I Always Must Run Thrustmaster Warthog Firmware Update

Andy Mahood takes to the skies, race tracks, and battlefields in our monthly In Simulation column to showcase the best that sim games accept to offer. This month, Andy test drives the Ferrari of flightsticks and shows how it can accept your flying sim experience to the side by side level.

“Always use the right tool for the chore.” Sage advice from my father many years agone, but his words rang particularly true this past month when I finally got my paws on Thrustmaster’s latest HOTAS Warthog A-10C flightstick and throttle.Weighing in at about 15 pounds, the by and large metal HOTAS Warthog is the Rolls Royce of Easily-On-Throttle-And-Stick controllers for current-generation flying sims. It ain’t cheap (the all-time online price I could detect was $350), just if you’re serious virtually your virtual combat flying, it’s one of the best investments you can make.

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The natural successor to Thrustmaster’s decade-old all-steel F-xvi replica HOTAS Cougar, the HOTAS Warthog improves on its forebearer past using 3D magnetic sensors rather than potentio­meters (which notoriously wore out under heavy use with the Cougar). The flightstick—which feels so solid and responsive you’ll never want to go dorsum to plastic—features an viii-way point-of-view hat, 3 4-style hats, a dual-stage trigger, and iv push button buttons including a removable paddle switch (for A-10C realism zealots who don’t want this F-16 feature on their Hogs).

The throttle trunk is similarly impressive. Crafted from mostly steel components, the weighted base incorporates an impressive array of LED-illuminated buttons and military-quality switches that emulate

the exact throw and resistance of the existent thing (Thrustmaster purportedly even measured the “volume” of each switch click for additional authenticity). Friction resistance on the split throttle is easily adjustable and, in keeping with the “easily-on” principle of the original USAF design, incorporates a mouse lid with push button, an eight-way POV hat, a iv-mode hat, and assorted three-position switches. You can lock the throttles together for synchronized performance, and in that location are also lift and push/pull detents for the idle and afterburner ranges.

The greatest of ease

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For all of its credible complexity, the HOTAS Warthog is plug-and-play from the get-get. There’s no disc to install, and you can be up and running in minutes once you lot connect information technology to the USB ports on your PC. Picking the first test sim was a no-brainer: I fired up Hawkeye Dynamics’ DCS: A-10C Warthog for its maiden flight with the new controller. I was thrilled to discover that the simulation car-detected the device and delivered a preset configuration of button presses and axis assignments that worked perfectly without any tailoring or adjustments on my part.

The Warthog doesn’t ship with rudder pedals, so I had to draft a ready of CH Products Pro-Pedals into service, but one time I had my plane airborne, I was flying more efficiently than ever before. With its 16-bit centrality resolution, the controller delivered surgical stick and throttle response and it was a treat having most of my significant commands—weapons, flaps, speed brakes, targeting slew control—within fingertip range. You’ll feel similar a USAF pilot subsequently an hour with this product.

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Making the HOTAS work with other mod flying sims (such as Flaming Cliffs 2, Black Shark, Ascension of Flying, and IL-two Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover) took a little more effort, as they typically only notice the control axes and a few buttons. However, you tin download a software client from Thrust­chief called TARGET that offers boosted presets and virtually limitless configurability. Once I’d gotten all the various specifications set up to my liking, I adult an entirely new appreciation for these sims, especially the non-historical ones where button-festooned HOTAS cockpits are the order of the day.

I still struggle occasionally with the nuances of rotary-wing flying in DCS: Blackness Shark, but I’k enjoying the hell out of DCS: A-10C and Flaming Cliffs 2 right now and anticipate exhaustively honing my skills in the weeks and months ahead.

Having the right tool for the job really makes a helluva deviation.

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