase needed force towards edges while mainting a centering.

Coupled with the lightest springs and tuned to the point where the stick barely centers itself.

Not that it doesn't, I can let go and it returns to dead center every time.

This means while I'm flying my Huey I just barely hold the stick between my thumb and index and gently adjust.

There are no bumps or detents just precise motion.

And if you want you can swap out cam's and springs and have it behave like an arm wrestling simulator if you so wished for warbirds.

I just prefer the softness for all my birds, then again I mostly just fly helicopters and arcady space ships.

Anyhoo, I am very happy with the virpil and can recommend the hardware.

And opposite of the warthog stick, the grip is plastic, but the internals are all metal.

And for instance you could buy the warbrd gimbal and use the warthog grip on that.

Would still run you perhaps £200 and I would recommend getting the optional cams as well, I'd rather have them and not need them you now.

Yeah, FFB is special, I had a sidewinder in the 90's, must have tossed in a dump somewhere during a move or something.

They are old now and any FFB support are at this point entirely legacy, so who knows how long they will be supported, I might see if I could get one just for fun though if I have some spare cash someday, and now I made myself laugh.

I have put a 15 cm extension on my Warthog stick.

It makes it much lighter and precise to use, and balances well with the throw of the throttles, when using it for helicopters.

You could try that first, much cheaper than to go and get a new stick with sufficient quality for flying the helicopters.

good idea sporg, put extension on or off for planes or choppers thnx

You don't want any cantre detent for heli's if your handy with tools I went down a different path got rid of the detent and added dampers to provide resistance to movement and enough holding ability to maintain position when I let go to drive the mouse or keyboard. Also don't need to use trim at all.

The other gotcha is from what I gather "joysticks" have a built in dead zone in the electronics which is a PITA especially for the Gazelle. I got around this by using the gimbal from my old Logitech and a Leo Bodnar USB controller, works an absolute treat, all the helicopters are an absolute pleasure to fly. :thumbup:

Got collective prototyped and functional, now working on my own cyclic and pedals. :joystick:

More info here