lbhskier37
02-23-2005, 07:18 AM
Well after 3 years on my X45 I decided the play in the handle has gotten to much for me. I noticed flying level was becoming impossible because the stick wouldn't center fully, I know I could have used some dead zone, but I feel dead zone kills your accuracy near the center. So with my big fat tax return check, I went in search for a new stick. I dismissed saitek because their driver support is horrid (I know, I was a driver beta tester for them). I needed a HOTAS setup so it was between a CH Products fighterstick and throttle, and the Thrustmaster Cougar. I had read a lot about the Thrustmasters durabaility problems, but after spending a bit of time on this site, http://cougar.frugalsworld.com/ I saw that all the of the problems could be overcome with a bit of work. Not wanting to work to hard I first looked at the CH setup. The stick looked great, lots of buttons and hats, good looks, would've fit my needs fine. But then on to the throttle. The CH throttle has lots of hats, but NO ROTARIES! I couldn't go back to no rotaries after my X45, I was spoiled by the nice prop pitch and elevator trim control I had. So that settled it, durability be ****ed I had to have a Cougar.
A week after placing my order at amazon.com this huge box arrived. They are not kidding when they say it is heavy. I'd say the throttle and stick together weigh close to 20lbs. The initial feel out of the box was impressive to say the least. All the buttons, hats, switches were metal. Everything had a feel of quality. Then when I began to work the stick I found my first problem. It was really easy to move the stick side to side or front to back, but combining the two movements was difficult. There seems to be a transition between the axis'. After a few initial flights I began to almost get used to this, after about a week of flying on it, I dont even think about the transitions.
On to accuracy. I have heard that pot spiking can become a problem after a while, but personally haven't had this yet so can't comment on it. With the stick still with new clean pots, the accuracy is amazing. My gunnery has improved significantly over my X45. If anyone tries to take a headon with me any my cougar it is usually the end for them. I seem to be able to deflection shoot and that snapshots with my FW190 much better now because I can place the crosshairs exactly where I think the enemy will be without even thinking about it.
On to durability. The play around the center that I was told would develop has. I would say I can move the top of the stick 5-7mm along both axis'. This is about how much play I had with my old X45, but in the cougar the play doesn't effect the pots, so wobbling the stick produces no input to the game thank god. The play happens right around center, so the majority of the time in flight it's a non-issue.
On to the software. Foxy, the program for making stick profiles is excellent. The program comes with a 183 page printed manual (yes printed, I didn't think computer stuff came with printed manuals anymore). Doing basic programing with the stick is fairly easy, but you can get much deeper. The software allows you to do logical programing on the stick, which ends up being pretty useful. For example their is a momentary contact switch on the throttle that when I press it once, it deselects engine two, the next press deselects engine one and selects engine two, and the next press it selects engine one again. This way I can toggle back and forth what engine I am controlling in a multiengine plane without taking my hands off the stick. I haven't even gotten very deep into what the software can do, supposedly you can adjust the axis curves in flight. So you could have the stick very sensitive during a dogfight, and dampen down the input for a landing. I haven't tried that yet, but it seems like an interesting feature. The one problem I have with this much programability is that I ran out of things I want to map to the stick. I spent about 6 hours programing it the first day I got it and still would have room for 10-12 more functions.
What are my plans for it? Well as I said earlier, it has developed play. There is a guy that is offering a full replacement for the internals of the stick, but he charges $350 (seems expensive, but if he charged full price for the machine time he does on his own the price would be much higher). Before he came up with a drop in replacement he used to let you send him your internals and he would add bearing supports to all the wear surfaces. Reading his past posts and looking at his pictures I decided I could do that myself. So currently I have a couple bearings on order, and hopefully will head down to my schools machine shop Thursday and try not to break anything. I'll give you guys an update on how the stick feels after the machine work.
All in all I think its a great stick. If you can tolerate the bit of play in the center you wouldn't have a complaint. The only thing that is left to be seen is how long the pots hold up. If you guys are looking for a new stick I would definitly recommend it. You can get them on Amazon pretty cheap now, used to be $300, now they are down to a bit above $200.
A week after placing my order at amazon.com this huge box arrived. They are not kidding when they say it is heavy. I'd say the throttle and stick together weigh close to 20lbs. The initial feel out of the box was impressive to say the least. All the buttons, hats, switches were metal. Everything had a feel of quality. Then when I began to work the stick I found my first problem. It was really easy to move the stick side to side or front to back, but combining the two movements was difficult. There seems to be a transition between the axis'. After a few initial flights I began to almost get used to this, after about a week of flying on it, I dont even think about the transitions.
On to accuracy. I have heard that pot spiking can become a problem after a while, but personally haven't had this yet so can't comment on it. With the stick still with new clean pots, the accuracy is amazing. My gunnery has improved significantly over my X45. If anyone tries to take a headon with me any my cougar it is usually the end for them. I seem to be able to deflection shoot and that snapshots with my FW190 much better now because I can place the crosshairs exactly where I think the enemy will be without even thinking about it.
On to durability. The play around the center that I was told would develop has. I would say I can move the top of the stick 5-7mm along both axis'. This is about how much play I had with my old X45, but in the cougar the play doesn't effect the pots, so wobbling the stick produces no input to the game thank god. The play happens right around center, so the majority of the time in flight it's a non-issue.
On to the software. Foxy, the program for making stick profiles is excellent. The program comes with a 183 page printed manual (yes printed, I didn't think computer stuff came with printed manuals anymore). Doing basic programing with the stick is fairly easy, but you can get much deeper. The software allows you to do logical programing on the stick, which ends up being pretty useful. For example their is a momentary contact switch on the throttle that when I press it once, it deselects engine two, the next press deselects engine one and selects engine two, and the next press it selects engine one again. This way I can toggle back and forth what engine I am controlling in a multiengine plane without taking my hands off the stick. I haven't even gotten very deep into what the software can do, supposedly you can adjust the axis curves in flight. So you could have the stick very sensitive during a dogfight, and dampen down the input for a landing. I haven't tried that yet, but it seems like an interesting feature. The one problem I have with this much programability is that I ran out of things I want to map to the stick. I spent about 6 hours programing it the first day I got it and still would have room for 10-12 more functions.
What are my plans for it? Well as I said earlier, it has developed play. There is a guy that is offering a full replacement for the internals of the stick, but he charges $350 (seems expensive, but if he charged full price for the machine time he does on his own the price would be much higher). Before he came up with a drop in replacement he used to let you send him your internals and he would add bearing supports to all the wear surfaces. Reading his past posts and looking at his pictures I decided I could do that myself. So currently I have a couple bearings on order, and hopefully will head down to my schools machine shop Thursday and try not to break anything. I'll give you guys an update on how the stick feels after the machine work.
All in all I think its a great stick. If you can tolerate the bit of play in the center you wouldn't have a complaint. The only thing that is left to be seen is how long the pots hold up. If you guys are looking for a new stick I would definitly recommend it. You can get them on Amazon pretty cheap now, used to be $300, now they are down to a bit above $200.