More upgraded flight sim hardware, this time F16

[Truls Engebakken-Fjell]

I bought the Winwing F16 HOTAS a few months back.

It’s a 1:1  scale throttle and stick. All the buttons, and knobs in the right place.

Detent for turning off and on the engine, afterburner detent like the real thing.

However the F16 stick is not like other sticks. It’s a side stick, but that’s just mounting it on the side so no problem.

But the F16 stick is force sensing, it only moves 5mm in either direction,  instead it translate force into movment,  the more force the more movment. And to get maximum force you need about 6kgs. That’s quite a lot.

Now Winwing has come out with a force sensing base(MFSSB) that works like the real thing. On realistic setting it does indeed need 6kg for maximum effect.

Since I had the stick and throttle I “only” needed the new base.

It arrived today. And setup was quite easy. I had made a nice proper mission, but nothing worked there.

So I ended up doing a quick dogfight against an Su27 just to get a video out.

 

Let’s just say this was different. Actually getting tired flying a flight sim was new, holding 4-6kg of pressure with your wrist for a few minutes as you hold a turn is quite tiring. And the fact that rolling hard left is easier than rolling hard right,  simply because your anatomy means you are naturally stronger and more used to moving your wrist one way vs another way.

[Deleted User]

How are you liking the stick? I heard early pilots had issue ith them in F-16s becasue of lack of feedback.

That first gun kill was why I like the funnel mode, its a lot easier to shoot while maneuvering.

Something I’ve been wondering for a while, do missiles have to physically hit or do they have proximiuty fuse? Videos of DCS I’ve seens suggest they had to hit the planes, but those had been years ago.

[Truls Engebakken-Fjell]

The early model F16 (block 1 to 5) didn’t have any moment and was universally disliked. So from block 10 or 15 they added a 5mm give in all directions and everyone was happy. This one has the 5mm give.

I’m liking it. I instantly became a much worse dogfighter. But hopefully I’ll get used to it. But it’s a huge immersion booster. And that’s like 90% why I spend thousands on kit.

Some missiles have proximity some don’t. Often when chasing a plane it will explode a little behind, some times far enough behind so you actually can keep flying (to some degree)

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